Quote of the Day

“I’m sorry, did you just call me a liar?” – Principal Skinner
“No, I said you were fired.” – Superintendent Chalmers
“Oh. That’s much worse.” – Seymour Skinner

Quote of the Day

“If it isn’t my old friends from Springfield, the Simpsons!  What brings you folks to New Orleans?” – Clancy Wiggum, P.I.
“Mardi gras, man!  When the Big Easy calls, you gotta accept the charges.” – Bart Simpson
“Chief Wiggum, I can’t wait to hear about all the exciting, sexy adventures you’re sure to have against this colorful backdrop.” – Lisa Simpson

Happy birthday Bill Oakley! 

Quote of the Day

“And with the prime suspect cleared and found completely innocent, we must now ask ourselves: who could possibly be as bloodthirsty as Waylon Smithers?” – Kent Brockman

Happy birthday Bill Oakley!

Quote of the Day

“Nine hundred dollary-dos?  Tobias!  Did you accept a six hour collect call from the States?” – Bruno Drundridge
“It was an emergency call from the international drainage commission in Springfield.” – Tobias Drundridge
“Oh my God!  There’s nothing wrong with the bidet, is there?” – Bruno Drundridge

Happy birthday Bill Oakley!

Bonus Quote of the Day

“Now, Marge, just remember, if something goes wrong at the plant, blame the guy who can’t speak English.  Ah, Tibor, how many times have you saved my butt?” – Homer Simpson

Happy birthday Bill Oakley!

Quote of the Day

“Ned Flanders actually eliminated detention and put the whole school on the honor system?” – Seymour Skinner
“Yeah, and the teachers are afraid to leave the faculty lounge!” – Bart Simpson

Happy birthday Bill Oakley!

Bill Oakley’s Letter to Dead Homer Society

Last Monday’s post about “Homer’s Enemy” attracted the notice of longtime Simpsons writer (Season 3 – Season 10) Bill Oakley, who sent us an e-mail.  That e-mail is reprinted below, with permission and in its entirety.  You can read our response here.

Fellas:

You do realize that the Homer depicted in “Homer’s Enemy” is a satirical take on certain elements of Homer’s character and history that we (meaning, the writers at the time) always found excessive, right?  At least that’s what it was intended to be, and I realize the distinction may well be so subtle as to be meaningless to many, if not most, fans.

But, that said:

Anything that may have happened after that episode and that season should not be extrapolated from the content of the Grimes story.

On the continuum between Homer the Misguided but Essentially Well-Meaning Oaf Next Door and Homer the Absurdly-Gluttonous World-Famous Idiot with No Recognizable Human Traits or Emotions, we usually tried to to stay to the left.  Not always, but usually.

But for this episode, as a counterpoint to Grimes, we intentionally threw in a lot of stuff that was ridiculously over-the-top (or so we thought) like Homer snoring at the funeral, for Pete’s sakes, and hauled out of the closet all his most unrealistic (though hilarious) past adventures (he went into outer space!  he won a Grammy!  President Ford moved in and invited him over for nachos!).

If Frank Grimes had crossed paths with the fairly normal Homer (of “Lisa’s Pony” for instance) it simply would not have been as funny or as clear, satirically, as it was to have him cross paths with the ridiculously-boorish world-famous glutton that we depicted in “Homer’s Enemy”.

Basically, the Homer depicted in that episode was an intentional self-parody, a catalog of gleeful excesses past and present.

If it didn’t come off as such to even the most devoted fans, it was certainly our mistake.

Didn’t somebody say all this on the DVD commentary?

Anyway,

That’s all.

Best,

Bill Oakley

Bill Oakley Interview

In today’s Reading Digest post I put up a link to an interview with Bill Oakley from a television show called “Outlook Portland”.  I couldn’t find the video or a transcript on the show’s blog or on the website of the television station.  Since I’m an idiot it didn’t occur to me to take three seconds and check the world’s largest and most popular video site.  Fortunately, someone from Outlook Portland showed up in the comments and pointed me to the first place I should’ve looked, YouTube. 

(When I was watching it on YouTube.com for some reason it would not go smoothly from one segment to the next so I’ve embedded them all below.) 

Segment 1 wherein Oakley discusses how he got into animation and things that influenced The Simpsons:

 

Segment 2 sees Oakley discuss how he got to the show and the writing process.  Starting at around the 5:15 mark he’s discussing all the steps between writing a joke and seeing the finished product.  The exchange starts around the 5:15 mark but the nut comes forty seconds later:

And that’s the ultimate thing about The Simpsons is that, at least in the old days, you had to laugh at every one of those things or we would cut the joke and rewrite it.  And that’s why it became so arduous and to some extent so good, is because these had to be jokes that would hold up for ten months over repeated viewings to actually make it to the air. 

Now, when he says “at least in the old day” does he mean that that’s how they did it when he was there and he doesn’t know how it’s done now.  Or does he mean that he doesn’t think that’s how they do it now?  The first is a relatively neutral statement, the second is a dig at Zombie Simpsons.  I’m gonna say that it’s both, but judge for yourself: 

 

In Segment 3 Oakley discusses how he thinks Season 3 was one of the pinnacles of comedy and how he and Josh Weinstein consciously tried to pattern Seasons 7 & 8 (when they were running the show) after Season 3.  He also talks about reading internet discussions way back in 1992 and what a pain in the ass it was to get on-line in that primitive time:

 

In Segment 4 we find out why this interview is taking place.  Oakley can do his job from anywhere these days and decided Portland was nicer than Los Angeles:

Many thanks to Outlook Portland, both for steering me in the right direction and making their show available on YouTube.