 After graduating, he drove a New York City taxi for nine years, during which time he wrote two stage plays, a novel, twenty screenplays and various other works.Schaeffer rose to fame with fellow actor/writer/director Donal Lardner Ward on the independent film, "My Life's in Turnaround" (1993), which was made in fifteen days for only $200,000.Schaeffer and Ward parlayed the film's success into "Too Something" (1995–1996), a short-lived sitcom that was briefly renamed "New York Daze".