Writer, producer, and sometimes director of some of the most humorous yet shortest-running shows on television, Judd Apatow "has mastered the art of getting funny shows onto the networks' primetime schedules," according to Eric Schmuckler in the New York Times. "Keeping them there is another matter." Among his critically acclaimed series is 1992-93's The Ben Stiller Show, for which Apatow won a writing Emmy. The lowest rated series of its season, lasting a mere dozen episodes on Fox, the show was nonetheless generally regarded as a critical hit. For NBC, Apatow was co-creator of 1999's Freaks and Geeks which lasted fifteen episodes but also became something of an underground classic in that short time. His animated comedy for Fox, The Critic, also won critical praise.

Apatow won a larger viewing audience with HBO's The Larry Sanders Show, which he wrote and produced and which aired from 1992 to...