by John Ortved
Wallace, David Foster
Wallace, Marcia
the Waltons
War of the Roses
War of the Worlds, The
Warner Bros.
Waters, John
website, Fox
Weinberger, Ed
Weinman, Lynda
Weinstein, Josh: added to original Simpsons writing room biographical sketch recalled by others recalls Army Man recalls Conan O’Brien recalls Sam Simon recalls state of writing room as showrunner
Welles, Orson
Wendell, Kevin
Werner, Tom: biographical sketch compares The Simpsons with Roseanne
West, Adam, as Simpsons guest voice
West Wing, The
Wet magazine, first to publish Life in Hell
“Whacking Day” (episode)
“When You Dish Upon a Star” (episode)
Whisky a Go Go
Who, The, as Simpsons musical guest
Whore Just Like the Rest, A
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf
Wiggum, Chief (Simpsons character)
Wile E. Coyote
Will and Grace
Williams, Robert
Williams, Robin
Williams, Tennessee
Willie, Groundskeeper (Simpsons character)
Willis, Steve
Wilmore, Marc
Wirtanen, Eric: biographical sketch Fox attitude toward Internet fan sites as web administrator
Witherspoon, Reese, as Simpsons guest voice
“Wizard of Evergreen Terrace, The” (episode)
Wolfe, Tom: biographical sketch as guest voice recalls writers
Wolodarsky, Wallace: biographical sketch leaves The Simpsons after fourth season as member of original Simpsons writing room and question of The Simpsons authorship recalls Al Jean and Mike Reiss as showrunners recalls bumper episodes of The Simpsons on The Tracey Ullman Show recalls cachet of being Simpsons writer recalls Conan O’Brien recalls early success of The Simpsons recalls George Meyer recalls John Swartzwelder recalls Michael Jackson as Simpsons guest voice recalls people writing from real life recalls privileges that came with connection to The Simpsons recalls Sam Simon recalls state of writing room recalls which characters were easiest to write about recalls writer indifference to Simpsons scheduling move view of Bart view of Homer view of Simpsons influence
“Word Loaf” Writers’ Conference
Work in Hell
World Series of Poker
World Wrestling Federation Magazine
writers: legendary Simpsons writers room process of creating jokes The Simpsons known as “writer’s show”
Writers Guild Awards
writers’ strike
X, Malcolm
“You Kent Always Say What You Want” (episode)
Your Show of Shows
YouTube
Zanuck, Darryl
Zappa, Dweezil
Zappa, Frank
Zappa, Moon
Zimmer, Hans
Notes
a This book is much more concerned with the show’s conception, development, and institutionalization into the pop canon. If you’re really interested in what was going on in season 16, go on the Internet.
b
The FCC, which previously had forbidden a single owner to possess both TV stations and newspapers in the same markets, granted Murdoch—who now owned both TV stations and newspapers in Boston and New York City—repeated waivers for his takeover, until Congress ordered them to stop. Murdoch then went to court, arguing that the bill passed by Congress had unfairly targeted him, and only him. The judge agreed, and Murdoch triumphed—although by this time he’d already sold his competing news assets, the Boston Globe and the New York Post. Murdoch repurchased the Post in 1993 after New York governor Mario Cuomo persuaded the FCC to grant him a permanent waiver of their cross-ownership regulations.
c Up-fronts are essentially a series of meetings among network execs, the press, and TV advertisers, when the networks unveil their lineups for the coming fall or spring, and gauge which shows will make money and which ones will be ditched.
d The network’s first hit, of any kind, would be 21 Jump Street (1987–91), starring a young Johnny Depp.
e Rivers, who had been Johnny Carson’s permanent guest host since 1983, had deeply offended and alienated Carson by taking the job with Fox without informing him in advance. Not only was she not asked to replace Carson when he retired, she was never invited on the show again, and Carson refused to speak to her for the rest of his life. Subsequent hosts of Fox’s Late Show included Arsenio Hall, Suzanne Somers, and Richard Belzer. All crashed and burned.
f The model is the basic set of drawings that make up a character’s physical look. The model for a given character’s aesthetic is what the animators work from.
g Among execs, Diller is seen as somewhat of a snob. For him, it was a much classier proposition to do something like The Tracey Ullman Show than Married … with Children and the other schlock that Fox became known for producing and distributing (called “tabloid TV” and “guerrilla TV” in the press). In the same interview cited above, Murdoch tried to call out Diller on his elitism, adding, “Without intending any criticism, go look at the taste of every movie Barry ever made or anybody else in Hollywood. I read today that Barry was the last gasp of morality here. That’s liberal bullshit.”
h Peck was a character from the newspaper funnies of the late nineteenth century. In the cartoons, served to illustrate short stories, Peck is constantly pranking his elders, like the deacon, his father, and the grocer (although at one point he does set a girl on fire, albeit just a little, with fireworks). The series was created by George W. Peck, a humor writer who went on to be governor of Wisconsin. Peck’s stories were later made into a film with Jackie Cooper. You can see them at: www.gutenberg.org/files/25488/25488-h/25488-h.htm.
i The memorial ceremony was described as part tribute, part roast. Another attendee remembers Carl Reiner’s remarks as particularly hilarious. “It’s a wonderful day to see you people together in the same room. I’m glad he died,” Reiner said. “Then, after a long pause, he added, ‘More of us should die. Gets you out of the house.’”
j The academy would finally give animated comedy some acknowledgment when, in 2009, Family Guy received a nomination for Outstanding Comedy.
k Not that The Simpsons wasn’t asking for it. In the Season 3 episode “Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?” Homer is given a phony award, the First Annual Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence. At the ceremony, noting what a sham the whole affair is, Lisa comments, “This is the biggest farce I ever saw!” Bart retorts, “What about the Emmys?” “I stand corrected,” Lisa answers.
l In a lovely aside, while watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Homer tells Bart that if the parade “turned every flash-in-the-pan cartoon character into a balloon, it will be a farce.” Meanwhile, a Bart balloon floats by on the tube. Not even the institution The Simpsons was becoming was safe from Meyer—that year, a Bart balloon was indeed added to the real parade.
m An episode written by Stephanie Gillis, the wife of Al Jean and a former personal trainer. She has since written two more scripts, to the dismay of other Simpsons writers, who see her involvement in the show as a bone of contention with Jean and his leadership.
n The back nine refers to the later nine episodes of the first season. When a network decides that it likes a show that has been on the air for a few weeks, and is going to purchase a full season’s worth of episodes, it orders the back nine. With The Simpsons, because of the long lead time involved with animation, they couldn’t show a few episodes, see if it was a hit or not, and then order up more episodes if it was. They had to order the back nine at the same time they gave the pilot the green light.
o During the writing of this book, Fox began to allow recent Simpsons episodes to be viewed on Fox.com.
p John Waters appeared in Season
8’s “Homer’s Phobia” as John, Homer’s new gay (though unbeknownst to Homer) friend. The episode was so successful, Waters and the episode’s director, Mike Anderson, were commissioned to make a pilot of a series called Uncle John for MTV based on the same character. MTV never aired the pilot, neither did another network that had asked to see it, but Waters says it may make it to TV “someday.”
q As opposed to an episode from the second season, “Three Men and a Comic Book,” which used the comic book to explore the nature of friendship, “I Am Furious Yellow” was a series of plot twists written to the end of Homer transforming into a parody of the Incredible Hulk.
r Gibson appeared in the Season 11 premiere, “Beyond Blunderdome.” This was before Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ or his 2006 DUI, where he blamed “the fucking Jews” for “all the wars in the world.” Those who worked with Gibson for his guest appearance on The Simpsons report that he seemed very nice, in control, and didn’t appear to have any issues with the Jews in the room. †Writer Jeff Martin, who went with O’Brien, has said that he’s not sure if he can say they really “met” the comic, because he doesn’t believe that Hope could see or hear them.
s In Hawking’s first appearance (there have been four in all), he makes an eloquent, enlightened speech to a group of Springfieldians, Homer among them. During the awed silence that follows, Homer, inspired, yells out, “Larry Flynt is right!” Homer’s confusion of one famous man in a wheelchair for another is the best single joke, in terms of a guest star and their relevance, that The Simpsons has ever come up with. (A close second is Mr. Burns telling Smithers to “Have the Rolling Stones killed” after C. J. Ramone of the Ramones tells Mr. Burns to go to hell at the old bastard’s birthday party.)
t Hats off to Family Guy for taking West’s absurdity, and his solemn monotone, and making him into a regular source of hilarity as Adam West, mayor of Quahog.
u Indeed, some episodes from Scully’s first years, Seasons 9 and 10—“The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace” and “When You Dish Upon a Star”—are superior to episodes from Bill and Josh’s Seasons 7 and 8, such as “22 Short Films About Springfield” and “Bart on the Road.”
v The episode aired on February 9, 1997, marking the year The Simpsons could be viewed in every major television market on the planet.
w Such articles tended to be as plaintive as they were critical. After writing that The Simpsons was done for, Buckman immediately added, “And that is one of the saddest things I’ve ever had to report.”
x That isn’t to say there wasn’t criticism in the mainstream press before this. After Mirkin took over in Season 5, which I and many others consider very much part of The Simpsons’ golden age, the Los Angeles Times wrote that “lately … there are no layers. What you immediately see and hear is everything you get. The show’s bratty Bart and once bankable Homer humor are flatter, the gags often labored and belabored, and the characters inconsistent.”
y It’s interesting to note that the “off-topic” message board on NoHomers.net is now the most popular section of the website. Simpsons fans who came together because of the show are now talking to each other about other things, a genuinely positive social externality, like members of a church discovering they share an interest in college football or the same sexual fetish.
z “I like Family Guy,” said Mike Reiss in a speech in 2009 at the 92nd Street Y in Tribeca. Reiss then related a well-known story, how Family Guy’s creator, Seth MacFarlane, was scheduled to be on American Airlines Flight 11 on September 11, 2001. Because MacFarlane’s travel agent had given him the wrong departure time, MacFarlane narrowly missed the flight and watched on the airport TVs as his plane crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. “The point,” said Reiss, “is that I may like Family Guy, but God fucking loves Family Guy.”
aa A few of the guests from the last eleven seasons are Tony Hawk, J. K. Rowling, Steve Martin, Ray Romano, Kiefer Sutherland, Reese Witherspoon, Fallout Boy, Anne Hathaway, and Matt Dillon.
ab In 2008, the Simpsons Ride opened at Universal Studios—one step closer.
ac “Surrender Monkeys,” a phrase coined by Groundskeeper Willie, was the headline on the Daily News’s cover on December 7, 2006—the conservative tabloid’s response to the Iraq Survey Group’s suggestion that some brigades begin withdrawal from Iraq in 2008—with panel members’ faces Photoshopped onto monkey bodies.
ad Knight spends much of his energy trying to promote legislation dictating marriage that can occur only between a man and a woman, as well as directing movies about “recovered” homosexuals.
ae In 2009, Cartwright made a Robocall, which went out to people in Los Angeles, asking them to attend a Scientology event. The Simpsons producers hit the roof: it seems that Fox owns the rights to Bart’s voice, not Cartwright, and Al Jean issued a statement. Cartwright had given $10 million to Scientology in 2008, earning her that organization’s Patriot Laureate award, and making her their most generous celebrity donor (her contribution doubled that of Tom Cruise’s).3
Copyright © 2009 by John Ortved
Foreword copyright © 2009 by Douglas Coupland
All rights reserved
Faber and Faber, Inc.
An affiliate of Farrar, Straus and Giroux
18 West 18th Street, New York 10011
www.fsgbooks.com
eISBN 9781429931519
First eBook Edition : April 2011
Published in 2009 by Faber and Faber, Inc.
First paperback edition, 2010
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint material: Judith Brennan; Joe Morgenstern; Sean Mitchell; David Owen; Eric Spitznagel and The Believer; and WHYY, Inc.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows: Ortved, John, 1980–
The Simpsons : an uncensored, unauthorized history / John Ortved.—1st ed. p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Simpsons (Television program) I. Title.
PN1992.77.S58O78 2009
791.45’72—dc22
2009015216
Paperback ISBN: 978-0-86547-939-5