Todd W. Langen is an American screenwriter and former engineer, best known for his work on ''

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' (''TMNT'') is an American media franchise created by comic book artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It follows Leonardo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Leonardo, Donatello (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), D ...

''.

Early life

Langen was born in Detroit and earned a master's degree in aerospace engineering from the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

. He was 30 years old and working on the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

for

Hughes Aircraft Company The Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded on February 14, 1934 by Howard Hughes in Glendale, California, as a division of the Hughes Tool Company. The company produced the Hughes H-4 Hercules air ...

when he decided that what he really wanted to do with his life was to be a screenwriter. His first sale was an episode of ''Pursuit of Happiness'', a television comedy series that lasted less than two months.

Career

He soon became a regular writer of ''

The Wonder Years ''The Wonder Years'' is an American coming-of-age comedy television series created by Neal Marlens and Carol Black. It ran on ABC from January 31, 1988, until May 12, 1993. The series premiered immediately after ABC's coverage of Super Bowl X ...

''. His biggest success would come when Langen was hired to work on the film adaptation of ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'': The original treatment of 1990's ''

'' was written by Bobby Herbeck; Langen was brought in by Inga Vainshtein, who ran Limelight Productions film division, to do a "Page One rewrite," that is, a complete revision based on a screenplay that a studio had deemed interesting bur unworkable as submitted. Inga Vainshtein and Langen approached the reworking of the existing script by first figuring out their potential audience base. Vainshtein phoned toy stores around the country, asking about the TMNT buyers, their age, demographic. Figuring out how young the key demographic was, Langen and Vainshtein realized that the script would have to appeal to both kids and their parents. The main story was aimed at kids while the jokes and comedic references would appeal to the parents who would not be opposed to seeing the film more than once. Langen and Herbeck did not work together and did not meet until the film opened. He is listed first in the credits. Langen would return to write the sequel in 1991.

Awards

* Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Episodic Comedy for an episode of ''

''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Langen, Todd W. 20th-century American screenwriters American male screenwriters American television writers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) University of Michigan College of Engineering alumni 20th-century American male writers Writers Guild of America Award winners