“Alright, Kogen’s got Wolodarsky open in the end zone . . . he throws it . . . it’s complete, touchdown!” – Radio Announcer Yesterday, Jay Kogen, one of the original writers who departed in Season 4, went on Reddit for one of their “Ask Me Anything” posts. He talked a lot about the old days of the show, working with Bryan Cranston on Malcolm in the Middle, and just television writing generally. I’ve pulled some of the highlights below, though there is much, much more at the link. Turns out they had to fight for one everyone’s favorite sequences:…
Category: Simpsons Alumni
Reading Digest: Alumni Success Edition
“I can assure you our preschool is of the highest quality. Over 75% of our graduates go on to first grade.” – Miss Tillingham’s School for Snotty Girls and Mama’s Boys Administrator It’s always nice to see people who worked on The Simpsons continue to do well, and we’ve got several of them this week. Rich Moore (Seasons 1-5, 9), Donick Cary (Seasons 7-11), Greg Daniels (Season 5-9) and Mike Reiss (um, a lot of Seasons) all either have new projects in the works or are just getting some well deserved recognition. There’s also a lot of great references and…
Ned Flanders: Party Guy
“That was Edna Krabappel. You only get one chance with Edna Krabappel.” – Sideshow Bob Via HollywoodChicago.com comes an interview with Marcia Wallace. She talks about her career, how she got started and, naturally, Mrs. Krabappel. It’s a neat little read, but there’s also this nauseating bit about an upcoming episode of Zombie Simpsons: Carol had better luck than poor Edna, she is looking for love in all the wrong places. I just did an episode last week where I have a romance with Ned Flanders. And there is going to be an online poll to ask America whether they…
Simpsons Alumni Update: George Meyer & the Mr. Burns Toad
Both images from Conservation International. “Why here’s the fellow. Wiry, fast, firm proud buttocks, reminds me of me.” – C.M. Burns Deep in the jungle primeval in Colombia, a couple of new species were discovered, a frog and two toads, to be precise. One of them, pictured above of the genus Rhinella, was dubbed, in an excellent publicity ploy, the “Mr. Burns” toad. Unlike that “Homer Simpson gene” from a few months ago, these scientists have a Simpsons alum to back up their gimmick. Here’s Dr. Robin Moore: "As for the new beaked toad, it is easily one of the…
Simpsons Alumni Update: Lovitz & Shearer Interviews
Two quick alumni updates for you: 1) Lovitz takes his show on the road – with a stop in Calgary – This is an extensive Calgary Herald interview with Jon Lovitz about three nights of standup he’s doing there this weekend. This makes me sad that we missed another season or two of The Critic: Arguably, Lovitz’s finest post-SNL moment came in 1994-95 with his animated series, The Critic, in which he voiced the lead role of movie critic Jay Sherman. The Critic got off to a shaky start on the ABC network but things were looking up for the…
Simpsons Alumni Update: Harry Shearer (He Just Won’t Stop!)
Harry Shearer’s documentary about how Katrina and the Army Corps of Engineers fucked New Orleans will be going to theaters one night only: Monday August 30th. Trailer: Local show times all across the US can be found here. Give ’em hell, Harry.
Simpsons Alumni Update: Harry Shearer (Yet Again)
Harry Shearer went on the local New York FOX affiliate’s morning program yesterday to flog his new album, “Greed and Fear”. It contains humorous songs about the recession, one of which you can listen to on YouTube. The FOX affiliate’s website has video of his four minute appearance here. Far and away the best part is when he does a couple of Simpsons voices over the halfhearted yet squirming objections of the eminently replaceable local FOX morning people. It starts around the 2:15 mark of the video. The hostess implies that he’s not allowed to do any of the voices…
Bill Oakley Interview
In today’s Reading Digest post I put up a link to an interview with Bill Oakley from a television show called “Outlook Portland”. I couldn’t find the video or a transcript on the show’s blog or on the website of the television station. Since I’m an idiot it didn’t occur to me to take three seconds and check the world’s largest and most popular video site. Fortunately, someone from Outlook Portland showed up in the comments and pointed me to the first place I should’ve looked, YouTube. (When I was watching it on YouTube.com for some reason it would not…
Simpsons Alumni Update: Groening & Azaria
Unbeknownst to me there’s a spinoff of that Top Chef program called Top Chef Masters. According to Wikipedia, “In the series, 24 world-renowned chefs compete against each other in weekly challenges.” Also, there are regular judges and guest judges. For Season 2 Matt Groening and Hank Azaria will be among the guest judges. Okay. (A hearty middle finger to IGN for bringing me this news but screwing up the link to the original Entertainment Weekly story. That meant I had to wade through ew.com, as over designed and seizure inducing as any commercial website you’ll ever visit.)
Simpsons Alumni Update: Richard Appel
Richard Appel came in at the tail end of the best of The Simpsons and was around for the last few good years. He then went on to higher places at FOX and became a writer/producer for various other animated programs. He’s going to continue doing that for at least three more years. The Hollywood Reporter describes the deal as a “rich seven-figure pact”. Good for him. Right now he’s working on Family Guy Spinoff #2. Uh, less good for him, but whatever. It’s always nice to see people who worked on the show doing well.
Simpsons Alumni Update: Yeardley Smith
The voice of Lisa showed up in a recent episode of People Will Watch Anything (a/k/a The Big Bang Theory). She was playing a clerk in an unemployment office of some kind. If you want to get an idea of how it went down without actually subjecting yourself to the horror of watching it, Entertainment Weekly has you covered: But did we really need the scene between Sheldon and Yeardley Smith (a.k.a. the voice of Lisa Simpson) in the employment office as he looked for a menial job to help goad his brain into decoding his problem? For one, it…
Simpsons Alumni Update: Brad Bird
Of all the people who worked on The Simpsons perhaps none have found greater post-show success than Brad Bird. The man truly has the golden touch in that there isn’t anything embarrassing lurking on his IMDB page. He worked on The Critic, left The Simpsons in Season 9, and of the three movies he’s written/directed since then only 1999’s The Iron Giant isn’t on the IMDB Top 250. (Though it has a rating of 7.9 which is the same as the last twenty movies on the list.) Oh and he’s a perfect 2/2 on Oscar nominations/victories. This man has as…
Very Belated Simpsons Alumni Update: Conan O’Brien
There was no new Zombie Simpsons last night and because it’s Martin Luther King Day here in the States things are kinda slow. (MLK Day is like a lot of America’s second tier holidays in that we only partially observe it. Case in point: the mail doesn’t get delivered but my garbage was picked up as usual this morning.) But I did find this absolutely excellent New York Times op-ed piece from 1993 (via Warming Glow). It was written by a fresh off The Simpsons Conan O’Brien as a fake review of his opening night as a late night host. …
Simpsons Alumni Update: Harry Shearer (Again)
At this rate Harry Shearer is going to wear out our “Simpsons Alumni” category, but I guess you can’t keep a funny man down. Besides, there’s simply too much awesome in this interview to just bury it in tomorrow’s Reading Digest. In it he talks about why liberal talk radio can’t get a foothold, the processes of comedy, and his upcoming documentary about Hurricane Katrina (which he hopes to have ready in time for the fifth anniversary next year). The whole thing is a fun read, but two quotes jumped out at me. In reverse order (bold mine to denote…
Simpsons Alumni Update: David M. Stern
David Stern’s new show Ugly Americans was previewed during yesterday’s South Park. Comedy Central’s website has the preview from last night as well as a slightly longer clip (that has some of the same stuff). The only information about it that I could find (I didn’t try very hard) is the same stuff from the generic press release a few months ago. It’s animated, it’s coming in March, and it’s set in a New York City where horror monsters are part of the everyday. Though I can’t stand almost all television shows my ravenous lust for teevee is powerful enough…
Simpsons Alumni Update: Harry Shearer Podcast
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…
Simpsons Alumni Update: Dan Castellaneta
This has been kicking around on-line for a couple of weeks now but I’ve been studiously ignoring it because I don’t care. That said, it probably doesn’t deserve a mention. Dan Castellaneta is going to be making a guest appearance on an upcoming episode of Desperate Housewives. He’s playing a pilot. This now concludes the most thought or effort I have ever put into Desperate Housewives. Thank you.
Simpsons Alumni Update: Mike Reiss
Longtime Simpsons writer Mike Reiss has penned a limited edition children’s book for, of all things, Saks Fifth Avenue department store. It’s called “Twinkle Twinkle Little Flake” and it’s available exclusively at an over priced store near you: Twinkle Twinkle Little Flake tells the story of a snowflake named Twinkle who embarks on an adventure in New York City once she has fallen from her cloud. Readily available to purchase in-store, this exclusive limited edition book makes the perfect gift for children this holiday season. As part of their “Placate the Mob” program, Saks will give $2 of each $18…
Simpsons Alumni Update: Yeardley Smith
Yeardley Smith has donated a combined $1.14 million dollars to a couple of microfinance organizations. The idea behind microfinance is that poor countries harbor plenty of hard-working, would-be entrepreneurs who, with just a little bit of capital, can launch small businesses that will make them less poor. Smith jumped in with both feet: Smith was first introduced to microfinance after seeing 2006 Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus on Oprah. Inspired to become actively involved, she traveled to Haiti, accompanied by Grameen Foundation president Alex Counts, to visit with women in remote villages to learn how microfinance and complementary health and literacy…
Simpsons Alumni Update: Harry Shearer
Shearer has created an art installation called The Silent Echo Chamber (hee hee). I’ll let The Columbus Dispatch explain: The installation — previously shown in Chicago; New York; and Ridgefield, Conn. — features news feeds of politicians, TV hosts and commentators captured in the moments before going on live television. They fidget with microphones, scratch, adjust clothing and watch themselves on monitors. The vignettes, shown on a continuous loop, are from the 2008 presidential campaign and include candidates Barack Obama and John McCain; and James Carville, Anderson Cooper, David Gergen, Sean Hannity, Larry King and Henry Kissinger, among others. It’s…