Mitchell Kriegman (born June 4, 1952) is an American television writer, director, producer, consultant, story editor, author, composer and actor. He is the creator of Clarissa Explains It All (1991) for Nickelodeon, Bear in the Big Blue House (1997) and The Book of Pooh (2006) for Disney Channel and It's a Big Big World (2006) for PBS.[1]
Kriegman's first novel was Being Audrey Hepburn (2014). A second novel, Things I Can't Explain, is a reimagining of the protagonist in the Clarissa Explains It All television series, in her twenties, published in November 2015.
Kriegman holds patents for a method of hybrid animation, known as Shadowmation, which combines high-definition virtual-environments with puppets and animatronics, composited and rendered in real time. The production technique was implemented in The Book of Pooh and It's a Big Big World.[2]
Career and Education[]
He began his career as a writer, video-artist and performance-artist, under the pseudonym Marshall Klugman. An Evening of Stories and Tricks You Won’t See Anywhere, was performed at Dance Theater Workshop in New York City and surrounding venues. His video work of this period includes, The Marshall Klugman Show (1975) which aired on WNET television.[4] As a short story writer, his work has been published in The New Yorker, Between C & D, the National Lampoon, Glamour, George Meyer's Army Man magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.[5][1][6]
The Telephone Stories (1979) is Kriegman's series of audio-plays for the telephone, one of the first installations of dial-in art.[7] In addition to being available on a special phone-line,The Telephone Stories toured museums and galleries around the country, including the High Museum and The Boston Institute of Contemporary Art, after premiering at the Whitney Museum, as the department's first audio-only offering.[8][9][10][11][7] Kriegman wrote and acted in Operation X segments for the PBS Series Alive from Off Center, which have been featured in the Walker Art Center and The Paley Center exhibits.[12] During this period Kriegman collaborated with Bart Friedman and Nancy Cain of Videofreex on several pieces including "Turkey Dinner" (1982),[13] a precursor to his full length My Neighborhood, funded by the American Film Institute,[14] which aired on WNET/13, and featured a sad sack Kriegman gleefully greeting everyone in his neighborhood, who all ignore him.[15]
Kriegman joined Saturday Night Live (SNL) in 1980 (season 6), as a performer, writer and filmmaker. During his time there, he made three films:The Dancing Man,Heart to Heart, and Someone is Hiding in My Apartment.[10][16][17] He appeared in the sketches "Blame The Kids" and "Virgin Search".[18] He was also a contributor to Michael O'Donoghue's Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (1979), which included Kriegman's shorts, "Cleavage" and "This is a Man in a Dog Suit".[18] A third piece, "The Dancing Belly Button", was not televised but was included in the Anthology Film Archives collection.[19] After leaving Saturday Night Live his work turned markedly toward children's and young adult television programming.
Mouseterpiece Theater (1983), hosted by George Plimpton, was directed by Kriegman and co-written with Robert Cunniff for The Disney Channel; the show was a spoof on Masterpiece Theatre, but instead of presenting serious works in film, Plimpton would introduce Disney cartoons.[20] Further immersion into writing for children's television programming came from HBO's Encyclopedia (1988),[21] and ALF Tales in 1988.[22]
Kriegman produced The Sweet Life (1989),[23] and a sketch-comedy program called Higgins Boys and Gruber (1989) for The Comedy Channel.[24]
Moving to Nickelodeon, Kriegman became involved in the writing and development of Nicktoons in 1991, including Doug, Rugrats, and The Ren & Stimpy Show. Kriegman was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for The Ren & Stimpy Show in 1992.[25]Rocko's Modern Life was added to the animated programming in 1993.[24]
Kriegman was the creator and executive producer of Clarissa Explains It All starring Melissa Joan Hart. The series ran for four seasons and Kriegman was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in 1994, for Outstanding Children's Program.[25] CBS commissioned a pilot for a Clarissa sequel, continuing her story as a young working age adult, but the pilot was not picked up.[26]
Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree (1995), narrated by Kermit the Frog,[27] and Twisted Puppet Theater (1996), had Kriegman writing for puppet characters.[28] Kriegman created the Emmy Award-winning television series, Bear in the Big Blue House (1997), and created and directed, The Book of Pooh (2006), based on the Milne books, both in association with the Disney Channel.[29] Cast with bunraku puppets, both series employed Kriegman's shadowmation technique.[30] Kriegman also wrote for Sesame Street characters in the feature film, The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland (1999), co-written with Joey Mazzarino, and produced by The Jim Henson Company.[28]
Kriegman is the creator, executive producer and co-director of It's a Big Big World which aired on PBS Kids from 2006- 2010.
As of 2015, Kriegman is a novelist, instructor, and guest-lecturer, living in the Southern California area,[14][31] and an adjunct professor at the University College Dublin.[5] Kriegman has taught webseries development and production and sitcom writing at Stony Brook Southampton,[14]lectures at University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).[32][31] Kriegman's second novel, Things I Can't Explain, based on the central character in Clarissa Explains it All, was published in 2015.[33]
Filmography[]
Kriegman’s video-art works are in the Castelli-Sonnebend collection,[34] as well as the Paley Center,[35][36][37][38] Museum of Modern Art(MoMA),[39][40] The Kitchen Center,[10] and the London Institute of Contemporary Arts among others.[34]
Television[]
| Year | Title | Role | Network | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | The Marshall Klugman Show | Writer, director, producer, actor | WNET | [4] |
| 1980 | Saturday Night Live | Writer, filmmaker, actor | NBC | [17][16][18] |
| 1984 | Mouseterpiece Theater | Director, writer, producer | The Disney Channel | [22] |
| 1987 | Operation X |
Writer, actor | PBS | [12][35][41] |
| 1988 | Encyclopedia | Writer | HBO | [29] |
| 1988 | ALF Tales | Writer | NBC | [22] |
| 1989 | The Sweet Life | Producer | Comedy Central | [23] |
| 1989 | Higgins Boys and Gruber | Writer, producer | Comedy Central | [24] |
| 1991 | Doug | Story editor | Nickelodeon | [29] |
| 1991 | Rugrats | Story editor | Nickelodeon | [29] |
| 1991 | Ren & Stimpy Show | Story editor | Nickelodeon | [29] |
| 1991-1994 | Clarissa Explains It All | Executive producer, creator, story editor | Nickelodeon | [29] |
| 1996 | Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree | Writer (adapted from Robert Barry book) | CBS | [27] |
| 1996 | Twisted Puppet Theater | Co-creator, producer | Showtime | [29] |
| 1997 | Student Bodies | Executive consultant | YTV, FOX | [29] |
| 2002–Present | Bear in the Big Blue House | Creator, writer, director, producer | Disney Channel | [29] |
| 2006–Present | The Book of Pooh | Creator, director, writer (based on A. A. Milne’s book of tales) |
Disney Channel | [29] |
| 2005 | Life with Derek | Creative consultant | Disney Channel | [29] |
| 2006-2010 | It's a Big Big World | Creator, writer, producer, co-director | PBS | [42][43] |
Feature film credits[edit][]
| Year | Title | Role | Genre | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | Before the Nickelodeon: The Early Cinema Of Edwin S. Porter |
Voice | Documentary - Biography | Charles Musser[29][44] |
| 1999 | The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland | Story, Screenplay | Children's - Muppets | Gary Halvorson[28][29][45] |
| 2006 | The Book of Pooh: Stories from the Heart | Writer, co-director | Children's DVD | Dean Gordon Mitchell Kriegman[46] |