 He got his first job writing for television on the sitcom Three 's Company in 1983 . Through his cousin , Mirkin met writer George Tricker who became his mentor . Tricker wrote for the Three 's Company spin @-@ off The Ropers so Mirkin wrote a spec script for an episode of The Ropers . Although rejected by the producers of The Ropers , Three 's Company creator Bernie West was impressed by the script and Mirkin began pitching ideas for that series instead . Mirkin pitched to the series ' story editors for several years without success because they had very limited script buying power . He was eventually able to pitch to the show 's producers , who bought a script from him , and then hired him as a staff writer . Mirkin was apprehensive about the job because he was aiming to work on Cheers , a show more focused on character @-@ driven humor which Mirkin preferred writing , but felt he could not turn the opportunity down . Mirkin considered Three 's Company to have " a classic French farce structure , " as " the characters were so stupid they could never say anything clever . " This meant Mirkin had to adapt his preference for character @-@ driven comedy to fit the show ; it " forced you to put all the cleverness into the plot , a much more difficult thing to do . The plot had to get all the laughs . " Mirkin felt the experience " taught [ him ] a lot about structure " which greatly aided his later work on character @-@ focused shows . 
