Education
Michael J. Weithorn is a native of Queens, New York and graduated from Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania in 1978 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science.
Michael J. Weithorn is a native of Queens, New York and graduated from Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania in 1978 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science.
After moving to Los Angeles in 1978 and teaching high school for three years, Weithorn"s first major writing opportunity was an episode of the television series Benson in 1981. In 1982 he passed up an opportunity to become part of the original writing staff of Late Night With David Letterman to work with producer Gary David Goldberg on Goldberg"s new series Family Ties. From 1982 to 1986 Weithorn was a story consultant and then producer on 102 episodes of Family Ties, writing 26 of the episodes during his tenure on the show.
During that same time, he also wrote episodes for other television shows, including Cheers.
He began creating television series of his own after leaving Family Ties in 1986, including The Pursuit of Happiness (1987), True Colors (1990-1992), South Central (1994) and Ned and Stacey (1995-1997). In 1998, he created The King of Queens with David Little
The show ran until 2007, when Weithorn wrote the finale hour-long episode, "China Syndrome". In 2006, he co-created (with Nick Bakay) the Comedy Central animated web series The Adventures of Baxter and McGuire, an episode of which was also shown at the Sundance Film Festival.
In 2010 he wrote and directed the feature film, A Little Help, starring Jenna Fischer, Chris O"Donnell and Rob Benedict.
In 2015, Weithorn created and Executive Produced the short-lived Fox midseason sitcom, Weird Loners, starring Becki Newton and Zachary Knighton.