Pat Proft

In his early career, Proft wrote for several television and comedy variety shows. Proft was a regular on The Burns and Schreiber Comedy Hour that lasted from June to September 1973.[7][8] In 1975, Proft would also appear as a regular on Joey & Dad, a variety show featuring Joey Heatherton and her father.[9][10]

Proft would work as a screenwriter on the situation comedy show When Things Were Rotten developed by Mel Brooks and screened between September and December 1975.[11][12] The series, a satire on the Robin Hood story, was well received by critics but was cancelled in 1975 due to low ratings.[11] In 1976, Proft was writing for Van Dyke and Company, a variety show that was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in 1977.[13]

In 1997, the film Mr. Magoo was released written by Proft and Tom Sherohman.[14] The film was based on the UPA cartoon series from the 1950s and 1960s about a nearsighted eccentric.[15]

The film received poor reviews [16] Variety stated that both Proft and Sherohman "have labored mightily to cobble together a plot capable of stretching to feature length the one-joke premise of the six-minute cartoons."[15]

In 1998, Proft's directoral debut titled Wrongfully Accused was released. The film was a parody of the thriller genre exemplified by The Fugitive (1993).[17] In the same year, Proft announced a parody of the Dirty Harry film series about an American police officer who heads to England to extradite a criminal without much success and a script titled Deep Titanic: Armageddon and Titanic, Too: It Missed the Iceberg which he also wanted to direct.[18] Titanic, Too: It Missed the Iceberg had actors Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley and David Hasselhoff in talks for starring with a release date originally aimed for early 1999.[19] CNN's film analyst Martin Grove stated the film was not likely to be made as two recent parody films Wrongfully Accused and Plump Fiction were not well received.[19]

In 2013, Proft was working on a script with David Zucker titled Counter Intelligence. Proft described the film as a "Naked Gun take on Mission Impossible and Bourne film series.[5] Zucker would discuss in 2017 that he was working on a script for a fourth Naked Gun film with Proft.[20] No project with Zucker has been made since Scary Movie V.[21] In 2021, Proft was again working on a script for David Zucker titled The Star of Malta, a parody of film noir and heist films.[21]

• The Burns and Schreiber Comedy Hour (1973)
• The Smothers Brothers Show (1975)
• The Jim Stafford Show (1975)
• When Things Were Rotten (1975)
• Welcome Back, Kotter (1975)
• Van Dyke and Company (1976)
• 3 Girls 3 (1977)
• The Redd Foxx Comedy Hour (1977)
• Mary (1978)
• Ringo (1978)
• Star Wars Holiday Special (1978)
• Detective School (1979)
• Twilight Theater (1982)
• Police Squad! (1982)
• High School U.S.A. (1984)
• Super Dave's Spike-Tacular (2009)

• Terrace, Vincent (February 26, 2013). Encyclopedia of Television Pilots, 1937-2012. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-1476602493.
• Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle F. (2009). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present. Random House Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0307483201.
• Terrace, Vincent (1985). Encyclopedia of Television Series, Pilots and Specials. VNR AG. ISBN 0918432618.
• Crick, Robert Alan (2002). The Big Screen Comedies of Mel Brooks. McFarland. ISBN 078644326X.
• Wesley, Hyatt (2006). Emmy Award Winning Nighttime Television Shows, 1948-2004. McFarland. ISBN 0786423293.
• Yoram Allon; Del Cullen; Hannah Patterson, eds. (2002). Contemporary North American Film Directors: A Wallflower Critical Guide. Wallflower Press. ISBN 1903364523. Retrieved September 23, 2014.