Judd Apatow emerges as comedy maestro

updated 1:05 p.m. ET June 4, 2007

NEW YORK - At a recent Q&A following an advance screening of the riotous comedy “Superbad,” a woman in the audience asked the film’s producer Judd Apatow if he makes “romantic comedies for men.”

“That sounds like product — or a lube,” replied the 39-year-old filmmaker.

Apatow, the director of “The 40 Year-Old Virgin” and the new “Knocked Up,” acknowledged such a label wasn’t far off the mark, but said he doesn’t think much about categorizing what he does. Besides, he said, “Isn’t there love in every movie?”

A classification like “romantic comedies for men” also doesn’t do justice to other staples of Apatow’s work — namely, an endless barrage of filthy jokes, cleverly delivered. And yet Apatow’s comedy always maintains — as Seth Rogen, the star of “Knocked Up” and a frequent collaborator of Apatow’s, says — an “oddly sweet” quality.

Thanks to the huge success of 2005’s “The 40 Year-Old Virgin,” Apatow has broken through to the mainstream after a career that has spanned contributions to some of the most critically acclaimed comedies of the past 15 years — from “The Ben Stiller Show” to “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.”

With the Friday release of the eagerly awaited “Knocked Up,” it’s clear he’s become a behind-the-scenes ringleader to a thriving era of comedy that revels in mixing the dumb with the smart, the bawdy with the sincere.

“I’m trying to figure out how to get gigantic laughs without losing my reality level,” the wry, bearded Apatow explained over lunch at a recent interview in New York. “That’s always the dance.”

Even as a teenager, Apatow was at the center of comedy.

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For his high-school radio show on Long Island in the mid-‘80s, he managed to interview Jerry Seinfeld, Howard Stern, the original writers of “Saturday Night Live” and many others.

“I really met EVERYBODY over the course of two years,” Apatow recalls. “I would just ask them how they did it. It was an excuse to spend an hour asking: How do you write a joke?”

Apatow later moved West to study screenwriting at USC, where he dropped out within two years thanks, in part, to a free trip won on “The Dating Game” — a comic twist in Apatow’s biography worthy of one of his films.

As a struggling standup, he lived with Adam Sandler and began writing jokes for other comedians, eventually writing for Roseanne Barr. His first and only attempt to work in front of the camera was quickly scuttled after a trip to an acting coach.

“It was the worst acting anyone has ever done,” says Apatow. “At that moment, the dream of comedian becoming actor died. I folded my cards immediately.”

Rejections by “Saturday Night Live” and “In Living Color” followed, but then he met Ben Stiller. Apatow executive-produced “The Ben Stiller Show” (1992), the short-lived but acclaimed Fox sketch show that spawned the careers of a myriad of comedians, including Stiller, David Cross, Bob Odenkirk and Andy Dick.

“In a lot of ways, that’s where everything started,” says Apatow. “People connect the dots and see all the people I’ve worked with, but really, it all comes from Stiller.”

He then wrote for five years on HBO’s “The Larry Sanders Show,” eventually becoming an executive producer. The show’s star, Garry Shandling remains a mentor.

Mix of humor, realism
Like the dialogue of “Knocked Up,” Apatow’s speech is riddled with pop-culture references. He grew up obsessed with the Marx Brothers and Steve Martin, watched Woody Allen films endlessly, considers Harold Ramis’ movies (“Caddyshack,” “Groundhog Day”) “a gigantic influence” and found inspiration in the mix of humor and realism in films like “Terms of Endearment” and “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.”

To Apatow, his greatest achievement is “Freaks and Geeks,” the beloved cult favorite hour-long TV series that ran for only one season in 1999-2000. The show, created by Paul Feig and executive produced by Apatow, was followed by another acclaimed but canceled series: “Undeclared.”

Video 'Knocked Up' actors talk about movie May 31: NBC's Mike Wilber interviews Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl of the new movie, "Knocked Up." NBC News Channel

“In a way, the movies are an extension of those TV shows,” says Apatow. “Some people have been saying, ‘Do you feel like the reason these movies (“Virgin,” “Knocked Up”) are doing OK is because your work is getting better?’ And I’m always like, ‘No, I don’t think I’ll ever make anything as good as “Freaks and Geeks.“”’

The lack of commercial success on the small screen led Apatow to concentrate on producing film projects, including a number of Will Ferrell films: “Anchorman,” “Kicking and Screaming” and “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky and Bobby.”

“He obviously has this unique talent of someone who can make what would probably be classified as a broad comedy, but yet he’s finding ways to deal with these real issues that we all face,” says Ferrell. “He’s tackling them in ways we haven’t seen before.”

The box-office success of “Anchorman” helped Apatow get backing for “Virgin,” his directorial debut, which he co-wrote with Steve Carell.

“It gave me a career path,” he says. “The beginning of my career was mainly about helping my friends execute their ideas, which was really fun but it wasn’t based on my personal point of view.”

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