Harry Shearer was on this podcast last week (via). His interview starts right at the 30:00 mark and goes for quite awhile. There’s a lot of interesting info and it’s worth a listen, but here are some of the highlights:
- He knew Mel Blanc when he was a child actor.
- He does some Lovejoy and Flanders commentary about Marge in Playboy.
- Said doing the table read with Michael Jackson (at Jackson’s manager’s house) was one of the most awkward moments ever. Castellaneta was stuck in traffic but Jackson was right on time and instead of goofing off or chit chatting everyone just sat there in perfect silence until Castellaneta showed up.
- Tactfully declines to discuss the current quality of the show, and implies that these comments were meant to be private. I don’t doubt that some things can get said in the heat of negotiations that one may later want to retract but, and this may just be me reading too much into this, he sure sounds like he thinks the show’s gone downhill. Shortly after that, in discussing how Hollywood in general has changed over his career, he laments that shows now have huge numbers of writers when once upon on time it was just a few funny people. Hmmmmm.
- He says he’s never watched an episode of Family Guy and jokes that it’s against the religion of Simpsons people to watch it. Then a little later he drops the bomb that people on the Simpsons have always thought Family Guy was originally created as a low cost replacement for The Simpsons’ timeslot and hence there’s some resentment. Hard to tell how serious he’s being, but at least on the surface that does make sense.
15 November Edit: Had the links backwards, they’re fixed now.
Dead Homer Society 
2 responses to “Simpsons Alumni Update: Harry Shearer Podcast”
I can’t get the podcast to work. What does the “Lovejoy and Flanders” commentary sound like?
If you can’t get the player to work there’s a download link at the bottom of the page, though the entire podcast is a whopping 187MB. The Lovejoy/Flanders part is at about the 40min mark and the host asks Shearer what Lovejoy would think of Marge’s Playboy spread. Shearer’s response (as Lovejoy):
Well, it honors one of God’s creations, which is the female form. So from that standpoint it is a blessing, and a realization of the blessings that have been bestowed upon us as men. On the other hand, it is an affront to godly people to have her consorting with the likes of Mr. Hefner, who at this moment is ensconced in his so-called “mansion” with three under aged “girlfriends”, as he calls them. I prefer to refer to them by their proper name, “chippies”. So it is a “mixed bag”, as the kids would say.
The host then asks how Flanders would react. Shearer’s response (as Flanders):
I’ve seen the magazine at the convenience store. I’ve asked the owner to put it behind the counter . . . and then to burn the counter.