Gage Skidmore · CC BY-SA 3.0

Ran The Simpsons as showrunner for its fifth and sixth seasons, a stretch now regarded as among the show's creative peaks, and is credited with pushing its humor toward the surreal — his first script, "Deep Space Homer," sent Homer into orbit with NASA. He later co-wrote The Simpsons Movie and, earlier in his career, created the cult sitcom Get a Life and wrote for It's Garry Shandling's Show and The Larry Sanders Show, work that helped define a strain of self-aware, formally inventive American TV comedy.