The Simpsons is practically immune to meddling in real-life. Producer James L. Brooks has the clout to make it a rule that the network can't give notes. Little things have been tinkered with (largely relating to legal/censorship issues), but the series has been spared the problems others have faced. That doesn't mean the series doesn't parody this trope, though
- Executive Meddling is parodied when too much meddling causes Krusty to retire for the umpteenth time.Krusty: Folks, I've been in showbiz for sixty-one years, but now these jerks have sucked all the fun out of it. I don't need twelve suits tellin' me which way to pee!
Male Executive: Uh, for "pee," could you substitute "whiz"?
Lindsey Naegle: I don't know, that could upset the Cheez Whiz people.
Male Executive: I was just thinking that.
Krusty: I can't take it anymore! - It was also parodied when executives came up with Poochie.Meyers: No, no, no! He was supposed to have attitude.
Silverman: Um... wh-what do you mean, exactly?
Myers: Oh, you know, attitude, attitude! Uh... sunglasses!
Lady: Could we put him in more of a "hip-hop" context?
Krusty: Forget context, he's gotta be a surfer. Give me a nice shmear of surfer.
Lady: I feel we should Rasta-fy him by... 10 percent or so. - Also a major factor of the plot in "Beyond Blunderdome". In the episode, Mel Gibson intended to star in a potential remake of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Homer disliked it, and the fact that he was the only person to actually honestly voice this opinion was the reason why he hired Homer to help him with it in the first place. Homer then came up with some ideas, such as speeding up the film, replacing the main villain with a dog with shifty eyes, and finally rewriting the entire filibuster speech to have Mel Gibson go to his usual roles of a mindless killing machine. Ultimately the last one was chosen. Several executives were appalled by the change after a test screening, and decided to burn it. Eventually after a literal chase throughout Hollywood, they relented, and the Executives who were against the new version turned out to be quite right in their judgment about how horrible the change was, as the audience was disgusted and mortified by the final version, with one audience member, Jimmy Stewart's granddaughter, threatening to sue Homer Simpson and Mel Gibson for tarnishing her grandpa's masterpiece.
- Parodied in the episode "Homer to the Max":
- Homer: Oh, I can't wait. Look, Marge, I got a scorecard printed up at that all-night scorecard place.Lisa: Isn't mid-season just a dumping ground for second-rate shows that weren't good enough for the fall schedule?Homer: You're thinking of all the other years. This year's shows are classic. There's "The Laughter Family" — that's animated. Networks like animation 'cause they don't have to pay the actors squat!Ned Flanders: [voice slightly off] Plus, they can replace them, and no one can tell the diddley-ifference!
- This conversation also acted as both an inside joke and a Take That! to the FOX executives, since they often don't pay the Voice Actors enough money, with several of them threatening to quit because of the low pay, and some actually managed to succeed temporarily. To sell the joke even more, Ned Flanders was voiced by Karl Wiedergott in this scene instead of his usual voice actor, Harry Shearer.
- In "Natural Born Kissers," treasure-hunting Bart and Lisa dig up an alternate (and implausibly happy) ending for Casablanca. The Old Jewish Man reveals he was one of the executives who insisted the happy ending be filmed, but he buried it after watching it. He also apparently insisted on a "killing spree" ending to It's a Wonderful Life.
- One of the few times Matt Groening exercised his executive meddling privileges was during the production of "Homer vs. Dignity", aka the Panda Rape Episode. The original ending had Homer, dressed as Santa Claus, on the Christmas parade float, throwing pig blood on the audience while sobbing uncontrollably. Groening insisted on a rewrite, and the blood was changed to fish entrails—which Mr. Burns throws instead of Homer, as he finally grows a set and refuses to do it. (This also allowed for a hilariously bad pun, "Merry Fish-mas to all!")
- The now-abandoned premise of having a character "warn" the audience about the scariness of the Treehouse of Horror episodes was a clear reference to network squeamishness. The final warning, in fact, in "Treehouse of Horror VIII", was delivered by a FOX censor himself, who described his role as "protecting you from reality" (before being brutally murdered on-screen by the TV rating graphic).
- In "Once Upon a Time in Springfield", Krusty is approached by two unnamed network executives who forced him to add a female character named Princess Penelope to his show to increase the ratings and attract more female viewers. Krusty refuses, but they are ready to make a reality show to find his replacement. Desperate to stay in this sweet gig, Krusty grovels and agrees, while the network executives congratulate themselves on a job well done by giving each other a high five. As the ratings improve and Penelope immediately overshadows Krusty as the star of the show, Bart and Milhouse (who are loyal fans) try to get the show back to the way it was. However, the situation gets more complicated when Penelope reveals to Krusty that she's his biggest fan and joined the show mainly because of him, leading to the two falling in love and nearly getting married.
- "Homer's Phobia" came very close to being killed by the network before it aired. After viewing a cut of the episode, the censors came back with pages of notes and edits that would have been impossible to make by the deadline. There was a shake up at FOX, though, which included replacing the censor. When they showed them the cut, a new note came back that only said, "Acceptable for broadcast." As John Waters (who guess starred as John in the episode) noted in the DVD commentary, "It's all politics." In the end, only two things were changed: use of the word "fag" as the word that straight people use to make fun of gays (it was changed to "queer"), and John's line about how Homer reminds him of his father was changed to Homer reminding John of his landlord (though this was done at Waters's own request, because he didn't want people to think his father was intolerant of his sexuality).
- Originally in the "Time and Punishment" segment of "Treehouse of Horror V", while tumbling through time Homer was going to declare that he was "the first non-fictional person to travel through time!". For unknown reasons, the executives requested that the line be changed to Homer saying that he is "the first non-Brazilian person to travel through time" instead. Nobody (not even Matt Groening himself by his own admission) has any idea what the new line was supposed to mean or reference, nor why the executives requested that the line be changed to that in the first place.
- The Simpsons Archive speculates it might be a reference to the novels of Carlos Castaneda, a popular Brazilian-American writer known for his hallucinogenic stories, but even this is just a theory.
- Happens in "Pokey Mom" in-universe, when Skinner hires a talented ex-con, Jack Crowley, to paint a mural at the school. Crowley paints a masterpiece but Skinner deems it too violent and insists that Crowley paint a child-friendly mural over it. Crowley goes with the request but sabotages the inauguration by setting the mural on fire; this briefly reveals the original mural under it, which the children love, before it also burns to dust.
