Biography
Producer J. Michael Mendel entered the entertainment industry working as a summertime studio assistant on the ABC soap operas
All My Children and
Loving, while attending Syracuse University in New York. After obtaining a bachelor of science degree in TV/Film Production, he headed West to become a production assistant on the features
Broadcast News (1987) and
Big (1988). Between 1986 and 1988, he was associate producer on
The Tracey Ullman Show. Mendel served as line producer for the long-running animated sitcom
The Simpsons, starting in 1989, and also line produced the short-lived animated comedy
The Critic (1993-1995). Mendel's first feature-film associate-producer project was the acclaimed
Tom Cruise vehicle Jerry McGuire (1996). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide