In 1974, Kaufman and his business partner Michael Herz founded Troma Entertainment and began producing and distributing independent action and comedy films. In order to pay the bills, Kaufman did some freelance work for major Hollywood productions, including "Rocky" (edited on Troma's flatbed machines), "Saturday Night Fever", and "The Final Countdown", which he also produced (Kaufman has said that it was his experience on this film that made him never want to deal with a major studio again). From 1979 to 1981, the two wrote, produced and directed a series of profitable "sexy comedies" including "Squeeze Play!", "Waitress!", "Stuck on You!" and "The First Turn-On!". On most of these early films, Kaufman is credited as "Samuel Weil." Kaufman also made a small appearance in "Rocky" and served as the production manager on Louis Malle's "My Dinner With Andre".