John Altschuler

John Altschuler (born 1963) is an American television and film writer and producer known for his collaborative projects with Mike Judge and Dave Krinsky.

Altschuler grew up in a Jewish family in Carbondale, Illinois.

His mother was a homemaker and his father was a merchant seaman who became an anthropologist.

In his early teens, his family moved to Greenville, N.C., followed by a move to Cary, N.C.

He graduated from Cary High School in 1981.

Altschuler attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he majored in economics and anthropology.

While at UNC, he served on the staff of The Daily Tarheel newspaper.

He also co-created and performed in the Half-Hour Comedy Show, the first comedy show produced by UNC Student Television, with fellow student Dave Krinsky.

Altschulers recalls, "We’d have things like Bonnie and Clyde and Ted and Alice. We had a sketch called plant boy about a boy that was raised by wild plants."

Altschuler and Krinsky began collaborating on manuscripts for National Lampoon.

Altschuler says, "National Lampoon…was kind of important back then meant a lot to me. And what I found out is that they didn’t accept unsolicited material. What do you do? So what Dave and I…put a packet together and we send it to the three editors who ran National Lampoon…. And I said I know you don’t accept career letters blah blah blah but here’s a little something for your time. And I enclosed a dollar with each letter."

Editor Chris Simmons responded and accepted their pitch for an article about the woman who was charged with selling the drugs that killed actor John Belushi.

Altschuler said," I kinda felt like she was being railroaded because they were blaming her. Now, this is an out-of-control actor. And so basically the premise of our first piece was that she was going to get out of prison and all of Hollywood was terrified because they thought, 'Oh my God!' …Richard Pryor was scared of what she was going to do to him because she obviously has this power."

Ultimately, working for National Lampoon gave the duo the credibility they needed to be taken seriously by the television and film industry.

Altschuler and Krinsky moved to Hollywood, CA after graduating from UNC in 1985, and worked as drivers and production assistants for two years.

His break came after being a P.A. for producer Howard Gottfried.

One day Gottfried asked Altschuler, "What do you want to be."

Upon learning that Altschuler was a writer, Gottfried asked to see his work.

Eventually, Alschuler and Krinksy sold two movie scripts, and Altschuler was hired to adapt a short story by Somerset Maugham into a film for a Paris studio.

Altschuler and Krinsky's break in television came in 1996 when they were hired as assistant producers for the HBO series The High Life.

In 1997, the duo became writers for Fox’s King of the Hill, working there for thirteen years and serving as executive producer for its final seven seasons.

Created by Mike Judge (Beavis and Butt-Head), King of the Hill was known for its satirical examination of social issues.

Of the animated show, Altschuler said, "You can't find an issue that is bedeviling our society that we haven't dealt with."

North Carolina's Governor Mike Easley said, "This [King of the Hill] is the first show about the South since Andy Griffith that didn't make fun of the South."

In 2008, Altschuler, Krinsky, and Judge formed Ternion Productions, a film and television production company.

In 2009, Ternion created The Goode Family, an animated show about left-wing vegans, for ABC.

Altschuler said, "It's not about knocking it [the Green Movement] down. The idea for the show came from us all having these similar experiences where we're trying so hard to be good, and they keep changing the playing field. One of the epiphanies was the paper-or-plastic debate. Then I got a reusable bag, and I looked at it. It was made in China."

After one season, The Goode Family was dropped by ABC, but picked up by Comedy Central.

Altschuler indicated that Comedy Central was a better fit for the show than the more mainstream ABC because "The censorship standards at ABC are very tight…The Goode Family would have been a much better show if we didn't have to pussyfoot around neo-Nazi sensibilities."

This show was generally disliked by critics from the Hollywood Reporter, New York Times, NPR, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Gina Bellefonte of the New York Times said it was, "aggressively off-kilter with the current mood."

D. Carlson of the Hollywood Reporter said The Goode Family is "rough around the edges" and that there are "too many current pop culture references are scattered throughout the script, turning what could have been another gentle lampoon of wacky characters into something with a two-week shelf life."

Yet, Joel Pitney of Enlighten Next wrote, "I think the reviews miss a pretty significant point" and that The Goodes was "absolutely hilarious."

Along with Krinsky and Judge, Altschuler was the executive producer and writer for several episodes of MTV’s relaunch of Beavis and Butt-Head, called Mike' Judge's Beavis and Butt-head. One update to the animated show was that Beavis and Butt-Head critique television shows such as MTV's own Jersey Shore and 16 & Pregnant.

A critic noted, the show was "still a rowdy, guilty hot" and that it "once again might be the best thing on the network."

Regardless, Fox frequently bumped the show for athletic events and canceled it for a short period in its 10th season.

Altschuler said,.

"It used to be very frustrating, until we realized we do a show with great writers and great actors about really interesting subject matter, so let's just keep doing it and hope for the best."

In 2013, Altschuler, Judge, and Krinsky co-created the HBO series Silicon Valley.

Although Judge worked in Silicon Valley prior to his television career, he said, "John Altschuler, a writer on King of the Hill, had an idea about doing a show like Dallas or Falcon Crest but instead of oil or wine money, it would be about tech money."

One reviewer called Silicon Valley "one of the most acclaimed and celebrated comedy shows in Peak Television. Through its smart writing, a keen understanding of Silicon Valley's weird tech bubble, and witty performances from our talented ensemble, this [is a] foul-mouthed, confidently lewd, but unsuspectingly clever program."