Al Jean

Alfred Ernest Jean III born January 9 1961 is an American writer animator and producer Jean is well known for his work on The Simpsons He was born and raised near Detroit Michigan and graduated from Harvard University in 1981 Jean began his writing career in the 1980s with fellow Harvard alum Mike Reiss Together they worked as writers and producers on television shows such as The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson ALF and Its Garry Shandlings Show Jean was offered a job as a writer on the animated sitcom The Simpsons in 1989 alongside Reiss and together they became the first members of the original writing staff of the show They served as showrunners during the shows third 199192 and fourth 199293 seasons though they left The Simpsons after season four to create The Critic an animated show about film critic Jay Sherman It was first broadcast on ABC in January 1994 then aired its second season on Fox in March 1995 and was well received by critics but did not catch on with viewers and only lasted for two seasons In 1994 Jean and Reiss signed a threeyear deal with The Walt Disney Company to produce other television shows for ABC and the duo created and executiveproduced Teen Angel which was canceled in its first season Jean returned fulltime to The Simpsons during the tenth season 199899 He became showrunner again with the start of the thirteenth season in 2001 without Reiss and has held that position since Jean was also one of the writers and producers who worked on The Simpsons Movie a featurelength film based on the series released in 2007