Television careers often have unusual origin stories. Producer-writers Joe Port and Joe Wiseman began their long collaboration while sharing a work space on the production staff of Dilbert, the animated adaptation of Scott Adams’s office-based comic strip. "We literally were in a cubicle together, which was very Dilbert-ian," Wiseman says.
Dilbert didn’t last long, but “the Joes” (as they’re often called) went on to write for several comedies and sell many pilots before being chosen to adapt the U.K. hit comedy Ghosts for CBS. Currently, the duo is pulling double duty: Ghosts will drop a two-part Halloween special on October 29 (with season six coming in 2027), and, on October 8, the new sitcom Eternally Yours finds laughs in another unlikely — and undead — group: vampires.
DILBERT (UPN, 1999 - 2000)
A scene from Dilbert
While sharing that aforementioned tight work space, Wiseman recalls, “We both wanted to be writers, and we were like, ‘Hey, let’s write a spec script together.’” With help from Dilbert executive producer Larry Charles, their King of the Hill spec landed them an agent — and jobs as Dilbert writers on the show’s second season. “We went into his office as assistants and came out as writers and have been — knock on wood — working steadily since then.”
JUST SHOOT ME! (NBC, 2000-01)/ SON OF THE BEACH (FX, 2001-02) / THE OFFICE (NBC, 2006)
The cast of Just Shoot Me!
The Joes wrote for several sitcoms while developing projects and writing pilots. (They were also consulting producers on The Office.) “We worked on a lot of things very briefly,” Port says. But there was an upside to bouncing around: “We got to work with lots of great, talented writers and see different showrunning styles,” Wiseman says.
1600 PENN (NBC, 2013) The cast of 1600 Penn
This sitcom with Bill Pullman as POTUS and Josh Gad as his erratic eldest son didn’t catch on. “It was the same year that Veep came out, and as soon as I heard that premise, I was like, ‘Vice president is just so much funnier than president,’” Port recalls. They also learned an important lesson about rejection in the TV business. “You just have to put the blinders on, keep doing the work and believe that things will work out,” Wiseman says.
THE CRAZY ONES (CBS, 2013-14) The cast of The Crazy Ones
As writers and producers on this sitcom starring Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar as a father and daughter partnering at the family’s advertising firm, Port and Wiseman were in awe of Williams. “I can’t tell you the fear you have as you’re approaching him to pitch him an alt [piece of dialogue],” Wiseman says. “But he would just smile and be like, ‘That’s wonderful. Thank you, boss.’” Adds Port, “To clarify, we were not his boss. He called everyone ‘boss.’”
THE ODD COUPLE (CBS, 2015-16)
The Odd Couple's Matthew Perry and Thomas Lennon
In this adaptation of the Neil Simon play, Matthew Perry played sloppy sportswriter Oscar Madison, and Thomas Lennon played tidy Felix Unger. But for Port and Wiseman, who worked on the show’s first two seasons, spending time with legendary producer Garry Marshall (cocreator with Jerry Belson of the classic 1970s The Odd Couple) was everything. “He would come into the writers’ room and had the best stories,” Wiseman says.
ZOEY'S EXTRAORDINARY PLAYLIST (NBC, 2021)
A scene from Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist
The pair came on board during season two of this “very special, unique, cool show,” Port says. The musical comedy focused on tech programmer Zoey (Jane Levy), who had the power to imagine emotions in the form of musical numbers. But shooting during the pandemic brought an unexpected lesson. “We owe a lot to [creator] Austin Winsberg, who showed us the template for doing a show on Zoom and then shooting it in Canada,” Wiseman says. He and Port used what they’d learned for the first season of Ghosts.
GHOSTS (CBS, 2021-PRESENT)
The cast of Ghosts
Pilot scripts for a vampire comedy (more on that later) and a People vs. O.J. Simpson sitcom helped Port and Wiseman get the green light from producers of the U.K.’s Ghosts to adapt this sitcom about a couple who inherit a phantom-filled house. “We love their show, and they were very additive early on with weighing in on our characters,” Port says. The British producers also gave the Joes permission to use the phrase “sucked off” to describe a ghost’s ascent from this earthly plane. “It’s one of the most enduring and best jokes in the series,” Wiseman says.
ETERNALLY YOURS (CBS, 2026)
Remember that vampire pilot? Written in 2015 for CBS, it serves as a reflection of their longstanding partnership. “We were like, ‘What if two people were just stuck together forever?’” Port says. Ghosts’ success helped bring to life this comedy, starring Ed Weeks and Allegra Edwards as vampires whose 500-year marriage has grown stale. As for how closely the Joes are sticking to longstanding vampire rules, Wiseman says, “There seems to be a lot of latitude in being able to set our own rules, as long as they fall within a certain sphere.”
This article originally appeared in emmy magazine, issue #11, 2026, under the title "My Life in TV: Joe Port & Joe Wiseman."
