Team Homer (wth Mike Scully)

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<v Speaker 2>I want to join your team.
<v Speaker 3>You want to join my what you want to what
<v Speaker 3>ist team?
<v Speaker 2>I've had one of my unpredictable changes of hute seeing
<v Speaker 2>these fine young athletes reveling in the humiliation of the
<v Speaker 2>vanquished fool. I haven't felt this energized since my least
<v Speaker 2>bowling men who blow a winning streak. Yeah, call this
<v Speaker 2>an unfair generalization if you must, but old people are
<v Speaker 2>not good at everything.
<v Speaker 3>Four Finger Discount.
<v Speaker 1>Dude, welcome to four finger Discount. With this week, we
<v Speaker 1>are very lucky to be joined by an absolute icon
<v Speaker 1>in the Simpsons world. He's a former show runner, he's
<v Speaker 1>a former runner, producer, you know it. He's done it,
<v Speaker 1>and today he's here to help us review an episode
<v Speaker 1>that he wrote, it is team Homer and he is
<v Speaker 1>Mike Scully. Mike, thanks for your time. How are you doing?
<v Speaker 4>Oh great? How are you to day? Not only have
<v Speaker 4>I done it, I've done it terribly.
<v Speaker 5>You're leaving at the most important part of Mike's bier.
<v Speaker 5>He's a major shareholder in Mister Boy of Main Street.
<v Speaker 1>But how are your holidays? Mike?
<v Speaker 4>My holidays?
<v Speaker 5>Did you actually get me?
<v Speaker 4>Yeah? Yeah, no, I'm taking some time off. We had
<v Speaker 4>the whole family together and we else went skating with
<v Speaker 4>grandkids and had just had another grandkid added at the
<v Speaker 4>family about a week ago.
<v Speaker 1>Woll congratulations.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>So when you say skating, do you mean ice skating?
<v Speaker 1>Do you mean skateboarding? Ice skating, ice skating? Yeah, I've
<v Speaker 1>never been able to ice skate. Can you I skate?
<v Speaker 1>See in Australia we don't have ice anywhere.
<v Speaker 5>So we have a different kind of ice I've never tried.
<v Speaker 5>I mean, I think the combination of my innate clumsiness
<v Speaker 5>and having sharp blades of my feet they could possibly
<v Speaker 5>sever a finger or two with I'm just not for it.
<v Speaker 5>I'm happy to watch other people doing it. I mean,
<v Speaker 5>it looks incredibly graceful as opposed to roller skating.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, but I'm sweet, I'm assuming most of your time
<v Speaker 1>right now, besides being another grand kid in the house.
<v Speaker 1>But it would be that you're doing Shifting Gears that
<v Speaker 1>taking it most of your time at the moment.
<v Speaker 4>Now, it's taking up none of my time at all.
<v Speaker 4>Julie and I are not associated with the show. We're
<v Speaker 4>not working on it.
<v Speaker 1>Oh, she just created it.
<v Speaker 4>We created it. Yeah, we wrote, came up with the show,
<v Speaker 4>wrote the pilot, produced it, got it ordered to series,
<v Speaker 4>and and then we parted ways.
<v Speaker 1>Oh, because I had actually had no idea that you'd
<v Speaker 1>created the show. Because I'm looking at really Shifting Gears
<v Speaker 1>and I'm thinking, well, because it's apparently it's become a
<v Speaker 1>big hit. But so how did that all come about?
<v Speaker 5>There was a topic we should not broach.
<v Speaker 4>Have you Have you already noticed I'm choosing my words carefully.
<v Speaker 5>Have you noticed I've just crossed off the first five
<v Speaker 5>questions on my list?
<v Speaker 1>Well, shifting Gears to the Simpsons.
<v Speaker 5>Then, I guess this would be an inopportunity to say,
<v Speaker 5>do you have any Mel Gibson anecdotes from your time
<v Speaker 5>on Complete Savages?
<v Speaker 4>Actually that was Mell was a lot of fun when
<v Speaker 4>when we did that show. We had a lot of
<v Speaker 4>laughs there, and he would sit in the writer's room
<v Speaker 4>and like pitch jokes and time, and he would get
<v Speaker 4>genuine excited if one made it into the script. You know,
<v Speaker 4>he could have just said, hey, I'm mel Gibson, put
<v Speaker 4>the fucking joke in. But he just pitched with the
<v Speaker 4>other writers and he directed several episodes, appeared in a
<v Speaker 4>few wow and yeah. No, it was a fun experience.
<v Speaker 4>And he one vivid memory one night was we were
<v Speaker 4>working late Julie and I had stayed to proof read
<v Speaker 4>the script and he was still in the office and
<v Speaker 4>he came in and he said, Hey, can I run
<v Speaker 4>something by you? So he said okay, and he gets
<v Speaker 4>his laptop and comes in and he pitches us the
<v Speaker 4>entire story of the movie Apocalypta, and he had been
<v Speaker 4>working on it. We didn't know he was working on it.
<v Speaker 4>He and another writer had been working on this story
<v Speaker 4>on the side, and he just wanted to kind of
<v Speaker 4>test the story out on us, and we were blown away,
<v Speaker 4>and we were blown away, and then whatever it was.
<v Speaker 4>Two years later, we see the movie and it's exactly
<v Speaker 4>the story that he pitched to us that night.
<v Speaker 5>Incredible And Mike, when you're dealing with five hundred pounds
<v Speaker 5>show biz guerrillas like Mel Gibson or even shifting gears,
<v Speaker 5>Tim Allen, I mean, is there a commonality to it?
<v Speaker 5>I mean, are they are you seeing sort of like, oh,
<v Speaker 5>this is there where they are for this reason? Or
<v Speaker 5>is it very much a case by case basis.
<v Speaker 4>Oh, it's it's it's a very case by case. Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>You know Mel, at that time in particular, it was
<v Speaker 4>just fun. We have we are the same age, we
<v Speaker 4>have big families, you know, our kids. We didn't live
<v Speaker 4>that far from each other. Our kids were in the
<v Speaker 4>same schools, same public schools and stuff, so we already
<v Speaker 4>knew each other just like a little bit. And you know,
<v Speaker 4>we had worked on some like town like fundraisers, we
<v Speaker 4>charity things for. They opened a boys and girls club
<v Speaker 4>here in the town and Mel hosted the fundraiser and
<v Speaker 4>Julie and I wrote jokes for and stuff, so we knew,
<v Speaker 4>he said, So there was already a relationship before we
<v Speaker 4>did Complete Savages. So no, it was actually a good time,
<v Speaker 4>and he was It was fun to watch him direct.
<v Speaker 4>He was really like great with the actors and particularly
<v Speaker 4>we had like five young there was kids and who
<v Speaker 4>were not very experienced, and he was really good at
<v Speaker 4>kind of putting them at ease and making it fun
<v Speaker 4>for them, and so no, it was all all good
<v Speaker 4>memories from that show.
<v Speaker 1>Do you enjoy the challenge that the limitations of live
<v Speaker 1>action running comedy for live action brings you as opposed
<v Speaker 1>to animation like the Simpsons?
<v Speaker 4>Well I do. Uh oh. I'll tell one very quick
<v Speaker 4>funny story about mel Actually it's about my stupidity. But
<v Speaker 4>when we were first going to do the show and
<v Speaker 4>he was going to direct the pilot, you know, it's
<v Speaker 4>a multi caam you know, sitcom with a studio audience,
<v Speaker 4>you know, four cameras, you know, shooting the show like
<v Speaker 4>a play simultaneously. So we're you know, we were down
<v Speaker 4>on the we were talking about the show and about
<v Speaker 4>him directing it. I said to you know, I said,
<v Speaker 4>it's it's different than movies. I said, You're going to
<v Speaker 4>have four cameras shooting at the same time, so you
<v Speaker 4>got to kind of know where each camera is shooting,
<v Speaker 4>and you watch the quad split on this monitor here,
<v Speaker 4>And I said, I just wanted to make sure you
<v Speaker 4>knew how like how different it was in movies because
<v Speaker 4>he had never worked in the multi camera. So he said,
<v Speaker 4>you know the you know, the battle scene in Braveheart.
<v Speaker 4>I said, yeah, he goes, I had eighteen cameras running
<v Speaker 4>at the same time. Oh all right, well then this
<v Speaker 4>this probably won't be a problem.
<v Speaker 5>By the way, we should inform some of our listeners
<v Speaker 5>just in case they're unfamiliar with the complete Savages. It
<v Speaker 5>ran into two thousand and four for one season. Yeah,
<v Speaker 5>your classic family sitcom about forgive me if I'm misrepresenting Mike,
<v Speaker 5>but it's a single dad basically raising his five sort
<v Speaker 5>of five young sons.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, to kind of get the fun of what is
<v Speaker 4>just like a house full of men. I grew up
<v Speaker 4>with the show, like my three sons, and I mean
<v Speaker 4>those kids were like perfect little you know, gentlemen, and
<v Speaker 4>you know they had their you know, Uncle Charlie doing
<v Speaker 4>the dishes and stuff like that. So we just wanted
<v Speaker 4>to do what would it be like if you really
<v Speaker 4>just had a house full of men? Was the idea
<v Speaker 4>behind it. So the alternate title was sometimes house full
<v Speaker 4>of Homers.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, we'll getting back to the question though, So
<v Speaker 1>do you do you enjoy the challenge of the limitations
<v Speaker 1>that live action brings you when it comes to writing
<v Speaker 1>engages With the Simpsons, it's pretty much free reign. You
<v Speaker 1>can just write whatever you want, really, can't you.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, It's what I love about it is you get
<v Speaker 4>to use different parts of your brain for you know,
<v Speaker 4>for each style of show that you're working on. And
<v Speaker 4>I love I like being able to go from genre
<v Speaker 4>to genre. I found like career wise, it does extend
<v Speaker 4>your career to not just do one style of show.
<v Speaker 4>But uh, like I had worked on prior to The Simpsons,
<v Speaker 4>I had done all multiicam shows because that's what the
<v Speaker 4>American comedy was leading up to that, and then so
<v Speaker 4>to go back into multicam was a lot of fun.
<v Speaker 4>And because there's certain there are the limitations of you've
<v Speaker 4>got maybe three or four sets that you have to
<v Speaker 4>make everything work in, you know, different styles of humor,
<v Speaker 4>there's you know, there's stuff you just can't do, like
<v Speaker 4>an animation kind of you know there. I mean there's
<v Speaker 4>always guardrails eventually, financial and time and all that. But
<v Speaker 4>suddenly you can do these things that you can't do,
<v Speaker 4>and a live action show you can go inside people's heads,
<v Speaker 4>you can have fantasies, you can defy gravity. So and
<v Speaker 4>then doing a show like Parks and rec which is
<v Speaker 4>single camp, is a little more like movie style, shorter scenes.
<v Speaker 4>You're able to go out on locations and do stuff
<v Speaker 4>like that. So I've enjoyed all those, you know, different
<v Speaker 4>the different styles of show. Because the animation. When I
<v Speaker 4>got on The Simpsons, it was all new to me.
<v Speaker 4>I knew nothing about animation and was not a fan
<v Speaker 4>of animation at all. Well I was when I was
<v Speaker 4>a kid, like growing up. I loved you know, cartoons
<v Speaker 4>growing up, but I felt like as an adult that
<v Speaker 4>I had outgrown animation until my wife made me watch
<v Speaker 4>an episode of the Simpsons and it happened to be
<v Speaker 4>Bart the Daredevil, and I like, it was the funniest
<v Speaker 4>thing I'd ever seen on television. It completely reversed my opinion.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, it's that I was really curious about Mike. I mean,
<v Speaker 5>given that you've been, you know, working as a staff
<v Speaker 5>writer on various sitcoms prior to coming on board The
<v Speaker 5>Simpsons in ninety three.
<v Speaker 1>Is that right?
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, I'm guessing you didn't view you know, David Murkan
<v Speaker 5>bringing you on board as you know, just another gig
<v Speaker 5>given the show, how popular what the show was at
<v Speaker 5>the time. But I mean, did you view it as
<v Speaker 5>like a step up and a rival, like I've I'm
<v Speaker 5>at the next level in my career, a learning opportunity.
<v Speaker 5>How did you see it? Uh?
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I saw it as a giant step up. I
<v Speaker 4>mean you can go through my IMDb page and see
<v Speaker 4>what I had been doing prior to that, and it
<v Speaker 4>was not like a ladder, like a steady climb up.
<v Speaker 4>It was, if anything, I was crawling down. So now
<v Speaker 4>the Simpsons was a giant step forward and terrifying the
<v Speaker 4>more I know got to know, like who was in
<v Speaker 4>the room and their background. I can't remember, Brandon, if
<v Speaker 4>I had told you last time, But before I started
<v Speaker 4>on the show, Vanity Fair magazine put out a profile
<v Speaker 4>about a week before I started on the show, and
<v Speaker 4>it was like the Simpsons writer's room, the dream team
<v Speaker 4>of comedy, And so I bought them, Mark Kelly, I
<v Speaker 4>just bought it to kind of learn, you know, more
<v Speaker 4>about the people who were in the room, thinking that
<v Speaker 4>would be an asset, you know, for me to go
<v Speaker 4>in knowing, you know, the backgrounds of everybody. But then
<v Speaker 4>when I read their backgrounds, I got totally freaked out
<v Speaker 4>when I saw like all the like, oh my god,
<v Speaker 4>it's a room full of Harvard graduates and you know,
<v Speaker 4>and I didn't go to college, and uh so I
<v Speaker 4>kind of really got you know, got in my own
<v Speaker 4>head and freaked myself out for the first several months
<v Speaker 4>on the show and was terrified to talk.
<v Speaker 5>So that that's kind of connected to something else I
<v Speaker 5>wanted to ask Mike. I mean you, as you said,
<v Speaker 5>you dropped out of college and you worked this sort
<v Speaker 5>of variety of jobs.
<v Speaker 4>Dropped out is kind I literally stayed for half a day.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it was technically you dropped out.
<v Speaker 4>That yeah, okay, yeah, but.
<v Speaker 5>You'd sort of tried it your handed a few things,
<v Speaker 5>or you made your made a living doing a few
<v Speaker 5>things before heading out to LA to sort of, you know,
<v Speaker 5>take a real stab at writing and a comedy. I mean,
<v Speaker 5>having that kind of life experience and banking those experiences,
<v Speaker 5>do you think it sort of made you a better writer?
<v Speaker 5>And particularly when it came to The Simpsons in terms
<v Speaker 5>of adding texture and color to characters and situations, Because
<v Speaker 5>when you hear about so many writers, even Harvard educated
<v Speaker 5>guys like the Simpsons writers and it's like you're sort
<v Speaker 5>of in a pipeline. You know, you you haven't had
<v Speaker 5>much of a chance to sort of go out into
<v Speaker 5>the world and be a person before you actually sit
<v Speaker 5>down and start writing.
<v Speaker 4>Uh. Yeah, you know. It's It's funny. When I was
<v Speaker 4>on Parks and Rec make Sure, the co creator of
<v Speaker 4>the show, one day we were talking and we were
<v Speaker 4>still getting to know each other, and he had asked
<v Speaker 4>me about college, which fortunately did come up during my
<v Speaker 4>job interview. And Mike is from Harvard, so he was
<v Speaker 4>asking me about school and then I told him, you know,
<v Speaker 4>the truth about it, that I'd just gone to community
<v Speaker 4>college for half a day and and quit and uh
<v Speaker 4>uh and he said, he goes. My god, he said,
<v Speaker 4>you see like he goes. When you go to Harvard people,
<v Speaker 4>there's automatically an expectation of success from you, the pressure
<v Speaker 4>of oh, I'm going to this school, I have to
<v Speaker 4>become a success when I come out of here. He says.
<v Speaker 4>But you, because people probably thought you were just going
<v Speaker 4>to wind up in jail, are dead.
<v Speaker 5>Mark Shure, what a guy. Yeah, I'm glad the comedy
<v Speaker 5>thing moved on, because his motivational speaking career would have
<v Speaker 5>been ship.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, but he was not far off. Yeah, so I
<v Speaker 4>think everybody, you know, you hope in the room that
<v Speaker 4>everybody kind of brings a little something different. Yeah, you
<v Speaker 4>know that you're getting, you know, And a lot of
<v Speaker 4>it is based because it's Simpsons, because it's family, it's
<v Speaker 4>a lot of the writers are basing it your think.
<v Speaker 4>When you're thinking of stories, a lot you're thinking of
<v Speaker 4>your family, your childhood experiences you had, you know, growing up,
<v Speaker 4>and then you get to kind of compare each other's thing.
<v Speaker 4>So I found it actually to be an asset on
<v Speaker 4>the show, to be kind of the village idiot.
<v Speaker 5>Education wise, I'm not going to use that term, but
<v Speaker 5>I mean, what do you think David Merkins saw in
<v Speaker 5>you and your work when he brought you on board?
<v Speaker 5>Did you ever talk about this?
<v Speaker 4>I've never actually asked Dave. I've always been super grateful
<v Speaker 4>to him because he literally changed my life and by
<v Speaker 4>taking a chance on me. But actually, I think now
<v Speaker 4>that I think back, David did not go to Harvard,
<v Speaker 4>so maybe he was looking to mix up the room
<v Speaker 4>a little bit. He had read a couple of my
<v Speaker 4>spec scripts. I think he read a Harry Sanders show
<v Speaker 4>script and a Seinfeld sample scripts that I had written,
<v Speaker 4>and he liked them, and we kind of hit it
<v Speaker 4>off in the meeting. And I had actually seen him
<v Speaker 4>perform as a stand up comic when I first moved
<v Speaker 4>out to LA David was a very funny stand up
<v Speaker 4>and I remembered some of his bits, and so we
<v Speaker 4>were kind of just hitting it off in the room
<v Speaker 4>and it was just one of those meetings where things
<v Speaker 4>went well. And I don't know what ultimately pushed it
<v Speaker 4>over the line, because he definitely had his choice of people,
<v Speaker 4>but it worked out great for me.
<v Speaker 1>How did it come about? Is it one of those
<v Speaker 1>things like getting onto the Simpsons writing team in the
<v Speaker 1>early nineties. How do you get onto that team? Do
<v Speaker 1>you have to know somebody and ask for a spot
<v Speaker 1>or do you have to audition apply? How does it
<v Speaker 1>all work?
<v Speaker 4>My scripts had originally gone over to Gracie Films before
<v Speaker 4>they made it to David, and I think I was
<v Speaker 4>read by a woman named Polly.
<v Speaker 5>Platt who was yeah legend, yeah.
<v Speaker 4>Exactly, and she I think handed it handed my scripts
<v Speaker 4>to Richard Sakai, who read them and liked them. I
<v Speaker 4>originally met with them first, so and then they in
<v Speaker 4>turn recommended me to David.
<v Speaker 1>Wow, because as you said, look it was the dream team.
<v Speaker 1>He just feels like it must have been so difficult.
<v Speaker 1>Do you know it was that? Was there a lot
<v Speaker 1>of people that you beat to get into that position
<v Speaker 1>because someone would have to mean leaving to get for
<v Speaker 1>you to get in right or was it just now
<v Speaker 1>adding more people.
<v Speaker 4>I came in at a time when there had been
<v Speaker 4>some turnover and the staff from the first couple of seasons,
<v Speaker 4>like Jay Cogan and Wally Walla Darsky had just left.
<v Speaker 4>Al Jean and Mike Reese were like doing one day
<v Speaker 4>a week because I think they were I can't they
<v Speaker 4>had a show called teen Agel or maybe there was
<v Speaker 4>the critic. I can't remember what they were doing. They
<v Speaker 4>had a deal over at Disney, I think an overall deal,
<v Speaker 4>so they were kind of busy with that, so they
<v Speaker 4>would come in one day a week, and a couple
<v Speaker 4>other people were gone, so there was the show was
<v Speaker 4>in like a bit of a turnover, and David, you know,
<v Speaker 4>talk about pressure coming in to run the show, you know,
<v Speaker 4>like you know, Sam ran, Sam Simon ran the first
<v Speaker 4>two seasons, then Al Jean and Mike Reese, but they
<v Speaker 4>had all been there from day one. David came in
<v Speaker 4>from the outside and had not worked on the show
<v Speaker 4>on staff, so his first job on the show is showrunner,
<v Speaker 4>which is a tremendous amount of pressure. But there was
<v Speaker 4>like after I came on, I think a few months
<v Speaker 4>later David Cohen started, and a few months after that
<v Speaker 4>Rich Appel and Jennifer Crittenden. So there was like new
<v Speaker 4>people coming in around that time.
<v Speaker 1>And when you started, Kinan was out. He pretty much
<v Speaker 1>it wasn't the day you arrived, he said.
<v Speaker 4>It was, Yeah, it was literally the day I arrived.
<v Speaker 4>We we shook hands, said hello, and then he got
<v Speaker 4>it tap on the shoulder that he had an urgent
<v Speaker 4>phone call, and it was the call from NBC telling
<v Speaker 4>him that he was going to be the new late
<v Speaker 4>night host.
<v Speaker 1>I love that he just disappeared to because I said,
<v Speaker 1>he can't talk to anybody, Like where do you go?
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, there was a period there because they had told
<v Speaker 4>him stay in your apartment, do not talk to anyone.
<v Speaker 1>Did you think of someone What would I do to
<v Speaker 1>this guy?
<v Speaker 4>Well, we were all kind of, you know a little.
<v Speaker 4>As the day went on and he didn't come back.
<v Speaker 4>There was some concern of you know, look, he should
<v Speaker 4>somebody was I kind of should somebody check on him?
<v Speaker 4>And you know, and you know, being you know, you know,
<v Speaker 4>a room full of comedy writers. We didn't do anything
<v Speaker 4>for you know, he could have been dead somewhere. But
<v Speaker 4>I think ultimately he might have gotten in touch with
<v Speaker 4>David Murk and just to let him know what what
<v Speaker 4>was happening. Why he can't say anything about it. They
<v Speaker 4>were waiting to introduce him on the Tonight show, like
<v Speaker 4>Jay Leno was going to introduce him to America.
<v Speaker 1>So this show is brought to you by the four
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<v Speaker 5>Mike, you mentioned the position of showrunner a little earlier,
<v Speaker 5>and I mean it's a role that you would eventually
<v Speaker 5>take on, but I mean looking at the way, look
<v Speaker 5>at the role and the responsibilities of it. I mean,
<v Speaker 5>did you ever think, Wow, that's something that I would
<v Speaker 5>want to do, or something that I could do, or
<v Speaker 5>something that I aspire to. I mean, oh, did you
<v Speaker 5>have that sort of ambition to take the wheel?
<v Speaker 4>No? I actually like never really saw it happening. I
<v Speaker 4>mean I had gotten very you know, uh, I you know,
<v Speaker 4>learned the show and learned, you know, how to write
<v Speaker 4>it from people, you know, like George Meyer and Al
<v Speaker 4>Jean and Mike Geese and people like that, and so
<v Speaker 4>by the time it happened, I was comfortable. And Bill
<v Speaker 4>and Josh had used me and David Cohen sometimes like
<v Speaker 4>which they couldn't be in the room. They would give
<v Speaker 4>you one or both of us their scripts well with
<v Speaker 4>their notes in it, and we might split into two
<v Speaker 4>rooms and work on two different things, that kind of stuff,
<v Speaker 4>and they would write their notes. And I love the
<v Speaker 4>way like Bill and Josh had a fun way of
<v Speaker 4>writing their notes. Like some you know, some showrunners might
<v Speaker 4>just say you know better better, they.
<v Speaker 5>Would just write it better or more funny.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, exactly, and or put giant excees through pages of
<v Speaker 4>dialogue that kind of stuff. And they would write stuff
<v Speaker 4>like next to a joke zangyear, and it was left
<v Speaker 4>to us to fair what does zangyar mean? But it
<v Speaker 4>was you know, but it was a very kind of
<v Speaker 4>Bill and Josh way of you know, say, I think
<v Speaker 4>you know funnier, you know, make this a little.
<v Speaker 1>Punchy, but let's make it better.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it was. It was almost like
<v Speaker 4>a little bit of a Mister Burns, you know word
<v Speaker 4>like zang year.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>Bill and Josh were suckers for anything that sounded like
<v Speaker 4>old timy words.
<v Speaker 1>They love that. Yes, Well, how did the Simpsons from
<v Speaker 1>a pure comedy sense? You said you had to learn
<v Speaker 1>how to write this show? How did writing this show
<v Speaker 1>different from any other comedy he'd written previously?
<v Speaker 4>For starters, it was funny, There was a huge and
<v Speaker 4>some of it was just like a self imposed, you know,
<v Speaker 4>self inflicted pressure I had put on myself was to
<v Speaker 4>not pitch anything you've ever pitched at another show or
<v Speaker 4>the or a style of joke you might be able
<v Speaker 4>to see somewhere else, you know, which eliminates a lot
<v Speaker 4>of things that you're thinking of. To try to break
<v Speaker 4>those habits, was to do something you know you haven't done,
<v Speaker 4>you haven't done or seen before and which The Simpsons
<v Speaker 4>is really good at that style of thing. Or one
<v Speaker 4>of the things I did learn too was and this
<v Speaker 4>was kind of like a George Meyer joke kind of
<v Speaker 4>a thing would be to kind of lead the audience
<v Speaker 4>toward what you think is going to be a very
<v Speaker 4>hacky style joke that you've seen done a million times,
<v Speaker 4>and then at the last second twist it in a
<v Speaker 4>completely different direction. So let the audience feel smart, like
<v Speaker 4>there are a step ahead of you, and then then
<v Speaker 4>jerk them in the other direction. An example would be
<v Speaker 4>there was an episode set it was a super Bowl
<v Speaker 4>show where Homer guys are at the super Bowl and
<v Speaker 4>they get there find out their tickets are counterfeit tickets.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yes, that's it.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, and they can't get in, so they're trying to
<v Speaker 4>think of a way in, and Homer sees somebody coming by,
<v Speaker 4>like with a rack full of halftime show costumes like
<v Speaker 4>marching band, these glittery things, and then Homer looks at
<v Speaker 4>it like, you know, it's like there's there's no way
<v Speaker 4>to get in you or is there like really big
<v Speaker 4>set up? You see the rack of costumes go by,
<v Speaker 4>so immediately you're thinking, all right, they're all going to
<v Speaker 4>put on these costumes and have to do a halftime Chorge. Instead,
<v Speaker 4>what he does he takes the rack of costumes and
<v Speaker 4>hits the security guard guard with the rack of costumes,
<v Speaker 4>and then they all just run inside.
<v Speaker 5>Literally.
<v Speaker 1>I remember watching that for the first time when I
<v Speaker 1>was younger, and I would have been about twelve, and
<v Speaker 1>I'm thinking, you got me exactly, You're right.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, so it was learning stuff like that. Yeah, So
<v Speaker 4>that that kind of thing was like a really like
<v Speaker 4>mind opening for me, like, oh shit, we can do that.
<v Speaker 1>You took over in season nine. What did you want
<v Speaker 1>to protect about the Simpsons that it come before, and
<v Speaker 1>what did you feel and needed to evolve at that point.
<v Speaker 4>It's weird because like at that point when you get to, like,
<v Speaker 4>you know, season nine of any TV show, if you're
<v Speaker 4>lucky enough to get the season nine. You know, when
<v Speaker 4>when I got there, it was the tail end of
<v Speaker 4>season four, overlapping with the beginning of five, and you know,
<v Speaker 4>there was already talk then of you know, this thing
<v Speaker 4>will probably you know a couple you know, we probably
<v Speaker 4>got two more seasons left, and then we got to be,
<v Speaker 4>you know, thinking of a finale and how to wrap
<v Speaker 4>it all up, because that was the mindset. If your
<v Speaker 4>show ran five to seven seasons, you had a great run.
<v Speaker 4>Once in a while you get something that might go
<v Speaker 4>nine or ten, like a Cheers or mash you know,
<v Speaker 4>mash yeah, like, yeah, what's where? The show, you know,
<v Speaker 4>was much longer than the war, you know, in reality,
<v Speaker 4>but so it was going into it. I mean. The
<v Speaker 4>first thing, and I think anybody who's run the show
<v Speaker 4>would probably say the same thing. The first thing is
<v Speaker 4>please don't wreck it is do not think this, you know.
<v Speaker 5>Don't crash daddy's car.
<v Speaker 4>Don't. Yeah, don't it's it's you know, Rupert Murdoch's biggest
<v Speaker 4>cash co.
<v Speaker 1>But did anyone say that though? Was that just self
<v Speaker 1>imposed fee that you put on yourself again though self imposed?
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, you're thinking of the show is great, people love
<v Speaker 4>this show. Don't wreck it, you know, and then try
<v Speaker 4>to you know, and you can do some stories that
<v Speaker 4>maybe you've had in your head and or maybe you've
<v Speaker 4>you know, pitched in the past it didn't get on.
<v Speaker 4>But you want to try to be true to what
<v Speaker 4>the show is, but not just copy what's already been done.
<v Speaker 4>That's the trickiest part of all. You want to just
<v Speaker 4>go back to like, you know, these like classic episodes.
<v Speaker 4>Let's do the monorail again, but let's make it about
<v Speaker 4>a bus something. You know.
<v Speaker 1>Did you feel like you had to change the show
<v Speaker 1>in anyway or did did did you go into the
<v Speaker 1>mentality going all right, now it can make my version
<v Speaker 1>of the show or does it does naturally come that way?
<v Speaker 4>Yeah? I never thought like let's make my version of
<v Speaker 4>the show. It was let's keep this you know thing going,
<v Speaker 4>Let's find new, you know, things to explore. It can
<v Speaker 4>be true to what's been done in the past, bend
<v Speaker 4>the rules you know where we can, and you try
<v Speaker 4>to take it in some new areas too. I mean,
<v Speaker 4>that's just natural thing to want to try. But yeah,
<v Speaker 4>it was a lot of like a lot of don't
<v Speaker 4>sink this very successful ship.
<v Speaker 5>I mentionine having nine seasons under your belt, or the
<v Speaker 5>show having under its belt is both a blessing and
<v Speaker 5>a curse. I was like, we built up enough good will,
<v Speaker 5>enough of a foundation that you know, we know who
<v Speaker 5>these characters are, we know what these situations are. There's
<v Speaker 5>we've got a bit of lettude to work with here.
<v Speaker 5>But also, yeah, what do we do next?
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, because when you're thinking of stories, the biggest thing
<v Speaker 4>you run into is, you know, is we've done it,
<v Speaker 4>you know, or or we've done something too close to it,
<v Speaker 4>that sort of thing. So trying to find fresh areas
<v Speaker 4>or I remember, you know, looking for you know, things
<v Speaker 4>characters that could you could hang a story on that
<v Speaker 4>where you could you know, try out different things. And
<v Speaker 4>then the trick is how do you get keep the
<v Speaker 4>Simpsons involved in the story. Yeah, so you're not just
<v Speaker 4>you know, sending this one character off into their own thing.
<v Speaker 4>So those were always like fun to try when something worked,
<v Speaker 4>or yeah, when you found something that you didn't have
<v Speaker 4>previously and you know, want to explore that more. We did,
<v Speaker 4>you know, there was like an evolution of Pooh where
<v Speaker 4>you know, we you know, we had him get married
<v Speaker 4>and have kids, and it's like that. There was even
<v Speaker 4>talk at one point. I remember going to lunch with
<v Speaker 4>the the then president of Fox, and he asked me, like,
<v Speaker 4>if there was one character from the show you could
<v Speaker 4>spin off into their own series, who would it be?
<v Speaker 4>And without thinking, I mean, without hesitation, I said, oh, pooh. Uh.
<v Speaker 4>He said, well who plays our poo? I said, well,
<v Speaker 4>Hank's area And he goes, oh, that'll be he'll be
<v Speaker 4>too expensive. Who else? It's like, I don't know what
<v Speaker 4>he expected me to say.
<v Speaker 1>Like, it's right, though, the Pooh character is so beloved
<v Speaker 1>and it's such a shame that he's just been sidelined
<v Speaker 1>now for obvious reasons. I get it, but I don't,
<v Speaker 1>you know, but he's just he's he was such a
<v Speaker 1>cornerstone when it comes to the secondary characters. He was
<v Speaker 1>one of the pillars.
<v Speaker 4>He was one of it's one of my favorite characters
<v Speaker 4>because and when they talked about the network brought up spinoff.
<v Speaker 4>The reason I thought to him is because he has
<v Speaker 4>a completely different take on America than the simpsitive. I mean,
<v Speaker 4>he actually is the embodiment of the American dream. He
<v Speaker 4>came here nothing, He works literally twenty four hours a day.
<v Speaker 4>He's the hardest worry. He appreciates the country in a
<v Speaker 4>way that we take for granted.
<v Speaker 1>Exactly right. Yeah, yeah, say all the character all the
<v Speaker 1>things that people take for granted, he just he respects
<v Speaker 1>and loves it for it. Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, and yeah, did I understand when the issue was
<v Speaker 4>brought up, Yeah, I understood it from a kind of
<v Speaker 4>a you know, job opportunity level playing field thing of like, oh, yes,
<v Speaker 4>if we were putting this character in later in the show,
<v Speaker 4>we would have opened the casting up. But you know
<v Speaker 4>the the and you've probably heard this, you know, one
<v Speaker 4>of the things that studios love about animation is is
<v Speaker 4>casting wise, you're trying to find people who can do
<v Speaker 4>as many characters as possible, you know, so you're not
<v Speaker 4>you see, you're not paying fifty actors every episode, and
<v Speaker 4>that's how a lot of these decisions got made. What
<v Speaker 4>I loved about, you know, Hank's portrayal of the characters,
<v Speaker 4>I thought there was there was nothing like mocking about it.
<v Speaker 4>I thought he gave the character great humanity, which is
<v Speaker 4>why we leaned on him so heavily that character. And
<v Speaker 4>so I had my own feelings about that, you know,
<v Speaker 4>documentary that I'm not speaking for the show. I'm speaking
<v Speaker 4>strictly for myself. Yeah, well, to be honest, when I
<v Speaker 4>was watching, I did watch it, you know, you know,
<v Speaker 4>I'll sit down and watch this thing and see they
<v Speaker 4>have to say and then and there was like it
<v Speaker 4>felt like a little more of an attack on Hank
<v Speaker 4>than a show about this character's impact on the Indian community.
<v Speaker 4>But also I remember a sequence where Harry he was
<v Speaker 4>talking to his parents about the character and trying to
<v Speaker 4>get there. You know, clearly I kind of wanted them
<v Speaker 4>to tell like howp who had you know, negatively impacted
<v Speaker 4>their life and they didn't seem to have big problems.
<v Speaker 4>But it felt like he was kind of nudging him
<v Speaker 4>a little bit.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, but didn't It seemed like his parents were roasting
<v Speaker 5>him in some as well, as you said like yeah, yeah, well.
<v Speaker 1>The thing is pretty was very rarely the butt of
<v Speaker 1>the joke as well.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, yeah, no, he's it was a fun character, and
<v Speaker 4>I think all the writers like miss writing him in
<v Speaker 4>the show there. I think the ultimately there was kind
<v Speaker 4>of no no way was decided on how to handle it,
<v Speaker 4>so it just kind of the character kind of fell away.
<v Speaker 4>But you know, it was a great character, and I
<v Speaker 4>thought Hank did a great.
<v Speaker 1>Hank has been out spoken. He says he would never
<v Speaker 1>want to voice him again, But I do think if
<v Speaker 1>they did find another voice actor who could find this,
<v Speaker 1>who do a similar voice, I think you can bring
<v Speaker 1>him back. I think it's enough times past bring you back.
<v Speaker 4>A Pooh, you know, I'd be open to it. It
<v Speaker 4>is like weird sometimes when voices change and animated shows.
<v Speaker 4>I remember as a kid, you know, I'm watching the
<v Speaker 4>Flinstones all the time, and then there was at one
<v Speaker 4>point they changed the voice of Barney Rubble and I
<v Speaker 4>remember as a kid, I was probably ten years old.
<v Speaker 4>It really pissed me off. I just like, it's like,
<v Speaker 4>that's not Barnie Rubble.
<v Speaker 1>Well, my kids are big Muppet fans, and the current
<v Speaker 1>voice of Kermit, God bless him, sounds nothing like Henson
<v Speaker 1>or Steve, the previous voice of Kermit. My kids watched
<v Speaker 1>some recent Muppet movie, a Haunted Mansion Special or something
<v Speaker 1>Disney Plus, and my son went, that's not Kermit, that's
<v Speaker 1>the that's the because the guy that voices Kerment now
<v Speaker 1>is the guy that played a Kermit villain in a
<v Speaker 1>recent movie, and it's the Kermit voice, but it's got
<v Speaker 1>a bit of a funny tune to it, and that's
<v Speaker 1>just the voice he uses for Kurmit now, and he's
<v Speaker 1>got that's not that's that's the impostor from the movie.
<v Speaker 2>Might know.
<v Speaker 1>No, son, that's that's the real Kermit now. It's just
<v Speaker 1>having to deal with it.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, it's I think, you know, particularly when you grow
<v Speaker 4>up watching something, the voices just get embedded in your
<v Speaker 4>head like Okay, this is how they sound to you
<v Speaker 4>and so, and you know, we don't like change.
<v Speaker 5>And perhaps even more so with voice acting as opposed
<v Speaker 5>to physically. I mean everyone goes on about well not
<v Speaker 5>everyone because but which is not quite in the zeitgas
<v Speaker 5>these days, but the whole h Yeah, we had dig
<v Speaker 5>York and now we've got Dick Sergeant all the other
<v Speaker 5>way around.
<v Speaker 1>I've never been that.
<v Speaker 5>Bunched up about it. I mean I would come home
<v Speaker 5>from school and watch Bewitching and after and it was like, okay,
<v Speaker 5>well now it's now it's Darren A as opposed to
<v Speaker 5>Darren B. But yeah, I think with a with an
<v Speaker 5>animated with voice actors or an animated chart, it's kind
<v Speaker 5>of like, yeah, that's that's not hitting right, Yeah, that's
<v Speaker 5>that's throwing off my internal barometer.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, and I hate to disagree with you, but I
<v Speaker 4>hated Dick side.
<v Speaker 1>What what what do we do then when the current
<v Speaker 1>voice cast can't voice the show anymore because he's saying
<v Speaker 1>people don't like change and it's their roles until they
<v Speaker 1>don't want to do it anymore. But can you replace them?
<v Speaker 1>I just don't know whether you can.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, no, I don't. I don't know. I honestly don't know.
<v Speaker 4>It would It would throw me, you know, to have
<v Speaker 4>to get you know, used to to get used to that.
<v Speaker 4>So I don't know. I guess, you know, we've been
<v Speaker 4>lucky to not have to deal with that situation.
<v Speaker 1>Exactly, and hopefully it's a long time from now. But yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>exactly what would you say? Because people talk about the
<v Speaker 1>Scully era, what do you what do you think? Personally?
<v Speaker 1>Is the most common misconception that fans have about the
<v Speaker 1>Scully era of the show.
<v Speaker 4>Uh, it's called oh those those four years, it's let's see,
<v Speaker 4>probably there was probably there was too many silly episodes.
<v Speaker 4>And I don't know if if jerk ass Homer got
<v Speaker 4>hung on me or had started happening.
<v Speaker 1>I mean it does it does get a sign to
<v Speaker 1>your era. That's where begins. A lot of people say it, Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>does that? Does that bother you when you hear people
<v Speaker 1>say these things?
<v Speaker 4>Of course, you know, yeah, you don't you want to
<v Speaker 4>hear that. People are just you know, loving the show
<v Speaker 4>that but you know, we go back and it's funny
<v Speaker 4>like when I started on the show that was right
<v Speaker 4>around the time like the internet had come along, like
<v Speaker 4>all TV. Simpsons, that's where it started then. And now
<v Speaker 4>they look at like seasons five and six and you know,
<v Speaker 4>like when they started that and they're now considered classic, you.
<v Speaker 1>Know people of television.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's funny like stuff that they hated
<v Speaker 4>at the time. I always kind of maintained that they're
<v Speaker 4>and maybe this is just a self defense mechanism because
<v Speaker 4>you know the show. The style of the show is
<v Speaker 4>that every episode resets at the end to the status quo.
<v Speaker 4>They're not continuing storylines, you know, like it's I don't
<v Speaker 4>think there's so much good seasons and bad seasons. I
<v Speaker 4>think there's you know, great episodes, and there's bad episodes.
<v Speaker 4>And I did my share of bad episodes.
<v Speaker 1>What would you consider a bad episode? Do you have
<v Speaker 1>anything the on this your mind?
<v Speaker 4>It's I don't like to single out episode because people
<v Speaker 4>worked so hard.
<v Speaker 1>Exactly, and people mild And one thing I've found being
<v Speaker 1>a parent is I've learned that when you're a kid,
<v Speaker 1>you're not critiquing the Simpsons, you're just watching it. Right, So, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>kids are watching the current current season thirty seven episodes
<v Speaker 1>and they love them, they watch them, they watch them
<v Speaker 1>on repeat. Now it made me realize, finally, you know what,
<v Speaker 1>the Simpsons isn't the Simpsons that I grew up with,
<v Speaker 1>But the Simpsons is now the Simpsons what my kids
<v Speaker 1>want to watch. It's every the show evolves because it's
<v Speaker 1>a kids show the end of the day. It's adults
<v Speaker 1>can enjoy it, but it is a kids show. And
<v Speaker 1>my kids love the new episodes. They love the old ones,
<v Speaker 1>but they'll often go, can we put the new ones on?
<v Speaker 1>Whether it because it looks in high definition or not
<v Speaker 1>too sure, but they love the new episodes, and I
<v Speaker 1>just have to go, I had my era. I grew
<v Speaker 1>up with my show. This is their era of the
<v Speaker 1>show now, and they will look back in twenty years
<v Speaker 1>and go, how good were those episodes?
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, no, it's true. I mean there's a lot of
<v Speaker 4>that too about like Saturday and Night Live because it's
<v Speaker 4>nine fifty years and it's like, you know who was
<v Speaker 4>your favorite cast? You know what was the best and
<v Speaker 4>the general the consensus says your favorite years of SNL
<v Speaker 4>were the years like you were in high school and
<v Speaker 4>you watch the show every week, you kind of discovered
<v Speaker 4>the show and so those automatically become your favorite seasons.
<v Speaker 4>And you know, for the Simpsons, I think you know,
<v Speaker 4>a lot of you know, kids discover it, like you know,
<v Speaker 4>maybe they're seven, eight, nine, ten years old or now.
<v Speaker 4>I think a lot of kids discovered like their parents
<v Speaker 4>expose them to it's yeah, yeah, yeah, because they grew
<v Speaker 4>up with it. So I think it's kind of when
<v Speaker 4>it's all like fresh and new to you, it can
<v Speaker 4>be your favorite. You know, it can be your favorite show.
<v Speaker 4>So yeah, I think like you're saying, like even now
<v Speaker 4>that I think they're doing tons of like really funny episodes. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>you know, I know.
<v Speaker 1>I can do it, but that's doing one does the
<v Speaker 1>show runner.
<v Speaker 4>Yes, I think the show he's like not afraid to
<v Speaker 4>like take big swings or break the form and experiment.
<v Speaker 4>And I think that's, you know, a way you know,
<v Speaker 4>to keep a show fresh and interesting, you know, and
<v Speaker 4>not repeat yourself. You're you know, they're you know, they're
<v Speaker 4>up to whatever eight hundred episode. You know, you've got
<v Speaker 4>to try new stuff.
<v Speaker 5>Mike, you mentioned we're talking about sort of jerk outs
<v Speaker 5>Home before, but I wanted to talk a bit about
<v Speaker 5>Homer because I read a quote from you saying Homer
<v Speaker 5>comes naturally to me. That's what you said. And I mean,
<v Speaker 5>we're here today to talk about Team Homer. I really
<v Speaker 5>like Homer in this episode. I mean you get his
<v Speaker 5>flaws but in a funny way, and you all say,
<v Speaker 5>more importantly, you sort of get his virtues. I mean,
<v Speaker 5>I think it's great how sort of positive and proactive
<v Speaker 5>he is throughout the EID. I mean, what comes to
<v Speaker 5>mind when you think of Homer.
<v Speaker 4>Well, you know, the the John Schwartzwelder line about writing
<v Speaker 4>Homer as you're you know, think of it as you're
<v Speaker 4>writing for a dog who can say his name. That
<v Speaker 4>being said, there's I think we all kind of write Homer.
<v Speaker 4>There's like elements of our own dads in there, uh,
<v Speaker 4>you know, and also too, I think, you know, when
<v Speaker 4>he is like caring. I think there's some like wonderful
<v Speaker 4>and even during my years, they're like Homer Lisa episodes. Uh,
<v Speaker 4>and I had some fun like Homer and Marge, uh
<v Speaker 4>you know stuff. But I think, you know, I guess
<v Speaker 4>the you know, the feeling is like Homer. Sometimes it's weird.
<v Speaker 4>You go back to like the early like maybe season
<v Speaker 4>one of the show, where Homer was an angrier guy
<v Speaker 4>in a little kind of a meaner character, and then
<v Speaker 4>he evolved, you know, into kind of like the dumb
<v Speaker 4>and lovable that the dog version of horror, you know,
<v Speaker 4>which wasn't there from the beginning. And then you got
<v Speaker 4>to find new ways to do it. And I remember
<v Speaker 4>we were having conversations season five about, you know, we
<v Speaker 4>got to stop doing these food jokes with Homer. We're
<v Speaker 4>leaning too hard on the food like this, and you know,
<v Speaker 4>and sometimes you go away from it for a while
<v Speaker 4>and then then somebody comes up with a great one
<v Speaker 4>that we haven't done before, and maybe a slate twist
<v Speaker 4>on it, and then you wind up putting it back
<v Speaker 4>in again. So you know, sometimes the stories lead more naturally. Personally,
<v Speaker 4>I would get bored if Homer was constantly doing the
<v Speaker 4>dumb thing that he has to apologize for at the
<v Speaker 4>end of the show.
<v Speaker 1>This show is brought to you by the four figure
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<v Speaker 4>So that was actually kind of the the episode and
<v Speaker 4>season fourteen, which was technically the last one that I ran,
<v Speaker 4>like Aljean, because there was a delay in the schedule.
<v Speaker 4>I think there was actors negotiations going on and the
<v Speaker 4>season started late, so Al wasn't going to have time
<v Speaker 4>to do all twenty two, so he asked me if
<v Speaker 4>I wanted to do one, and that became the how
<v Speaker 4>I spent my strummer vacation.
<v Speaker 1>One of my favorite posts was called Golden Ear Episodes.
<v Speaker 1>It's fantastic the use of the guest stars and that
<v Speaker 1>was so great.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, it was. And one of the things I love
<v Speaker 4>about that episode is I wanted Homer to do something
<v Speaker 4>really kind of like cruel and insensitive, but not have
<v Speaker 4>the show lead to him apologizing at the end of
<v Speaker 4>the episode. I mean it took. I had that idea
<v Speaker 4>kicking around for a long time. I had the first
<v Speaker 4>act at the show in my head for a long time.
<v Speaker 1>Is that the always in the Taxi and events of
<v Speaker 1>Betty's family in the taxis that that one?
<v Speaker 4>Yes? Yeah, the line, and then he sees himself on
<v Speaker 4>the Taxicab Confessions style show and says that basically how
<v Speaker 4>getting married and having kids crushed all of his dreams.
<v Speaker 1>Basically, I mean, I mean, you say cool, insensitive. He's
<v Speaker 1>kind of just saying what a lot of us were thinking. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>it wasn't saying it to his kids. He was just
<v Speaker 1>getting stuff off his chest.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, and then them watching it and then him trying
<v Speaker 4>to like explain it to them in an apologetic way.
<v Speaker 4>In the moment he says the line getting married, Oh god,
<v Speaker 4>I don't want to fuck this up. Oh marriage is
<v Speaker 4>like a coffin and each kid is another nail, thinking
<v Speaker 4>that this is going to get him off the hook
<v Speaker 4>because that's a line I've actually said to my family,
<v Speaker 4>and then I stuck it in that episode, and so
<v Speaker 4>I did not want the rest of the show to
<v Speaker 4>be Homer realizes he screwed up and is trying to
<v Speaker 4>make amends, and ultimately everything works that fih when I
<v Speaker 4>finally had the thought of Marge realizing, you know, he
<v Speaker 4>actually has a point, even though he said it in
<v Speaker 4>a horrible, hurtful way, know what he meant exactly, Like
<v Speaker 4>he does give up a lot for us. You know,
<v Speaker 4>he does do this, and it was kind of a
<v Speaker 4>fresh take on that kind of a story where and
<v Speaker 4>they wind up actually surprising him with this gift of
<v Speaker 4>going to rock and Roll Fantasy Camp. So that was
<v Speaker 4>just my way of not doing of him being jerk
<v Speaker 4>ass Homer and then not spending the rest of the
<v Speaker 4>episode of him apologizing for it.
<v Speaker 1>Plus, I gave you a good reason to make me
<v Speaker 1>Jagger and Keith.
<v Speaker 4>Richets Absolutely no, that was kind of my you know,
<v Speaker 4>fantasy camp.
<v Speaker 1>Did you have did you have fuck a bucket list
<v Speaker 1>of people you wanted to meet via the Simpsons? All right,
<v Speaker 1>we need to get this guy. I need to get
<v Speaker 1>that guy on.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, it's it's funny. Originally I was writing the episode,
<v Speaker 4>there was a real I had heard this guitar player
<v Speaker 4>named Leslie West who's passed away now, and he had
<v Speaker 4>a band called Mountain in the nineteen seventies. They had
<v Speaker 4>one kind of big hit, Mississippi Queen, and he was
<v Speaker 4>running I heard him on Howard Stern being interviewed and
<v Speaker 4>he was promoting this thing he was starting called rock
<v Speaker 4>and Roll Fantasy Camp, and he was having like it
<v Speaker 4>was going to be like Alice Cooper and I think
<v Speaker 4>cheap trick, and I forgot who some of the other
<v Speaker 4>people were, and I thought, oh, that's what the whole
<v Speaker 4>thing kind of came together of Mark's realizing Homer has
<v Speaker 4>a point and we're going to give him this gift. Well, anyway,
<v Speaker 4>we started working on it and were breaking the store.
<v Speaker 4>We broke the story like that day. It just kind
<v Speaker 4>of fell into place because we had never done like
<v Speaker 4>Homer having a point, I was saying something horrible about
<v Speaker 4>his family actually having a point.
<v Speaker 1>At the same time, it's true, but he shouldn't say it, basically.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, And so I was writing the script with those
<v Speaker 4>kind of people in mind to do it. And Denise
<v Speaker 4>Surcott from Gracie Films used to work in the music business.
<v Speaker 4>She got a phone call from a friend of hers
<v Speaker 4>who was like a road manager tour manager for The Stones.
<v Speaker 4>He called her up and said, listen, you know the
<v Speaker 4>guys are going out on the road next year. Is
<v Speaker 4>there some way that we could like get them on
<v Speaker 4>the show, you know, and do something that would you know,
<v Speaker 4>tie in with what you know, the time that they're
<v Speaker 4>actually going to be out there. So I suddenly we
<v Speaker 4>realized that Holy shit, we can get we could get
<v Speaker 4>Mick and Keith like on the show.
<v Speaker 1>You got Crevits.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, Costelle, I think.
<v Speaker 4>Yes, yeah, yeah. It was a really like fun group
<v Speaker 4>that came together once making Keith were involved, you know.
<v Speaker 4>And Petty I've always loved and always thought he was
<v Speaker 4>really funny, funny guy. He did like a semi regular
<v Speaker 4>character on King of the Hill for a little while.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and.
<v Speaker 4>Oh that's you know. And he also like he had
<v Speaker 4>been on Gary Shanling's first show and the Larry Sanders Show. Uh,
<v Speaker 4>so I knew he was funny and I was a
<v Speaker 4>giant fan Alvis Costello, I loved Lenny Kravitz also was
<v Speaker 4>a fan of and that came through Mick was working
<v Speaker 4>with Lenny Kravitz at the time on a solo album
<v Speaker 4>or something, and he asked if if Lenny could be
<v Speaker 4>in the show, Like, yeah, sure, absolutely, I.
<v Speaker 5>Just love the wolf for these conversations.
<v Speaker 4>That's how it kind of all fell fell together. I
<v Speaker 4>think the one person I kept from the first draft
<v Speaker 4>of the script to what it became was Brian Setzer.
<v Speaker 4>And other than that that, we we started, and we started,
<v Speaker 4>we wrote some extra segments. There was you know, there
<v Speaker 4>was a bit for Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.
<v Speaker 1>Oh wow, because you wanted to then to come on
<v Speaker 1>without going to and then didn't.
<v Speaker 4>No, we were going to send it to them. I
<v Speaker 4>wrote stuff for them and a couple other people, and
<v Speaker 4>then we just realized this is getting too big. It's
<v Speaker 4>going to be too hard to get all these people in,
<v Speaker 4>so we had to cut it down. I did ask
<v Speaker 4>Bonnie Rait to do it because thought it would be
<v Speaker 4>fun to have a female in there, and Bonnie was like,
<v Speaker 4>I'm no actress. I do my thing. But I wish
<v Speaker 4>I had gone further on it. I in hindsight, I
<v Speaker 4>was like, oh, I should have gone after like Chrissy
<v Speaker 4>Hind or somebody like. That would have been great to have.
<v Speaker 4>But you know, Debbie Harry, Oh, Debbie Harry, See, that
<v Speaker 4>would have been you know, the you know, it would
<v Speaker 4>have been. Yeah, it would have been so great to
<v Speaker 4>have a lot of those people in. But anyway, you're
<v Speaker 4>really good.
<v Speaker 1>I feel like your ear was used guest stars really well.
<v Speaker 1>I particularly loved your use of the Who as well
<v Speaker 1>in the episode that had the the town divided into
<v Speaker 1>two Oh yes, yeah, yeah, I thought it was fantastic.
<v Speaker 1>But with Team Homer. Though you mentioned it, we're here
<v Speaker 1>to review Team Home. She probably get to Team Homer.
<v Speaker 1>It's always been It's always.
<v Speaker 4>Was defending I was too busy defending jerk ause Homer.
<v Speaker 1>It was a whole podcast doing that. I think I'm
<v Speaker 1>all he is. But it's one of my favorite episodes.
<v Speaker 1>This one. I think it's just one of my favorite
<v Speaker 1>eras of the show. I think is when I first
<v Speaker 1>discovered The Simpsons season six, seven eight. But I think
<v Speaker 1>for two reasons this particular episode is I love the
<v Speaker 1>sports ones, and you've written a couple of the sports episodes.
<v Speaker 1>I'm a big fan of sports episodes of The Simpsons.
<v Speaker 1>But I also just love seeing characters who wouldn't normally
<v Speaker 1>see hanging out together teaming up for something. That's what
<v Speaker 1>we get here. Yes, you know the pin Pals. How
<v Speaker 1>did you? I've always wanted how did you? What was
<v Speaker 1>your process for getting to which characters were going to
<v Speaker 1>make up the original pin Pals with Ottawa, PuO and Mo.
<v Speaker 4>So great question. I mean, I already like love like Homer,
<v Speaker 4>and Mo was kind of a favorite of mine. I
<v Speaker 4>knew guys like that when I was a kid. We
<v Speaker 4>had a bar very close to our house where there
<v Speaker 4>was bartenders like that, and uh, but Otto seem like
<v Speaker 4>a fun you know. It was just like characters who
<v Speaker 4>don't cross like Homer and Mo were already friends, but
<v Speaker 4>like Homer and Otto don't cross paths a lot. And
<v Speaker 4>and we also just thought it would have who would
<v Speaker 4>be fun to add to the team. It's like, like
<v Speaker 4>you said, it's getting characters you don't often see hanging
<v Speaker 4>out together. It's weird because I rewatching the episode. They
<v Speaker 4>act almost like they don't know who Otto is.
<v Speaker 1>That longhead freak long freaky.
<v Speaker 5>But it's great because you've got all these other teams
<v Speaker 5>that either brought together by their work relationship, Like I'm sorry,
<v Speaker 5>this Springfield Police frame is is just a fantastic name
<v Speaker 5>for teams all they've banned by religion, old their home
<v Speaker 5>wreckers or Stereotyeah, but yeah, all these people are like, well,
<v Speaker 5>they're all of the set, they all naturally fit together.
<v Speaker 5>And then you've got the pin Pals, who are, yeah,
<v Speaker 5>sort of this disparate group who have just sort of
<v Speaker 5>come together out of necessity or out of sort of desperation.
<v Speaker 4>It's a contrast, I think, Yeah, and I had forgotten
<v Speaker 4>the inertial shirts. They had that, just the T shirts
<v Speaker 4>with it's scrawled. Yeah, I'm completely forgotten that because I
<v Speaker 4>got used to like the shirt you have on the
<v Speaker 4>Fox started merchandising and I never saw a penny front.
<v Speaker 1>I'll send you one of these.
<v Speaker 4>The first time I saw it was in a store.
<v Speaker 4>I had no idea they were even merchandising.
<v Speaker 1>It's amazing how much The Simpsons is merchandise now. I
<v Speaker 1>feel like there was a good while there where it
<v Speaker 1>was just your basic merchandise, you know, the family on
<v Speaker 1>T shirt I think, but now they're really going to
<v Speaker 1>more nie stuff like the pin pal shirts. And I
<v Speaker 1>know a while ago they did pin Pals bowling balls.
<v Speaker 1>But didn't they give the cast and crew bowling balls
<v Speaker 1>at the time when this episode?
<v Speaker 4>Yes, yeah, yeah, I still remember the day. They're really cool,
<v Speaker 4>like they're low balls and red writing it's the Simpsons.
<v Speaker 4>But there was one day where they brought somebody to
<v Speaker 4>the lot to drill all the balls for everyone's finger size.
<v Speaker 4>That we all lined up to get our fingers measure
<v Speaker 4>for the balls.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, Mike, there's bowling all over the world. I mean
<v Speaker 5>even Australia has bawling alleys. But it seems to me
<v Speaker 5>like a I know, but it seems like a very
<v Speaker 5>American thing, like the great American equalizer. I'm wondering. Yeah,
<v Speaker 5>I mean, even if you're not great at bawling, you
<v Speaker 5>can have a great time while you're bowling. I mean,
<v Speaker 5>is that was that? I guess I'm asking why bowling?
<v Speaker 1>Well, it was, I know, you're bowling with the kids
<v Speaker 1>at the time, a beatle something, you said.
<v Speaker 4>But yes, because I grew up in Massachusetts where we
<v Speaker 4>have something called candlepin bowling, which is bowling if the
<v Speaker 4>balls are smaller, they're almost like cannon ball size. Uh.
<v Speaker 4>And the pens are shaped differently. They're called candlepins because
<v Speaker 4>they're kind of handle ish shaped, I think. But anyhow,
<v Speaker 4>this is in Springfield, mass Yeah, where I grew up. Uh.
<v Speaker 4>And so as a kid, I did it a lot,
<v Speaker 4>and then when I started, you know, having kids, it
<v Speaker 4>was one of the things we would do together. U
<v Speaker 4>still do it. We still do it now. But also
<v Speaker 4>I remember when I was thinking of the story bowling,
<v Speaker 4>there was a lot of bowling in like the early
<v Speaker 4>episodes of The Simpsons that Barney's Bowlerama was kind of
<v Speaker 4>a regular place you would see in the first few
<v Speaker 4>seasons of the show, and then it kind of fell away.
<v Speaker 4>So I wanted to kind of bring that back again,
<v Speaker 4>to just put the bawling back in the show because
<v Speaker 4>it had already been established.
<v Speaker 1>Plus you also had the episode from the first season
<v Speaker 1>with Jacques and Margins.
<v Speaker 4>Yes, yeah, yeah, so that I knew there was stuff
<v Speaker 4>we could you know, refer to, and it was already
<v Speaker 4>in the world. It wasn't like Homer discovers bowling. It
<v Speaker 4>was you know, we could kind of jump in faster, and.
<v Speaker 5>It just seems like a quintessentially Siminson's kind of sport
<v Speaker 5>or past something. You wouldn't see him playing tennis or
<v Speaker 5>squash something like no, but they would bowl. Remember the
<v Speaker 5>Flintstones Bowl right, Oh yeah, absolutely.
<v Speaker 4>Yes, yeah, it was a big part of the Flint Stars. Yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 4>exactly exactly. And then and walking in when it's you know,
<v Speaker 4>when you do go out with your friends, the worst
<v Speaker 4>thing that can have is you walk in and it's
<v Speaker 4>league night and then you can't get a leg.
<v Speaker 1>I love that you established here. That lunch Lady Dodgs
<v Speaker 1>is apparently the mother of Squeaky Voice team, which apparently
<v Speaker 1>was canon for about thirty seasons and then they changed
<v Speaker 1>it last year.
<v Speaker 4>Oh yeah, yeah, that surprised me when I saw when
<v Speaker 4>I'm rewatching it, I was like, oh, should I completely
<v Speaker 4>forgot that?
<v Speaker 1>And that this actually ended? I think it was two
<v Speaker 1>weeks after Doris passed away.
<v Speaker 4>Oh is that right?
<v Speaker 1>Past away? December thirtieth, and this edged member the week? Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>this December January seventh, I think it was. Yeah, so
<v Speaker 1>this was her first appearance post her death.
<v Speaker 4>Oh wow, wow, Now she was so funny.
<v Speaker 1>She was a script supervisor right right.
<v Speaker 4>Yes, yeah, but they they had loved her voice and
<v Speaker 4>they had already used her. I think before I got
<v Speaker 4>to the show, she was already established. So yeah, she
<v Speaker 4>was super funny.
<v Speaker 5>I'd like to ask about Mad Magazine and it's, uh,
<v Speaker 5>it's prevalent influencing this episode. I mean, is it a
<v Speaker 5>shout out from the from the Rod has Room acknowledging
<v Speaker 5>that this might have been a bit of a formative
<v Speaker 5>influence on our sense of humor because it's it's both
<v Speaker 5>sort of paying tribute to Navidol. So it's like one
<v Speaker 5>of these gags are pretty hackneyed.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, yeah, that's it. But no, it definitely was. There
<v Speaker 4>was like a lot of love in the writer's room
<v Speaker 4>for Mad Magazine, and you know, it was kind of
<v Speaker 4>when you were a kid. It was kind of like
<v Speaker 4>your For me, it was like a step up from
<v Speaker 4>comic books, like, oh, you know, this is different. And
<v Speaker 4>a lot of times I remember buying them and it
<v Speaker 4>was really for like the cover or like something on
<v Speaker 4>the cover, or I'd open it up and see what
<v Speaker 4>the parody was, like what the big and it was
<v Speaker 4>always something with black you know in the title or something,
<v Speaker 4>and then I would start to read them as a kid,
<v Speaker 4>but they were so worthy, uh these things, I would
<v Speaker 4>always lose interest.
<v Speaker 1>While I remember being a keep watching this episode. I
<v Speaker 1>would have been, as I said, like seven or eight
<v Speaker 1>maybe and going, I don't know what BT's laughing at here.
<v Speaker 1>I don't get.
<v Speaker 4>But I was a fan of like snappy answers to
<v Speaker 4>stupid question because it's there.
<v Speaker 1>Just were you great at them? I know, well you
<v Speaker 1>were saying that, like we're saying that the bowling idea
<v Speaker 1>came from bowling with your kids. Do you have some
<v Speaker 1>of the what do you think some of the best
<v Speaker 1>episodes that stemmed from real life experiences of yourself or
<v Speaker 1>someone else in the writing room.
<v Speaker 4>Oh gosh, I mean yeah, speaking for myself, Yeah, the.
<v Speaker 1>You know, bar shoplifting Proud, It's probably up the top
<v Speaker 1>for me because I did the exact same thing. I
<v Speaker 1>got caught stealing a magazine, and my mum's reaction was
<v Speaker 1>exactly what Marge did. He and I went, this is
<v Speaker 1>what happened to me.
<v Speaker 4>Yes, I mean emotionally, it was exactly what my biggest
<v Speaker 4>fear was. That didn't ultimately happen, but my big fear
<v Speaker 4>was my mom finding out. So I got to kind
<v Speaker 4>of play out my fear of what might have happened
<v Speaker 4>had she found out about it.
<v Speaker 1>Well, you got it right, because that's exactly what my
<v Speaker 1>mom did. She was just disappeyed.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, thank you, thank you. I mean once, like all
<v Speaker 4>the episodes, it's all like it's such a like collaborative
<v Speaker 4>team effort, uh to get this done. I remember when
<v Speaker 4>I went back to watch on Disney Plus, I didn't
<v Speaker 4>I had forgotten that in the air order like Team
<v Speaker 4>or Homer airs right before Marge being not Proud or
<v Speaker 4>vice versa, and I was like, wait a minute. I
<v Speaker 4>had to think, like, how did that happen? Because Team
<v Speaker 4>Homer is a David markin episode and Marge being not
<v Speaker 4>proud is Bill and Josh, And then I remembered that
<v Speaker 4>they had we had overlaps for a while, you were
<v Speaker 4>doing holdover shows, and that was like Mrkin had he
<v Speaker 4>was doing some Alan Mike did a couple and then
<v Speaker 4>like season nine is kind of a hodgepodge of there's
<v Speaker 4>twenty two episodes. I think sixteen were me and then
<v Speaker 4>there's a couple of Bill and Josh, a couple of Murkin,
<v Speaker 4>and a couple of Alan Mike's all spread throughout season nine.
<v Speaker 4>It's like popping up in different places.
<v Speaker 1>You get assigned to Principal and the Pauper, and it
<v Speaker 1>wasn't you. It was Bill and Josh.
<v Speaker 4>Right, yeah, oh what do you mean, It says me, no, no.
<v Speaker 1>So people always go, ah, yeah Scully season nine Principal
<v Speaker 1>in the Pauper. We hate that episode, and it's like.
<v Speaker 5>Josh, Mike Scully, innocent princip The Simpsons is like, well
<v Speaker 5>it wasn't Scully.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah shit, I'm mean for some other ones, but.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, exactly. But but you also wrote Lisa and Ice,
<v Speaker 1>another sports episode that I absolutely love, but they have
<v Speaker 1>two completely different endings. Really, these two sports episodes here
<v Speaker 1>I love. I'm more of the emotional ending kind of guy.
<v Speaker 4>I like that.
<v Speaker 1>What what do you prefer? Do you prefer those emotional
<v Speaker 1>endings like that, do it for her or the button
<v Speaker 1>Lisa flashback, embrace it into the hockey game, or do
<v Speaker 1>you prefer ones like this? I mean or does this
<v Speaker 1>to depend on what story is being told.
<v Speaker 4>It really depends on the story being told. And because
<v Speaker 4>I think and I the emotional ones, I think sometimes
<v Speaker 4>like stay with people longer. But I think if you
<v Speaker 4>do it every week and you just kind of know
<v Speaker 4>it's coming, people expect it. Yeah, You're you're just expecting it.
<v Speaker 4>I think when you have different styles of endings, the
<v Speaker 4>audience doesn't know, so you can still surprise them, you know,
<v Speaker 4>with with like a really sweet emotional moment and just
<v Speaker 4>end the show there, or you can go a step
<v Speaker 4>beyond and do a joke ending, you know. So I like,
<v Speaker 4>you know, for me personally as a viewer, I like
<v Speaker 4>not expecting to know because American sitcoms, particularly like I
<v Speaker 4>would say, yeah, in the eighties, you could almost like
<v Speaker 4>time like clockwork of where the emotional moment was coming.
<v Speaker 4>You know, where the and literally the networks would say
<v Speaker 4>to writers. They said it to us once on Savages,
<v Speaker 4>ABC said where's the ABC hug? It's like, oh, man,
<v Speaker 4>did you buy the wrong show?
<v Speaker 5>Well, it's funny. I mean I think if you tried
<v Speaker 5>to put an emotional ending on on Team Home, yeah,
<v Speaker 5>where the you know, the pin Pals will have a
<v Speaker 5>nice group hug and everything like that. It's like, I
<v Speaker 5>think the audience would kind of think, I don't think
<v Speaker 5>the pin Pails are hanging out after this. I think
<v Speaker 5>Home is going to go and zemail with the bar.
<v Speaker 5>I think he'll go see I think we go see
<v Speaker 5>up with the Quickie Maut. But yeah, these guys aren't
<v Speaker 5>hanging out after hours or anything like that. I think
<v Speaker 5>they've they've had their run.
<v Speaker 1>I love it they I love that they bail on
<v Speaker 1>him as well at the end.
<v Speaker 5>But having said that, you you really have built up
<v Speaker 5>some genuine emotion and genuine connection between these characters in
<v Speaker 5>the Leader as well, which I think is it's really
<v Speaker 5>marvelus that you have that bait and switch at the end.
<v Speaker 4>Now to see the bonding you know of the team
<v Speaker 4>and also the you know, Burns wanting to be a
<v Speaker 4>part of it and the friendship thing you know like
<v Speaker 4>that it actually means something to him, which makes Homer,
<v Speaker 4>You're kind of blurting out, you're off the team. I
<v Speaker 4>love for once Homer actually stays on tasks.
<v Speaker 1>Homeless episode is actually very responsible because he's torn because
<v Speaker 1>he wants to help. He's almostmost like the unspoken captain
<v Speaker 1>of the team of this point team, and he wants
<v Speaker 1>to do what's best for the team. But he also
<v Speaker 1>has the dilemma of well, this his boss. He needs
<v Speaker 1>to stay employed, and this guy the boss is responsible
<v Speaker 1>for them having the team in the first place, So
<v Speaker 1>what do I do? And he was going to form
<v Speaker 1>the sword for the team for the bit of the
<v Speaker 1>team and say you're off the team. But by that
<v Speaker 1>point moment and who had been swayed by the pinpalace jumpers.
<v Speaker 4>Yes, yeah, And actually that that joke of of Burns,
<v Speaker 4>you know, talking about how much it means to it
<v Speaker 4>to be in a normal like a sitcom of that time,
<v Speaker 4>you knew Homer was there. You know, Homer's there to
<v Speaker 4>kick him off the team. What would happen is Burns
<v Speaker 4>would say whatever his lines are there and the person
<v Speaker 4>would not kick him off the team. They would be
<v Speaker 4>unable to do it. So the fact that Homer just
<v Speaker 4>like lets him finish the whole thing because you're off
<v Speaker 4>the team, It's like, once again the audience thinks they
<v Speaker 4>know where we're headed.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, there are some yeah, just dynamite bits like that
<v Speaker 5>or just edits as well. I mean, it may be
<v Speaker 5>one of the most perfect cuts I've ever seen the
<v Speaker 5>Simpsons episode is you cut to Homer and margin Bed
<v Speaker 5>and just say no, I will not pay you five
<v Speaker 5>hundred dollars for six I'm.
<v Speaker 1>I had to stop.
<v Speaker 5>I had to stop the show for second and laugh
<v Speaker 5>at just like a minute because I just thought, first
<v Speaker 5>of all, that's a great line, but it was just
<v Speaker 5>editing so perfectly. Yeah, all those great rug pulls, there's
<v Speaker 5>so many in this episode.
<v Speaker 1>She doesn't have that kind of money to spend on sex.
<v Speaker 4>Homer really values his sexual prowess.
<v Speaker 5>Nineteen ninety three.
<v Speaker 1>It's one of the constant constant themes of the of
<v Speaker 1>the show that we love is that it seems that
<v Speaker 1>Margin Homer, their sex life is rocking all their faults aside.
<v Speaker 1>It seems they might have their faults that in their fights,
<v Speaker 1>but it seems like their sex life is pretty strong.
<v Speaker 1>It seems like Homer's a bit of a dynamo in
<v Speaker 1>the sack. This show is brought to you by the
<v Speaker 1>four figure Discount Patreon, where you'll find over one hundred
<v Speaker 1>hours of bonus podcasts, including exclusive Simpsons reviews and commentaries,
<v Speaker 1>as well as exclusive episodes of Going Down to South Park,
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<v Speaker 1>the One about Friends, and so much more. So go
<v Speaker 1>ahead and join the family today at patreon dot com
<v Speaker 1>slash four figure discout. Getting back to the emotion of
<v Speaker 1>this episode, I do think there's a lot of emotion
<v Speaker 1>in there, cause you're touching on how Burns want to
<v Speaker 1>be part of the team. I do think we do
<v Speaker 1>see a vulnerable side of the evil Burns here where
<v Speaker 1>I remember as a kid watching this thinking was Burns
<v Speaker 1>always going to fool them? No, I think he actually
<v Speaker 1>enjoy being a part of this team. And it wasn't
<v Speaker 1>until the end where he saw them with the troph
<v Speaker 1>and he went, wait a minute, no, no, I want
<v Speaker 1>that to myself. Actual Phil Luca gets involved, trademark change
<v Speaker 1>of the Heart, that line that he said, I mean,
<v Speaker 1>I've always been worthy, but this is the first time
<v Speaker 1>I felt rich.
<v Speaker 5>I mean that feels like Gary Cooper in Pride to
<v Speaker 5>the Yankees or something like, Oh, that's really touching, that's
<v Speaker 5>really good. And then you get wrong foot, then you
<v Speaker 5>get rug pulled.
<v Speaker 1>As a writer, how do you know when to not
<v Speaker 1>add a gag to the end of an emotional scene?
<v Speaker 1>When do you know to let the emotion sit? Oh?
<v Speaker 4>Man, that's always hard, Particularly if you happen to love
<v Speaker 4>the joke that comes. You can try to like rationalize
<v Speaker 4>to yourself, well, no, it doesn't hurt at all. Right,
<v Speaker 4>you're still getting the impact of both. But sometimes, and
<v Speaker 4>I'm guilty of it too, is sometimes that joke, even
<v Speaker 4>if it's a good joke, undercuts the nice moment that
<v Speaker 4>you just had. And you know, you try to you
<v Speaker 4>hope you make the right decision, but I wish I
<v Speaker 4>could say I always do, but I can't guarantee it.
<v Speaker 4>It's always tricky. It's always tricky.
<v Speaker 1>Do you enjoy being ou to tap into that more
<v Speaker 1>vulnerable side of characters like Burns?
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I think it's more of a challenge, you know,
<v Speaker 4>to get the audience to care about a character.
<v Speaker 1>Like that and believe that he's actually caring. As well.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, and to find a reason that feels like that
<v Speaker 4>could be within that character, like to you know, because
<v Speaker 4>Burns is so isolated, you know, he leads such an
<v Speaker 4>isolated lifestyle that being with these you know, being part
<v Speaker 4>of a team would be a new feeling for him.
<v Speaker 1>Do you feel the character of Burns evolve to a
<v Speaker 1>point where he wasn't intimidating anymore because we don't have
<v Speaker 1>to season twenty one now and it feels like no
<v Speaker 1>one in Springfield really is scared of Burns anymore. Where
<v Speaker 1>in these first you know, twelve seedons or so, it
<v Speaker 1>felt like he was still scary to them and they
<v Speaker 1>didn't want to They didn't know what he's going to do.
<v Speaker 1>So it's like we just won't we won't offend him,
<v Speaker 1>or we won't bother him. It got to a point
<v Speaker 1>where it almost felt like Burns was a wimp.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, No, I think I know what you're saying. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>because we were always trying to, you know, to find
<v Speaker 4>a story because we love the character so much. To
<v Speaker 4>find like, if you want to hang a story on Burns,
<v Speaker 4>you have to find that emotion, that emotional thing that
<v Speaker 4>carries you through to make you care about him. So
<v Speaker 4>that's you know, so when that happens, you have to
<v Speaker 4>kind of soften some edges on the character. Maybe that's
<v Speaker 4>what you're referring to it. It happens too like doing
<v Speaker 4>a story maybe about mo or Krusty, we would have
<v Speaker 4>to find we'd have to kind of round off the
<v Speaker 4>edges a little bit just to get the audience to
<v Speaker 4>buy in and care a little bit more. But you know,
<v Speaker 4>Burns is always a great you know, he was always
<v Speaker 4>a great villain. And there was years where, you know,
<v Speaker 4>we did like a lot of the episodes where Homer
<v Speaker 4>quits his job to go after some new occupation that
<v Speaker 4>he says, yeah, that, and we would do the scene
<v Speaker 4>of Homer quitting the job, and then we'd done it
<v Speaker 4>so many times we finally stopped.
<v Speaker 1>Doing it to a point where he just went audiences
<v Speaker 1>are just going to believe this regardless now, So I'm
<v Speaker 1>not going to even bother making the attempt to do it.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, so you would save two scenes. You would save
<v Speaker 4>the scene of where he goes to Burns to quit
<v Speaker 4>the job, and then save the scene where he has
<v Speaker 4>to go to Burns to beg for his job.
<v Speaker 1>Exactly. Nothing beat nothing in top when he plays burns
<v Speaker 1>his head like a bongo, then literally burns the bridge
<v Speaker 1>behind him. That's that's the pinnacle. He can't get better
<v Speaker 1>than that, right.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, that's I think that the burning the bridge I
<v Speaker 4>believe is a Schwartzwelder joke. I believe it's Swartswelder episode.
<v Speaker 4>And I can't remember if this is the same episode
<v Speaker 4>or not where.
<v Speaker 1>That's where he goes to work at the bowling Alley.
<v Speaker 1>It's that one.
<v Speaker 4>Oh no, this might be a different one. I can't
<v Speaker 4>remember what it is. And Marge says, you know, can't
<v Speaker 4>you get your job back? And and the Homer goes
<v Speaker 4>not the way I quit. It might be one where
<v Speaker 4>we didn't even see what he did.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, we didn't say no, that's right, Yes, no.
<v Speaker 4>It's it's a that's one of my favorite Sportsworld jokes.
<v Speaker 1>But even most shows are softer side him. We do
<v Speaker 1>see softer side of Moth throughout, you know, throughout the show.
<v Speaker 1>But it's a big part of what makes the Simpsons
<v Speaker 1>so great, I think, is that there are so many
<v Speaker 1>characters that aren't just the main family, that have so
<v Speaker 1>many levels of depth to them.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah. No, it's when you can find those and it
<v Speaker 4>doesn't feel forced where you can kind of buy it
<v Speaker 4>and find a way to feel sorry for this character.
<v Speaker 4>You know that those are it's it's it's fun when
<v Speaker 4>you can do it. You know you have to do it,
<v Speaker 4>but it's fun with if you can find something that
<v Speaker 4>really feels like, yeah, I could believe that whatever that
<v Speaker 4>that insecurity or whatever we're going to tap into is
<v Speaker 4>inside this person somewhere, even though we've never seen it before.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, and when you find a way to phrase it like,
<v Speaker 5>you know, I'm better than that. Well that fancy storeboard
<v Speaker 5>did and stuff's loaded with nutrients.
<v Speaker 4>Now rewatching the episode, I did love there's such a
<v Speaker 4>great mix of kind of angry mow and wildly insecure mode.
<v Speaker 5>You spend years resistant, you have to punch him in
<v Speaker 5>the face, and for what Well, yeah, of course the
<v Speaker 5>two sides of the same coin. Then yeah, they're naturally
<v Speaker 5>part of his personality.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Do you go back and watch these episodes and feel proud?
<v Speaker 4>I don't like, actually go go back to watch like
<v Speaker 4>to do something like this just to refamiliarize them. But no,
<v Speaker 4>I'm super proud of you know, the whole like series,
<v Speaker 4>just to have been a.
<v Speaker 1>Part of it.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, it's a great feeling to have been part of
<v Speaker 4>the show and like to meet you know, all the
<v Speaker 4>you know, the great you know, writers and actors and everybody, directors,
<v Speaker 4>you know, everyone that's worked and been a part of
<v Speaker 4>the show and made their contribution to it. Yeah, it'd
<v Speaker 4>be crazy to not be proud of it. You know.
<v Speaker 1>What's one thing you find is it just feels like
<v Speaker 1>everyone who worked for The Simpsons loved not just working
<v Speaker 1>on The Simpsons, but loved working with each other.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, it was a it's a very respectful writer's room,
<v Speaker 4>which was not always you know the case, you know,
<v Speaker 4>particularly like in the eighties and stuff that. And yeah,
<v Speaker 4>because writers rooms, you know, they're made up with a
<v Speaker 4>lot of different personalities and and you know sometimes in
<v Speaker 4>the eighties some of those personalities might have been you know,
<v Speaker 4>coked up a little bit. So, you know, I kind
<v Speaker 4>of came in as that was fading out.
<v Speaker 5>How do you feel about that money?
<v Speaker 4>I think it was good for me that it was
<v Speaker 4>not part of my experience. I was more hearing stories
<v Speaker 4>about it than actually like witnessing it. A lot of
<v Speaker 4>writers from I mean, there will be arguments and you
<v Speaker 4>try to be the Simpsons room is incredibly respectful, and
<v Speaker 4>particularly for a room that was very big, Like when
<v Speaker 4>I got there, there was over twenty writers on the
<v Speaker 4>show and yet everyone you know, we did have arguments
<v Speaker 4>for sure, but you know, you really you're crazy to
<v Speaker 4>not listen to somebody's opinion because they're good enough to
<v Speaker 4>be on that show and you want to get the
<v Speaker 4>best out of everyone helping you, and you hope they
<v Speaker 4>feel the same way, like when you're working on their
<v Speaker 4>script that everyone's contributing to each other's stuff. So it's, yeah,
<v Speaker 4>I got nothing but positive feelings about the show.
<v Speaker 5>It sounds like there's mutual respect and mutual admiration in
<v Speaker 5>the Yeah. Absolutely, because there's nothing worse than sort of
<v Speaker 5>getting feedback or having to give feedback to someone's like
<v Speaker 5>I think you might be a bit of a medium
<v Speaker 5>talent there.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>There's also the element of everyone knows how long has
<v Speaker 1>to do this all the time with me. Everyone knows
<v Speaker 1>how lucky they are to have this particular gig too,
<v Speaker 1>So it's like I don't want to screw this up.
<v Speaker 4>Oh yeah, yeah, but can you recall.
<v Speaker 1>A gag that name names that you had to fight
<v Speaker 1>to get on the show? That actually did make it
<v Speaker 1>through that they someone in particular did not want it
<v Speaker 1>on and you had to fight for it and eventually
<v Speaker 1>it got through.
<v Speaker 4>Oh oh, like in the writer's room, you man fight,
<v Speaker 4>you know, it's it's never been my style to it,
<v Speaker 4>like flash, Yeah, I don't like if one person doesn't
<v Speaker 4>like a joke, but the rest of the room is laughing,
<v Speaker 4>then like usually the joke will it will make its
<v Speaker 4>way in for that reason alone. But you know, you
<v Speaker 4>also want to listen to if someone does have like
<v Speaker 4>an opinion, you know, like a negative opinion. You want
<v Speaker 4>to know where, you know, where is it coming from.
<v Speaker 4>But I don't know, I've always felt like, Okay, you
<v Speaker 4>don't like that, here's here's something else, or you know,
<v Speaker 4>we'll come up with something else. The room is good enough,
<v Speaker 4>We'll always come up with something else, so I don't
<v Speaker 4>worry about that. I just don't honestly remember any big
<v Speaker 4>you know, big big fights. I mean there were you know,
<v Speaker 4>awkward moments or maybe somebody fights a little too long
<v Speaker 4>for a joke or.
<v Speaker 1>Something background sawing guy that no one's gonna even say.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, you also too, you remember, you know, particularly once
<v Speaker 4>we were like working on you know, computers in the room,
<v Speaker 4>like you get for each joke it's in the show,
<v Speaker 4>you usually have two or three others that are equally
<v Speaker 4>as good, so we save those jokes in case during
<v Speaker 4>the process the joke that was picked to put in
<v Speaker 4>it doesn't work, so you can go back instead of
<v Speaker 4>starting from scratch, you can sometimes like have it it's already,
<v Speaker 4>like you click a box on the script and other
<v Speaker 4>jokes pop up that you pitched, you know, six months ago,
<v Speaker 4>which it can be a time saver.
<v Speaker 1>Can you recall how long it took you maybe not
<v Speaker 1>long at all, before you felt confident enough to say
<v Speaker 1>I don't think that works when you were in the
<v Speaker 1>Simpsons writers room.
<v Speaker 4>Well, you know, when you're running the show, you have
<v Speaker 4>to say it, you know, because you ultimately have to
<v Speaker 4>make decisions on stories and jokes and things like that. Yes,
<v Speaker 4>because because on that show, like I said, I look
<v Speaker 4>around that table and there's, like you said, nineteen Harvard
<v Speaker 4>graduates and you know, the village idiot here. So I
<v Speaker 4>always had a rule to myself too, if they were
<v Speaker 4>all laughing at I'd like, if if the room was
<v Speaker 4>laughing at something, I would, you know, put it in
<v Speaker 4>and to be honest, there was there was a There
<v Speaker 4>were occasions where I didn't even get the joke, but
<v Speaker 4>these all these writers who are way smarter than me
<v Speaker 4>are laughing. So I'm gonna go, you know, go out
<v Speaker 4>on a limb that it's probably a great joke and
<v Speaker 4>put it in and I'll look it up later to
<v Speaker 4>see what it means.
<v Speaker 1>Do you think the casual viewer, though, is watching the
<v Speaker 1>show through your eyes someone who didn't go through all
<v Speaker 1>the Harvard's and whatnot, a college graduate, or they're watching
<v Speaker 1>through the eyes of these riders if you don't get
<v Speaker 1>that gag, do you think the casual view of the
<v Speaker 1>Simpsons is going to get it?
<v Speaker 4>I don't know. I can't be like bogged down with that.
<v Speaker 4>If I know, like somebody is going to find something funny,
<v Speaker 4>and there may be somebody who doesn't. I mean, that's
<v Speaker 4>just kind of comedy in general. I think, you know,
<v Speaker 4>there's sometimes you're putting in stuff, like you know, on occasion,
<v Speaker 4>like just for the room or for a very small
<v Speaker 4>group of fans, but you know that small group is
<v Speaker 4>going to love that.
<v Speaker 5>They're going to be quoting it twenty years from now.
<v Speaker 4>Yes, yeah, yeah, there's an episode Oh shoot, I can't
<v Speaker 4>remember the name of it now. Homer is like on
<v Speaker 4>the internet gossips thing. The third act is basically a
<v Speaker 4>parody of the sixties TV show The Prisoner. Yes, yes,
<v Speaker 4>and that's a lot.
<v Speaker 1>Of Mister Rex episode that's one for us.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of that third act. There's
<v Speaker 4>a lot of George Meyer and I laughing our asses.
<v Speaker 1>Of twelve year old me going what on earth is
<v Speaker 1>going on?
<v Speaker 4>But we kind of knew it going in, like this
<v Speaker 4>is not going to be for everybody.
<v Speaker 1>But who cares at this point?
<v Speaker 4>Right? Yeah? It was if we didn't parody The Prisoner,
<v Speaker 4>who was going to do it?
<v Speaker 1>Exactly?
<v Speaker 4>Yeah?
<v Speaker 1>It correct me if I'm wrong. I'm almost certain. When
<v Speaker 1>I last spoke to you, you said that you were
<v Speaker 1>the first showrun to introduce normal working hours for the staff.
<v Speaker 1>Is that right?
<v Speaker 4>Yeah? That was kind of one of the.
<v Speaker 1>Work life balance is important to.
<v Speaker 4>You, Yes, because a lot of the you know, there's
<v Speaker 4>a lot of like can be in a writer's room,
<v Speaker 4>there can be a lot of like goofing around time
<v Speaker 4>during the day, and sometimes if you subtract that at
<v Speaker 4>the they're like, wait a minute, how many hours did
<v Speaker 4>we actually work and then you realize, oh, instead of
<v Speaker 4>going home at ten or eleven, we could have been
<v Speaker 4>out the door at six, uh and having dinner at
<v Speaker 4>you know, when I started on the show, I was
<v Speaker 4>the only one who had kids, so you know, it
<v Speaker 4>was I hated, like, you know, missing dinners with them
<v Speaker 4>and that kind of stuff. So it was kind of
<v Speaker 4>a goal of mine around like season nine, to to
<v Speaker 4>try to get the hours a little under control and
<v Speaker 4>prove to the staff that, you know, okay, we're not
<v Speaker 4>going to screw off. You know, as much as we do,
<v Speaker 4>we'll screw off, but not you know, it'll be more
<v Speaker 4>you know, control digressions, and we'll do good work and
<v Speaker 4>we'll you know, get out at a reasonable hour, and
<v Speaker 4>if we are here at night, there'll be a solid
<v Speaker 4>reason for it. Yeah.
<v Speaker 5>I say that goofing around as you put it, I
<v Speaker 5>mean that's kind of like priming the pump though, killing
<v Speaker 5>the soil. Yeah, I mean, it's not necessarily. Yeah, we're
<v Speaker 5>just missing around for missing around's sake. It's like this
<v Speaker 5>is going to lead somewhere. I mean often oftentimes it doesn't,
<v Speaker 5>but sometimes it really does.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah. Yeah, yeah, but I would it would be like
<v Speaker 4>you know, a five or ten minute digression digression versus
<v Speaker 4>a half an hour digression.
<v Speaker 5>Okay, you're being more efficient than your fucking around.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Do you think if at all that impacted the show
<v Speaker 1>in a positive or negative way?
<v Speaker 4>Well, definitely, spouses on the show, we're very abregiative.
<v Speaker 1>People start having kids.
<v Speaker 4>But also, like I think at that point some writers
<v Speaker 4>had started having, you know, kids and drawing. I love
<v Speaker 4>when you find a great story that comes out of
<v Speaker 4>like family life and if and it was kind of
<v Speaker 4>like Phil Rosenthal, you know on Raymond. His theory, you know,
<v Speaker 4>is if you're just at a TV show all the time,
<v Speaker 4>all you're going to eventually all your stories are going
<v Speaker 4>to be about working on a TV show. And you
<v Speaker 4>know that show, you know, had like amazing hours, you know,
<v Speaker 4>like we would be out of there. Phil would treat
<v Speaker 4>like if it was four in the afternoon, Phil would
<v Speaker 4>talk like it was two am. You know, he'd be like,
<v Speaker 4>come on, come on, come on, we got to get this.
<v Speaker 4>But you know, the shows came out great, you'd go
<v Speaker 4>home and you'd have dinner with your family, or you
<v Speaker 4>could actually make plans and have a life outside of
<v Speaker 4>the show. And sometimes those things wind up leading two
<v Speaker 4>episodes or moments in episodes.
<v Speaker 1>And a lot of those are more emotional moments as well.
<v Speaker 4>Oh yeah, absolutely absolutely.
<v Speaker 1>Which real life sort of moment excited you the most
<v Speaker 1>when you realize this could be a story? Do you
<v Speaker 1>do you do you ever recall when you was sort
<v Speaker 1>of at home and you went, wow, this would be great.
<v Speaker 1>Do you do you have any of those memories?
<v Speaker 4>Oh? Man, I know I stole shamelessly from the family.
<v Speaker 4>There was definitely say, oh man, I'm just drawing some blanks.
<v Speaker 4>But because we were always like pulling two like from
<v Speaker 4>our own childhoods, there was a lot of those. Oh
<v Speaker 4>I know, like the last tap dance in Springfield was
<v Speaker 4>at that time, our daughters were heavily and to dance
<v Speaker 4>classes and you always start out with tap and yeah,
<v Speaker 4>stuff like that, and you know we had to buy
<v Speaker 4>taps for all the kids.
<v Speaker 1>Is the tap tapa tappits?
<v Speaker 4>Yeah? Yeah, that definitely, you know, came out of the family,
<v Speaker 4>And I'm sure there's many more, or there's moments for sure,
<v Speaker 4>or vice versa would be my family using the show
<v Speaker 4>against me. Like one day I told one of my
<v Speaker 4>daughters and my daughter Taylor, to to clean her room
<v Speaker 4>and that. You know. When I got home that night,
<v Speaker 4>I said, I'm going to be checking this room has
<v Speaker 4>to be clean. And I get home and I, uh,
<v Speaker 4>And first thing I asked her when I come in, Uh,
<v Speaker 4>I said, did you clean your room? And she goes,
<v Speaker 4>did I want my what now? And when your kids
<v Speaker 4>can make you laugh like that, like there was no
<v Speaker 4>way for me to be mad, and she hadn't done it,
<v Speaker 4>but it was such a huge laugh, you know, like
<v Speaker 4>those kind of moments. Uh, you know, you always like
<v Speaker 4>remember those things and it's fun to know, Oh, they're
<v Speaker 4>actually paying attention to the show.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>We also as a parent, now you hate those moments
<v Speaker 1>where you go, I want to be so annoyed by
<v Speaker 1>you right now, but you're making me laugh and I can't.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah. Yeah, And it's it's always you love, it's always
<v Speaker 4>fun like watching TV with your kids. But when you
<v Speaker 4>see them respond to something, you know, like a small
<v Speaker 4>are like a clever joke or something like that, not
<v Speaker 4>the more you know, not just Homer getting you know,
<v Speaker 4>hit in the faith or like that. When you see
<v Speaker 4>them start to respond to like a word you know,
<v Speaker 4>play or the cleverness and something, it's you know, it's
<v Speaker 4>a point of prime.
<v Speaker 1>Well what my son now, he's just turned seven, but
<v Speaker 1>it was the first quote he ever did. We parked
<v Speaker 1>the car in town the other day in there in
<v Speaker 1>the city, and he goes, Dad, remember we're in the
<v Speaker 1>itchy lot. I was like, whoa, we quitted the Simpsons.
<v Speaker 1>I never'd been more proud.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, my favorite favorite moments of Team Homer. For me
<v Speaker 1>in particular, this is one of the ones that it's
<v Speaker 1>one of my favorite gags. I didn't discover until I
<v Speaker 1>was a lot older. But it's the home records. I
<v Speaker 1>think that is just fantastic having Jacques pretty cashmir Mindy
<v Speaker 1>and Lewlin Lumpkin, Lumpkin just all references to previous episodes
<v Speaker 1>that of characters that have spoiled the marriage of Homer
<v Speaker 1>and Marge. I think it's just fantastic.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, it's a fun day. I remember we were trying
<v Speaker 4>to come up with that was like a rum thing
<v Speaker 4>of like coming up with who are these other teams?
<v Speaker 4>We need to see them? What are their names? Who
<v Speaker 4>could it be? I wish I could remember exactly who
<v Speaker 4>pitched out. I don't. I don't think it was in
<v Speaker 4>my draft or or it was given to me when
<v Speaker 4>I went out to write the draft. But what I
<v Speaker 4>love about that one is it just kind of goes
<v Speaker 4>by silently.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, unless you know, you know, If you know, you know,
<v Speaker 1>but otherwise it's not. Yeah, I think it's fantastic. But
<v Speaker 1>I did love just just the team names in general,
<v Speaker 1>and we only see about four or five of them
<v Speaker 1>into they must have. Was it just a huge list
<v Speaker 1>of teams that just didn't make it into the episode
<v Speaker 1>or was it just was it hard to think of
<v Speaker 1>these ones?
<v Speaker 4>I think it was hard to think of these ones.
<v Speaker 4>I think we considered it ourselves lucky we got these.
<v Speaker 1>But the stereo stereotypes is one of your favorites, wasn't it?
<v Speaker 5>I enjoyed that very much.
<v Speaker 1>This show is brought to you by the four figure
<v Speaker 1>discount Patreon, where you will find over one hundred hours
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<v Speaker 1>Go ahead and join the family today at patreon dot
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<v Speaker 5>But look another favorite man is up. Superintendent Chalmer's a
<v Speaker 5>unique way of writing a perfect tens. I'll start with
<v Speaker 5>the zero and now a vertical line to indicate d one.
<v Speaker 4>Yes. That is another like kind of Simpson's staple that
<v Speaker 4>I learned, you know on the show is Yeah, they're
<v Speaker 4>called like arch jokes, like really where the saber? The
<v Speaker 4>setup is just so labored, Yeah, to make it happen
<v Speaker 4>where you're going so far out of your way to
<v Speaker 4>set this joke up. Yeah that I love that moment. Yeah.
<v Speaker 5>Also, there's a I won't call it jerk outs Homer moment,
<v Speaker 5>but because it's it's sort of is in some ways.
<v Speaker 5>But it almost didn't feel like Home. It felt more
<v Speaker 5>like a like a Jackie Gleason character or something. It's
<v Speaker 5>the suckist suck that ever sucked thing. But when he's
<v Speaker 5>on the phone doing that, but he's like, I gotta go,
<v Speaker 5>my damn WIENI kids are listening, and he's like, we're
<v Speaker 5>not wins. Why are you dressed like that? I mean
<v Speaker 5>that felt like something out of the Honeymoon. I just
<v Speaker 5>it was so great and the way that Dan was
<v Speaker 5>delivering that line, it didn't it felt like Homer, but
<v Speaker 5>it also felt like, not, Homer, sorry, I'm normally I'm
<v Speaker 5>normally a little more articulate than this.
<v Speaker 1>He's very, very much a leader at this point, he's like,
<v Speaker 1>well that's the Yeah, he's got it.
<v Speaker 5>He's bravado, gotvado. Yeah, because normally be like, oh, I've
<v Speaker 5>got to apologize with the kids of a calling, and
<v Speaker 5>when it's like, man, why are you dressed like that?
<v Speaker 4>I think it's also a great example of like one
<v Speaker 4>of those moments, and then like writing the show of
<v Speaker 4>how things get built and people add things to it
<v Speaker 4>like the sukkist you know, you know, the sakkist sucks,
<v Speaker 4>that ever sucked, sakis, a bunch of socks that ever suck.
<v Speaker 4>That was in my draft, I believe, And then when
<v Speaker 4>we were rewriting, I think Mrkan added the you know,
<v Speaker 4>my damn ween, our kids are list and then I
<v Speaker 4>think somebody else added the then why are you dressed
<v Speaker 4>like that? It's a great example of the TeamWorks that
<v Speaker 4>goes into writing a show.
<v Speaker 5>They made us.
<v Speaker 1>I think I think Moe was the stand up for
<v Speaker 1>me and this. He had two great lines. The first
<v Speaker 1>one for me was that he said home. It says
<v Speaker 1>we can't leave now because then we'll never know how
<v Speaker 1>badly they'll beat us. And he says, yeah, that's the
<v Speaker 1>kind of stuff that'll haunt you. And finally, because I've
<v Speaker 1>found my I think I've caught myself saying this once
<v Speaker 1>in just in day to day life. Call this an
<v Speaker 1>unfair generalization, but old people are no good at everything.
<v Speaker 4>That was Actually that was from my script. The reason
<v Speaker 4>I remember it is because I did repeat it on
<v Speaker 4>Parks and rec there's a scene where Nick Offerman. The
<v Speaker 4>setup is the same, the butt of the joke is different.
<v Speaker 4>It's about con tractors, so who were like built houses here?
<v Speaker 4>And I think he's Nick Offerman's character. Ron Swanson says,
<v Speaker 4>you know, like, call this a sweeping generalization, but all
<v Speaker 4>contractors are crooked. It's the exact same formula, but you
<v Speaker 4>know it works.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, don't mess with a winner. I did, but I
<v Speaker 5>think one is going to step on your one of
<v Speaker 5>your trivia questions, which I'm looking at.
<v Speaker 1>Next question, you there eating the paste? My first question,
<v Speaker 1>how many additions does Mad Magazine put out every year?
<v Speaker 1>Special editions?
<v Speaker 4>No idea?
<v Speaker 1>Answer at seventeen your.
<v Speaker 5>Screens right there, man, I can say, according to Milhouse,
<v Speaker 5>who is Mad magazine sucking.
<v Speaker 4>It to Oh, Spiro Agnew.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, let's.
<v Speaker 5>Par Arastra and Friends gives gives a nutshell breakdown of
<v Speaker 5>whose Spirouggnew is was.
<v Speaker 4>Oh, he was Richard Nixon's vice president who eventually had
<v Speaker 4>to leave office in disgrace. There was a scandal. Uh,
<v Speaker 4>well money or that it was. I forgot exactly what
<v Speaker 4>the whole thing was, but yes, he left the Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>it's a name you never hear anymore in American politics.
<v Speaker 5>And it feels like the kind of name that's made up,
<v Speaker 5>I mean, light up. But at the same time, it's
<v Speaker 5>like it feels if you told me this name had
<v Speaker 5>been created especially for the Simpsons game. Yeah, I buy it.
<v Speaker 5>Spiro Aggnew, it's.
<v Speaker 4>He was a big He was a big comedy reference
<v Speaker 4>on shows, even like when I was a kid, Like
<v Speaker 4>there was show Rowan and Martin's laughing, just like a
<v Speaker 4>variety show. And I think to me, yes, they Nixon
<v Speaker 4>actually went on the show and said Socket to me,
<v Speaker 4>which was a big deal. That. Wow, they got the
<v Speaker 4>president to say socket to me. But yeah, and Spiro
<v Speaker 4>Agnew was like a big comedy reference because it was
<v Speaker 4>just a funny name.
<v Speaker 5>That's it.
<v Speaker 4>It's just kind of faded away.
<v Speaker 1>I've got I've got a follow up question to this
<v Speaker 1>trivia question. The trivia question is Skinner was forced to
<v Speaker 1>live on a thin stew made up of what ingredients?
<v Speaker 4>Oh shit, I remember.
<v Speaker 5>It's got fish, brawnze and four different kinds of rice.
<v Speaker 4>I remember four different kinds of rice.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, vegetables and coconut milk. But I want to talk
<v Speaker 1>about just those Skinner war memory moments. Were you a
<v Speaker 1>fan of those? Did you have plenty of those just
<v Speaker 1>sort of sitting on a whiteboard somewhere that you just
<v Speaker 1>wanted to sort of put into an episode when it
<v Speaker 1>felt right, or how did they work that?
<v Speaker 4>I think that I believe happened, Like during the rewrite,
<v Speaker 4>somebody pitched that I don't recall who, But no, there
<v Speaker 4>was no like it was created on the spot. We
<v Speaker 4>had no like like treasure trove of war memories. It
<v Speaker 4>was just something because I know they wanted to do
<v Speaker 4>that shot with the the way the lighting changes and
<v Speaker 4>the blinds put the lines on his face.
<v Speaker 5>The couple are apocalypse now lighting. Yeah, yeah, that's the thing.
<v Speaker 5>It's a great gag, but ways presented and makes it
<v Speaker 5>even better.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I like it. Because even though we're kind of
<v Speaker 4>stepping out of the show for a moment to do it,
<v Speaker 4>I think it was worth doing.
<v Speaker 1>Did you feel you couldn't do those after the Principle
<v Speaker 1>and the Poper episode? Do you feel he couldn't do
<v Speaker 1>those anymore?
<v Speaker 4>I can't remember if we had a conversation about it
<v Speaker 4>would have been weird to definitely do one like shortly
<v Speaker 4>after it. I can't say if there's been any since
<v Speaker 4>that time. I actually don't remember.
<v Speaker 1>Did you expect a backlash that came from that episode?
<v Speaker 1>Because Bill and Josh had no idea, They didn't think
<v Speaker 1>people would care, and they're surprised by how much backlash
<v Speaker 1>came from it. But what did you think when you
<v Speaker 1>first heard the pitch?
<v Speaker 4>It was I love the idea and the like the
<v Speaker 4>source material it was based on. I love the idea.
<v Speaker 4>It was like kind of a thing that you know,
<v Speaker 4>I remember like thinking, gee, I wish we had done
<v Speaker 4>this early if it was going to be done earlier
<v Speaker 4>in the show, you know, like in an earlier season.
<v Speaker 4>It did feel a little like, well, you know, the
<v Speaker 4>character is so well established now and had been leaned
<v Speaker 4>on very heavily, it might have been you know, it
<v Speaker 4>might have just been too much. Maybe the audience. You
<v Speaker 4>never know, like and particularly pre Internet, you still weren't well,
<v Speaker 4>this wasn't pre Internet, but it was you know, early on,
<v Speaker 4>and you don't know, yeah, how attached to like certain
<v Speaker 4>characters people are or what parts of that character they
<v Speaker 4>are and where can you ben those rules and just try,
<v Speaker 4>you know, do something different for an episode, because I
<v Speaker 4>do remember it was it was a funny pitch when
<v Speaker 4>when it was pitched, Yeah, it was like very really
<v Speaker 4>like well thought out.
<v Speaker 1>Do you think a lot of the issue came from
<v Speaker 1>that many people may not have understood the source material.
<v Speaker 1>Do you think if they understood what the parody was,
<v Speaker 1>they might have been in on the joke.
<v Speaker 5>It's not really a sort of direct lift telling a
<v Speaker 5>return of Martin Gear, which was remade around the same
<v Speaker 5>time as like they did an American remake Some mus
<v Speaker 5>Be with Richard Gear and Jody Fossil. I think was
<v Speaker 5>the early nineties, so it could have been fresh in
<v Speaker 5>people's minds.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I couldn't remember like how big of a hit
<v Speaker 4>the movie was, you know, the Richard Gear, But I
<v Speaker 4>don't know. It's just one of those things you take,
<v Speaker 4>Like I said, that you get. Sometimes you just take
<v Speaker 4>you take big swings. You take the swing, and you know,
<v Speaker 4>sometimes it just doesn't work out, or you'll you'll run in.
<v Speaker 4>Sometimes there are people who love it. You tend to
<v Speaker 4>hear more from people who don't like something.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, yeah, you know, I'd like to I'd like to
<v Speaker 5>rewind as quickly to Skinner's numb flashback there, because it's
<v Speaker 5>funny you mentioned before about how you know the writer's
<v Speaker 5>room would come together on a gag or you haven't
<v Speaker 5>men would laugh at it and be like, I'm not
<v Speaker 5>sure we get this. I love Skinner saying will I
<v Speaker 5>had a good laugh, but up with many skirts, even
<v Speaker 5>if I didn't quite understand the.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, now, the Skinner is such a great character, and
<v Speaker 4>Harry Sheer does such a you know, incredible job. You
<v Speaker 4>know with him, you're like, you just kind of maybe
<v Speaker 4>that's you. You buy this guy so much. You know,
<v Speaker 4>you're like the living with his mother and all of
<v Speaker 4>the things he he doesn't understand, and he's just so
<v Speaker 4>befuddeled and but yet trying so hard to do a
<v Speaker 4>good job. You know, it's funny you asked before about
<v Speaker 4>things from pulling from the family life that wind up
<v Speaker 4>in episodes, and it's in this episode that holds the
<v Speaker 4>b plot. This the subplot about school uniforms.
<v Speaker 1>We haven't haven't touched on that yet.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, my at that time, my kids were in school
<v Speaker 4>and their school was talking about going to uniforms. There
<v Speaker 4>was a lot of like uproar about kids dressing and
<v Speaker 4>appropriately we have the pants hanging too low and you
<v Speaker 4>know the girls with you know, the crop tops and
<v Speaker 4>that kind of stuff. Like you know, there was like
<v Speaker 4>some parents that were upset and there was a lot
<v Speaker 4>of talk going on about switching to the uniforms, and
<v Speaker 4>my kids were really upset about. In the end, it
<v Speaker 4>wound up being voted against. But that's where that came from.
<v Speaker 4>It was talk in our house at the time. They
<v Speaker 4>came home one day really angry that this was a possibility.
<v Speaker 1>So I didn't realize as a kid until I watched
<v Speaker 1>this episode. I always thought they just don't wear uniforms
<v Speaker 1>on The Simpsons because in Australia we have to wear
<v Speaker 1>uniforms when we go to school. It's just part of
<v Speaker 1>what we do here. Wow, And that's why I was
<v Speaker 1>always like, why that's so annoyed by it? We wear uniforms.
<v Speaker 1>Isn't that a big deal. But you know, as you
<v Speaker 1>were saying in the commentary, it's very important for people
<v Speaker 1>to know where you are in the social leta when
<v Speaker 1>it comes to how rich your family is.
<v Speaker 4>Well there's also too there's like kids want a a
<v Speaker 4>shirt with like a band name, so yes, exactly, which
<v Speaker 4>also was happening. You know when my kids were in school,
<v Speaker 4>they had that the underachiever and proud of it or
<v Speaker 4>who the hell are you like that? I mean they
<v Speaker 4>were it was banned from schools they were in.
<v Speaker 1>So you so you knew of the Simpsons, but you
<v Speaker 1>just didn't give it a chance because it was an
<v Speaker 1>animated show.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, well, because I had seen the shorts on the
<v Speaker 4>Tracy Allman Show.
<v Speaker 1>And then they're not great. They're not great, And like
<v Speaker 1>I said, I.
<v Speaker 4>Felt like, well, yeah, I watched cartoons when I was
<v Speaker 4>a kid, and so I wasn't big on the on
<v Speaker 4>the shorts. And then I heard they were turning it
<v Speaker 4>into a series, and my initial reaction was a half
<v Speaker 4>hour of that every week. Oh my god, good, good
<v Speaker 4>luck guys. So another thing I was wrong about.
<v Speaker 1>But all right, well, the usual ed of team Home.
<v Speaker 1>It was January seventh, nineteen ninety six, written by yourself,
<v Speaker 1>Mike Skelly and directed by the legendary Mark Kirkland. Now
<v Speaker 1>the top three films a little bit we do here.
<v Speaker 1>Top three films at the US box office when this
<v Speaker 1>episode aired, Number one was twelve Monkeys, Number two was
<v Speaker 1>Grumpier Old Men, and number three was Jim Mungy. Goodness man,
<v Speaker 1>that's where we were, knew jamand this year, Yes, you'll
<v Speaker 1>be fan twelve Monkeys, right, George Monkeys is fantastic. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>Grumbyer old Men, Wald Mathow and Sophia Lauren together at
<v Speaker 1>last Ye. The episode kicks off at the Android Dungeon,
<v Speaker 1>but finds Mad Magazine the special edition, and they talked
<v Speaker 1>about stocking it to the spirit of agnew Gar. I'm
<v Speaker 1>already touched on. How you know, big fans of Mad Magazine.
<v Speaker 1>Mad Magazine reappears in Was it this episode you worked on?
<v Speaker 1>Was it the City of New Orfic's Homer Simpson? Was that?
<v Speaker 1>Was that one of your episodes?
<v Speaker 4>I worked at it. I didn't write that one, but
<v Speaker 4>I worked out. But that's that's a Bell and Josh episode, right,
<v Speaker 4>I think so.
<v Speaker 1>I think it's a carrier from season eight. I think, yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I think it's the premiere episode of season nine.
<v Speaker 4>I remember correctly, that's where where Yeah, that Bark goes
<v Speaker 4>into the Mad Magazine officers thank and you see you
<v Speaker 4>kind of in his head what he's thinking, it's going
<v Speaker 4>to be.
<v Speaker 1>Versus Alfred sticks that he's head out the window at
<v Speaker 1>the door.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, But of course Bart finds the iron on in
<v Speaker 1>the magazine, which March thinks quests dangerous men of laughter.
<v Speaker 1>Homer stuffs up the folding, the folding. That's what I
<v Speaker 1>remember most about the Mad Magazine because Mad Magazine for
<v Speaker 1>me felt like the cool magazine, because my friend's older
<v Speaker 1>brothers read it, and we would always be looking forward
<v Speaker 1>to getting the folding. It would have been folded and
<v Speaker 1>been folded in correctly. I can never really get it properly.
<v Speaker 1>I never really understood the jokes anyway. I to get it.
<v Speaker 1>But I think Homer just thinking he understands the folding
<v Speaker 1>is just perfect.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, the oh eighty eller, I get it.
<v Speaker 4>I can't help but see that and think of how
<v Speaker 4>much work it was to come up with the words
<v Speaker 4>that you could fall together.
<v Speaker 1>And going to ask that, Yeah, how difficult was this folding.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, yeah, because you know, we do a lot you know,
<v Speaker 4>we used to do a lot on the show of well,
<v Speaker 4>we've always done tons of signed jokes, but we went
<v Speaker 4>through a period of doing signs where letters could fall
<v Speaker 4>off and make a different signay motel thing. Yes, yeah,
<v Speaker 4>those became really difficult. It was easier to do just
<v Speaker 4>a straight funny sign that to come up with a
<v Speaker 4>serious sign and then have letters fall off and spell
<v Speaker 4>something up.
<v Speaker 1>But we now cut to Moe's businesses stinking tonight No, Barney,
<v Speaker 1>Lenny and kyl Now this is obviously just a way
<v Speaker 1>to get them out of the episode, right, because normally
<v Speaker 1>they would be on Home as bowling team on machining.
<v Speaker 4>Yes, yeah, yeah, that's yeah. I was a little shocked
<v Speaker 4>to hear the mention of their mistress. They were so
<v Speaker 4>they were married and they had mistresses.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah apparently so. Yeah, but he closes up the just
<v Speaker 1>before the Quimby's are going to be there to drink
<v Speaker 1>each other under the table. Yeah, big fan of QUI
<v Speaker 1>love the Quimby's.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, same here because I grew up in Massachusett's.
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna drink you under the table, Homer pleads. You know,
<v Speaker 1>your kids are probably there, probably wondering where their daddy is.
<v Speaker 1>We're gonna be somewhere else we can go, think most
<v Speaker 1>think cuts to the bowling alley and yeah, so as
<v Speaker 1>you say you can't get a lane on league night,
<v Speaker 1>we've already touched on lunch lady Doris being his mother,
<v Speaker 1>I have no son. Then Moe goes on his rant
<v Speaker 1>here about how he tries his hardest not to punch
<v Speaker 1>people on the face, and only we treated like dirt
<v Speaker 1>and not that fancy storeboard dirt. And then they got
<v Speaker 1>the idea of the team a lot the animation here
<v Speaker 1>of Homi gets the idea and the bowling like goes
<v Speaker 1>Bubby's head and a poo, you want to join the team,
<v Speaker 1>and they had a fourth bowler. It's of course Otto.
<v Speaker 1>Now the running story here for Otto is the core Machine.
<v Speaker 1>Was that always in the script?
<v Speaker 5>The cor machine?
<v Speaker 4>I believe it, Yes, Yeah, it was. I think that
<v Speaker 4>was always in there because we knew the payoff.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, So did you come up with Otto first or
<v Speaker 1>the claw Machine first? Because feels like a kind of
<v Speaker 1>character you would go, he seems the kind of guy
<v Speaker 1>that would play the claw Machine. Or was it Otto first?
<v Speaker 1>And then you came up with the corn machine concept.
<v Speaker 4>I think we might have had Auto kind of from
<v Speaker 4>the start, and then the claw machine. It was an
<v Speaker 4>observation on those. They're always in bowling alleys. There's always
<v Speaker 4>the climate because my kids, you know, the endless amount.
<v Speaker 4>For some reason, they never get that it's rigged, you know,
<v Speaker 4>even though you tell them flat out.
<v Speaker 1>We say that.
<v Speaker 5>Though.
<v Speaker 1>There was one time, about two weeks ago, we went
<v Speaker 1>to a bowling alley. It's funny you say that, and
<v Speaker 1>there was a machine there and my kid really wanted
<v Speaker 1>this transformer plush and I said, you're not spending money
<v Speaker 1>on it. It's not going to pick it up Bubble Union.
<v Speaker 1>It's because the one guy. And I said, look, I'll
<v Speaker 1>do it just to prove that it doesn't work. And motherfucker,
<v Speaker 1>I've picked it up and I got it. And I
<v Speaker 1>was like, damn it. The one time I proved that
<v Speaker 1>these things don't work and I've fucking done it.
<v Speaker 5>That's ironic, life lessening.
<v Speaker 4>That's great. Yeah, I think we are. My feeling is
<v Speaker 4>we probably had Auto but wanted him doing something because
<v Speaker 4>like how they were, they were that long hair freak.
<v Speaker 4>They're just pointing. So we needed him to be doing something,
<v Speaker 4>and I think we put him on the claw machine.
<v Speaker 4>Then later on, as we were breaking the story, I
<v Speaker 4>think the idea came for the claw machine falling over
<v Speaker 4>to be the thing that you know that ultimately winds up.
<v Speaker 1>You know it's so ludicrous, but you believe it for
<v Speaker 1>it's the Simpsons. Yes, yeah, how long did it take
<v Speaker 1>you to come up with what he was going to
<v Speaker 1>be going for? That loves to harmony gum?
<v Speaker 4>Somebody pitched it in the room. We were just talking
<v Speaker 4>about like the all like the weird stuff that's in
<v Speaker 4>those things, And uh, I can't remember that was based
<v Speaker 4>on anything real, but it just or it just sounded funny.
<v Speaker 4>There was always there were little toy harmonicas in those things.
<v Speaker 4>I can't remember why. It was the lobster part of it.
<v Speaker 4>I don't recall.
<v Speaker 5>You would never ever ever play cash money for that
<v Speaker 5>thing in the real world. But getting out of that thing,
<v Speaker 5>all of a sudden, it becomes like the treasure of
<v Speaker 5>the Ciram.
<v Speaker 1>Are going to ask exactly but he needs a five
<v Speaker 1>hundred dollars registration fee, which she doesn't have. Stahmmer and
<v Speaker 1>Margins were touching earlier offering five dollars for sex.
<v Speaker 4>No, I will not pay you five hundred dollars for sex.
<v Speaker 3>Oh come on March. You're getting jumping in return, and
<v Speaker 3>I'm getting a bowling team. It's win win.
<v Speaker 2>It suck, and I don't have that kind of money
<v Speaker 2>to spend on sex.
<v Speaker 1>Now, the line here was, she says, and I had
<v Speaker 1>that kind of money to spend on sex when this
<v Speaker 1>I watched his first with reruns when it was on
<v Speaker 1>reruns in Australia, they would cut out that line, and
<v Speaker 1>it wasn't until it wasn't until I got the DVDs.
<v Speaker 1>I was like, wait a minute, what what this happened?
<v Speaker 1>So that was my first realization that syndication and it's
<v Speaker 1>out a lot of jokes on The Simpsons.
<v Speaker 4>Yes, well, if it's like American TV when the show first,
<v Speaker 4>this is before you know, DVDs and any of that stuff.
<v Speaker 1>Yeh.
<v Speaker 4>When the show would repeat in syndication, like a year
<v Speaker 4>or two later, they to add more commercials, they would
<v Speaker 4>chop out like another thirty or forty five seconds.
<v Speaker 1>That's a lot a lot of time.
<v Speaker 5>So it's cut the time, not the content.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, okay, yeah, I think sometimes though, I think they
<v Speaker 1>were for the raunchy stuff away. Yeah, but she suggests
<v Speaker 1>that mister Burns should sponsor the team, and he says,
<v Speaker 1>you already asked fifteen hundred dollars for him last week?
<v Speaker 1>What for going to get the third degree from you? Two?
<v Speaker 1>And then Bart reveals he's down with Homework shirt, And
<v Speaker 1>even as a kid, I'm watching his going I'm not
<v Speaker 1>sure a right would break out with down with homework,
<v Speaker 1>But I liked the idea.
<v Speaker 4>That that actually was the joke for us was because
<v Speaker 4>we were trying to think of, like I can I
<v Speaker 4>can't remember what the pitches were. We were trying to
<v Speaker 4>think of something first kind of like genuinely shocking, and
<v Speaker 4>we were like most of the stuff that you would
<v Speaker 4>come up with we couldn't show on TV. And then
<v Speaker 4>we kind of doubled back to what if it was
<v Speaker 4>like super lame but just something kids would agree with?
<v Speaker 5>All the shirt makes a good point.
<v Speaker 4>Yes, watching it again, like crabap reaction of horror as
<v Speaker 4>it's revealed and the kids just like you know, rioting
<v Speaker 4>and tipping the desk over and it bursting into flames
<v Speaker 4>and all that stuff.
<v Speaker 5>Is that everything is so heightened for something so anodyne. Yeah,
<v Speaker 5>that's the job.
<v Speaker 1>But even like the scene of Ralph obviously not in
<v Speaker 1>Bart's class, but he threw him in there hitting the paste.
<v Speaker 1>That's another scene that was chopped from this episode in syndication,
<v Speaker 1>Ralph eating the paste, whether momea some sense of going
<v Speaker 1>kids are gonna watch you and think they can eat paste.
<v Speaker 1>That was that was that was cut out. But then
<v Speaker 1>we get Charmers, who's about to give Skinner for the
<v Speaker 1>first time ever a perfect ten and he does zero
<v Speaker 1>first to the vertical one to indicate the one. But
<v Speaker 1>then the kids start walking over his head and Skinner
<v Speaker 1>discovers that Bart has the down with Homework, down with
<v Speaker 1>homewick shirt and you know straight away it's from Mad
<v Speaker 1>magazine because as you're touching on earlier, or we were
<v Speaker 1>touched on earlier, the up with mini skirts designed for Mad,
<v Speaker 1>which he or the good laugh even though he didn't
<v Speaker 1>rely understand it. This show was brought to you by
<v Speaker 1>the four Fingered Discount Patreon, where you'll find over one
<v Speaker 1>hundred hours of bonus podcasts, including exclusive Simpsons reviews and commentaries,
<v Speaker 1>as well as exclusive episodes of Going Down to South Park,
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<v Speaker 1>the one about friends, and so much more. So go
<v Speaker 1>ahead and join the family today at patreon dot com
<v Speaker 1>slash four figure discount. Burns is now getting his nails
<v Speaker 1>filed and asked for some more ether I leave the rag.
<v Speaker 1>But he has the hallucination and thinks that Homer is
<v Speaker 1>popping fresh. Now you were touching on and believe it
<v Speaker 1>was you in the commentary that you really had had
<v Speaker 1>this vision of squishing pop and fresh when you're a
<v Speaker 1>kid watching the commercials Or was that David Murkin.
<v Speaker 4>I mean, we grew up with that commercial. But American
<v Speaker 4>might have had a thing about squeezing.
<v Speaker 1>Oh, you know, because he came up with the gag
<v Speaker 1>about being poked in the eye. That was a murking
<v Speaker 1>gag poking the eye.
<v Speaker 4>Oh, yes, that's very American.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, I love I love Dan's acting and Homer sort
<v Speaker 1>of he's agreeing and like laughing carry also on it
<v Speaker 1>kind of hurts as well.
<v Speaker 5>Can we please just stop this? You're poking me in
<v Speaker 5>the eye. There's only so much you can put up
<v Speaker 5>with five hundred bucks, he'll take one or two. Who folks,
<v Speaker 5>in the eye. By the way, forgive me for being ignorant.
<v Speaker 5>I'm guessing Popping Fresh is like a brand of marshmallow.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, that was actually the character name. I believe that
<v Speaker 4>one of the Pillsbury dough boy Popping Fresh. I feel
<v Speaker 4>like they called him that. Oh god, I'm not I'm
<v Speaker 4>blanking on that.
<v Speaker 1>This is where we go. Hey, Google was about Popping Fresh,
<v Speaker 1>but it does that the name pop and Fresh has
<v Speaker 1>one of the best payoffs of all time. A little
<v Speaker 1>bit later in the Episodehen Smiths is trying to find
<v Speaker 1>the I.
<v Speaker 4>Think that actually was the character name from the commercials
<v Speaker 4>the Pillsbury We called him like the Pillsbury dough Boy,
<v Speaker 4>but I think they gave him a name that was
<v Speaker 4>actually said in one of the commercials where he would
<v Speaker 4>jump out of the product and then they would say
<v Speaker 4>Popping Fresh.
<v Speaker 1>Wildly known as the Pillsbury dough Boy mascot for Pillsbury company. Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>but we don't have that here in Australia. It was
<v Speaker 1>just some random pop and Fresh Okay, sure, I thought
<v Speaker 1>random imaginary friend that mister Burns had that That's why
<v Speaker 1>I saw when I was a kid, I was like,
<v Speaker 1>you guys.
<v Speaker 5>Have riven off the stay up marshmallow Man going on.
<v Speaker 1>But he has this hallucination thinks Home is popping fresh
<v Speaker 1>gives him the money. He races outside Home of Do
<v Speaker 1>and says, you know, Burns is doped up or dying
<v Speaker 1>or something. Moleman runs in to get seventeen dollars I
<v Speaker 1>think for a replacement Brissoning. Yes, he thinks of the
<v Speaker 1>TV Lepricorn and he drills into his head to gease
<v Speaker 1>likey charms, poor mommy. Then we cut to the pimpals
<v Speaker 1>riding their logos on their shirts, and I think that
<v Speaker 1>just that establishing shot there is enough to set up
<v Speaker 1>that these guys aren't going to be a maybe not
<v Speaker 1>on the level of bowling wise as the League bowls,
<v Speaker 1>but just not going to be treated as equals either.
<v Speaker 5>Right, Yeah, it does feel like people who do.
<v Speaker 1>League bowling there is this era of just unnecessary arrogance.
<v Speaker 1>You know, they had their uniforms and they think they're
<v Speaker 1>high and on the bowling lanes there god, you know.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, yeah, there was a time here. I feel like
<v Speaker 4>in the late seventies early eighties there was like there
<v Speaker 4>was like a fashion thing for a while of people
<v Speaker 4>wearing bowling shirts really to like out to like a club.
<v Speaker 4>You'd go see a band or somebody would wear a
<v Speaker 4>bowling shirt. It became like a style, and I feel
<v Speaker 4>like two and a half men, Charlie Sheen would sometimes
<v Speaker 4>that's right, yeah, wear these things. Yeah, and maybe Kramer
<v Speaker 4>on side.
<v Speaker 1>I can't remember he did well, he was speaking of lobs.
<v Speaker 1>He had the shirt, didn't he.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, yeah, I remember having a couple of those bowling
<v Speaker 4>shirts too, and going out with my friend. And you know,
<v Speaker 4>the big joke was it would have somebody else's name
<v Speaker 4>on it, like like I'm wearing a shirt with that
<v Speaker 4>says Stan, and my name is Mike.
<v Speaker 5>I sort of got a reboot in the late ninety
<v Speaker 5>sort of around that hole, just a swing dance era.
<v Speaker 4>Yes, I think you're right.
<v Speaker 5>Yes, yeah, Ben's born in one of those shirts.
<v Speaker 1>But so that they walk in, they get mocked by
<v Speaker 1>the TV stars what was their team called the Channel
<v Speaker 1>the Channels, the Channel sixteen. Anyway, they're just in.
<v Speaker 5>He gotta suck.
<v Speaker 1>Then a poo wants to leave. He can't, he can't
<v Speaker 1>handle the harassment. Homo says, we can't leave now because
<v Speaker 1>we never know about the obeatiest. That's the kind of
<v Speaker 1>stuff that will haunt you. Then they bowling and bumble.
<v Speaker 1>We men taunts them and most that about me?
<v Speaker 5>That about me?
<v Speaker 1>And otto, don't don't joke, don't choke. I knew I
<v Speaker 1>was gonna choke. And Moe groused at him. But this
<v Speaker 1>is where Homer gets the idea to let's win via support.
<v Speaker 1>Let's let's support to each other.
<v Speaker 4>Well that's a funny looking strike.
<v Speaker 3>Come on, guys, let's be the team that supports each other.
<v Speaker 5>You can do it. Auto, you can do it. Auto
<v Speaker 5>help each other out. Now that'll be romado.
<v Speaker 4>You can do it.
<v Speaker 1>You can make this fair. I give you free gelotto.
<v Speaker 1>They're back to my place where I will get your plato.
<v Speaker 3>Don't are ricado, mister rabato.
<v Speaker 1>You can do you can do it, guy, I made
<v Speaker 1>the spear.
<v Speaker 4>We won.
<v Speaker 1>Those are five dollars, apiece. Did you have fun writing
<v Speaker 1>these little random songs in the Simpsons.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, anytime you're doing something like a little different than
<v Speaker 4>what you normally do on the show, it was fun
<v Speaker 4>to come up with these little you know chants. These
<v Speaker 4>It was kind of a very positive, you know type
<v Speaker 4>joke for the guys to do together, and the fact
<v Speaker 4>that Homer was leading it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it was also deliberate choice to leave out seeing
<v Speaker 1>Otto get the seven ten split.
<v Speaker 4>You know, I I was wondering there. It was a
<v Speaker 4>weird moment when I rewatched it. So, I honestly don't
<v Speaker 4>know the answer to that.
<v Speaker 1>We I think it workes Money's like, hey, guys, I want,
<v Speaker 1>we want.
<v Speaker 5>Mike. You're among friends, you can tell us. You really
<v Speaker 5>just put Auto in there just so you can name
<v Speaker 5>check dumb rig Out and mister Roboto. It's all right,
<v Speaker 5>everybody does a bit of reverse engineering. It's fine, the
<v Speaker 5>classic moment. Loved it.
<v Speaker 4>I wouldn't put it past us, to be honest.
<v Speaker 1>I do love this next bit of Home of trying
<v Speaker 1>to retell the story to Mark but how he thought
<v Speaker 1>of the the chant that won the match, when really
<v Speaker 1>she's more infatuated by the fact that I got the
<v Speaker 1>seven ten split. He's phenomenal, But I'm the one that
<v Speaker 1>the whole team idea.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah. Now, Marge is always fun when she's kind of
<v Speaker 4>obsessed with something. You wouldn't think she would be obsessed
<v Speaker 4>with potatoes. Yeah, like the Auto one and the other
<v Speaker 4>I forgot what episode where she has Melhouse's teeth.
<v Speaker 1>Lisa or nice, Oh that's rights.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's just like so unexpected from her.
<v Speaker 1>And when Millhouse comes to collect them, Yes for now
<v Speaker 1>Skinner and lunch Lady Doris are revealing the new school
<v Speaker 1>uniforms and I loved her. I love Doris's delivery of
<v Speaker 1>seance and the brand of clothing you see it.
<v Speaker 5>I'm sorry I gave a shout out to mister Boy
<v Speaker 5>of main Street before, but I just think that's such
<v Speaker 5>a great name. I mean, it kind of sucks. It's
<v Speaker 5>the suckiest thing that ever sucked. Actually, in you know
<v Speaker 5>the twenty twenties, that everything's so homogenized, you know, everything
<v Speaker 5>is the gap where everything is uniclo or whatever. And
<v Speaker 5>you used to have in little towns, you'd have like
<v Speaker 5>that's where you go for your men's where you'd go
<v Speaker 5>to mister Boy and get your first suit or something
<v Speaker 5>like that, run by some family that's run up for
<v Speaker 5>god knows how long. But mister Boy of main Street
<v Speaker 5>and mister Boy for girls. But you're right about Doris's readings,
<v Speaker 5>that whole fashion pray thing and Martin coming out and
<v Speaker 5>just being an absolute little flouncing Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>The Pinpals now beat the DMV regulation Kings. There's time
<v Speaker 1>for the Springfield Police Framers again. WI can be an
<v Speaker 1>idiot's let's snake go. They forfeit. Now they get to
<v Speaker 1>second on the ladder pretty quickly. And the only even
<v Speaker 1>as a kid, I couldn't quite understand the logic of
<v Speaker 1>so there was second and then they started losing a
<v Speaker 1>bunch of games, but they're still in the championship game.
<v Speaker 1>I couldn't work out that logic.
<v Speaker 4>Oh God didn't.
<v Speaker 1>Really it doesn't matter though, But then the Holy Rollers
<v Speaker 1>they've won at five years in a row because the
<v Speaker 1>Homo thinks we're gonna win the championship this year. This year.
<v Speaker 1>I do love it when Flanders gets to play villain
<v Speaker 1>and he's not being an out and out villain here,
<v Speaker 1>but he is the villain because he's better than these guys.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, he's got the deadly sin of pride.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah that's true. That's true.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, but they think they high mind just has never
<v Speaker 1>been caught wearing no pants in church. As Moe says,
<v Speaker 1>then Lander's leaves one pin behind Homer mockx And this
<v Speaker 1>is an example of a classic gag you could not
<v Speaker 1>do in live action. So Flanders talked to God, God
<v Speaker 1>knocks over the pin and then zaps Homer through the
<v Speaker 1>bowling machine.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, no, that's it. It's a very cartoony joke.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, yeah, but Lisa then ranting about the uniforms,
<v Speaker 1>and then they overhear using the word suck before he
<v Speaker 1>touched on this, and then we get the nothing's gonna
<v Speaker 1>stop us now another great cut stop everything for bowling. No,
<v Speaker 1>it's bowing. I love the payoff to the bowing later on.
<v Speaker 5>Yes, there's so many great setups and payoffs throughout this episode. Yeah,
<v Speaker 5>there is.
<v Speaker 1>Do you find that important that you had to sort
<v Speaker 1>of have a payoff for every gag, that you didn't
<v Speaker 1>just have a gag for the sake of a gag.
<v Speaker 1>Everything had to have a reason for being there.
<v Speaker 4>It wasn't so much that we felt we had to
<v Speaker 4>do it, but if you had a way to make
<v Speaker 4>something not seem so random and and use it and
<v Speaker 4>actually pay it off, it just made it for us.
<v Speaker 4>I think it was just a little bit richer. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>we could have done some other joke that had nothing
<v Speaker 4>to do with the other, but you know, it's always
<v Speaker 4>that thing, like it's not quite a callback which sometimes
<v Speaker 4>we shy away from. But it's something to make it
<v Speaker 4>look planned when it wasn't.
<v Speaker 1>Why would you shy away from a callback?
<v Speaker 4>Sometimes it's something we do, like I think just generally
<v Speaker 4>in comedy, you like pick your spots and you don't
<v Speaker 4>want to fall in. It's an easy habit to fall into,
<v Speaker 4>so you just want to be careful that you're not
<v Speaker 4>doing it too often. But then when you do it,
<v Speaker 4>it's worth it.
<v Speaker 1>You want to feel like you have to do it. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I guess so, yeah right, yeah, Then Smithers looks up
<v Speaker 1>to think, who could it be that mister Burns got
<v Speaker 1>confused with? He has now mentioned earlier. Pops freshened Meyer
<v Speaker 1>is never mentioned again. He's never seen again, but he's
<v Speaker 1>so iconic, Pops fresh and Mayer. I want to know
<v Speaker 1>his backstory. Do you ever find yourself when you we
<v Speaker 1>create characters like this, that you would create a backstory
<v Speaker 1>for them in your own head?
<v Speaker 4>Now, well, particularly like that particularly joke just came out
<v Speaker 4>of the room. Somebody hitched that. Yeah, so yeah, there's
<v Speaker 4>no time for that. It's you just you know, you
<v Speaker 4>needed a funny name, and someone came up with one.
<v Speaker 5>Well, Dann it does one of the art who spin off.
<v Speaker 5>He just wants the pops fresh variety.
<v Speaker 1>Burns then says it's time to shut them all down.
<v Speaker 1>We cut to the pimpals beating the home Wreckers, which
<v Speaker 1>I think is just fantastic. Then Burns and Smiths arrived
<v Speaker 1>to spoil the party, and he turns out he's not
<v Speaker 1>going to shut him down. He saw all you saw
<v Speaker 1>them defeat the home Wreckers, and he wants in on this.
<v Speaker 1>He wants to see I got the exact words. Basically,
<v Speaker 1>he wants to feel the feeling of making people feel
<v Speaker 1>bad by defeating them in bowling. And he wants to
<v Speaker 1>join the team because he hasn't felt this energized since
<v Speaker 1>his last bowling And now the team they don't want
<v Speaker 1>mister Burns on board, and Homer's like, well, look, because
<v Speaker 1>he's in a predicament. Here again is his boss. He's
<v Speaker 1>a guy sponsored. Let's just give him a shot and
<v Speaker 1>if he really stinks, he'll be easy to tell him no.
<v Speaker 1>The animation here is absolutely fantastic of Burn's struggling with
<v Speaker 1>the ball. I just think the animation in general was
<v Speaker 1>just great, and this I think Mark Kirklan did fantastic
<v Speaker 1>job just making the bowling alley, so I no interesting,
<v Speaker 1>but just the animation of Burn's trying to push the
<v Speaker 1>ball and the little final detail of the tongue on
<v Speaker 1>the ball. When he's passed out, Smithers realizes this Racingdad
<v Speaker 1>kicks the pins over Homer's board. It wasn't an easier
<v Speaker 1>I think before had those moments where it's like, I'm fucked.
<v Speaker 1>I had to do this. I'm sorry.
<v Speaker 4>Now Mieric and his team did a great job, and
<v Speaker 4>I was loving There's a shot of Burn's fingers over.
<v Speaker 1>The atone sort of gros and the sound everything is
<v Speaker 1>just that. It's great. The kids are now at school.
<v Speaker 1>They're all broken walking through the hallway blinking in unison,
<v Speaker 1>and Skinner loves that sound, and missus case he's making
<v Speaker 1>sure the desk is parallel to the real Rear War,
<v Speaker 1>but can't remember what he's supposed to do in this situation.
<v Speaker 1>Nelson can't remember how to say ha ha. Then Otto
<v Speaker 1>has now been kicked off the team, so he's gone
<v Speaker 1>back to the corn machine. He says, you'll earn their
<v Speaker 1>respect by getting a Harvard diploma, which is in the
<v Speaker 1>machine as well. And now Burns just cost them their
<v Speaker 1>third game in a row. They've lost to the Stereotypes, which, again,
<v Speaker 1>as you said, the Pooh line at the end of
<v Speaker 1>that is fantastic, isn't it. Basically they're joining their team
<v Speaker 1>now they're having drinks after. I think this is actually
<v Speaker 1>a really sweet moment where you realize that Burns just
<v Speaker 1>likes being a part of this unit. He feels like
<v Speaker 1>part of the team, and it's seeing vulnerable side it
<v Speaker 1>wouldn't normally see. Homer says the next week is the
<v Speaker 1>championship game, and burn says that the only ship that
<v Speaker 1>matters is friendship.
<v Speaker 3>Mister Burns, next week is the big championship game.
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, is that silly championship? The only ship with the
<v Speaker 6>damn is friendship. Look, here comes the friendship ceiling, yoie,
<v Speaker 6>and here let me get that friend.
<v Speaker 3>Oops, mister nail. Well that's leprosy for you.
<v Speaker 1>I thought this was great. This is the perfect example
<v Speaker 1>of sneaking as many jokes into a line as possible.
<v Speaker 1>It's not so he drops the what's the friendship in
<v Speaker 1>the beer? It drops into the beer that's annoying itself.
<v Speaker 1>He then reaches into the beer annoying again, realizes he's
<v Speaker 1>lost a nail right, another chap that's leprosy for you.
<v Speaker 1>That's four jokes in the one sentence. How many how
<v Speaker 1>many hands can you put on these house? It just
<v Speaker 1>keeps going and going and going. But then it ends
<v Speaker 1>with again great direction, great animation of a Pooh and
<v Speaker 1>most looking your way going, dude, something needs to be
<v Speaker 1>done here. We can't have him on the time. We
<v Speaker 1>want to win this championship. Now at the school. This
<v Speaker 1>is the this is the scene where the So how
<v Speaker 1>did it take you to come up with this ending
<v Speaker 1>where the water was going to be? You're out the
<v Speaker 1>fact that they were color fast?
<v Speaker 4>Oh gosh, I I remember we did. It was definitely
<v Speaker 4>like Room created, and I wish I could remember who
<v Speaker 4>actually came up with. But yeah, we did need a
<v Speaker 4>kind of a quick way out of it because it's
<v Speaker 4>a subplot. You know, you don't want to spend a
<v Speaker 4>lot of time on it, but we wanted it to
<v Speaker 4>be visually funny. I don't remember any of the other
<v Speaker 4>things that were pitched as a possible way out because
<v Speaker 4>it was whatever thirty years ago.
<v Speaker 1>But do you think subplots are important for Simpson's episodes
<v Speaker 1>in particular? Because at Lisa or and nice. You didn't
<v Speaker 1>really have one, but this one here you did it.
<v Speaker 1>It was important because could you not flesh out the
<v Speaker 1>A plot for a full twenty two.
<v Speaker 4>I think sometimes it's it's a matter of, yeah, you
<v Speaker 4>either don't have enough story, you know, for the for
<v Speaker 4>the A story, so you need something else, or like
<v Speaker 4>the family characters don't really fit in the A story,
<v Speaker 4>so you're looking for something else, you know as a kid,
<v Speaker 4>And I think in this particular one, it was like
<v Speaker 4>the whole family kind of didn't fit in because we
<v Speaker 4>had Homer with his you know, his friends, plus we
<v Speaker 4>had Burns. There wouldn't have been a lot for the
<v Speaker 4>family to do. And like I said, I had the
<v Speaker 4>story about school uniforms, so I think, you know, I'm
<v Speaker 4>sure Mercan said, you know, it should be something that
<v Speaker 4>involves the kids and that, so that's probably where that
<v Speaker 4>came from.
<v Speaker 1>When you were showrunner, did you come to a point
<v Speaker 1>where you sort of thought it doesn't matter if the
<v Speaker 1>main family are really front and center for an episode.
<v Speaker 1>What point did you feel in the Simpsons might might
<v Speaker 1>have been before he became shown, where you realized they
<v Speaker 1>don't have to be front and center all the time.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, it depends on the story that you're doing. You
<v Speaker 4>do try. Like when we would have the table reads,
<v Speaker 4>we didn't like it if there was like a character
<v Speaker 4>like one of our like core, like one of the
<v Speaker 4>family members who only had a couple of lines in
<v Speaker 4>the episode. We would look for ways to kind of
<v Speaker 4>beef that up a little bit if we could. You know,
<v Speaker 4>we always felt it was better if you could get
<v Speaker 4>if everybody had, you know, something to do in it.
<v Speaker 4>Once in a while it just doesn't work out, or
<v Speaker 4>like you're in editing and the show's too long and
<v Speaker 4>then you might have to take away some things there.
<v Speaker 4>But we always we did try, particularly you know, back then,
<v Speaker 4>you know, we always tried to make sure that all
<v Speaker 4>the family had plenty to do.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Again, as I said here, it starts raining the
<v Speaker 1>kids closed up or what would you call it, psychoedemic
<v Speaker 1>psychedelic acid. Yeah, it's the same store. He bought his
<v Speaker 1>mother's close he raised it off and I got to see.
<v Speaker 5>It's a very Woodstock kind of moment. And yes, there
<v Speaker 5>that's a real sort of visual homage to Woodstock.
<v Speaker 1>Home is now sad because the team is going to lose.
<v Speaker 1>He spent so much time building that trophy case. Now
<v Speaker 1>this again we've touched on the commentary. We've touched on
<v Speaker 1>it before, me did that review may years ago. The
<v Speaker 1>trophy he wasn't original trophy. The original trophy from the
<v Speaker 1>original airing was I can't pronounce his name's hang hanger
<v Speaker 1>is no. Yeah, tragically was murdered.
<v Speaker 5>I believe I think he was shot to death. Yeah,
<v Speaker 5>he was the He won Best Supporting Actor for his
<v Speaker 5>role in the Killing Fields.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and there was fear that once in syndication that
<v Speaker 1>people would think, oh, Homer, The joke was Homer killed
<v Speaker 1>him to get the trophy, which exactly.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, it suddenly gave it this backstory that we didn't want.
<v Speaker 4>So yeah, we switched.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, makes perfect sense. Yeah, and Donamichi is a new one.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Then Marge then.
<v Speaker 5>I just think it's hilarious that he tries to flush
<v Speaker 5>the march.
<v Speaker 1>Brought the toilet. Then the Holy Role has arrived for
<v Speaker 1>the championship game. Moh has a plan, except this time
<v Speaker 1>it doesn't work out well. So he's going to take
<v Speaker 1>out burns his leg much.
<v Speaker 5>Like it's the Tanya Harding Nancy Kerrigan. When when did
<v Speaker 5>that actually happen? Was that how early in the nineties.
<v Speaker 5>Was that was it? Was it a relatively recent incident?
<v Speaker 4>It was, Yeah, it was, it was, And then like
<v Speaker 4>see this would have been like ninety five, so yeah,
<v Speaker 4>it was just like Prey a couple of years before,
<v Speaker 4>and it was still very much in the news because
<v Speaker 4>of the trial. And yeah, the guy the Tanya Harding's husband,
<v Speaker 4>had a great comedy name with Jeff Galooley.
<v Speaker 1>But mo fixes mister Burns is le yes and now
<v Speaker 1>he's actually going to be able to bowl. This show
<v Speaker 1>was brought to you by the four Finger Discount Patreon,
<v Speaker 1>where you'll find over one hundred hours of bonus podcasts,
<v Speaker 1>including exclusive Simpson's reviews and commentaries, as well as exclusive
<v Speaker 1>episodes of Going Down to South Park, Tales of Futurama,
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<v Speaker 1>join the family today at patreon dot com slash four
<v Speaker 1>Finger Discount. And he says we've got to kick him
<v Speaker 1>out of the team. And this is where he reveals
<v Speaker 1>as like as I'm wearing the Pinpals, he reveals the
<v Speaker 1>pin Hell shirts that he's gone out and made for them,
<v Speaker 1>which is a really sweet moment. Mister Burns, he's he's
<v Speaker 1>a kind person here. You know, we're seeing the best
<v Speaker 1>of Burns and even moment appoo like the change that tune.
<v Speaker 3>Mister Burns a's team captain. It's my duty to inform
<v Speaker 3>you that.
<v Speaker 2>I almost forgot.
<v Speaker 5>I brought you all a little something.
<v Speaker 3>Ah, would you look at that the pin pass I've lashed.
<v Speaker 3>I finally have a garment fine.
<v Speaker 5>Enough to be married.
<v Speaker 2>And I've always been wealthy, but this is the first
<v Speaker 2>time I ever felt rich.
<v Speaker 3>Now you were about to say something to me, you're
<v Speaker 3>after team.
<v Speaker 5>We had what.
<v Speaker 4>He's just ribbing your mondy.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, but the Holy Rolls all bowl their strikes as
<v Speaker 1>mister Burns, he's balls on his way down, which was
<v Speaker 1>really hard to direct. Mark said in the commentary that
<v Speaker 1>trying to make it naturally look at the ball was
<v Speaker 1>going all the way down slowly whilst they bold strikes.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah yeah, then yeah, we get that really fantastic shot
<v Speaker 1>of the point of view from behind the pins, and
<v Speaker 1>you think it's mister Burns great, amazing, And now the
<v Speaker 1>Holy Rollers are head by one pin and there's only
<v Speaker 1>one battle left. Mister Burns and again as we get
<v Speaker 1>the fingers on the on the on the fan and
<v Speaker 1>just there's a shot there where it's going. The first
<v Speaker 1>one's a gutter ball, and then it's going along the
<v Speaker 1>edge marks Mark causes a specific type of shot. I
<v Speaker 1>can't remember what he says in the commentary, but when
<v Speaker 1>the ball's rolling along the edge of the gutter.
<v Speaker 4>Oh, I don't need to know that had a specific name.
<v Speaker 1>This is something something shot which is really difficult to pour.
<v Speaker 1>But it just looks fantastic the way it's rolling looks
<v Speaker 1>it genuinely feels like an You somehow managed to make
<v Speaker 1>it feel like an action movie. It's very cinematic. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>it's very cinematic. Yeah, But at the same time, Otto,
<v Speaker 1>you know whatever, you got a hold of it. It's big,
<v Speaker 1>and turns out it's the screw of the machine. Mister
<v Speaker 1>Burns's ball knocks the two pins, Otto tips, the machine
<v Speaker 1>over rocks the whole place, the two pins fall over.
<v Speaker 1>They win, They win the trophy, but it turns out
<v Speaker 1>that mister Burns just wants the trophy now for himself
<v Speaker 1>because he's had the trade much change of the heart.
<v Speaker 4>All right, Well, the second change of the heart came
<v Speaker 4>out of It wasn't planned like when we did the
<v Speaker 4>first one to do the second one. It just we
<v Speaker 4>got to that spot of the story during the rewrite,
<v Speaker 4>We're like, oh god, it's going to take we have
<v Speaker 4>we would have to come up with some more like
<v Speaker 4>emotional real reason of like why why is he now
<v Speaker 4>going back to? And then I believe it was Mrkan
<v Speaker 4>who came up with the line I've had another one
<v Speaker 4>of my unpredictable changes.
<v Speaker 1>It sounds like Merkan was the real go to guy
<v Speaker 1>in this time.
<v Speaker 4>He's very funny guy.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, there's another one I want to kill off my
<v Speaker 1>bucket list at some point. But what was your original
<v Speaker 1>ending to Did you have an ending to this? Scout
<v Speaker 1>you first your first draft?
<v Speaker 4>Oh, I'm sure it did, but I don't remember. I
<v Speaker 4>haven't looked at the draft in the years. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Did you keep the drafts? Do you keep all these
<v Speaker 1>drafts from back in the golden ear?
<v Speaker 4>I have some. I have a lot of boxes that
<v Speaker 4>I have to go through.
<v Speaker 1>I feel like they could be a Simpsons museum of
<v Speaker 1>this kind of stuff, you know.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, which we were out thinking about at the time.
<v Speaker 1>Exactly.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, Well, like I think Bill and Josh were great
<v Speaker 4>about saving.
<v Speaker 1>Josh in particular everything.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, I think this stuff in his garage.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I think David Cohen has a lot. But uh
<v Speaker 4>like for a long time I was saving all like storyboards,
<v Speaker 4>and now I just have a few. But they take
<v Speaker 4>up so much room. They're so they're like phone books.
<v Speaker 1>You know, well, I'll I'll give you my address. You
<v Speaker 1>just send them here. I'll pay for the posts far.
<v Speaker 5>Or you know, you could put in a good word
<v Speaker 5>with the with you know, Jim Brooks and that grading
<v Speaker 5>and the Segars in Australia who would be happy to
<v Speaker 5>curate the Simpsons for.
<v Speaker 1>A very salary.
<v Speaker 4>I started to see stuff now and I look at
<v Speaker 4>it like I wonder, like what my kids like after
<v Speaker 4>I die, Like they're gonna what do we do with
<v Speaker 4>all this crap?
<v Speaker 1>But then again, obviously the episode ends with Homer that
<v Speaker 1>the big embraced, so we don't need that trophy. We
<v Speaker 1>got each other, no custom, Homer trying to steal it.
<v Speaker 1>They change down Homo. If you can't do it, no
<v Speaker 1>one can. My favorite one, the whole bizarre, I think
<v Speaker 1>is autogone. I guess no one can. And they all
<v Speaker 1>run and leave, having to be to be eighting.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, that might have been God, I would have to
<v Speaker 4>go back and find it. I think there was a
<v Speaker 4>different ending, And I feel like we during a rewrite process,
<v Speaker 4>maybe at the animatic stage or something we lost, we
<v Speaker 4>got rid of what we had and came up with
<v Speaker 4>that faster ending that you could just cut to of
<v Speaker 4>him stealing the trophy bag. But I can't remember what
<v Speaker 4>the old ending was.
<v Speaker 1>Well, this one, this one's perfect. No editing in this episod,
<v Speaker 1>all right, So that that is Team Homer.
<v Speaker 4>Now.
<v Speaker 1>Obviously, Michael kept you along with a very very appreciative
<v Speaker 1>thank you so much for your time. But before we
<v Speaker 1>let you go of it's my pleasure. We see the
<v Speaker 1>idea the.
<v Speaker 5>Sun has definitely gone down.
<v Speaker 1>Now the next day, so we ask everyone, you know,
<v Speaker 1>it's nineteen ninety eight or whatever you want, it's it's,
<v Speaker 1>you know, late nineties, early two thousands. You've been asked
<v Speaker 1>by Fox to put together a five episodes Simpson's Marathon
<v Speaker 1>for a Friday night. Which episodes are you choosing?
<v Speaker 4>All right? And well, I did ask you a follow
<v Speaker 4>up on this, I said, you did? I said, do
<v Speaker 4>they have to be shows? Just prior to that?
<v Speaker 1>But you said that they doesn't matter. It's just as
<v Speaker 1>I said, we usually get guests on who stopped watching
<v Speaker 1>the show in the nineties, so we just go ninety eight,
<v Speaker 1>ninety nine. But you do it, want any era? You
<v Speaker 1>want five episode marathon.
<v Speaker 4>All right, I'll rattle off five. Bart sells us all.
<v Speaker 1>For what reasons?
<v Speaker 4>I just remember like when Greg Daniels pitch that story,
<v Speaker 4>it just sounded like so emotionally rich and you could
<v Speaker 4>see the potential for comedy, but also it just I
<v Speaker 4>don't know, it's just one that I think really holds up,
<v Speaker 4>and the animation is terrific on so it's just one
<v Speaker 4>that kind of stayed with me because I hadn't been
<v Speaker 4>there all that long, and I remember thinking like, Wow,
<v Speaker 4>this show can really go places into areas that I
<v Speaker 4>would not think of for an animated show. Summer of
<v Speaker 4>four foot two.
<v Speaker 1>One I love.
<v Speaker 4>I remember like a lot of talking in the room
<v Speaker 4>about that, about like going on a va a summer
<v Speaker 4>vacation to a place where there's somewhere else, yes, and
<v Speaker 4>there's kids there who don't know you.
<v Speaker 5>You've got the opportunity to be whoever you want.
<v Speaker 4>To be exactly. Yes. It was very a very relatable
<v Speaker 4>emotion natural Born Kissers. It's fun. I love when Homer
<v Speaker 4>and Marge are in a jam together where it's not
<v Speaker 4>Homer versus March. They've kind of well, and you referred
<v Speaker 4>before that they have kind of a rock and sex
<v Speaker 4>like and the two of them and this. Yeah. And
<v Speaker 4>also because the network it was I think we may
<v Speaker 4>have talked about this one. It was the first time
<v Speaker 4>the network sent a note like, not on a specific joke,
<v Speaker 4>but on the entire script of like, we don't think
<v Speaker 4>you should do this episode right back, too bad, yeah,
<v Speaker 4>which just made us want to do it more.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I remember when that was first market in Australia.
<v Speaker 1>It was the first ever adults only Simpsons but at
<v Speaker 1>seven but at nine thirty PM, and I was like, well,
<v Speaker 1>you're not watching that one st my little VHS on
<v Speaker 1>the sly. Yeah, And I watched it, going, God, that's
<v Speaker 1>not bad.
<v Speaker 4>Oh, and I should say too, like Summer of Fourth
<v Speaker 4>for two I believe was Dan Graney. Natural Born Kissers
<v Speaker 4>is Matt Salvian And oh shoot, now I forgot who
<v Speaker 4>wrote this. This next one is recently it's oh, come on,
<v Speaker 4>all you faithful.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, the Disney's Plus Special.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, yeah, I thought it was terrific and it was
<v Speaker 4>fun to I just watched it as a viewer. I
<v Speaker 4>had nothing to do with it.
<v Speaker 1>That must be great. Yeah, yeah, and to do.
<v Speaker 4>Like an hour long episode that doesn't feel like an
<v Speaker 4>hour long like you know, a lot of times when
<v Speaker 4>comedies go long, you can feel the padding, you can
<v Speaker 4>feel what should have been cut, and this show just
<v Speaker 4>didn't have it. There was enough story and it's a
<v Speaker 4>great Christmas episode and we're still close enough to Christmas.
<v Speaker 4>People should go to Disney Plus and watch it. It's
<v Speaker 4>a terrific episode. And I'm forgetting who wrote it? Now?
<v Speaker 4>Is it Carolyn All?
<v Speaker 1>Meaning maybe she's one of my favorite seamson draw Does
<v Speaker 1>I love Carolyn? To meane?
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, she's She's great.
<v Speaker 1>I look at the writer. Yeah, thats your fifth episode
<v Speaker 1>for your marathon, and this one you will not have.
<v Speaker 1>It was Carolyn, by the way, it was Carolyn. It was.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, it's a terrific episode, and I had the pleasure.
<v Speaker 4>The other day I happened to be on the lot.
<v Speaker 4>I dropped by the lot and went into editing with
<v Speaker 4>Matt Selman and Christine Nangele for what is going to
<v Speaker 4>be the eight hundredth episode, and I'm not going to
<v Speaker 4>say what the plot is or tell anybody anything about it,
<v Speaker 4>but it was fun to see it. It's in the
<v Speaker 4>color stages and it was hilarious and it's a really
<v Speaker 4>fun episode and everybody should check it out when it
<v Speaker 4>comes on.
<v Speaker 1>Well, we've got Matt coming on the show tomorrow, so
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to say, hey, Scully told us all about
<v Speaker 1>the end of the episode. That's a great I like
<v Speaker 1>that you've you've expanded here. It's not just what people
<v Speaker 1>call the Golden era, it's you know, it's a bit
<v Speaker 1>of new bit of all because the new episodes are
<v Speaker 1>genuinely great. We've we reviewed the premiere episode of season
<v Speaker 1>thirty seven. We thought it could have been up there
<v Speaker 1>with like a season seven, season eight episode. We thought
<v Speaker 1>it was really great.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, yeah, that was I had a really hard time,
<v Speaker 4>like it's so hard to come up with five. It
<v Speaker 4>was like, yeah, it would be almost easier to come
<v Speaker 4>up with fifty.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, all right, or Mike, thank you again for your
<v Speaker 1>time here reviewing team having it's been absolute pleasure. It's
<v Speaker 1>been what sixties in between episodes. Let's not make it
<v Speaker 1>sixties again?
<v Speaker 4>Hey, Yeah, absolutely I've come back anytime. A lot of fun.
<v Speaker 4>Thank you, Mike, Thanks very much, Mike, all right, thank you,
<v Speaker 4>Bye everybody.