Joseph Stewart Burns (born December 4, 1969), better known as J. Stewart Burns or simply just Stewart Burns is a television writer and producer most notable for his work on The Simpsons, Futurama, and Unhappily Ever After.[1]

J. Stewart Burns
Other namesJoseph, Joe Stewart
Occupation(s)Writer and producer
Years active1999-present
Known forThe Simpsons, Futurama, Unhappily Ever After

Education

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Burns attended Harvard University, where he wrote for the Harvard Lampoon.[2]

Noted in the DVD commentaries of "The Deep South" and "Roswell That Ends Well", Burns has an M.A. in Mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied under John Rhodes.[3] Burns is partly credited for The Simpsons' inclusion of a number of complex mathematical concepts and jokes within the series.[4][5][6][1]

Burns was famously referenced in a 1993 Newsweek article about his decision to jump from pursuing a graduate degree in mathematics to writing comedy: "You could read the entire story of American decline in that one career move."[7]

Career

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Burns got his start by writing for Beavis and Butthead.[7] Since then, he has written for The Simpsons, Futurama, and Unhappily Ever After.

Aside from writing on the original series, Burns also wrote the script for the Futurama video game as well as one of the Spyro games, Spyro: A Hero's Tail. Burns developed and has served as the game runner of The Simpsons: Tapped Out[8] since its inception.

Awards

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Burns has won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Animation Program four times — for Futurama in 2002, and for The Simpsons in 2006, 2008 and 2019.[9][10][11]

Writing credits

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Supervising producer credits

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Co-executive producer credits

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  • "Meter Maid"
  • "Getting More Than Some"
  • "College!"
  • "Experimenting in College"
  • "Making the Grade"
  • "Teacher's Pet"
  • "Excorsising Jennie"
  • "Shampoo"
  • "Rock 'n' Roll"
  • "Lightning Boy"
  • "The Tell-Tale Lipstick"
  • "Jack The Ripper"
  • "The Great Depression"
  • "The Rat"

References

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  1. ^ a b Alexander, Amir (2014-01-27). "Examining the Square Root of D'oh!". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  2. ^ "The Calculus of Comedy: Math in the Simpsons, Futurama, and the Big Bang Theory". 9 June 2017.
  3. ^ Ellenberg, Jordan. "The Simpsons and Math". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2013-12-20.
  4. ^ Siddique, Ashik (2013-11-04). "The Simpsons has been tricking you into learning maths for decades". Wired UK. ISSN 1357-0978. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  5. ^ "The Calculus of Comedy: Math in The Simpsons, Futurama, and The Big Bang Theory (Bios)". IPAM. 9 June 2017. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  6. ^ Nuwer, Rachel. ""The Simpsons" Has Been Secretly Teaching Its Fans Complicated Math". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  7. ^ a b http://www.newsweek.com/go-harvard-write-jokes-make-194354 1993 Newsweek article
  8. ^ "How the Mobile Game Tapped Out Brought Old Simpsons Fans Back Into the Fold". Vulture. 25 September 2014. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  9. ^ "J. Stewart Burns". Television Academy. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  10. ^ Milligan, Mercedes (2019-09-15). "Creative Arts Emmys: 'Simpsons' Reclaims Animation Crown". Animation Magazine. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  11. ^ "'The Simpsons,' 'Love, Death & Robots' Take Home Animation Emmy Awards". Animation World Network. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
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