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Joe Davola

Joe Davola began his career at MTV during the mid 1980s, when the network was at the peak of its cultural relevancy. He was partially responsible for the network's shift away from the 24-hour-a-day music videos that made its name, co-creating the network's very first original series, the frenetic and tongue in cheek game show "Remote Control." Hosted by stand-up comic Ken Ober and featuring future comedy stars Colin Quinn, Adam Sandler, and Denis Leary in supporting roles, "Remote Control" was a decidedly hip show with a finger on the pulse of New York's burgeoning comedy scene. Davola kept up that cool quotient after a jump to the fledgling Fox network, where he had a hand in developing both the ratings-starved cult classic "The Ben Stiller Show" and Keenen Ivory Wayans's hugely successful "In Living Color," which launched the careers of Wayans brothers Damon, Shawn, and Marlon, as well as Jim Carrey and Jennifer Lopez. It was around this time that Davola got a backhanded compliment from a pair of old buddies from the New York stand-up circuit: in 1992, Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld named one of "Seinfeld"'s most memorable recurring characters Crazy Joe Davola. (The character, a jealous stand-up comic who stalked Jerry over the course of several seasons, was played by Peter Crombie.) In the mid-'90s, Davola returned to MTV's parent company, Viacom, and began working with writer-producer Brian Robbins on his stable of hits, including "All That," "Smallville," and "What I Like About You."