The Spy Next Door

Date of Birth: August 6, 1952. Hailing from Chicago, Levant got started as a story editor after graduating from the University of Mexico. After joining the writing staff in 1977 for the popular series Happy Days, Levant went on to produce sitcoms like Mork & Mindy and The Bad News Bears.

He returned to produce Happy Days in 1982 and stayed on for the last two seasons. In 1985 he decided to try and revive the popular show, Leave it to Beaver, and wrote the telefilm, Still the Beaver. The movie was a hit and a new series was created in which he executive produced.

Levant took the director’s chair for the first time in the early ’90s, directing the comedy Problem Child 2 (1991). Although the film went straight to video, he returned to the idea, producing the televised Problem Child 3 film in 1995. His success as a director took leaps and bounds when he released Beethoven (1992) in 1992. The film fared well at the box office and inspired three sequels.

By the mid-’90s, Levant had hit a slump in his directing projects. The Flintstones (1994) and Jingle All The Way (1996) were each touted as the worst films of their year, both earning razzie nominations. In the latter half of the ’90s, Levant returned to writing scripts for such low budgeted films as I Raised a Teenager and Bad Haircut.

He returned to the director’s chair at the beginning of this millennium releasing such family films as The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000) and Snow Dogs (2002).

Levant lives in the outskirts of Los Angeles with wife Allison and their three children. —tribute.ca