Episode 999: The Simpsons Spectacular Part I

leaked back in time. How amazing is that? Yeah, because we have to do a two parter because upon looking at this research and this topic, very special topic for us for the show, we realized it had to be a two parter and rather than do one thousand and one thousand one, what kind of person would do that? An unwholesome person. Yeah, yeah, okay, so this is episode in your view, it's it's really just part of episode one thousand. I'm with you on that. Yes, can you

believe that? I, you know what Chuck up until today? I could totally believe it. But the fact that we're doing The Simpsons for our thousandth episode, it just it drove everything home, Like all the gear teeth fell right into place, and now the gears are spinning in sync and I can feel it and I'm amazed. Yeah. So, uh, we just wanted to acknowledge the one thousand here up front, and I think frankly, we're doing that because we're both so excited about doing this. I think I should tell

people what you emailed earlier. We were furiously sending links back fourth this week and you said, Uh, I don't even want to record, I just want to keep researching the Simpsons forever. It's true. Man. Last night, Chuck, I was sitting there watching Simpsons episodes and I thought, well, this is the pinnacle of my career. I am literally being paid to watch the Simpsons. Yeah, and we just had to stop, Like Eveen, we could have done this for weeks and researched, and this could be uh an

entire podcast and into itself with a thousand episodes. Well maybe not a thousand, close to it, but at some point we had to stop. So just know, if we didn't cover your favorite thing from the show that's been on for thirty years, or or if we're not referring to episodes under their specific naming convention, yeah, calm down, Yeah, it's just impossible. So we're gonna do our best here to talk about some of our favorite stuff and a

little bit about how the show works. But here we go, right, Oh, man, let's do it. This is like an actual intro. Yes, that was an actual response, So Chuck, yes, have you ever seen the Simpsons? I have, sir, you caught it back from the beginning, like that was right in our wheelhouse, maybe even yours a little more than mine. Yeah, And uh, I mean, let's we should go ahead and just talk for a moment about episode one because I have a very distinct memory, which is I'm in high school. It's

my senior year. Chris Bouten, my friend and future roommate in college, calls me Boots Bouten, and he says, dude, have you and I have to admit I did not see the Tracy Almond shorts, So let's get that out of the way right now. They were bizarre. Yeah, and this is that's where the show began. As most people know, is a little short animated bits in the Tracy Ellman Show. But Chris Bootin calls me episodes Man, I'm coming over. I'm meeting you in the basement, opened the back door.

I have a VHS of this show called The Simpsons you gotta see it, and he met me over there. It was winter, it was December. Well it aired on the seventeenth, but I have a feeling this was the next day probably, and Booting came over and we watched the very first episode, which was Santa's Little Helper, and we cried tears of joy and laughter, and my life went on a different course. Yeah, I Boots did not

visit my house personally with the video. We didn't call him Boots by the video because well I'm calling him Boots nickname Boots. That's classic Boots by the way to show up in the basement. Um. But he, uh, he did not come to my house. But I did see that one, and I think Guy saw it when it aired actually, and I remember watching the Tracy Ullman shorts too and just being like, what the hell is this.

But then by the time I think the Tracy Ullman Show and we'll get a little more into it, that one started in seven, um and the actual show started

in eighty nine. So between those two points they really like it really started to come together to where that first episode where Homer finds out he's not getting a Christmas bonus, so he gets a job secretly as a mall Santa and ends up taking his check to the dog track and betting it all and losing it all on Santa's a Little Helper, which was the dog right, But then he ends up with Santa a Little Helper, so he gets what he was after all along, which

is a great Christmas present for his family. What a beautiful episode, right, Yeah, And interestingly that first episode was really the eighth one to be made, but they ran that one first, so uh, there were there were some weird differences like the show. Actually, originally I think Matt Gray thought it would be redrawn a little more slickly, but they just traced over his original drawing. So the animation was fairly crude in this episode. And then you'll

notice an episode two it actually looks a little bit better. Um, and you know, the Simpson still looks like the Simpsons, but that early episode and kind of the whole first season was a little more crude in drawing and voice. Uh. And the pilot was the only episode missing that very famous opening sequence, which we'll talk about a little bit later. Oh yeah, it wasn't it like a cold opening or

something like that. I can't remember exactly how, but it didn't feature the iconic opening that we all know and love today. Um So, where shall we start, Chuck? I mean, I guess we kind of just did start. Yeah, and I think I already made a mistake about what well Sante's Little Hope would In the name of the episode,

it was Simpsons roasting on an open fire. Yeah, so I mean, come on, that's the one that you were you were talking about, you know, yeah, but I'm just I know that like probably thousand people just slam their laptot shut. But that's what I'm saying, Everybody, chill out. That's not what this episode is about. We're not trying to show you how little you know. That's right. Ed the Grabster Grabanowski wrote this article. Actually this one was written by Unedd Grabanowski. If you ask me, why did

you say that? Because it was it wasn't like five times as long as it should have been. No, I can't remember who who calls himself that for every Treehouse of Horror, but there's a D and they call themselves uned, so I thought that was probably I'm really surprised he didn't actually get that as his byline for this it's a nice estery there, my friend. Yeah. Uh, and then we did just I mean, so much supplementary information. It's sort of ridiculous. Yeah, but this is like a special

request from us, wasn't it. Oh yeah, we said, go forth, grabster and write the well right the oh okay, right there, Well there were two ease in that the yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I should have noticed by the flourish of your hand what you were saying. All right, So let's go back to uh Simpsons creator one Mr Matt Greening, and we have actually met him, and we will talk about that

in a little bit. Life highlight for sure. But he had a comic strip called Life and Hell, and I think the original conceit to pitch to producer James L. Brooks. Seven was a cartoon version of that. Ed writes in here he thought it would be a failure, but I read that he wasn't too keen on signing away sort of the thing he had worked on all his life. So he changed his mind at the last minute and thought, of the Simpsons. That's awesome. That sounds the second one

sounds much more like Matt Graining for sure. Yeah, And he had he had no idea that would make him a super rich gazillion are either. But if you if you um know that story. The fact that the Simpsons started out on Tracy Ullman makes sense because James Brooks, who himself is a pretty like bona fide cool guy right here the married Tyler Moore shown directed terms of endearment. Um, he produced Bottle Rocket. Um. Yeah, you could say he

has an eye for amazing things for sure. So he had come across this life and How strip and and wanted to basically turn it into animated shorts for the Tracy Woman Show, but then Graining swapped it out at the at the pitch meeting and said let's do this instead. But I think either way, he came up with the characters and the idea fairly on the fly, right Yeah, I mean obviously wasn't like while he was waiting outside of the pitch meeting, but h what he came up with.

And if you haven't seen the Simpsons, maybe you should go watch an episode or two. Crawl up from under the rock that you're and go watch one. But obviously we should at least say what it is. And it is a sort of a traditional sitcom about um, and follows the sitcom conventions in many ways of a family, uh, living together under a roof who encounter fun hijinks along the way. Yeah, and um, that's kind of the subtext for the whole or the pretext I should say, for

the whole series. Right, it's like it's a sitcom, it's a family sitcom. But there's a couple of big differences with it right there. Um, it's animated, which is huge because it's a it was a price. It became in nine a primetime animated series, and it was the first one since I think nineteen seventy two where Wait Till You're nineteen seventy four where Wait Till Your Father Gets Home went off the air. Did you ever see that show? It was like a proto family Guy basically, um, from

the early seventies, and it was actually super entertaining. And then before that, of course, there was The flint Stones, but those were like the two big primetime animated series before the Simpsons. But there's a good, you know, twentysomething thirties something year lull in between those and the Simpsons. So that was a big difference in and of itself. Well, it's easy to take for granted. Now with the advent of like Cartoon Network in Adult Swim and Family Guy

in Futurama, which also from graining. Yeah, I mean, there's just an explosion of animation. Right. You've got you know, starting back with Beavis and butt Head that was a descendant of The Simpsons, and then of course you've got King of the Hill, uh South Park. Um, today you've got Rick and Morty. Have you seen Rick and Morty? I haven't yet. Everyone I'm remiss. Everyone said it's the greatest.

It is, it's the greatest, and man, it's one of those it's under the same thing that The Simpsons was initially taken for where you know, there's a lot of belching, so people are like, this is low brown. It's like, no, look past it to what they're actually doing. It's insanely smart and and really entertaining too. Like it's, um, it's laugh out loud funny in a lot of parts. I think we've kind of proven that we can be smart and still make part jokes. Sure, and and Rick and

Morty is doing the same thing. And by the way, um, you know they listened to us, right Rick and Morty, Yeah, I remember they sent us that aunt's book and it had that was the Rick and Morty people. Yeah, so thanks again for that, guys. That's a treasured possession. Well I'm definitely watching now. Yeah, all the adult quote unquote uh cartoons that we see. But it was revolutionary at

the time. I mean Flint Stone's aside, Like you said, it had been a long time and it was quite literally leveled the TV industry because it was such a smash hit right out of the gate. That's right, Yeah, I know, it was huge, right, um, and a lot of things came together for it. Um the fact that that James L. Brooks got in touch with the man Craning.

That was a bit of a fluke because he got in touch with them for a different reason, but also because it was a show on Fox and Fox was just starting out as a network and they were looking to make waves. So at the time you had basically here, So here's what the Simpsons were up against in family

sitcom wise. You ready for this? Um My two Dads, Major Dad, Mr Belvedere, who's the Boss, Hogan, Family Family Matters, Growing Pains, The Cosby Show, Full House, and like that was what family sitcoms or TV sitcoms in general were

at the time, and you had Roseanne. Roseanne had been on for a couple of years already, and it had shaken things up some for sure, but for the most part, like this was America was this um, clean and tidy, wholesome place where everything was just peachy keen and all the problems that a family encounter were about as superficial

as you could possibly come across. And this was the other big thing about The Simpsons, and it actually went really well, at least superficially with married with Children, which was that family wholesome sitcom spawn onto its very gritty, dirty underbelly. Right. Uh. The Pons was initially compared to that same kind of thing because they were both on Fox and they both like kind of took the family

sitcom and turned it on its head. But it took a minute but not too long for people to start noticing, oh wait, actually this is really subversive satire. And that was the big thing that I think initially gave the Simpsons. It's it's it's base for to keep going for thirty seasons. Yeah, I mean, I remember when Fox first came out and it was like that, what, there's a fourth TV channel. I know it was a big deal. It was a big deal. And their thing from the beginning was, you know,

we're gonna be edgy, We're gonna be different. This is this is not your mom and Dad's TV. And like you said, Mary with Children and the Simpsons firmly put them on a different track. Uh. And it was funny when you were just going through all the shows like they they were no more edgy than since TV's inception, and it might it might as well have been, well maybe a little more edgy than like be Re Cleaver and Sean Harriet, but not too far off. For the most part. TV was kind of the same for decades

when it came to family sitcoms. Yeah, so the Simpsons was just this is not overstating it. It was a cultural revolution in every way. It definitely was. And it it took up like this already kind of nascent revolution and from Roseanne and from Mary with Children, but it was different, man, it was like it was it was

its own thing and still is today. And again, like you were saying, it's easy to look back and be like, well, yeah, i mean animated, really smart, subversive satirical shows like they're they're a diamond dozen is a weird way to put it, but it's true, like they're all over the place. Now, that's because the Simpsons came along. It's as simple as that. Yeah. So the early episodes um in the In the first couple of seasons, Bart Simpson, uh was sort of the star of the show as far as pop culture goes.

I mean, he was front and enter, he was on every T shirt. Every kid was saying eat my shorts, every kid was talking back to their teachers more, and it created quite a ruckuss in schools. I know that some of the T shirts were banned in certain school districts. Yeah. The Underachiever and proud of It man, Yeah, that one was banned and I think I'm Bart Simpson, who the hell are you? Yeah, But it wasn't long before it became pretty clear that it was an ensemble show for

one and sort of Homer's show, let's be honest. Yeah, ultimately ended up that way in large part. He he became the central character, didn't he. Yeah, I would say easily. But then, I mean, we'll go through a lot of these characters, if not all of them, because we don't have time to read like five people's names, right, but it ended up being like a memorial or something. I know.

But the Simpsons side characters and the guest characters have become just as beloved as uh as the fane of of course, Homer and Marge and Lisa and Bart and little Maggie. Absolutely. Do you want to take our first break? Yeah? Yeah, let's we're so excited. Let's go ahead and take a break real quick and calm down. All right, we're back. So the earliest clips of the Simpsons were animated by a different studio than they used now and have used for many years. It's called class Key Suppo or Cupo

zupo c s u p oh. I'm not sure how they pronounced it, but they were all, of course based on Matt Greening's original sketches that had these yellow skinned characters, very bright primary color palette. Uh. And it became a little more refined over the year, SUPs, we said, but it's um it never approached like a slick looking animation by any means. No, No, the earliest stuff definitely not.

And they were with I think it's class Key Zupo, I'm not sure, but they were with them for two years and and despite this stuff being really rough and like kind of hard to watch even if you if you look at it now. Um, they gave the Simpsons like their yellow skin, Marge's blue hair, and supposedly Matt graening Um when he saw the yellow skin tone palette for the Simpsons skin colors, he was like, that is perfect.

Like when somebody's like clicking through the channels real quick, their eyes going to is gonna catch that and they're gonna stop because the Simpsons are on and they're gonna watch it. So apparently that's where the yellow came from. It was kind of a fluke, but they went with it just because it was so catchy. That's great idea. But then after I think two years, they moved over

to something called film Roman or film Roman. I've never heard it actually really set out loud, but they they were the ones who, starting in and think season two or three, really gave the Simpsons it's defined look that stayed for years and years and years. Yeah. I remember Homer's voice early on sounded a little bit different too. Yeah, you know, I mean the same guy. It was Dan Castlenetta, but just uh was not the same Homer's voice that we know and love today. No, it was much gruffer.

Plus his dialogue two was way more I mean it really was much more about Bart and Homer was way angrier and like he strangled barred it like the drop of a hat. That was like a go to gag. So this the show is still really smart compared to Who's the Boss, But compared to you know, later seasons of The Simpsons, it was really just it's rough by comparison, for sure. Don't not go boss too much though, I mean it's fine, too fine show. But man, it wasn't

smart satire. You put it, you put it Who's the Boss episode up against like a season seven episode of The Simpsons. Mr. The Boss is not going to win that one. Yeah, they're not the Boss. I mean, like even Tony Danes. It will tell you that. So let's talk a little bit about the main cast and the crew. Uh. In those early years, Um, of course, Matt Graining was around from the beginning, and James L. Brooks of course. Then there was a man, uh, the dearly departed Sam Simon,

who was an EP on the show from the early days. Uh, and the great Al Jean has been the show runner since the thirteenth season. Um, but I'm pretty sure he was around before that, right, I didn't exactly look at when he joined up. I believe he was an early producer as well, Okay, but eventually rose to showrunner. Bill Oakley. Josh Weinstein and Mike Scully ran the show previous to that during the first twelve seasons. We cannot list all the writers. It would be impossible, No, but some some

made some pretty huge contributions. Yeah, like George Meyer and John Schwartzwelder are generally given credit to kind of defining

who these characters were from the early days. Yeah, the worldview, the jokes they would make, the fact that and this is another huge thing that we take for granted today that The Simpsons really established was referential humor, like making making fun of, um, you know, film literature, trends, whatever, not necessarily part of the plot, but just part of a joke maybe or something like that, or in addition, a little layer just to make the whole, the whole

idea that was being put across that much more palatable. They really kind of blew that out, and that was thanks to that early brain trust you just mentioned of people who established the show for for what it's what it was, Yeah, I mean it was a blueprint and everyone that that came along afterward sort of had their show Bible thanks to these people. Yes, you know which if you look up show Bible, there's this there's one episode that just screws up any Google search for that.

There was the Simpsons Bible Stories episode, which was a stinker anyway, but it sucks because now you can't find any examples of this show Bible must exist somewhere. I don't know if you could find that online. You can find the style Guide examples online though, Yeah, for sure. Uh. And of course we got to mention Conan O'Brien because he very famously worked for a couple of years on

The Simpsons. I think it's credited with four or five episodes, uh, including one of the all time classics, Marge versus the Monorail, which Conan has still talks about that being one of his great career achievements is writing that episode. I can imagine, because not only was a great episode, but you got to write and then Phil Hartman brought your stuff to

life man like that was a big one. All right. Well, speaking of Phil Hartman, let's start talking about the cast, because this is gonna this is gonna take a little while. Are you ready. So, so, there's hundreds of characters in the Simpsons universe, but really a lot of them, a lot of them boil down to the voices of just six people. Yeah, so, um, two of them focus almost

exclusively on just one character each. Julie Kavner does Marge, but then she also obviously does Marge's sisters Patty and Selma and her mom Jacqueline in one episode, Yeah, the Bouvier's yea. And then you'rd Lee Smith does just Lisa for the for the show. Yeah, and she's the only one that does a single voice. Um, Dan casting Lenetta obviously does Homer. He also does Grandpa Abe. It's hard to not laugh just thinking of each one of these characters.

I know, you know, I kept laughing out loud researching this stuff, at the very least, chuckling to myself, you know, yeah, strickling in the office today was like I gotta ask what the heck is going on over there? And it's

like we're doing an episode in Simpson's leaving Alan. He was like, what castle Lena also does Barney Gumble Krusty the Clown, Groundskeeper, Willie Mayor Quimby Man so great Hans Moleman, Sideshow, mel Itchy, kdoskil Pucci, Uh, the Squeaky Boys Team Mr Burns, Lawyer, Krusty's Monkey, Mr Teeney, and he did Bill Clinton, Great Bill Clinton Team Real no fooling Pigs. What about Nancy

cart Right, the Great Nancy cart Right. So she does bart that's what she's best known for, but she does some other voices of um, some other prepubescent uh characters like Ralph Wiggham one of the great all time voices ever, Um Todd Flanders, Nelson Months has a great one. Kearney the bald headed or shaved headed bully, and um Database. I don't know who Database was. I think Database is more recent. And this is probably where I should say that I haven't seen the Simpsons in a few years.

I dabbled a little bit a couple of years ago and I was like, this is this is not bad? And then you know, it was kind of hit or miss, definitely compared to two years ago. But I'm not gonna hate on anything that's going on today. It's still the Simpson you know, of course, Uh, the great, great, great great Hankers area. Uh. One of the fantastic additional cast members. Uh. While I say additional because he's not one of the Simpsons, but he's a primary cast member. Uh. He voices a Pooh.

Do you want to try and say, who's last name a poo Nahasa Pima pedal on Uh. And by the way, we should mention a Pooh is taking a lot of heat in recent years for the very least being an ethnic stereotype and some say straight up racist. Uh. And there is a documentary airing Believe on True TV next month called The Problem with a Pooh from uh comedian I really love Hari Kondabolou. And you know you should watch it and sort of think of a Pooh a little bit through uh, through Harry's lens or the lens

of an Indian person. So, um, well, you know, this is not the first time that the Simpsons have been called the task for offending a group, sure, an entire group or race or country like It's it's definitely happened over the course of this the thirty seasons that's been going on. Um. Sometimes they apologize, sometimes they acknowledge it. Other times they're just like whatever for sure, um so going on with hankas area. Besides the poo, mostes lack

one the great characters, Chief Wigham. I mean, these are all great comic book guy who, by the way, has a real name, Jeff Albertson, never knew that. I can't remember where that one came from, but yeah, Carl a beloved beloved friend of Homer's from the bar. Uh Dr Nick Hi for rolls and body. Remember he went to the Tijuana Upstairs Medical. That's where he graduated from uh Captain McAllister, uh Superintendent Chalmers. And of course when I think of Chalmers, all I can think of is uh.

I can't remember the episode title, but the one with with Skinner and the I think that was like the twenty two episodes about Springfield. One. Oh man, that's such a great one short films. I was never into that one. I loved it and I had no idea. But apparently it's a reference to there was a documentary or okay, a movie twenty two short films about Glenn Gould. Love

that movie. Okay, I've never even heard of it. And this raises a really good point that I'd like to make her chuck if you'll indulge me for a second. One of the things that The Simpsons did for me, and I suspected for a lot of other people, is that it pointed me in the direction of culture, like it cultured me in culturated me. I'm not sure what

the word is. The Simpsons never taught me, but the the the just the little signposts that they they point to through the references they make that you don't get, but then you find out about later what they were actually talking about. It might lead you to go see that movie or read that book, or just have a better understanding of the world than you did four It's

like backwards reference. Yeah, I mean some of them are so subtle to like, there isn't a human alive that picks up on all the culture references that the Simpsons throws out week the week. You know, whether it's uh something like you were just talking about, or whether it's just simply like in a show title like don't have to Live like a referee, little things like that. They're just nuggets all over the place. Uh. Continuing of Mr Zaria, Professor Frank Cleadas, the slack jall yokel who will get

to a little bit more some of those his children's names. Uh, we have some good stuff coming up, so I love so get off the dang roof bumblebee man snake. Uh. Kirk van Houghton man that that divorce episode was one of the best. Yeah, can I borrow a Drederick Tatum and Piro also known as Chase that was from that episode two? I think it wasn't that the American Ideator that that Millhouse's mom dates. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I forgot

about that. Oh man, Well, that's that's it. I think these may not be complete list from Harry Shear Um, No, I'm sorry for my area. But Harry Shears next, do you want to tackle some of these? He does Mr Burns and Mr Smithers, which is that's great to to basically take those two halves of a hole and be able to fill them out like that. Yeah, and by the way, Burns was in the very first episode and Smithers is heard over the intercom but not seen in that episode one. That's a bit of trivia. But he

can put in their pipe and smoke. Ned Flanders principal Skinner, Reverend love Joys, great Dr Hibbert. That laugh, he's got a laugh that almost rivals, yours joke in awesomeness, Kent Brockman, great Scratchy. I don't know who does itchy, do you? I don't know. I kind of figured he did both, you'd think so. But yeah, somebody all right in to let us know Otto the bus driver, Ottoman, Jasper Abes, friend with the long beard who can't feel them a beard.

Then Lenny Homer and Carl's other friends. Yeah, anybody else? Yeah, wolf Castle and McBain. Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah. And there's here's another old tidbit I can't even wait on from our our Easter egg section later on, is apparently if you take out all the wolf Castle pieces throughout the years, there's a little coherent story that you can actually follow that is masterful. Yeah. And I'm not sure if someone has I'm sure someone has pulled that. Um.

I didn't get a chance to watch, but that's pretty amazing. Yeah, Uh, Herman, George Bush, Judge Schneider, Eddie Renier, some of the other Shearer characters. Do you remember who Eddie Renier was? No? I don't. I don't either. Maybe we got some digging to do, man, some some in bigg and digging. Uh, we have to mention the great Pamela Hayden. She does Millhouse, Rod Flanders, Janie Powell, Jimbo Jones, Malibu Stacy, Sarah Wigham uh and a couple of dearly departed cast members occasional

cast members. Marsha Wallace, the great Marsha Wallace from The Bob Newhart Show passed away in two thousand thirteen. She was Mrs Crabapple. I mean, what a beloved character and as in so many ways they describe her in this article, is sarcastic and sexy. That whole that whole um subplot that went through multiple episodes where she was dating Um Yeah,

Seymour Skinner and then later on Mary's ned Flanders. No one saw that coming, but the fact that this show could take steps like that and then would would commit itself to to continuing it as long as as could be and and keeping it up, you know what I mean, rather than just being like, oh, forget about that, it doesn't matter that that was another hallmark of the show as well, that it could had the chops to to make big leaps like that and then keep it going

without as seeming tried or tired or anything. Absolutely Marsha Wallace won an Emmy for her voice work. Uh, and they paid a tribute to her um in the episode for Regrettings and a Funeral. Barts Chalkboard Gag at the beginning said we'll really miss you, mrs Ka so sad so sad. Uh. And the Man who grew too much, Ned Flanders wears a black armband. Two more Edna, who of course took the place of his departed wife. And Maud Flanders. Yeah he's a widower twice over. Yeah. Man,

that one where Maud died. That was really just a great episode. Yeah, I mean that. That's the thing about The Simpsons is as silly as it was, they managed to pull the heartstrings every now and then. It was always they didn't do too much of it, but it was always just well timed, you know, for sure, and like they could take on some thing like death and grief and do it like with heart but also without making a very special episode of it. Always felt like

the Simpsons. Yeah, exactly. Uh. And of course Phil Hartman, who left us way too soon. He did a couple of classic classic characters in Lionel Huts and Troy McLure. Uh. And I had to get a few of my favorite Troy McClure lines in here. Um, and he was very famous. If you don't know the Simpsons, Toroy McClure was uh, former semi famous actor who would pop up every now and then in uh kind of like school films and stuff like that, sure or um an infomercial. Yeah. He

was just like a former pretty boy actor basically. Yeah. And his his running gag was I'm Troy McClure. You might remember me dot dot dot right, So here's here's a few of my favorites. I'm Troy McClure. You might remember me from some self help videos as Smoke Yourself then and get comf and Stupid. Here's another one. You might remember me from such driver's ed films as Alice's Adventures through the Windshield Glass and the Decapitation of lead

Larry Leadfoot, And then this one. You may remember me from such educational films as to minus three equals Negative fun and by a Crackers The Silent Killer so good, and Attorney Lama Huts was just great too, was good? And then which one did he date? He dated Patty or Selma? I can't remember which one. You're just I'm mortified. Well, they're so interchangeable to me, Well, they are. One of them came out as gay, actually, and one of the recent seasons was not that one, right, um I I

think it was Selma. No, it would have been Patty because Patty is the one who was engaged to Principal Skinner. That's right, um So, I guess he was dating Patty. I just remember in that episode when he he went out with her one night and then showed up the next day and said, you might remember me from certain dates as last nights. Right. One of my favorite lines from that episode is, um, there in like a nice restaurant and um, Selma, No, Patty lights up a cigarette

and everybody's like, oh my gosh, she's smoking smoking. Somebody goes waiter, I ordered a zeema, not emphysema. What a great line, man, Yeah. Um So. Guest stars over the years, um they have. There have been some very beloved people playing other people, and then many people playing themselves. Uh. And I made a list of my favorite people playing other people. Martin Sheen played Sergeant Seymour Skinner a k a. The real Seymour Skinner. Oh that was Martin Sheen. Wasn't it. Okay?

The Great Albert Brooks played Hank Scorpio. Nice. Yeah, that was a great character. Glenn Close played Homer's mom and just such a great episode that that one. And I think also the one where he goes and um tries to find what his middle his the j stand name. Yeah yeah yeah. I don't know if she was in that, but like she she's like a she's like an off camera character because he meets like some of her old friends from back when he was such a sweet episode and then they all end up on um Payote I

think in truth sim since fashion. Patrick Stewart played Number one in the stone Cutters episode. Meryl Street played Jessica Lovejoy Bart's love interest brief love interest. The late great Johnny Cash played Homer Spirit Coyote. Yeah remember that. Remember Rodney Dangerfield is Larry Burns. I get no esteem, noverre god either. Ron Taylor played a bleeding gums Murphy Lee, his sort of mentor on the saxophone who played him

got named Ron Taylor. Okay, give him his due, and arties If was played by John Lovitt Sure and John Lovitts played Jay Sherman, the critic in one of the more hated episodes of all times. Yeah, the crossover episode where they throw a film festival in Springfield and Jay Sherman shows up to to lead the jury for the film festival. Well, it was. It was basically a vehicle to introduce America to the critic, which was now going to be on Fox after The Simpsons. And did you

ever see that show? The critic? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I saw that. It was a little smallsey, but I mean it had its charms here there. It wasn't like the worst thing anyone's ever put on TV. It certainly wasn't Simpsons caliber. But supposedly Matt Graining was so upset about this that he made them take his name off of the opening credits on the TV screen. He was that mad about this crawl sover that had been like shoved

down his throat by Fox executives. As the legend goes, good for him, sure, um, And then you know, they've had some legends that played themselves before Bob Hope passed away. He was on the show. Ernest borg Nine, Robert Goulay, Steve Allen, Robert Gooley swings his hello. He's sitting there, he's doing the treehouse at Bart's Treehouse, he's doing a show.

I don't know how he got booked there. I think Nelson maybe was his agent, and like he's swinging his microphone and the quarters are so close in the treehouse. He smacks like I think millhouses glasses right off his face, like oh sorry kid, uh And then they I think there've been more than like seventy musicians and bands through

the years. They've always loved featuring bands. So at the time, all the Living Beatles before George Harrison passed, and the Ramons and the Who and Metallica and R E. M and You Too and Aerosmith, Tom Petty, the late Great Tom Petty, Lenny Krab. It's like the list goes on

and on. But they've always had great musical guests. And that YouTube episode that was the garbage Man episode, right, I think so so one of the great There's like this is a great illustration of just a throwaway joke on The Simpsons that just made it that much smarter that show. Right, So, like Homer is trying to sneak backstage, so he dresses up like Irish potato delivery man, like there is such a thing, right, So, so the joke is that this is what Homer thinks is going to

get him backstage. But then the added bonus to the joke is that it actually works, Like when he shows up, the security guards like, where in the devil have you been? Like they've been waiting for the guy who delivers raw potatoes backstage at a YouTube concert? Like that's just the thing, right, I love that show so much. Uh. And finally, as far as guest voices, we would be we would be remiss without mentioning the great Kelsey Grammar at side show

Bob prominent prominent character. And then they ended up getting David Hyde pierced to play Cecil, his brother, and then John Mahoney all from Frazier to play his father, Dr Robert to Willoker. Nice, so good, it's so so good, Chuck. Alright, let's take another break and we're gonna come back and talk a little bit about these episodes and how they

are put together. Josh, Okay, Chuck, we're back, and you promised that we were going to talk more about the Simpsons, so go all right, well we should talk a little bit about I mean, we can sit here and quote lines all day long. I know, I hope this isn't getting annoying for anybody. Hopefully everybody's having as much fun as we are. No, I mean this one was bound to get super wonky. But we should talk a little

bit technically about how the show is made. Hey, uh, so here's how it starts, and the Grabs are did a good job of kind of breaking this down, I think. Yeah. And also also I want to give a shout out to an article on the Verge called how uh Simpsons episode is made. It goes into even greater detail. It's it's nuts what they do. Alright. So, like most shows, or I would say probably every show, uh, it begins in the writer's room. Writer's gonna pitch ideas to each

other and the producers. An episode will get a green light, and then a single writer usually sometimes they work in pairs, will go off and create a draft in a couple of weeks. But that is not the end of the writing process. No, no, no, no no. Supposedly, the writing process is one of the most um uh shape shifting parts of the entire process of making an episode. There's a lot of people pokey at it. You've got the show runner, who in this capacity serves as the um

script editor and the head writer. Um, you've got the actual writers, you've got the writing team, you've got the writing assistance, You've got producers who are thinking about it. You've got all these people who are thinking of the script and rewriting it and editing it. That is supposedly a script goes through rewrites um for like four to

six weeks or something like that. Yeah, and like most shows operate this way, there's a lot, especially comedies, a lot of rewriting that goes on to just I mean, they'll come down and debate a word for a couple of hours to make sure they're getting the funniest stuff they can get right. Um, then what comes next is the table read. And brother, you and I got really really lucky. When was this four or five years ago? I think it was two thousand, thirteen or fourteen. So

here's how it went down. We had a listener, uh named Jesse write us and say she did worked for the Simpsons, but she was in somehow. I think she had a friend. She was friends I think with Tom Gamble, the producer, one of the users of the Simpsons. Yeah, and she said, you know, dudes, whenever you want to come out to l A and go to a table read, and then we were basically at the airport about an

hour later. So I don't know. We had a trip booked for some reason or another, and we went out there and uh we met at the Fox lot and the building little bungalow outside the Simpsons. First of all is just so exciting because they have topiaries of Simpsons characters and of itself. And then the table read is a bit of a public thing, like it's not a hundred people, but they were probably besides the cast in writing staff an additional what people in there, like tourists

like us. Yeah, yeah, I would say something like that like friends, family members, um, just special invitees, the ambassador of from Spain, like just just people were there and and they were like you shut up, all of you. Don't make a sound, turn off your cell phones, will kill your whole family if you if you say anything, because this is serious business. Yeah. So there's they're all the people who work on the show. We're sitting at

this big, huge, long conference table. And then the room is lined all along the outside on four walls with chairs for people to just sit there quietly and uh, sit at the altar in reverence of what they're about to see and we so the one we were there um was a script read for the episode that became the Wreck of the Relationship, right. I think Nick Offerman guest starred in it as a sea captain. But basically Bart and Homer go off on this um father's son

bonding tour like aboard a ship, and uh. The b subplot was that while they were gone, Marge had to um pick Homer's fantasy football team, and she decided that she should pick all place kickers and turns out that she she was right. Um like, she ended up winning, but in between picking them and not knowing what she was doing and winning the whole thing, um, she ends up like trash talking with Mo and Lenny and Carl

um And it's a pretty good be subplot. Actually, yeah, And I would love to say that, um, all of the voice actors are in the room together. That is not the case because everyone is busy and doing other stuff. And they got it down to a science now so they don't have to rub elbows. But they're you know, calling it on the phone and they're doing the voices and stuff either be a phone or in person, and uh, Matt Graining was there though, Uh, Dan Castelenetta was there

in the room, Julie Kavner was there. Julie Kavner was there, Udly Smith yep Beudy Smith and um, Pamela Hayden was there, but we got no as Aria or Shearer, right, but they were on the phone, so like we were sitting there listening to them do the voices. Yeah, so they basically read through the script. They'll stop every now and then and make suggestions or something on a different line reading and in the writers and producers are all furiously

scribbling and making notes and stuff like that. Uh. And then afterward they they finished it up and we very like a couple of six year old sheepishly grabbed our scripts that we get to take with us because everyone gets a script to read along and uh and met Matt Greening and it was surreal. It was um yeah.

What was I think even more surreal was that he was like super nice, the nicest dude you could imagine, Like he was like really nice, like Dan cast Lenetta like didn't ever look up when like Umi was there, and she took a picture of me with Dan castle Lenetta and I'm saying they're giving a thumbs up, and he's like looking down, like signing my script. Yeah, it's not like he wasn't a nice guy, but he just wasn't quite as personable in person as I'm at Graining.

But I think like Matt Greening like stood up and shook hands and was like, hey, great to meet you, and he didn't know who I was from Adam. He was just this surprisingly friendly guy. Yeah, we remember telling him that we uh you mean was just laughing the whole time. She was like, you guys are just hysterical. Yeah, we really were like a couple of six year olds. I was surprised at both of us actually, just how

quickly we were like kids. Yeah. I don't get superstar struck anymore, and and this one just had me like I was super super nervous. But I remember I think I told him Mr. Graining that, you know, we have a podcast and we talked about the Simpsons so much,

it's almost like an additional character on our show. And he asked what the name of it was, wrote it down stuff you should know on his script, and then ate that piece of paper in front of you, and then he signed our script and he scribbles out a quick drawing he drew bart On my script I got Homer and it says your pal Matt Graining. Yeah, so nice man. That script is like under plexiglass, under lock and key trained Momo to kill anybody who comes anywhere

near it. It's just like comprised possession. Now. Oh yeah, for sure. We got Dan Castle Lenetta to sign it, uh, Julie Kabner to sign and I think those are the only three autographs I got. But it was neat so to us, we were just losing our minds. It was so amazing to them, like it was straight up work, right, Like this is work to them, and it was nicely like they're they're fine, like seeing people that they're friends with,

who they invited or whatever. But um, I read an interview with al Jean and al Jean said that he hates will Reads more than anything because it is real work, but it's it's in this weird kind of in between state, like letting people come wat. Yeah, I wonder whose idea that was. I don't know, but apparently a customed that they've been keeping up this whole time, despite at the very least one of the high powered executives in charge

of the show hating it interesting. Yeah, I think there's lots of distractions and stuff like that, but apparently they muddled through every Thursday. Yeah, and it's I just can't say enough it was. This is not hyperbole. It is a genuine all time life highlight. You know. It was just amazing, agree, Chuck. Alright, so I think we've reached the end of part one of episode one thousand, technically episode that's a cliffhanger too, it is. Man, I'm pretty

I'm pretty psyched. Like this is not planned, Chuck. This is a genuine cliffhanger. Yeah, right in the middle of the production process, people are gonna be like, I have to know how they make these shows. Well, just cool out, everybody, cool out. You can wait until what Thursday? Right, Yes, for our actual official episode one thousand, And in the meantime, you can get in touch with us on Twitter. I'm at josh um Clark and what the official handle is s y s K podcast. Charles Chuck is at Facebook

dot com slash Charles W. Chuck Bryant. There's also I'm on there somewhere you can try to find me Um And then there's also an official stuff you Should Know one on Facebook. Two. You can send us all an email, including Jerry to stuff podcast at how stuff Works dot com and as always, hang out with us at our home on the web, Stuff you Should Know dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, is a howstof works dot com