 David Mirkin ( born September 18 , 1955 ) is an American feature film and television director , writer and producer . Mirkin grew up in Philadelphia and intended to become an electrical engineer , but abandoned this career path in favor of studying film at Loyola Marymount University . After graduating , he became a stand @-@ up comedian , and then moved into television writing . He wrote for the sitcoms Three 's Company , It 's Garry Shandling 's Show and The Larry Sanders Show and served as showrunner on the series Newhart . After an unsuccessful attempt to remake the British series The Young Ones , Mirkin created Get a Life in 1990 . The series starred comedian Chris Elliott and ran for two seasons , despite a lack of support from many Fox network executives , who disliked the show 's dark and surreal humor . He moved on to create the sketch show The Edge starring his then @-@ partner , actress Julie Brown . 
