| 1 | !Trivia tropes for ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' |
| 2 | ---- |
| 3 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 4 | |
| 5 | [[folder:Sub-pages]] |
| 6 | [[index]] |
| 7 | * [[AccidentallyCorrectWriting/TheSimpsons Accidentally Correct Writing]] |
| 8 | * [[CowboyBebopAtHisComputer/TheSimpsons Cowboy BeBop at His Computer]] |
| 9 | * [[Defictionalization/TheSimpsons Defictionalization]] |
| 10 | * [[DiedDuringProduction/TheSimpsons Died During Production]] |
| 11 | * [[DistancedFromCurrentEvents/TheSimpsons Distanced from Current Events]] |
| 12 | * [[ExecutiveMeddling/TheSimpsons Executive Meddling]] |
| 13 | * [[InMemoriam/TheSimpsons In Memoriam]] |
| 14 | * [[ReferencedBy/TheSimpsons Referenced by...]] |
| 15 | * [[TropeNamers/TheSimpsons Trope Namers]] |
| 16 | * [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/TheSimpsons What Could Have Been]] |
| 17 | [[/index]] |
| 18 | [[/folder]] |
| 19 | |
| 20 | [[folder:A-M]] |
| 21 | * ActingForTwo: The majority of the characters who appear on the show are voiced [[ManOfAThousandVoices by the same small group of voice actors]], in particular Creator/DanCastellaneta (Homer and broader characters like Barney and Willie), Creator/NancyCartwright (Bart and other child characters like Nelson and Ralph), Creator/HarryShearer (Burns and straight-laced characters like Skinner and Flanders), Creator/HankAzaria (Moe, Apu and sillier characters like Wiggum and Frink), and Creator/TressMacNeille (mostly adult females like Agnes Skinner and Brandine Spuckler). Creator/JulieKavner is a bit more limited in doing mostly Marge and her family (Patty and Selma, variations on the same voice), while Creator/YeardleySmith is unusual in that she just does Lisa, barring the rare one-gag role (typically a Lisa soundalike). |
| 22 | * ActorExistenceLimbo: |
| 23 | ** After Creator/PhilHartman's death in 1998, his characters (Lionel Hutz and Troy [=McClure=], plus several {{One Shot Character}}s) were retired after the remaining episodes Hartman had recorded aired, only appearing in crowd scenes after that before ultimately being retired from the show altogether in season 12. They still show up in the comics since a voice actor is not needed. |
| 24 | ** With Creator/MarciaWallace's death in October 2013, the producers announced that Mrs. Krabappel would be retired once the remaining episodes Wallace had recorded aired. They eventually decided that [[TheCharacterDiedWithHim Mrs. Krabappel died as well]], both out of respect for Wallace and because it would have been awkward to explain her absence from scenes involving the school or Ned Flanders. |
| 25 | ** This ''did'' happen to Lunchlady Doris when Doris Grau died, but years later, Creator/TressMacNeille took over as the voice of her. |
| 26 | * ActorLeavesCharacterDies: Maggie Roswell left over pay disputes, as her pay wasn't covering the travel expenses to get to the recording studio (she lived out of state). Maude was killed off in response. Roswell was eventually brought back to voice her other characters, but Maude remains dead. |
| 27 | * AdoredByTheNetwork: Perhaps a bit ''too'' much, to the point that some of the show's fans want it to end. |
| 28 | ** The show has rapidly been losing this status due to a lot of factors: money (new episodes are now a net loss for FOX), other cartoons becoming popular[[note]]''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' and ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'', particularly.[[/note]], and FOX revamping the Sunday night line-up. It's up in the air whether FOX will continue running new episodes of ''The Simpsons'' on their parent channel or {{channel hop}} to FXX, like Creator/SethMacFarlane did with ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' to {{Creator/TBS}}. |
| 29 | *** In the United Kingdom, every network that had the rights to the show aired a lot of episodes soon after its BBC premiere. Not as much now, but there were some weeks in 2000 where 30+ episodes would be aired in a week. |
| 30 | ** After the show, along with 21st Century Fox's entertainment assets, were acquired by The Walt Disney Company, showrunners have stated that Disney has been EXTREMELY supportive of the show, even treating it better than some of the TV shows and movies they've created. They've been open to ideas for more movies and spin-off series. Creator/DisneyPlus also heavily highlights and markets the show as one of their biggest marquee titles, and the short lived theatrical release of ''WesternAnimation/{{Onward}}'' [[WesternAnimation/MaggieSimpsonInPlaydateWithDestiny came with a Simpsons short proceeding it.]]. They even feature it in official Disney promotional material, like a clip of Bart Simpson in their Mickey Mouse 90th anniversary video. |
| 31 | * AdvertisedExtra: To hype up "Pranksta Rap" promotional material for the episode prominently featured guest star Music/FiftyCent. He ended up only appearing in one scene. |
| 32 | * ApprovalOfGod: Doug [=McClure=]'s daughter told executive producer Mike Reiss that her father was a big fan of the show, loved the character of Troy [=McClure=], and would jokingly be called Troy [=McClure=] by his daughters. |
| 33 | * AlanSmithee: |
| 34 | ** "The Simpsons 138th Spectacular" was directed by David Silverman under the pseudonym "Pound Foolish". |
| 35 | ** In-show example: At the end of the power plant commercial, Mr. Burns is credited as "Alan Smithee". |
| 36 | * AuthorAppeal: Mike Scully is a big fan of NRBQ, so a handful of episodes during his tenure as showrunner featured songs from the band (including one which was specially written for the show). He joked on the audio commentaries they were the "unofficial house band" of seasons 9-12. |
| 37 | * AwesomeDearBoy: Famously reclusive novelist Creator/ThomasPynchon guest-starred twice, which was the first time a recording of his voice had ever been publicly released. Whilst he wanted to do the show in part because [[SoMyKidsCanWatch his son was a big fan]], he also declined to perform a line where he called Homer a "fat-ass" because Homer was his role model and he didn't want to be seen to speak ill of him. |
| 38 | * BabyNameTrendKiller: Not that they were ever particularly popular names, but the names Bart, Homer, and Marge are so strongly associated with ''The Simpsons'' that you are unlikely to meet anyone with either name who wasn't born before it aired (1987 for the shorts, 1989 for the series proper). The same is true with the name Barney after Barney Gumble, an alcoholic best known for his AlcoholInducedIdiocy (and it doesn't help that Gumble shares his given name with [[Series/BarneyAndFriends a certain loathed dinosaur]]). |
| 39 | * BannedEpisode: |
| 40 | ** Because of [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror the 9/11 attacks]], the episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E1TheCityOfNewYorkVsHomerSimpson The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson]]" was pulled from syndication, as the episode centered on Homer waiting by the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. When the episode returned from being banned, some prints cut out all the scenes of Homer at the Twin Towers, making the episode incoherent and very short. Other syndicated prints just edit out the line, "Sorry, they stick all the jerks in Tower One" and cut out the part where after Homer finally finds a bathroom in the second tower, he screams after seeing his car get towed (though that may have been a typical syndication cut -- the kind where parts considered superfluous or too long are cut to make room for commercials). The original uncut episode is on the season nine DVD (with commentary from the writers on how the episode is now in bad taste thanks to 9/11, but it still has its moments that have stood the test of time). In the United Kingdom, this episode was planned to air on BBC Two for the first time on 28 September 2001, but ultimately was never shown on the BBC at all. Channel 4 (who won the rights to terrestrial broadcasts of the show from the BBC) and Sky One have both broadcast a censored version that removes as much of the Twin Towers as possible. |
| 41 | ** The later episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS12E14NewKidsOnTheBlecch New Kids on the Blecch]]", which aired seven months before the 9/11 attacks, was also temporarily pulled, and later edited to remove a scene involving the destruction of a tower (in this case, it was ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'' headquarters). |
| 42 | ** The episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E2AStreetcarNamedMarge A Streetcar Named Marge]]" was also pulled from syndication after Hurricane Katrina because of its references to UsefulNotes/NewOrleans being a horrid, run-down hellhole. In the UK, Channel 4 did unknowingly air this episode around the time of Hurricane Katrina and ended up issuing a public apology for it after being barraged by complaints. For some reason BBC Two aired this episode once and once only, presumably for similar reasons. |
| 43 | ** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E21MargeInChains Marge in Chains]]" hasn't aired reruns on Creator/{{FXX}} or Creator/{{Freeform}} since March 2020, due to the episode's plot being kickstarted by a flu epidemic in Springfield, which can be seen as in poor taste due to the UsefulNotes/Covid19Pandemic. It's still on Creator/DisneyPlus and DVD, though. |
| 44 | ** In the UK, the episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E5TheCartridgeFamily The Cartridge Family]]" was omitted from the Sky One broadcast because it showed a violent, town-wide soccer riot, addressed the issue of gun control[[note]]This issue is taboo in the UK, especially in light of the Dunblane Primary School massacre which happened a year and a half before the episode aired. The Firearms (Amendment) Act of 1997, which banned handguns in the UK, was enacted in February 1997.[[/note]], and contains scenes of characters irresponsibly using firearms (particularly the scene where Bart finds Homer's gun in the refrigerator and uses it to play William Tell with Milhouse). BBC Two had no qualms about showing the episode uncut; when Sky One regained the broadcast rights for this episode in the mid-2000s, they finally showed this episode uncut on September 26, 2005. The episode was available on a PAL VHS called "The Simpsons: TooHotForTV", which featured a lot of episodes considered too risque for British TV. |
| 45 | ** Sky One also partially banned "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS13E16WeekendAtBurnsies Weekend at Burnsie's]]" due to scenes of Homer being assaulted by animals (the crows pecking Homer in the eyes and the drug dog biting Homer in the crotch when he was a teenager) and, of course, the drug themes (Homer smoking marijuana for medical purposes). In contrast, Australia and America have aired the episode, but with higher ratings than normal (in Australia, this episode is rated M and in America, the rating is TV-14, though it does run with a TV-PG rating in syndication, even though it's not edited for content). Sky have since shown this episode on very few occasions (12/22/02 at 10:30 PM, 10/6/02 at 9:00 PM), but only after 9:00 pm with no promos about the episode. |
| 46 | ** Episodes involving lighthearted looks at medicinal use of drugs do seem to draw Sky's ire: "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS20E17TheGoodTheSadAndTheDrugly The Good, the Sad and the Drugly]]" (with its subplot about Lisa being put on anti-depressants after Internet articles predicting that Springfield will be a barren wasteland in 50 years make her paranoid) was also banned. It did air on April 26, 2009 at 8:00 PM, with an encore on April 30 at 7:00 PM. |
| 47 | ** Similarly, Sky never runs "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS24E19WhiskeyBusiness Whiskey Business]]" before the watershed (as it would be impossible to remove Moe's suicide attempt without rendering the whole episode pointless). |
| 48 | ** In an attempt to prevent controversy from Japanese viewers, Fox never aired "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E23ThirtyMinutesOverTokyo Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo]]" in Japan or put it on the season 10 DVD set due to scenes that mock Japanese culture and society (The Simpsons having a seizure while watching a robot anime, Homer tossing the Japanese emperor into a sumo thongs Dumpster, and The Simpsons appearing on a sadistic Japanese game show). |
| 49 | ** Season 13's "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS13E15BlameItOnLisa Blame It on Lisa]]" was banned in Brazil for the same reasons why Japan banned "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo" (stereotypical depiction of the country). |
| 50 | ** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS19E10EPluribusWiggum E Pluribus Wiggum]]" caused controversy in Argentina because of Carl and Lenny's exchange about Argentine president Juán Perón making dissidents "disappear"[[note]]The comment is a reference to the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_War Dirty War]] in Argentina, a period of military dictatorship (1976-1983) during which as many as 30,000 Argentines disappeared, but the period and the disappearances occurred during it actually began two years after Peron's death.[[/note]] and saying his wife, Eva, is Music/{{Madonna}}. FOX Latin America has never aired the episode, skipping from "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS19E9EternalMoonshineOfTheSimpsonMind Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind]]" to "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS19E11That90sShow That '90s Show]]" when rerunning the series in order. For anyone living in Chile, Colombia, Venezuela or Mexico, the episode has aired uncut and dubbed in the respective Spanish dialect. It wouldn't be until 2016 when the episode finally aired on FOX LA. |
| 51 | * BannedInChina: Some episodes have been skipped over in other countries due to jokes against the country that really bordered on offensive: |
| 52 | ** On TVNZ, skipped all Itchy and Scratchy stuff. |
| 53 | ** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS16E12GooGooGaiPan Goo Goo Gai Pan]]" was banned in China because of Homer's line about UsefulNotes/MaoZedong being a "little angel who killed fifty million people" and the scene parodying the Tiananmen Square incident, which any mention of in China will get you in '''a lot''' of trouble. |
| 54 | ** "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo" was banned in Japan for the "Battling Seizure Robot" scene[[note]]which parodied the infamous ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' [[Recap/PokemonS1E38ElectricSoldierPorygon episode that gave a large number of children seizures due to the constant blinking lights]][[/note]] and the part where Homer tosses the Japanese emperor into a sumo thong dumpster, |
| 55 | ** "E Pluribus Wiggum" was banned in some Latin American countries due to Lenny and Carl's dialogue about Argentinean leader Juan Perón where it is stated that he disappeared his political dissidents. The comment is a reference to the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_War Dirty War]] in Argentina, a period of military dictatorship (1976-1983) during which as many as 30,000 Argentines disappeared, but the period and the disappearances occurred during it actually began two years after Peron's death. |
| 56 | ** "Blame It on Lisa" was banned in Brazil for depicting the country as a run-down slum where everyone is into soccer and the children's shows are more risque than what airs in America. |
| 57 | ** The show as a whole is banned in Myanmar because of violence, ability to cause fear, illegal and harmful behavior, profanity and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking a cast with a yellow-looking skin color]], which they perceived as an Asian stereotype and being related to the [=NLD=]. |
| 58 | ** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS28E19LookingForMrGoodbart Looking for Mr. Goodbart]]" was banned in Russia for a scene where Homer and Comic Book Guy end up in church while playing "[[VideoGame/PokemonGo Peekimon Get]]", being too similar to a real life incident in St. Petersburg. |
| 59 | ** The milestone 600th episode aka the "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS28E4TreehouseOfHorrorXXVII Treehouse of Horror episode]]" was skipped from its regular 7pm broadcast in New Zealand due to being a bit too early to show the episode's gruesome violence. It was so violent that it made headlines across New Zealand. [[http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/whats-on/entertainment/90054047/Why-we-will-be-missing-the-famous-600th-episode-of-The-Simpsons-on-Sunday And boy, those censorship laws in NZ do not make sense]]. |
| 60 | * BeamMeUpScotty: |
| 61 | ** "Cowabunga!": Although Bart admittedly said it once in a ''[[Series/TheTraceyUllmanShow Tracey Ullman]]'' short, and twice in early episodes ("[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E8TheTelltaleHead The Telltale Head]]" and "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E1BartGetsAnF Bart Gets an F]]"), it was far from a CatchPhrase (it's more associated with the 1980s version of ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles''). The reason people think it's a CatchPhrase is because lots of merchandise has him saying it. This is reflected in the DVD commentaries now and then. In fact, on the "Bart Gets an F" commentary, the writers actually express surprise when he does say it -- thinking they never had him say it at all. Lampshaded in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E22BehindTheLaughter Behind the Laughter]]", which shows T-shirts with him saying "[[ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}} Good grief, man]]", "[[Series/RowanAndMartinsLaughIn You bet your sweet bippy, man]]", and "Life begins at conception, man". "Cowabunga" also came up in that episode, too. After Bart says it for the show, the cameras cut and Bart complains that he's never said the word before in his life. |
| 62 | ** Bart also ''never'' said he's "an underachiever and proud of it". ''Someone else'', a school psychiatrist, said something to this effect in "Bart Gets an F": "I think what we have on our hands here is a classic case of what Laymen referred to as 'fear of failure'; as a result, Bart is an underachiever, and yet he seems to be…how should I put this…proud of it?" Note that this is a skilled professional honestly attempting to determine why Bart is such a bad student, not a cry of rebellion. (Given Bart's reaction when he initially flunks the history final, it's painfully obvious that "proud" is about the '''last''' word you'd ever use to describe how he feels about underachieving.) There's a CallBack in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS12E8SkinnersSenseOfSnow Skinner's Sense of Snow]]", where the students break into the school records and Bart finds a permanent record that describes him with this very phrase. |
| 63 | --->'''Bart:''' How old is this thing? |
| 64 | ** In the "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E2RadioactiveMan Radioactive Man]]" episode, [[TheAhnold Radioactive Man's]] [[MemeticMutation meme-friendly]] quote at the end of the episode is often misquoted as "The goggles! They do nothing!"; the actual line is "My eyes! The goggles do nothing!" |
| 65 | ** "Embrace nothingness" has been widely associated with Lisa, thanks to it being her profile quote in [[VideoGame/TheSimpsons the arcade game]]. She only says the phrase in the series proper once, in "Dead Putting Society". |
| 66 | ** Despite the memes, Principal Skinner has never said “Pathetic”. That was actually a repurposed [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Asuka Langley]] quote. |
| 67 | * BreakthroughHit: For adult animation in the United States, following a multi-decade hiatus. On a smaller scale, it marked Creator/MattGroening's breakthrough. It was also one of two for the Fox network, the other being ''Series/MarriedWithChildren''. |
| 68 | * BuryYourArt: Initially, the producers came to simply regret casting Music/MichaelJackson in the episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E1StarkRavingDad Stark Raving Dad]]" when child sex abuse allegations against him were first brought to light in 1993. It got to a point where Bart made a quip about Jackson being a lie parents make to scare kids in "Bart Sells His Soul". It wasn't until the 2019 [=HBO=] documentary ''Leaving Neverland'' did they go to great lengths to get "Stark Raving Dad" pulled completely, driven largely by showrunner's Al Jean's belief that Jackson used the episode as a method to lure kids. From this, it was outright pulled from syndication, digital storefronts and all future DVD boxsets, and is the only episode absent from Creator/DisneyPlus. |
| 69 | * CashCowFranchise: Sales of merchandise, [=DVDs=], and overseas syndication rights have grossed as much as $750 million a year. Not to mention the obvious tie in merch, like [[https://www.threadless.com/simpsons-t-shirts/ T-shirts]], [[http://www.worldofspringfield.com/ action figures]], [[VideoGame/TheSimpsons tons]] [[VideoGame/TheSimpsonsTappedOut of]] video games, [[Advertising/TheSimpsons tons of product tie ins]], and even [[Ride/TheSimpsonsRide a ride]] at Ride/UniversalStudios. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0PJYqzht3s They clearly warned us]]. |
| 70 | * CastTheRunnerUp: Creator/NancyCartwright and Creator/YeardleySmith auditioned for both Bart and Lisa. For Smith, the casting director believed her distinctive voice was too high for Bart, and offered her Lisa instead. Cartwright, meanwhile, originally intended to audition for Lisa, but when offered the choice between the two, and chose Bart because she liked his mischievous characteristics more. |
| 71 | * TheCastShowoff: Several episodes make use of Creator/KelseyGrammer's singing voice. According to Grammer, Sam Simon asked him if he could still sing when offering him the part. |
| 72 | * CelebrityVoiceActor: The show has had many celebrity voice actors in its 30-year run due to its immense popularity. Because of how long it would take to list every single occurrence of this in the show, a general rule of thumb is that if there's a popular celebrity out there and they've done some voice acting, at least one of those roles (or in some cases, their only role) with be a spot on The Simpsons. This is probably because it's seen as a status signal in the world of celebrities, as it shows that the person in question has become a staple of pop culture. This trend has also influenced similar animated shows aimed at adults, including several aired by Creator/{{FOX}} such as the animated shows by Creator/SethMacFarlane, ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' and ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'', and even to some on other networks like ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' and ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman''. |
| 73 | * TheCharacterDiedWithHer: In the episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS25E13TheManWhoGrewTooMuch The Man Who Grew Too Much]]", Edna Krabappel was stated to have died following the death of Marcia Wallace. After Ned Flanders' dream about him and Edna doing the tango, he looks at the picture of Edna and remarks sadly, "I sure do miss that laugh." Nelson the school bully replies "Ha-ha! [[MoodWhiplash I miss her, too]]." |
| 74 | * CharacterOutlivesActor: |
| 75 | ** After Creator/PhilHartman died in 1998, Matt Groening had Hartman's characters, Lionel Hutz and Troy [=McClure=], retired out of respect. The last episode to feature Hartman, "Bart the Mother", which had Troy [=McClure=], aired the following season. Both Hutz and [=McClure=] are alive in story and continued to appear in crowd shots, but have never done anything significant. They also appear frequently in the comics, since they don't need to be voiced. |
| 76 | ** This initially happened to Lunchlady Doris as well after Doris Grau's death. Eventually, she started getting voiced appearances again with the help of Creator/TressMacNeille. |
| 77 | ** A real problem arose in 2006 when Marge's German voice actress Elisabeth Volkmann died. She had to be replaced to keep the German dub running, but Anke Engelke, another famous TV comedian, sounds nothing like her. |
| 78 | ** It happened again in October 2013, when Marcia Wallace, the actress for Ms. Krabappel died, so Edna Krabappel was (technically) written out of the show too, much like Hutz and [=McClure=], though didn't occur in practice until around the 25th or 26th season, as some episodes with the character had already been recorded prior to her passing. The episode "Four Regrettings and a Funeral", shown on November 3rd, 2013, was dedicated to Wallace. |
| 79 | * ChildrenVoicingChildren: |
| 80 | ** So far, there have only been two instances of child characters being voiced by actual children in the series. The first was with Bart's teenage love interest [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E8NewKidOnTheBlock Laura Powers]], who was voiced by then 16 year old Sara Gilbert. The second was with Bart's unofficially adopted brother [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS21E8OBrotherWhereBartThou Charlie]] who was voiced by then 9-year old Jordan Nagai. |
| 81 | ** In the Brazilian Portuguese dub of the show, Bart’s first voice actor, Peterson Adriano, started voicing him when he was 11 years old. |
| 82 | * CompanyCrossReferences: In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', Mei affectionately refers to the red panda statues in front of her family's temple as Bart and Lisa, a reference to the fact that Disney got The Simpsons in their Fox acquisition. |
| 83 | * CreatorBacklash: |
| 84 | ** The season one finale episode "Some Enchanted Evening"[[note]]The one where Homer and Marge have a romantic evening out while Bart, Lisa, and Maggie try to foil a female fugitive who had been hired as their babysitter[[/note]] -- which in fact was supposed to be the show's ''first'' episode -- caused Matt Groening a lot of grief in terms of overseas animation and coloring issues and if the commentaries and back stories are any indication, everyone (except perhaps Creator/KlaskyCsupo) was ashamed at how the first version of the episode turned out, from an animation standpoint. There has been a long-standing rumor stating that if the following episode, "Bart the Genius" didn't come out well (which, fortunately, it did), then the show would at best have been held back until the 1990-91 television season, and at worst canceled outright. |
| 85 | ** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E18AStarIsBurns A Star Is Burns]]" didn't sit well with Creator/MattGroening, who felt it played out like a 20-minute ad for ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic''. This is the only ''Simpsons'' episode not to have Matt Groening's name in the credits. |
| 86 | ** On the DVD commentary for "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson", the writers said they felt really bad about the line "They stick all the jerks in Tower One!" after the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center. |
| 87 | ** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E2ThePrincipalAndThePauper The Principal and the Pauper]]" has been controversial among the staff. Showrunners Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, as well as writer Ken Keeler, continue to defend this episode, but they appear to be in the minority. Matt Groening, Al Jean, and most of the writers have openly criticized the episode, but none were more vocal than Creator/HarryShearer, who condemned it for "tossing [Principal Skinner's character] in the trash can for no good reason", which might have been a catalyst for his constant dissatisfaction of the show's SeasonalRot. Shearer also alleged that even years after the fact, the writing staff acts like [[CanonDiscontinuity the episode never happened]]. |
| 88 | ** Nelson Shin of {{Creator/AKOM}} [[http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2027768-1,00.html disowned]] the sweat-shop couch gag of Korean animation studios, created by graffiti artist, Banksy, in the episode ''Money Bart.'' |
| 89 | ** Hank Azaria has been vocal about his disappointment in the show's notoriously dismissive response to the Apu controversy in 2018,[[note]]It was a late addition to the episode that he wasn't able to have any input on.[[/note]] and thinks the role should be recast with an actual South Asian actor. |
| 90 | ** Matt Groening expressed disappointment about the removal of Apu, as he loves the character. |
| 91 | ** Harry Shearer [[https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/08/the-simpsons-harry-shearer-dr-hibbert vocally criticized]] the decision to [[TheOtherDarrin recast all non-white characters with people of color]], noting that a major point of acting is being able to play characters outside the actor's natural range. |
| 92 | * CreatorsFavorite: Lisa is Matt Groening's favorite character as seen [[http://www.simpsoncrazy.com/articles/yellow here]] and [[http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/television/news/story/2012-02-15/insider-guide-to-favorite-simpsons-episodes/53110250/1 here]]. Although in [[http://metro.co.uk/2012/03/08/matt-groening-i-could-easily-fill-up-my-entire-life-just-working-on-futurama-344979/ this interview]] he says that his favorite is Homer. He also has mentioned some of the secondary characters as his favorite, like Comic Book Guy, Apu and Ralph Wiggum. |
| 93 | * CreatorsPest: |
| 94 | ** Creator/MattGroening and Creator/HarryShearer both disliked Dr. Marvin Monroe, with Shearer saying that voicing the character strained his throat and Groening finding his voice annoying. Groening has also said that Database, one of the nerdy kids in the "Superfriends" club at Springfield Elementary, is one of his least favorite characters. |
| 95 | ** While not hated outright, writer Bill Oakley once noted Marge was the most difficult character of the Simpson family to write episodes for, to the point her limelight roles were often handed to junior staff as test of their writing skills. |
| 96 | ** For similar reasons to Shearer, Hank Azaria's least favourite voice to do is Duffman, as it hurts his throat. |
| 97 | * CreativeDifferences: Klasky-Csupo company animated the shorts from ''Series/TheTraceyUllmanShow'' and the first 63 episodes. Gabor Csupo wasn't pleased when Gracie Films demanded they put one of their own producers to oversee the animation and production since then shifted to Film Roman, with Klasky-Csupo moving on to create ''WesternAnimation/Rugrats1991''. |
| 98 | * CrossDressingVoices: |
| 99 | ** Probably the most famous example in modern American animation: Creator/NancyCartwright as Bart Simpson (and most of his male classmates as well, like Ralph Wiggum, Nelson Muntz, Todd Flanders, and Kearney Zzyzwicz[[note]]the bald bully who's actually somewhere in his 20s to 30s, yet looks high school-aged and has been held back in elementary school for years[[/note]]). Other examples include: Creator/PamelaHayden as Jimbo Jones, Milhouse van Houten, and Rod Flanders; Creator/RussiTaylor as Martin Prince and Uter the German exchange student; Creator/TressMacNeille as Dolph[[note]]the bully with red hair who hangs with Jimbo and Kearney[[/note]]; and Jo Ann Harris as the first voices of Wendell the sick kid and Bart's nondescript friends from the early episodes, Richard and Lewis. |
| 100 | ** In the Czech dub, Marge is voiced by a male actor. |
| 101 | * TheDanza: |
| 102 | ** Doris Grau did the voice of Lunchlady Doris. Also a case of DescendedCreator due to Grau working as a script supervisor from 1989 to 1993. |
| 103 | ** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS26E20LetsGoFlyACoot Let's Go Fly a Coot]]", Creator/CariceVanHouten voices Annika Van Houten, a cousin of Milhouse. |
| 104 | ** Played with in the French Canadian dub, where ''Lis''a is dubbed by voice actress ''Lis''ette Dufour. |
| 105 | * {{Defictionalization}}: [[Defictionalization/TheSimpsons Enough for its own page.]] |
| 106 | * DescendedCreator: For the first couple of seasons, Matt Groening provided the noise for Maggie's sucking sound on her pacifier. |
| 107 | * DeletedScene: |
| 108 | ** According to "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E10TheSimpsons138thEpisodeSpectacular The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular]]", the following scenes were cut from "The Devil and Homer Simpson" in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E5TreehouseOfHorrorIV Treehouse of Horror IV]]'': |
| 109 | *** Homer's head being used as a bowling ball in Hell (and his head cracks open, revealing a note that reads, "I.O.U. One Brain. Signed, God"). Had the scene actually been used, it would explain why Homer's head and body were separated when he was brought back to the mortal realm for the trial. |
| 110 | *** Bart trying to sell his soul to the Devil for a Formula-One race car, and changing his mind. |
| 111 | *** Lionel Hutz returning with a pizza box, thinking he lost the case. When Marge tells him they won, he reveals that the pizza box was empty. |
| 112 | ** Other deleted scenes from "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular" include: the Robo-Richard Simmons episode from "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E18BurnsHeir Burns' Heir]]", Homer and his estranged mother eating care package food and Homer telling his mom that he works at the nuclear plant and his incompetence is actually a plot to take it down from the inside from "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E8MotherSimpson Mother Simpson]]," and Apu showing The Simpsons a Bollywood movie on "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E13HomerAndApu Homer and Apu]]". |
| 113 | ** There was a scene deleted from "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E12SundayCruddySunday Sunday, Cruddy Sunday]]" where, during the bus ride to the Super Bowl, Bart watches Principal Skinner drinking beer and comments that it feels weird to see it. Skinner tries to assure him that he's actually drinking non-alcoholic beer, but one whiff shows him otherwise. He initially freaks out over losing his inhibitions, but then he takes it in stride and loosens up... until Superintendent Chalmers drives by with Agnes as his passenger. |
| 114 | * FandomLifeCycle: A few seasons in, the show was a cultural phenomenon, and its fandom was so big that 18 seasons after its debut it spawned [[Westernanimation/TheSimpsonsMovie a high-earning movie]]. It remains one of the most recognizable and influential animations if not TV shows, but by TheNewTens, the fluctuating quality of the newer episodes caused a cooldown, with declining viewership and such. |
| 115 | * FatalMethodActing: A ShowWithinAShow example: the family watches a late-era Film/TheThreeStooges short on TV, which ends with "Curly IV" lying unmoving on the ground. |
| 116 | * FoilerFootage: Several different resolutions to the "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" plot were shot, including a full alternate summation where Smithers goes through his whole MotiveRant, and it's explained how all the clues could have added up to Smithers being the culprit. |
| 117 | * FollowTheLeader: Having [[TropeCodifier codified]] the animated sitcom genre and left a huge footprint on adult animation, this series spawned a plethora of other adult-oriented animated sitcoms, the most famous examples being ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' and ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', some of them went even further in their mature themes. |
| 118 | * FranchiseZombie: Matt Groening said ''The Simpsons'' would be around a couple more seasons, but couldn't guarantee anything beyond that because SeasonalRot was becoming a real concern and he wanted the series to end on a high note. That was in ''1999''. |
| 119 | * HarpoDoesSomethingFunny: All scripts read (Annoyed Grunt) whenever Homer says "D'OH!" There's also "(frustrated murmur)" for Marge's "Hmmm..." and "(Frink noises)" for Professor Frink's mumbling. |
| 120 | * HeAlsoDid: John Swartzwelder is best known for being the show's most prolific writer. He's also the author of several comedy novels. Another prolific writer for the series, Jon Vitti, wrote the screenplay for ''WesternAnimation/TheAngryBirdsMovie''. Then there's also Creator/ConanOBrien, for whom his early years writing for the show are his "he also did". |
| 121 | * HostilityOnTheSet: |
| 122 | ** It was no secret that there was tension between Creator/MattGroening, who created the Simpson family but had no experience writing half-hour TV, and Sam Simon, an experienced sitcom writer who was the original showrunner. Groening was upset that Simon openly said that he only expected the show to last 13 episodes, though Simon countered that he was just telling the writers to feel free to experiment and not worry about whether they'd get another season. Meanwhile, as the creator and an established comic strip artist, Groening got more publicity than anyone else on the writing staff, leading Simon to acidly refer to Groening as "the show's ambassador." By the third season Simon had turned over most of the showrunning duties to Al Jean and Mike Reiss, and he left the show entirely after the fourth season. |
| 123 | ** As described in John Ortved's book, there was an incident when showrunner David Mirkin and writer Bob Kushell got into an argument about the episode "A Star is Burns", saying it hurt the integrity of the series. Mirkin replied, "That's why you're an asshole." Stunned, Kushell proceeded to chew out Mirkin in front of the writers present and stormed out. He was convinced he was going to be fired for it, and although he wasn't, he wasn't given any writing assignments either. Kushell also mentioned that many writers came up to him privately and thanked him for standing up to Mirkin. |
| 124 | * HypotheticalCasting: The writers have joked that if the show ever gets a LiveActionAdaptation, Creator/WilliamHMacy will play Ned Flanders. |
| 125 | * IronyAsSheIsCast: |
| 126 | ** Krusty, the show's most prominent Jewish character, is voiced by Creator/DanCastellaneta, the only non-Jew among the [[Creator/HankAzaria three]] [[Creator/HarryShearer men]] in the main voice cast. |
| 127 | ** In one part of "Stark Raving Dad," "Michael Jackson" points out that he's a vegetarian and he doesn't drink, which prompts Homer, [[TrademarkFavoriteFood who likes to eat pork chops and drink Duff Beer]], to ask him "Are you sure you're not here voluntarily?" Dan Castellaneta, Homer's voice actor, is himself a vegetarian who doesn't drink. |
| 128 | * KeepCirculatingTheTapes: |
| 129 | ** Only 12 of the 48 ''Tracy Ullman'' shorts were released on the now out-of-print ''Best of the Simpsons'' VHS tapes released between 1997 and 1999. The very first short, "Good Night" has been the only one ever released to DVD [[note]] it's available as a bonus feature on the Complete First Season DVD boxset[[/note]] and it's quite unlikely the shorts will see a complete DVD set. |
| 130 | ** In a lot of places, season 20's DVD is NoExportForYou - it only received region 1 (America) and 4 (Australia and New Zealand) releases, not region 2 (Europe and Japan). |
| 131 | ** As of July 2017, all episodes are available through the US iTunes store for purchase. However, they're mostly the stretched-to-widescreen upconverts from the FXX broadcast, all except the first 9 episodes of season 20, as they were produced in HD already, but Fox never stretched them for iTunes for some reason. This doesn't really ruin the viewing experience, as the stretching just has it fill a 16:9 screen, but if you want the episodes as originally produced, you're out of luck. |
| 132 | ** There's one episode which somehow squeaked through edited: "The Telltale Head". It's missing a brief bit towards the end where Bart says that taking the origins of Springfield for granted was a crime too (though, according to WordOfGod, that scene was just shoehorned in by the FOX executives who wanted that episode of ''The Simpsons'' to have a moral -- as if "Don't do something stupid just to impress some bad people" isn't enough of a moral). In a bizarre subversion, this scene is seen in syndication. |
| 133 | ** The original version of "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E7MargeGetsAJob Marge Gets a Job]]" where Mrs. Krabappel mentions that Bart faked Tourette Syndrome hasn't been seen since the first airing (as a real viewer with Tourette's threatened to sue the show if they didn't edit the scene). While the syndicated version has the original line, but not the scene of Bart snarling and barking and calling Krabappel a [[WitchWithACapitalB witch]], the DVD version has "Tourette Syndrome" replaced with "rabies," but kept in Bart barking and snarling (even though rabies and Tourette Syndrome are not the same thing -- plus, if you can lip read, you can tell that Krabappel's original line was "Tourette Syndrome"). |
| 134 | * KidsMealToy: Despite being an adult show, ''The Simpsons'' has been featured multiple times at Burger King. For example, one time they sold toys of each of the family members sitting on a specific part of the iconic couch. They also did a promotion for ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie'', as well as three different Halloween-themed promotions based on the show's ''WesternAnimation/TreehouseOfHorror'' episodes in the 2001, 2002, and 2011 Halloween seasons. |
| 135 | * LifeImitatesArt: The [[http://albuquerque.isotopes.milb.com/index.jsp?sid=t342 Albuquerque Isotopes]] AAA baseball team. |
| 136 | * MagnumOpusDissonance: |
| 137 | ** Ken Keeler has said that "The Principal and the Pauper", widely regarded as one of the worst Simpsons episodes, if not ''the'' worst episode of any show in American television history, has been his best work in television, even though he has done more favorably-received episodes on ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', with then-showrunners Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein also defending the episode. These days, Keeler and other writers have purposely forgotten that this episode existed. |
| 138 | ** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E13SaddlesoreGalactica Saddlesore Galactica]]"[[note]]That really weird, really derivative episode from season 11 about the magic elves as horse jockeys[[/note]] has been cited by many fans as the point in which the show stopped being realistic and started slavishly following in the footsteps of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' and ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' and is often cited as one of the worst episodes ever. The DVD commentary, on the other hand, cited this episode as a piss take against wacky adult cartoons like ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' and ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' (and a piss take against the show itself recycling old stories and the fans who complain about them, hence the part where the Comic Book Guy points out that the Simpsons taking in a horse as a pet has been done before, with Homer asking if anyone cares what he thinks) and is often hailed as a brilliant work of surrealism and fourth-wall breaking. |
| 139 | ** Let's not forget about the production errors of the original animation of "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E13SomeEnchantedEvening Some Enchanted Evening]]", which was disliked by the show's producers (christened by James L. Brooks as "Shit"), but Gabor Csupo of Klasky-Csupo believed that all the errors [[WhoWritesThisCrap are blamed on the writing]]. |
| 140 | ** Writer Ian Maxtone-Graham blames himself for the show's downfall, as he admitted in a 1998 interview that he had barely seen the show when he was hired. Despite his claims, he wrote "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson", the last episode to score more than 90% on Website/{{IMDb}}. He also wrote four episodes that made IGN's list of the ten best episodes after season 13. |
| 141 | ** The stretch of classic season 4 episodes that fans usually consider the show's peak were actually not all that well-liked by the show's staff at the time. James L. Brooks, among others, hated "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E14BrotherFromTheSamePlanet Brother from the Same Planet]]". The voice actors (particularly Yeardley Smith) weren't thrilled with "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E12MargeVsTheMonorail Marge vs. the Monorail]]", feeling that it drifted too far away from the show's established style. The writing staff considered "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E17LastExitToSpringfield Last Exit to Springfield]]" to be only SoOkayItsAverage. |
| 142 | ** "Homer at the Bat", considered one of the greatest episodes of all time, had one of the worst table reads for any episode. Al Jean described it: "We had two table reads on the same day, which we hadn’t done before or since. And it was the second script read and no laughs. Just complete dead silence." |
| 143 | * MarathonRunning: |
| 144 | ** On Halloween 1994, Fox aired the second through fifth ''Treehouse of Horror'' episodes in a special marathon called "The Simpsons Halloween Scare-a-Thon". |
| 145 | ** In August 2014, reruns of the show aired on the [[Creator/FXNetworks FXX]] cable channel, starting with a [[http://variety.com/2014/tv/news/simpsons-to-launch-on-fxx-with-12-day-marathon-app-expected-to-debut-1201154816/ 12-day, 552-episode marathon]] of all past episodes. The episodes now air on the channel every day (barring Wednesdays and Saturdays) in four-to-six hour blocks, mostly mixing the modern, high-def episodes with the early, crudely-drawn pre-HD digital ink and paint episodes. Sundays and Thursdays are usually devoted to themed episode blocks (such as Sideshow Bob-centric episodes, {{Musical Episode}}s, and so on), with the Sunday theme usually matching the theme of the episode premiering on FOX that night (like when "Clown in the Dumps" aired, they aired episodes centered on Krusty the Clown). |
| 146 | * MilestoneCelebration: |
| 147 | ** The 100th episode was Season 5's "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E19SweetSeymourSkinnersBaadasssssSong Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song]]", which opened with Bart writing "I will not celebrate meaningless milestones". |
| 148 | ** Parodied with season 7's "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E10TheSimpsons138thEpisodeSpectacular The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular]]", which was a ClipShow. |
| 149 | ** Season 8's "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E14TheItchyAndScratchyAndPoochieShow The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show]]" was the 167th episode, which tied with ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' as the longest-running animated prime time show, and featured a lot of LampshadeHanging on various AnimationTropes. Some versions of the episode use the couch gag where the family find the Flintstones already sitting there. |
| 150 | ** The 200th episode was Season 9's "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E22TrashOfTheTitans Trash of the Titans]]", and where the customary CouchGag would be, Homer, Marge, Lisa and Maggie end up running into Bart's classroom, where they find Bart writing, "I will not mess with the opening credits." |
| 151 | ** The 300th episode was Season 14's "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E9StrongArmsOfTheMa Strong Arms of the Ma]]", but Fox advertised the 302nd episode, "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E11BartingOver Barting Over]]" as the 300th. The latter episode lampshades it when Lisa tallies the number of Homer's schemes at 300, Marge notes she thought it was 302. Lisa quickly shushes her. |
| 152 | ** The 400th episode, Season 18's finale "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS18E22YouKentAlwaysSayWhatYouWant You Kent Always Say What You Want]]", opens with ''Series/TheTraceyUllmanShow'' short "Family Portrait". |
| 153 | ** The 500th episode, Season 23's "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS23E14AtLongLastLeave At Long Last Leave]]", had a couch gag that showed all the previous 499 couch gags, all continuing to pan skyward as they play out until it stops with the multiple incarnations of the family sitting at their couch, forming a mosaic "500", which breaks apart to reveal Homer strangling Bart, both of whom are wearing tuxedos. In addition, the chalkboard gag is Milhouse writing "Bart's earned a day off" and the opening logo includes a caption declaring "The most meaningless milestone of all!", referencing the chalkboard gag from the 100th episode. Also, Lisa's playing a sousaphone for some reason. The gag for the 499th episode was a surprise 500th episode party. When Lisa points out the error, Moe replies, "Well, guess what? Fox isn't doing this again." |
| 154 | ** The 600th episode was Season 28's "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS28E4TreehouseOfHorrorXXVII Treehouse of Horror XXVII]]", which tied with ''Series/{{Gunsmoke}}'' as the longest running American scripted primetime series (recognized by one of the joke credits, which reads "We're coming for you, Gunsmoke"), and acknowledges this at the end of the opening sequence, where Frank Grimes warns that you'd be forced to watch a marathon of all the episodes in Hell.[[note]]Likely a cheeky reference to FXX's 600-episode ''Simpsons'' marathon later that year.[[/note]] |
| 155 | * MissingTrailerScene: |
| 156 | ** A commercial for "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E17HomerAtTheBat Homer at the Bat]]" depicts Barney and Wade Boggs engaging in a burping contest. |
| 157 | ** Also from Season 3, a commercial for "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E20ColonelHomer Colonel Homer]]" has this scene when Bart and Lisa are in Lurleen Lumpkin's recording studio (this promo can be viewed on the Season 3 DVD as a special feature through the episode menu): |
| 158 | --->'''Lisa:''' I never thought I'd see another woman in Dad's life. |
| 159 | --->'''Bart:''' What are you talking about? There's Sara Lee, Aunt Jemima, Betty Crocker... |
| 160 | ** A commercial for the S14 episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E14MrSpritzGoesToWashington Mr. Spritz Goes to Washington]]" has Homer being arrested for saying North Dakota doesn't exist. |
| 161 | ** The promo for "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E4LargeMarge Large Marge]]" included scenes of Marge's breasts giving Bart confused feelings. |
| 162 | ** The promo for "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E20BrakeMyWifePlease Brake My Wife, Please]]" features a line not heard in the final episode. |
| 163 | --->'''Homer:''' It's like you hate me, your own husband, whom you're contractually obligated to like! |
| 164 | ** On the deleted scenes audio commentaries, the show's creators have mentioned several times when a "weaker" joke will be cut for time, only for Fox to unknowingly use it prominently in the episode's promos. |
| 165 | [[/folder]] |
| 166 | |
| 167 | [[folder:N-Z]] |
| 168 | * TheOriginalDarrin: |
| 169 | ** Most of the Latin American Spanish dub's original cast returned to reprise their characters beginning with Season 32, after the series' change of owner and an intervention by showrunner Al Jean; notably, Creator/HumbertoVelez and Creator/PatriciaAcevedo returned as the voices of Homer and Lisa; on the other hand, Nancy [=McKenzie=] wasn't able to return as Marge. |
| 170 | ** In a retroactive example, following the strike and the voice actor changes detailed below, Marina Huerta, Bart's original voice, reclaimed her role from Claudia Motta starting with Season 16. |
| 171 | * TheOtherDarrin: |
| 172 | ** Creator/HarryShearer didn't lend his voice to the arcade game, so Smithers and Mr. Burns have noticeably different voices (aside from being completely different characters altogether), provided by Hiroshi Iuchi and M. Samejima, respectively. |
| 173 | ** In "Homer's Odyssey", Burns was voiced by Christopher Collins instead of Shearer. |
| 174 | ** From seasons 11-13, all parts originally played by Maggie Roswell were played by Marcia Mitzman-Gaven, as Roswell was in the middle of a pay dispute[[note]]Roswell lived in another state and it was costing her a lot to be flown out just to record lines[[/note]]. |
| 175 | ** Likewise, a handful of characters originally voiced by tertiary voice actor Karl Wiedergott (including [[Series/ILoveLucy Ricky Ricardo]] in "Little Big Mom" and Muk Mu in "The Burns and the Bees") would be replaced with Chris Edgerly in their reappearances, with somewhat expanded roles, after Wiedergott moved out of the United States in 2010. |
| 176 | ** Doris Grau, the original voice actress for Lunchlady Doris, died during production of the season seven episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E12TeamHomer Team Homer]]"[[note]]The episode where Homer creates his own bowling team while Springfield Elementary is put on a mandatory dress code after Bart's "Down with Homework" T-shirt causes a riot at school[[/note]] and was relegated to background scenes before being put out of sight -- until the season 18 premiere episode, "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS18E1TheMookTheChefTheWifeAndHerHomer The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and Her Homer]]", where Lunchlady Doris returned, now voiced by Creator/TressMacNeille. |
| 177 | ** Lampshaded on season 10's "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E13HomerToTheMax Homer to the Max]]", when Homer comments that network TV loves airing cartoon shows because the producers pay the voice actors next to nothing[[note]]which was true then, as the voice actors were in contention with FOX executives over money, and FOX threatened to have everyone in the cast fired and replaced with sound-alikes[[/note]] and Flanders (voiced by Karl Wiedergott for the sake of that joke) comes in and adds, "Plus, they can replace the actors and no one can tell the diddly-ifference." |
| 178 | ** Maggie Simpson has been "voiced" by Creator/NancyCartwright most of the time, but Creator/ElizabethTaylor provided her first word of "daddy" in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E10LisasFirstWord Lisa's First Word]]" [[note]] which the staff came to regret, because they had to go through a lot of takes to get Taylor's "Daddy" to sound like it's coming from a one-year-old child and not a 20-year-old seductress[[/note]]. Additionally, Creator/CarolKane voices her in Bart's fantasy in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E7BartVsThanksgiving Bart vs. Thanksgiving]]". |
| 179 | ** Artie Ziff was voiced by Creator/JonLovitz in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E12TheWayWeWas The Way We Was]]", "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS13E10HalfDecentProposal Half-Decent Proposal]]", "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS15E14TheZiffWhoCameToDinner The Ziff Who Came to Dinner]]", and the recent ''Treehouse of Horror'' episode "Bart and Homer's Excellent Adventure,"[[note]]The story where Bart travels back to when Homer and Marge met in detention in 1974, and changes history to make it so that way Artie Ziff ends up with Marge[[/note]]. However, for his short appearance on "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E19TheFront The Front]]" (which would be a foreshadowing to the events in "Half-Decent Proposal"), series regular Creator/DanCastellaneta voiced Artie Ziff. |
| 180 | ** Mary Bailey (the governor of whatever state Springfield is in) was originally voiced by Maggie Roswell in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E11OneFishTwoFishBlowfishBlueFish One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish]]", while she was voiced by Tress [=MacNeille=] in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E3BartVsLisaVsTheThirdGrade Bart vs. Lisa vs. the Third Grade]]". |
| 181 | ** UsefulNotes/BillClinton has been voiced by Phil Hartman [who was known for playing Clinton on the early 1990s episodes of ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''], Creator/HarryShearer, and Karl Wiedergott. |
| 182 | ** Lurleen Lumpkin was originally voiced by Beverly D'Angelo in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E20ColonelHomer Colonel Homer]]" (and later reprised her role in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS19E16PapaDontLeech Papa Don't Leech]]"), but was voiced by Doris Grau in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E12MargeVsTheMonorail Marge vs. the Monorail]]" (justified because Lurleen Lumpkin's life had gone to Hell after Homer traded her to a new manager, which included drug addiction, repeated trips to rehab, and homelessness). |
| 183 | ** Mona Simpson was voiced by three women: Creator/GlennClose (in the three episodes which prominently feature her -- including the ''Film/{{Inception}}'' parody, "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS23E16HowIWetYourMother How I Wet Your Mother]]"), Creator/TressMacNeille ("D'oh-in' in the Wind"), Creator/MaggieRoswell ("[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E15OhBrotherWhereArtThou Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?]]", which featured a Mona Simpson that did not look like the one from later episodes), and Pamela Hayden ("Mother Simpson", when she says "D'oh!", since Glenn Close had difficulty saying it properly). |
| 184 | ** Troy [=McClure=], usually voiced by Creator/PhilHartman, was briefly voiced by Creator/DanCastellaneta in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E16BartsDogGetsAnF Bart's Dog Gets an F]]" while Santa's Little Helper is "channel-surfing". |
| 185 | ** Creator/RussiTaylor usually voices Martin Prince, but in some early appearances, he was voiced by Creator/JoAnnHarris. |
| 186 | *** After Taylor died, her roles as Martin, Sherri, and Terri were all replaced with Creator/GreyDeLisle. |
| 187 | ** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E8TheTelltaleHead The Telltale Head]]", Jimbo Jones and Dolph Starbeam[[note]]the bully with the red hair over one of his eyes[[/note]] had their voice actresses switched (Jimbo was voiced by Creator/TressMacNeille while Pamela Hayden voiced Dolph). In all other episodes, Jimbo is voiced by Pamela Hayden ([[ActingForTwo meaning that he shares a voice actress with Milhouse van Houten]]) and Dolph is Tress [=MacNeille=]. Pamela Hayden also voiced Dolph on a brief scene in "New Kid on the Block," when Kearney tries to hit on Laura, and Laura implies that Dolph and Kearney are gay (Dolph's only line in that episode was, "That chick's messin' with our minds."), and for his appearance in "The PTA Disbands". |
| 188 | ** Fat Tony is usually voiced by Creator/JoeMantegna, however in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E19AFishCalledSelma A Fish Called Selma]]" he was voiced by Creator/PhilHartman[[note]]The producers didn't contact Joe Mantegna because they thought he wouldn't be willing to come in to record such a small role. Mantegna got in touch afterwards saying that he enjoys playing Fat Tony so much that he'll always make time for the character.[[/note]]. |
| 189 | ** Several characters who were voiced by guest stars on their first appearance were later turned into recurring characters with a member of the regular cast taking over their voices. These include: |
| 190 | *** Akira, the Japanese waiter at Springfield's sushi restaurant, was initially voiced by Creator/GeorgeTakei (in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E11OneFishTwoFishBlowfishBlueFish One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish]]"), and afterwards by Creator/HankAzaria. |
| 191 | *** Mrs. Glick, an elderly woman from the Simpsons' neighborhood, was originally played by Creator/ClorisLeachman (in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E21ThreeMenAndAComicBook Three Men and a Comic Book]]") and then by Creator/TressMacNeille. |
| 192 | *** Sylvia Winfield, a next-door neighbor to the Simpsons in early seasons, is initially voiced by Creator/TraceyUllman and later by Maggie Roswell. |
| 193 | *** Roger Meyers Jr. was first voiced by Alex Rocco in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E9ItchyAndScratchyAndMarge Itchy & Scratchy & Marge]]" [[note]] season two episode where Marge protests against cartoon violence after Maggie hits Homer with a mallet[[/note]], then by Creator/HankAzaria in "The Front" [[note]]season four episode where Bart and Lisa use Grampa Simpson's name to write "Itchy and Scratchy" episodes after watching a bad episode and claiming that they can do better while Homer goes to night school to make up a lost remedial science credit[[/note]], "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E21LadyBouviersLover Lady Bouvier's Lover]]" [[note]]season five episode where Grampa Simpson dates Marge's mom -- who falls for Mr. Burns -- while Bart steals Homer's credit card to get an animated cel of Itchy and Scratchy, which turns out to be a poorly-made knock-off[[/note]], and "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E4ItchyAndScratchyLand Itchy & Scratchy Land]]" [[note]]season six episode where The Simpsons go to a theme park based on ''Itchy and Scratchy''[[/note]]. However, Rocco returned to the role in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E18TheDayTheViolenceDied The Day the Violence Died]]" [[note]]season seven episode where Bart befriends a homeless man who is actually the original creator of Itchy the mouse who had his work stolen from him by Roger Meyers' dad[[/note]], and "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" [[note]] season eight episode that introduced the fandom to Poochie the dog and provided a lot of {{TakeThat}}s against whiny cartoon fans who immediately declare that a show is ruined forever if one change is made to it and ExecutiveMeddling in the form of TV writers resorting to gimmicks to keep a moribund show alive[[/note]]. |
| 194 | *** Manjula, Apu's wife, was voiced by Jan Hooks when she first appeared as an adult in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E7TheTwoMrsNahasapeemapetilons The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons]]", and continued to be played by her for several years afterwards, but eventually Creator/TressMacNeille took over the role (she had already voiced Manjula in her very first brief appearance as a child in a flashback in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E23MuchApuAboutNothing Much Apu About Nothing]]"). |
| 195 | ** Creator/FrankWelker provided the vocal effects for Santa's Little Helper, Snowball, and most of the animals from 1990-2002, at which point he left due to the voices reportedly starting to strain his throat. Welker as Santa's Little Helper was later replaced with Creator/DanCastellaneta, who usually did the role whenever an episode didn't didn't have him as a focal point. |
| 196 | ** The Latin American Spanish dub [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks became infamous for replacing the entire cast]] when the original studio (Audiomaster 3000) closed after season 15. The new studio, New Art Dub, wanted to lift a rule where only actors that worked in the studio could do voiceover there, in order to sign up independent voice actors; this caused many of the actors that worked there to go on strike against the new studio, and several of those who lent their voice to ''The Simpsons'' got banned from the studio and from participating in any Fox-produced material — only a handful of voice actors survived the strike, such as Jorge Ornelas (Moe), Gonzalo Curiel (Kent Brockman), Alejandro Mayen (Carl), and Sebastian Llapur (Grampa). Starting with Season 16, in terms of the eponymous family, Humberto Vélez was replaced with Victor Manuel Espinoza in the role of Homer, Nancy [=McKenzie=] was replaced by Marina Huerta for Marge, and Patricia Acevedo was replaced by Nallely Solis for Lisa. |
| 197 | ** In a retroactive example for the Latin Spanish dub, Marina Huerta was Bart's original voice actor before being replaced by Claudia Motta starting with Season 9. However, reception was positive to that recast, since [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools most LA fans will argue that Motta gave Bart a more lovable voice]]. This came back after the recasting of Season 32, where Motta reclaimed her role as Bart from Huerta following the strike detailed above, where Huerta replaced Motta starting with Season 16. |
| 198 | ** While several of [[TheOriginalDarrin the original voice actors]] from the LA Spanish dub returned to [[RoleReprise reprise their roles]] starting with Season 32, Marge's original voice actor, Nancy [=McKenzie=], wasn't able to return. Instead, Claudia Motta replaces her and Marina Huerta in the voice of Marge. |
| 199 | ** Milo, Comic Book Guy's {{hipster}} rival, was voiced by guest star Creator/JackBlack in his first appearance. In a later appearance, he's voiced by Creator/MauriceLaMarche. |
| 200 | ** Homer's voice actor in the European Spanish dub, as well as the dub's director, Carlos Revilla, passed away in 2000 after recording the eleventh season. He was replaced in both capacities by Carlos Ysbert. |
| 201 | *** Marge's voice has also been changed twice in this dub (and by extension, Patty and Selma's voices too), and it is often attributed to the first two voice actresses that played Marge complaining about their voices hurting while playing her. |
| 202 | *** Many of the secondary characters have had their voices changed throughout the series. Characters in the early seasons sound ''much more'' different than in later seasons. An outstanding case is Milhouse, whose voice has changed three times in this dub. |
| 203 | ** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS28E10TheNightmareAfterKrustmas The Nightmare After Krustmas]]" (a Season 28 episode) Creator/NatashaLyonne provides the voice for Sophie Krustofsky instead of Creator/DrewBarrymore. |
| 204 | ** On June 20, 2020, it was announced that non-white characters will no longer be voiced by white actors, citing the Black Lives Matter protests. Beginning in season 32, the following replacements have taken place: |
| 205 | *** Carl and Lou (both usually voiced by white actor Azaria) would be voiced by Creator/AlexDesert, who is black. |
| 206 | *** Beginning with "Now Museum, Now You Don't", Bumblebee Man (also originally voiced by Azaria) would be voiced by Creator/EricLopez, who is Cuban-American. |
| 207 | *** Starting with "The Dad Feelings-Limited", Creator/TressMacNeille would be replaced by Japanese-American actress Creator/JennyYokobori as the voice of Kumiko Nakamura-Albertson. |
| 208 | *** Creator/KevinMichaelRichardson took over for Harry Shearer as the new Dr. Hibbert, while Creator/DawnnLewis took over from [=MacNeille=] as his wife Bernice. |
| 209 | *** Gay Cuban Tony Rodríguez has taken over for straight white Azaria as Julio. |
| 210 | ** Creator/JayPharoah replaced Azaria as Drederick Tatum. |
| 211 | *** Rosalie Chiang ("Meilin Lee" from ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'') will take over from [=MacNeille=] as Hubert Wong. |
| 212 | ** Bleeding Gums Murphy was primarily played by Ron Taylor, but in ''Dancin' Homer'', he's voiced by Daryl L. Coley. Kevin Michael Richardson plays Murphy in a flashback in ''Sorry Not Sorry''. |
| 213 | ** Starting with both ''WesternAnimation/TheGoodTheBartAndTheLoki'' and season 15 onwards at 2023, the Japanese dub's entire cast was replaced due to both Creator/ToruOhira, Homer's first voice actor, passing away[[note]]And then, Miyuki Ichijou, Marge's voice actress, dying at October 2023.[[/note]] and the fact most of the voice actors of many characters, including those from the titular family, excluding Maggie, are already too old to keep voicing them anymore. The only voice actor from the previous seasons who still reprise his role is Creator/MitsuruOgata as Mr. Burns. |
| 214 | * TheOtherMarty: |
| 215 | ** Christopher Collins originally voiced Moe in "Some Enchanted Evening", but his track was never actually used for the final cut of said episode, and was replaced with Creator/HankAzaria.[[note]]Had Collins kept said role and Mr. Burns, they eventually would've had to become TheOtherDarrin, since he died in 1994.[[/note]] |
| 216 | ** In "The Others" short for "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS26E4TreehouseOfHorrorXXV Treehouse of Horror XXV]]", the CGI Homer is voiced by guest star Creator/JohnRatzenberger rather than Creator/DanCastellaneta. |
| 217 | ** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E8NewKidOnTheBlock New Kid On the Block]]" and "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E21ThePTADisbands The PTA Disbands]]", Dolph is voiced by Pamela Hayden instead of Creator/TressMacNeille. |
| 218 | ** In the Latin American Spanish dub, the cast from Seasons 16-31 recorded the first five episodes of Season 32, before dubbing was put on hiatus due to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic. During that time, they were replaced by most of the original voice cast, who redubbed said episodes when production resumed. |
| 219 | * OutOfHolidayEpisode: The 700th episode, Manger Things premiered on March 21, 2021, nearly three months after the holiday season. |
| 220 | * OutOfOrder: Several episodes have aired differently from their production order. |
| 221 | ** Most infamously was the actual show pilot "Some Enchanted Evening", which was delayed due to multiple animation disagreements. The ChristmasSpecial "Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire", the eighth episode in the first season production wise, was aired first instead. This has the result of several key characters' introductions being more fleeting (they have proper {{Establishing Character Moment}}s in episodes produced before), as well as an anti-climatic couch gag, the pilot has a standard "sit on couch" scene where no antics occur, setting up for the situations getting wilder in the episodes that were meant to follow it. |
| 222 | ** "When Flanders Failed" and "Stark Raving Dad" were leftovers from Season Two that aired with Season Three. It's more obvious with the former which uses the Season Two intro arrangement. |
| 223 | * PermanentPlaceholder: |
| 224 | ** An InUniverse case occurs when the producer of Itchy & Scratchy insists that the writers make a new dog character. |
| 225 | --->'''Meyer:''' The rest of you writers start thinking up a name for this funky dog; I dunno, something along the lines of, say... Poochie, only more proactive.\ |
| 226 | '''Krusty:''' Yeah!\ |
| 227 | ''[Myers & Krusty leave]''\ |
| 228 | '''Oakley:''' So, Poochie okay with everybody?\ |
| 229 | '''All:''' ''[reclining in their chairs]'' [[WhoWritesThisCrap Yeah...]] |
| 230 | ** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E13SimpsoncalifragilisticexpialaAnnoyedGruntcious Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious]]", a WholePlotReference to ''Film/MaryPoppins'', originally Creator/JulieAndrews was going to play Sherry. But during the initial table read Andrews wasn't available and series regular Maggie Roswell filled in. The producers liked it so much that she ended up voicing the character. |
| 231 | * PosthumousCredit: Writer/producer Don Payne wrote two episodes that only aired after his death in 2013 (in addition to other episodes which he was a producer on), "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS25E5LaborPains Labor Pains]]" and "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS25E8WhiteChristmasBlues White Christmas Blues]]". |
| 232 | * ProductionPosse: |
| 233 | ** Some of the writers and voice actors on the show (Jon Vitti, George Meyer, John Swartzwelder, Creator/JonLovitz, Creator/PhilHartman, and Creator/HarryShearer) have previously worked on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''. |
| 234 | ** ''The Simpsons'' inherited a lot of the team from ''Series/TheTraceyUllmanShow'' after it spun off into its own show (actors Creator/DanCastellaneta and Creator/JulieKavner, producers Creator/JamesLBrooks and Richard Sakai, and writers Jay Kogen, Ken Levine, David Mirkin, Sam Simon and Wallace Wolodarsky). |
| 235 | * PromotedFanboy: Miguel Ángel Ruiz, a long-time Simpsons fan, voiced Luigi Risotto in the Latin American dub from seasons 28 to 31. |
| 236 | * ProtectionFromEditors: In a very unusual situation for mainstream American television, the creators had this luxury from the very beginning. Since Fox was such a green, under-budgeted network at the time the show debuted, James L. Brooks was able to secure a clause in the contract which ensured that executives were not permitted to interfere with the creative process. Though Fox still sends show notes, they can be - and quite often have been - ignored completely. |
| 237 | * QueerCharacterQueerActor: |
| 238 | ** Creator/ScottThompson, who is gay, plays Grady in "Three Gays of the Condo", "Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words", "Flaming Moe" and "Werking Mom". |
| 239 | ** Both Julio and his second actor Tony Rodriguez are gay. |
| 240 | ** Creator/HarveyFierstein plays Karl in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E2SimpsonAndDelilah Simpson and Delilah]]". Karl isn't expressly identified as gay but he does kiss Homer. |
| 241 | ** Creator/JohnWaters plays John in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E15HomersPhobia Homer's Phobia]]". |
| 242 | ** Lesbian actress Fortune Feimster plays Evelyn, Patty's girlfriend in "Livin' La Pura Vida". |
| 243 | ** In "Werking Mom", {{Creator/RuPaul}} voices drag queen Queen Chante. |
| 244 | ** Michael from "Portrait of a Lackey on Fire", who served as a love interest to Smithers, was played by gay actor Creator/VictorGarber. |
| 245 | ** Gay actor Creator/BryanBatt plays Philip in "Mad About the Toy". |
| 246 | ** In "Marge the Lumberjill", nonbinary actor Creator/AsiaKateDillon plays Paula, who has a wife. |
| 247 | * RecastAsARegular: In the Canadian French dub, Creator/AlainZouvi voiced several one-shot characters such as [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E7BartsInnerChild Brad Goodman]], [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E2YouOnlyMoveTwice Hank Scorpio]], and [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E23HomersEnemy Frank Grimes]]. Afterward, ever since "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E8LisaTheSkeptic Lisa the Skeptic]]", he became the official voice actor for both Smithers and Apu, replacing the late Jean-Louis Millette in both roles. |
| 248 | * RecycledScript: |
| 249 | ** The episodes "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS17E16MillionDollarAbie Million Dollar Abie]]" and "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS18E18TheBoysOfBummer The Boys of Bummer]]" both involve a member of the Simpson family (Grampa and Bart respectively) becoming a pariah over a sports-related mishap, to the point they attempt suicide. Though in the former's case, it only took over the first act, whereas the latter became the episode's main dilemma. |
| 250 | ** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E1StarkRavingDad Stark Raving Dad]]" featured the town being excited over Music/MichaelJackson's supposed visit. "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS23E22LisaGoesGaga Lisa Goes Gaga]]" is the same scenario, only with Music/LadyGaga. |
| 251 | ** The episodes that focus on Homer and Marge's marriage crisis, Homer getting a job, Bart getting a new girlfriend, and Lisa wanting to be popular (usually when she befriends a one-time character). They're the most used plots in this show. |
| 252 | ** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E4BartSellsHisSoul Bart Sells His Soul]]" had Moe remake his bar into Uncle Moe's Family Feedbag to make more money. Later episodes had him remake the bar into a swanky hipster joint, and an English style restaurant, although the conflicts addressed in each episode are subtly differed, and the bar usually was only the starting point. |
| 253 | ** The subplot for "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E9RealtyBites Realty Bites]]", where Snake tries to kill Homer when he buys his car at a police auction, was previously used in ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' episode "Fred's Second Car". |
| 254 | ** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS19E15SmokeOnTheDaughter Smoke on the Daughter]]" has a lot of similarities to "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E20LastTapDanceInSpringfield Last Tap Dance in Springfield]]". They both involve Lisa taking up dancing (ballet in the former, tap in the latter) and struggling with it, leading to her finding a way to become better at it (second hand smoke in the former, mechanical shoes in the latter). Each episode also has one point where Lisa comes close to quitting (in the former's case, it's Homer who wants Lisa to quit), only to suffer ObliviousGuiltSlinging from Marge that causes her to continue until something happens at a dance recital that ruins the show. |
| 255 | * RoleReprise: Two of the crossover {{Couch Gag}}s feature the original shows' actors reprising their roles: |
| 256 | ** "Mathlete's Feat": Creator/JustinRoiland reprises his roles as the titular ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty''. |
| 257 | ** "My Way or the Highway to Heaven": Creator/HJonBenjamin, John Roberts, Dan Mintz, Eugene Mirman and Creator/KristenSchaal all reprise their roles as [[WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers Bob, Linda, Tina, Gene and Louise]]. |
| 258 | * RomanceOnTheSet: Homer and Marge's European French actors (Creator/PhilippePeythieu and Creator/VeroniqueAugereau) first met each other in the recording studio and married in 2001. |
| 259 | * SameVoiceTheirEntireLife: |
| 260 | ** Bart and Milhouse keep their voice actresses in almost all {{flashforward}}s, though this is subverted in several flashbacks. |
| 261 | ** Adults like Homer and Marge also possessed the same voice when in flashbacks to when they were kids. Although one episode did make fun of this by having a young Homer singing in a choir with an appropriate sounding child voice, before his voice [[InopportuneVoiceCracking suddenly breaks]] and his adult voice abruptly emerging and [[DreadfulMusician singing terribly]]. |
| 262 | * ScrewedByTheNetwork: |
| 263 | ** Fox briefly moved the show to Thursdays early in its run, against the juggernaut of ''Series/TheCosbyShow''. The commentaries point out that this is an inexplicably common tactic that always harms the newer show, and "I think it's much to the show's credit that it didn't kill us; it only hobbled us for a bit." |
| 264 | ** ''Al-Shamshoon'', the Egyptian dub of the show, only lasted for 52 episodes, of which just 34 made it to air despite casting major Egyptian actors to do the voices. The poor reception was probably due to omissions and rewrites in the localization, such as cutting all pork and alcohol references, including all scenes at Moe's Bar, and giving Springfield a large Arab population. |
| 265 | ** In France, after season 3 ended on October 10, 1992, Canal+ completely cancelled the show temporarily and didn't show reruns of it. Instead, ''The Simpsons'' was replaced with ''WesternAnimation/Rugrats1991'' the following week. The series was off the air in France for a while, and might have not come back until September 1993. |
| 266 | * TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment: |
| 267 | ** "The Man Who Came to Be Dinner" was supposed to be the season 24 finale, but it got pulled because the production crew felt the episode's plot would be better used for a sequel to ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie''. They later changed their mind and it aired in the middle of season 26. (A similar occurrence happened during production of "Kamp Krusty".) |
| 268 | ** "Simpson Tide" and "Lisa's Sax" were written in 1995, produced in 1996, and meant to air in Season 7. For unknown reasons, they were held over and didn't air until Season 9. This explains why Lunchlady Doris had a speaking role in the latter [[DiedDuringProduction despite her voice actress having died two years prior]]. |
| 269 | * ShowAccuracyToyAccuracy: For years, merchandise almost always had Bart with a blue shirt instead of an orange one. This was done to deter counterfeiters (and possibly as a reference to ''Series/TheTraceyUllmanShow'' episodes). Lampshaded in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS12E10PokeyMom Pokey Mom]]", when Homer asks Bart where his blue shirt is, and Bart replies "I don't have a blue shirt." |
| 270 | * TakeThatTitForTat: |
| 271 | ** The episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E21BlackWidower Black Widower]]" begins with the Simpson family watching a parody of ''Series/{{Dinosaurs}}'', and Bart comments, "It's like they saw our lives and put it right up on screen!", a reference to the criticism ''Dinosaurs'' recieved at the time for [[TheyCopiedItSoItSucks being accused of being a rip-off of]] ''The Simpsons''. ''Dinosaurs'' would later fire back in the episode, "Dirty Dancin'", wherein Earl complains about the TV line-up consisting of nothing but shows involving [[BumblingDad idiot fathers]], following the success of "[[ShowWithinAShow Totally Ineffectual Dad]]", and that the other shows are just cheap rip-offs. Baby then says, "Don't have a cow, man!", Bart's CatchPhrase at the time. |
| 272 | ** ''The Simpsons'' did a joke showing Peter Griffin from ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' among a crowd of successively stupider Homer Simpson clones. ''Family Guy'' fired back with a gag indirectly pointing out that by the same logic, Homer was a stupider clone of [[WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones Fred Flintstone]]. In a later episode, Peter appeared on a Wanted poster for [[FollowTheLeader plagiarism]]. This time ''Family Guy'' turned their response up to eleven, with a gag that started with Quagmire [[BlackComedyRape raping Marge]] and ended with him murdering the entire Simpson family. |
| 273 | * ThrowItIn: |
| 274 | ** Remember Homer's "I am so smart! I am so smart! I am so smart! S-M-R-T! I mean S-M-A-R-T!" line in "Homer Goes to College"? Dan Castallaneta actually did indeed misspell "smart", then ad-libbed "I mean S-M-A-R-T!" It was just so "Homer" that they left it in. |
| 275 | ** Nancy Cartwright ad-libbed "Eat my shorts" during an early table read, based on a prank she'd participated in while in her high school marching band. She was as surprised as anyone when it was not only put in the show but became one of Bart's most iconic lines. |
| 276 | * TroubledProduction: The pilot episode, "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E13SomeEnchantedEvening Some Enchanted Evening]]" went so badly wrong that it nearly killed the show before it even began. The big problem was that the key members of the production team didn't appear to be talking to each other. Creator/MattGroening and Creator/JamesLBrooks imagined a show with unique designs and color schemes, but characters who were animated in a realistic way. Animation director Kent Butterworth (and apparently the people at Klasky-Csupo) on the other hand thought it should be animated in a whacked-out, over the top style with little regard paid to keeping the characters on model. And nobody appeared to have told the Korean animators anything at all, meaning they were let loose on the episode with wildly inconsistent results. The end product, while sometimes defended by animation enthusiasts as how the show ''should'' have been animated, wasn't what the producers or Fox wanted at all, and the plug nearly got pulled on the series. Fortunately the second episode, "Bart the Genius" did fit what the producers were looking for, and so they reshuffled the episode order and kicked off the series with "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire," while "Some Enchanted Evening" got substantially re-animated and booted to the end of the season. |
| 277 | ** There is a notorious story surrounding the first time the staff saw "Some Enchanted Evening". In one scene, Bart and Lisa watch a Happy Little Elves cartoon. For some reason yet to be determined, Butterworth had decided to have a bear tear off one of the elves's heads and drink its blood. Needless to say, this did ''not'' go over well with the production crew. |
| 278 | * UncreditedRole: Groening hated the episode "A Star Is Burns" accusing it of being nothing more than an advertisement for ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic'' and after failing to have the episode cancelled, he attacked the episode in an interview calling it an abomination to ''The Simpsons''. In turn, he voluntarily took his name out of the credits. |
| 279 | * UnfinishedDub: The Japanese dub stopped at season 14 after Creator/ToruOhira, Homer's voice actor, died. However, Disney Plus continued the dub in 2023, through with a newer voice cast. |
| 280 | * UnfinishedEpisode: |
| 281 | ** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E1StarkRavingDad Stark Raving Dad]]", where Homer meets a big, bald mental patient who looks, acts, and is voiced by Music/MichaelJackson (under a pseudonym due to contractual stipulations) was supposed to have a SequelEpisode where that same big, bald mental patient now thinks he's Music/{{Prince}} and encourages everyone in town to be free and open with their sexualities. Because Prince refused to do it (after penning the script, which was considered too out-there for network TV), that script is now the only ''Simpsons'' episode that has been written, but never produced. |
| 282 | ** An episode called "Thirtysimpsons" was written for season 3, but never produced. It would have been a crossover with ''Series/{{Thirtysomething}}''. [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/18/bill-oakley-tweets-top-10-unaired-simpsons-episodes_n_1286483.html Bill Oakley]] also revealed that there was an season 8 episode that would have parodied Scientology with Lisa joining the religion. The script was written by George Meyer, but the episode was never produced due to fear of the Church of Scientology suing, as well as potentially offending cast members such as Nancy Cartwright (though that didn't stop Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone from doing the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "[[Recap/SouthParkS9E12TrappedInTheCloset Trapped in the Closet]]", which not only got them in trouble with Scientology[[note]]or rather, Creator/TomCruise[[/note]], but also led to Music/IsaacHayes leaving the show). |
| 283 | ** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E15HomersPhobia Homer's Phobia]]" was also going to be called "Lisa Goes to Camp," where Lisa gets into kitsch culture, and Bart does the same thing, only for Homer to worry that Bart will end up gay. |
| 284 | ** There was supposed to be a season seven episode that dealt with racism called "Homer vs. Dr. Hibbert," but the writers ditched it after realizing how heavy-handed and preachy it was. |
| 285 | ** There are unused scripts titled "Homer's Sexual Fantasy", "Homer Privately Tells Bart That He Loves Him Best", "Homer the Narcoleptic", "Amusement Park" and "Homer's $1000 Suit". Nothing is known about their plots. |
| 286 | * WordOfGay: |
| 287 | ** Showrunner Al Jean said in a 2019 interview with ''Metro.co.uk'' that he can see Lisa Simpson being a polyamorous bisexual. |
| 288 | ** Jean also said that AmbiguousGender StarfishAliens Kang and Kodos were a lesbian couple. |
| 289 | * WordOfGod: Per Matt Groening, Homer and Mr. Burns are very distant relatives. |
| 290 | * WriteWhatYouKnow: "Marge Be Not Proud," the episode where Bart gets busted shoplifting a video game, was based on Mike Scully's own experience getting caught shoplifting. |
| 291 | * WriteWhoYouKnow: The Simpsons are named after Matt Groening's RealLife relatives, except Bart, whose name was chosen as an anagram of "brat". Other characters (such as Flanders) are named for streets near where Matt Groening grew up. Krusty the Klown was based on a real clown called Rusty Nails, who Matt Groening said kind of frightened him as a kid. |
| 292 | * WrittenByCastMember: |
| 293 | ** Creator/DanCastellaneta has written a number of episodes alongside his wife, Deb Lacusta. |
| 294 | ** Creator/HarryShearer wrote the Season 28 episode "Trust but Clarify". |
| 295 | ** Creator/NancyCartwright wrote Season 30's "Girl's In The Band". |
| 296 | ** Even a couple of the guest stars got in on the action, with Creator/RickyGervais writing Season 17's "Homer Simpson, This is Your Wife"; while "Homer the Whopper" from Season 21 was co-written by Creator/SethRogen. |
| 297 | [[/folder]] |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext Trivia / TheSimpsons
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
