
MP: You and Tom Kapinos have been working together since you were basically babies. What's it been like toiling with such a close friend almost your whole career?
GF: Babies? Did I have the pleasure of knowing him in high school? Did I ever see him perform with his band Mysstery? Did I know him when he had the Mustang that wouldn't go in reverse? When he was so poor he had to take the Big Blue Bus to meetings? No. I missed all that. I didn't meet the boy till 1999 -- and, hey, I haven't always worked with him. Let's not forget the post-Creek years (2003-2007), when he was out there trying really hard to get his own show on the air, and I was out there trying really hard not to kill myself while I worked on shows without him.
MP: You have very literary origins. Your first gig was at the New York Public Library. You then worked for a hipster alternative newspaper in Chicago. How did you make the transition to television writing?
GF: Okay, so one day in the fall of 1995, I'm sitting around my teeny tiny apartment in Chicago being literary. You know, trying to read Gravity's Rainbow, thinking about applying to grad school -- that type of thing. And then it happens! The phone rings. It's Judy Daniels, who used to be my boss when I worked in the Major Gifts and Planned Giving Department at The New York Public Library, and she says to me -- and I quote -- "My son the TV writer is going to create a show with the guy who created Beavis & Butt-head, and I think you should move to LA and work for him, and he should help you be a TV writer." And so I did. And he did. Help me be a TV writer, that is. His name is Greg Daniels. He created a little show called The Office. And another little show called King of the Hill. I am proud to say that I used to answer his phone.
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