Do Go On - 74 - The Simpsons

Episode Date: March 22, 2017

"I didn't do it"... No he did. Dave finally relented and reported on the greatest TV show of all time. Hear how The Simpsons started from humble beginnings before quickly becoming a huge success, a show that would go on to be the longest running sitcom of all time. It's like David and Goliath, only this time David won! We talk about the key players, rifts behind the scenes and end with a lot of fun facts. Tute on Dave, Tute on!Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] the show and get rewards like bonus episodes:www.patreon.com/DoGoOnPod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serengy Amarna 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there. Canada, we are visiting you in September this year.

If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. A good morning afternoon or night, wherever you are listening to this. This is Do Go On and my name is Dave Warnocky and I'm here with the two fancy feasts themselves. It's Matt Stewart and Jess Perkins. What the hell just happened?

His eyes went so wide. But that was... It was looking... It was like he was looking through time and space. 74 episodes. And what he brought back with him was calling us dog food. And good morning, good afternoon. Like, what happened there, Dave?

I just felt like I would channel. It was like Stephen Fry. An old-timey sort of broadcaster slash Matt before the show told me that I was the one that talks the fastest on the show. So I thought I'd live up to that with the intro. Probably couldn't even hear. It was more fast on the speed of sound that was. Wow. That was fast.

To answer your question, I assume the question was, hello, guys. How are you? Very well. Thank you, David. Did not ask how you were. Didn't ask a question, I think. Let's go to the tape. Dave.

and I was speaking so far, so we have no idea what I said. Would you like to ask us how we are? Would I like to? Yes, I would. Are you going to? No. How are you? Oh.

How are you both? We're very good. We're very good. Sorry about that. Jess, I'm very good. Jess, I would have no idea how she is. I mean, she's been telling us how good she is, but I wouldn't want to speak for her because that is improper.

I am also pretty good. Pretty good. I had a V on the way here, so like, I'm feeling pretty great. Hey, what are we doing this week? I'm so excited about a Dave Warnocky episode. They are our favourites. I'm nervous. If you've downloaded this, you've seen probably what the topic's going to be, and I'm nervous.

Well, that's not fair that they know before we do. Yeah, Dave. That's how it works every week. I know, but at 74 weeks, I'm realising the injustice. And I don't think you need to rub it in like that. Yeah, just because we don't know. How many weeks are you pregnant for? Me?

Actually quite a shot I'd turn it around pretty quickly I am It's about nine months We could have had two babies by now Just saying I don't think that's right You'd have to do it like this

Yeah back to back The second one would have to be I'm talking about two separate women Well you As I often do I am currently crushing the car I'm currently crashing the car I mean we could

You could just have twins And just do it once Oh there you go You big fuck it That's what I meant and they'll be not, they'll be identical, but there'll be different sexes. Yeah, which is possible, as our listeners have told me. Really hammered at home.

Well, you were the one who were, anyway. What's the question? Yeah, let's get onto the topic. Let's do this. I'm treading water. I'm putting it off. Here we get. The question, because this is a show, if you haven't heard it before, because you're interested in the topic,

where we take a topic suggested by the listeners 99% of the time, and one of us does a report on that topic. Other two don't know what I'm going to talk about. So to get us on topic, I've got a question. And that question is, what topic do I have to do this week to stop listeners killing me slash what is the greatest television show of all? Oh, my God. Matt, he's doing it. Matt.

I never thought this day would actually come. That's right. We're doing diagnosis murder. Oh, that's good too. You son of a bitch. Which I did actually talk about early on in this series. Yeah. Wait, what are you saying?

It's not diagnosis matter. It is the Simpsons? It is the Simpsons! Yay! One of my favorite things. I really never thought this day would come. Did I? Because I'm such a fan of it.

I just feel like I can't do it justice. Oh, man. But I'll try. You probably can't. Because you were making me a liar every week you didn't do it. I was telling people Dave's going to do it. He's told me he's going to do it real soon. And you've been saying that for what?

A year? Easily. Probably a year. Yeah. That's how much research I've been doing. Oh, Dave. I actually, I saw it. go on the golden hat and someone put it in

they said the Simpsons or if not the Simpsons some other topic and I'm like Dave that motherfucker is going to choose the other topic yeah I'll skirt around so the topic I will say has been requested by dozens of people at this point but the credit for getting my ass for getting me off my ass

getting my ass getting my ass the ass award goes to oh the tiny tush Mr Justin McCain who put it in the golden hat and made me step up and make dozens of people Thank you so much, Justin. Justin really took one for the team in a way, didn't he?

No, because he threw away his, if you don't know. If you call it throwing away, finally getting you to do what you should have done years ago. Not throwing away at all. I think we should explain the golden hat is we have a Patreon pledge. If you pledge a certain amount, there are 10 people currently that submit ideas and we have to do their topics.

So I have to do The Simpsons. And this one is for you, Justin McCain and for Simpsons fans everywhere. Oh, Justin. Justin, you've done it. And Dave, you were saying, like, you know, it's, it's a bit scary because it's such a big topic and you can go to do it justice. Oh, God. I find, with all of my reports, especially the big ones, all about things that I care about, I know I won't be able to do them justice. And I think once you accept that within yourself, you're going to be a lot happier, you know?

So just, I've just got to give up now. No, not give up. Just don't, like, don't hold yourself to such high standards, you know? Just know that you'll probably do an inadequate job. Just crash your car, Dave. Just crash your car. That's what I'm saying. Oh, we're going to find out if I feel like it after this episode.

I'm like, oh, this is going to be so much fun. I can't wait. All right, the Simpsons. Let's just talk about it. Big fan, Matt? Yes. Oh, yeah. Look, I think I'm probably like a lot of Simpsons fans, a big fan of the first, like, eight-ish seasons.

And I, there's probably, there'd be so many episodes that I haven't seen from more recent years. Yeah, I agree. I'm like, I can almost see what the joke was. Like, they're sort of like, they've gone from being really funny to mildly humorous. scenarios. I feel, I just, maybe, I don't know if it's me getting older or the show going in a different direction or something,

but it feels like it's not as good to me anymore. Who knew what do you reckon about that? That Matt could get any older. I'm doing it every day, Jess. So when the first, every minute. When the first episode, once again, that's how time works. Who would have thought that Matt would still be around to see season 28 of the Simpsons? I did not think he'd make it.

Season 28. Wow. But we'll get that. That's a long way off. So there's been 20. Maybe it was more than that. Maybe it was like 12 were good. I think the first 10, probably nine are excellent.

10 to 12 are pretty damn great. And from then, so it's going down. All right. So you agree. I thought that was a pretty commonly held idea. So I'm curious to hear when it started. I feel like it was maybe even in the 80s, but I reckon you'll probably mention that.

He'll probably mention that. And you know what? I reckon it'll be a good year. I think I'm just going to cut to season 18, if that's all right. Yeah, no, absolutely. Hey. And Jess, you are a big fan of The Simpsons. Yeah, absolutely.

I remember, I don't think I was allowed to watch it as a young kid. Neither was I when it first was out. Yeah. When I was, it was older than Jess and I are. I'll say that right now. So Matt is right about the 80s thing. But I do remember. Well, yeah, it's had 28 seasons and we're 26 years old.

That does make sense. Math. Time again. Look, God. I'm getting good at this. They could have squeezed many seasons in a movie. I'm getting so much better at math, you guys. You really are.

This podcast has done wonders for your mathematical skills. Yeah, big time. Yeah, I also was not allowed to watch it. And then suddenly became the best thing in my life. Yeah, totally. And then it was really good because we had, not to break, Affluent East, we had Fox Tell. As did my family.

Yeah. That's how I was so exposed. Because what would happen is every Saturday on Sunday, morning between 9 and 12, they'll just play six episodes back to back. It was the absolute freaking best. That's what I did every Saturday and Sunday. Fox 8 always had Simpsons on at Sun. Once I gave up tennis, which was.

pretty early into discovering that the Simpsons was on from 9 to or 12. Yeah, I would get up and just watch the Simpson. It was so great. So, Fuxel is it's pay-per-view here. Cable. Cable. That's cable. Because in Australia, we have, what, five or six free-to-air channels that now have a few more, now we've gone digital.

Yeah. But five main channels. And then if you were from the affluent, East like Jess and I, you could get... What a dream. Yeah. It's pretty great. To be fair, we got that a little bit later in my life. But still, I had it.

And, yep, Saturday morning, Simpson's done. I had Foxhill from about six years old. Yeah, so good. Would you have a favourite episode? I know what mine. I think I know what mine would be traditionally. I can tell you my least favourite... Simpsons?

Yep. Really? Yeah, absolutely, because it still fills me with pain. But I don't know if I can off the top of my head think of a favourite episode. What's, all right, we'll start with the least favourite then. You know when Homer goes into the other dimension? Yeah, that's one of the Halloween episodes. And then he ends up in the real world.

You hate that. Erotic cakes. I hate that. that so much. I love. Really? Because he's so scared. Yeah.

And he's like, whimpering. Yeah, yeah, he's really, because he's like, and I like, how would he get back? And I just remember watching it and just feeling so upset. And because I think it was probably like that feeling of being lost. I think I sort of remembered that feeling from being a kid. And I still, like, it makes me kind of sad and upset.

I think about it. Yeah. You mean the one that's a bit like that, Tron? Has anyone seen Tron? Yeah. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, yes. I mean, no. No.

Because that's what he says. But do you have a favourite? I think my favourite is... Dave will tell me what the name of the episode was, but it's where they... I think maybe it's called the Lemon Tree or something like that. It's about... Oh, that is such a good episode.

Oh. I think that's Shelbyville. That's one of my top ten. I think that's my number one. Why do you like that episode? It's really... It's just a really fun... It's called Lemon of Troy.

Lemon of Troy. Oh, very good. Helen. No, we got it. Troy. Yeah, no, we understood the reference. Yep. And Troy instead of boy, which Bart is, and Bart goes over.

Just some great line, you know, Tudan's son and all that stuff. It's just chock full of very funny lines. He throws the meat to stop the dog, but it makes a dog. Anyway, this is tedious. What's your favorite episode then? We should do the report. Okay, so I will say that I am a big fan. And from my 25th birthday, I had the Simpsons theme party that we've talked about,

where I hide out a cinema with 30 seats, mini-cinim. and invited my friends around to watch my four favorite episodes of The Simpsons. Initially it was going to be eight, but then I decided that it would be pretty tedious to make everyone shut up for that many hours. Yeah. So we did four and we did Cape Fear, which is the parody of the film Cape Fear. Let's put the E on the end where they go with this protection.

Oh yes. Saitreobab up coming up on the houseboat. Great one. The rakes, that classic set on you. Oh, that's so good. You just help me remember my other favorite, which you played that night, the one with Hank Scorpio.

Hank Scorpio, yes. Oh my God, I love Hank Scorpio. You only move twice. Yes, I love that. The Beer Barron episode. That's another. I'm trying to beer baron. Where he's delivering beer in.

Homer versus the 18th Amendment, is what it's called. In Bowling Bulls. The Outlaw liquor and then Rex Banner comes along. Yep, yeah, yeah, gotcha. And number one, one all-time great episode is the monorail episode Monorail

classic yeah good one written by Conan O'Brien oh there you go good episodes good list there Dave love those four but there's so many more

I would have had oh this so good yeah Lemon of Troy definitely I always liked the one where it was like in the future and Lisa was

oh no wait there was a couple of different ones set in the future weren't there or like the flash forwards where like Lisa's The president or marrying

yeah marrying the guy I'm not such a fan because Barton it becomes such a loser and I feel bad for him and I also feel terrible for Millhouse who becomes such a loser when he's old. Well yeah but what did you think was going to happen to Millhouse?

I love the line. Is it actually the English guy who plays that English guy? You know the guy from all those movies? The foppish guy? Hugh Grant? Is that actually? No, it's not. No, it's some of Santa's sound alike. But then when he goes to Lisa, he's just sort of bagging his, her family, Homer and that she goes, you like a flower, a beautiful flower who grew in a pot of dirt.

I love that sort of a favorite line. Very true. She was very offended by that somehow. Fair enough. Up tight. I think his name was Hugh. Yeah, I think it was. Yeah, definitely it was.

Yeah, it was more... And I like... And I like... And I like... And I like... I think I had a joke about like, Maggie won't shut up. She's always on the phone,

but she's still... You still never hear her speak. Yeah, very good. I love that was pretty funny. Anyway, this is tedious. It is, uh, Mandy Pintin was guest starring. What? Who is, uh, Aniga Montoya.

I know who Mandy... David, I know who Mandy... Tinker this. There you go. Okay, let's get to Simpsons. Let's get down the Brasnex. What better place to start when the series creator, Matt Graining. Ah.

Matt Graining. Oh, I always say groaning. You would. I would or not. What an idiot. That's a long time I've been saying something wrong. Thank you. You also say schmoss instead of schmoth.

That's true. Matt Graining was born on February 15th, 1954. A good year. Oh, one of the best. In Portland, Oregon. Oh. He was the middle of... Ah, a good town.

I think we have listeners in Portland. I think people have tweeted to us from Portland. Yeah. Hello, Portland. Matt was the middle of five children. His German-American father, Homer Philip Graming. Oh, my God. Was a filmmaker, advertiser, writer and cartooners.

His Norwegian American mother, Margaret. Ormage, was once a teacher. His two younger sisters were Lisa. Oh, my God. And Maggie. No. What? Do you notice the names there?

Father Homer, Mother Marge. But also... No, I definitely get it. But Maggie is usually a shortened version of Margaret, so was she just named after her mum as well? Yes, also Margaret. Oh, very cute. And Bart...

Yeah, it's interesting, he didn't go Matt. He went Bart instead, which is an anagram of Brat. That is right. That is why? Bart in his place. Yeah, that's right. That's cool. I love it.

That is so cool. I actually never knew. that. Oh, how lovely. From a young age, Matt was constantly drawing and being told off of being distracted in class. He had to write 500 times, I must remember, to be quiet in class.

He described school as like a prison. And when he read about a prisoner of war camp, he related school to that because the teachers are like guards always trying to tell you what to do. Wow. He was okay at school though. He was elected student body president. His party

was called Teens for Decent. which is a name that mocked a local Christian group. The slogan was, if you're against decency, then what are you for? I can't argue with it. Graning found himself rejected by girls when he told them he wanted to be a professional cartoonist.

They should have got with him then and there, I can tell you that right now. Yeah, wowsers. Got with him. Oh, yeah. They should have hitched themselves to that cartoons. So what, like, what type of guys were they going for then? Do you know what I mean?

Probably accountants. because I would be much more attracted to somebody who has goals and drive and ambition, you know? Totally. But what if they've got an ambition to become a CEO of PricewaterhouseCoop is the largest accounting? Then I'd stab them in the throat. Fair enough. Let them bleed out. And then just...

Let them bleed out of a different wound. And then just wait for my Medal of Honour because I would be awarded one for saving the world from such a horrible human being. Wow. Could have just said yes to the cartooners. When he left school, he applied two colleges. Harvard and Evergreen College. Oh, my God. Harvard said no.

Interesting. He went to Evergreen. Do you know Evergreen? Evergreen Terrace. Yeah. Very good. It was a progressive hippie school. So he went for either Harvard?

Or the hippie school. Or the hippie school. He sort of rolled the dice there. Okay. All right. He worked on the college newspaper, mocking the school, and often got into trouble for hurting people's feelings with his satire. and he wasn't very good at that because he's very

everyone that I've read talk about him so he's a very very nice person but obviously he likes to make fun of stuff and often he would make them upset and then feel terrible about it oh no so he might doesn't have that that remorse button do you Matt no no I love it you just out there to hurt yeah fuck me someone I'll fuck him right now

Dave I feel terrible go get him Dave you got a very nice hair cut fuck He's not good at this I feel terrible. Yesterday I was driving back to the beach That was me, sorry. Yesterday I was driving back from the beach, and I stopped to get petrol and

or gas, and I stopped at the petrol station or gas station to fill up. This is tedious. And I was pumping the pump and it wasn't working. I was like, maybe this is one of those ones we've got to pay inside? So I went inside. I'm like, is number 10 not working? And the lady goes, oh, no, I just turn that off at night because we can't really see it.

Okay. And I said, oh, is there a sign? She's like, no, we don't have a sign. And I said, do you think there should be a sign there to tell people? She goes, yeah, maybe. And I went back to the car and I moved and I filled up. And the whole time I'm thinking, God, that was rude, Dave. You were a terrible mercy.

And I go back inside and I'm like, look, I'm really sorry if I was rude. She's like, no, you were really nice. And I'm like, no, I think it was very rude. I'm so sorry. I'm so I didn't have spoken to you like that. And then you went out, I saw it again. I should have just accepted that it wasn't rude the first time. I was so rude not to take away for it.

I just had to sit in silence. Yeah. Well, were you alone in the car or? No, no, I wasn't. I was not answering questions from the other people in the car. Just let me feel bad! And then I had to stew about that all night because I snapped. I was like Ned Flanders.

I said some horrible things tonight. In 1977, at the age of 23, Grading moved to Los Angeles to become a writer. L.A. Big city. Big smoke. L.A. Los Angeles. Oh.

Oh, that's cute how you shorten it. So we wanted to be... L.A. One more, one more time. L.A. Okay. So that's Los Angeles is actually sometime. Or are you just doing that?

I just hope people understand what I'm talking about. Commonly, locally referred to as L.A. Yeah, that's how you prove you're a local. Welcome to L.A. Oh. So you live here. Please. Oh, you are born here.

You're the mayor. You should start calling Melbourne M. No, I don't like that at all. M.A. Melbourne Angolese. Oh. So you know what would the locals call it? He moved to L.A.

He wanted to be a writer, but he had a bunch of part-time jobs. He was a chauffeur to an elderly director. Oh, my God. Dream job. Mr. Burns. Every name so far as been. He was a slogan writer for horror movies. Horror movie.

But they're on my. That's right. Great reference to the sky hooks there. He was a landscaper at a sewerage plant. That's one of the lowest ones. Why would you, yeah, why would you care about the landscaping at a sewer? Because poo makes stuff grow real good. Great point, great point.

He was a waiter. Yuck, that's worse, a landscaper out of the poo farm. He was a waiter at the poo farm. Let me finish. Delivering all the poo. Stuff grew really good there. He grew a lot of crops. Yeah, I bet.

Then he harvested them and sold them. Interesting. As food. He was a record store worker at a place called licorice pizza. Okay, that's weird. Which I'd read that title and think, what do you sell? Lickish pizza? No, thank you.

Is he working all these jobs at the same time? I think it's more like he's just moving on because he's bored. Because it feels like at this stage it's one day a week for each of them. So on Mondays, I show for the director. Tuesdays, I cut the grass at the poo farm. Wednesdays I harvest at the poo farm. While I was working at the record store

He started a zine Or a little comic script Called Life in Hell Oh Oh Sold it at the record store for $2. Yeah I tried to get

newspapers to carry it But hell at the time Was considered very blasphemous in the US of A And most It was like of A Is that What's that short for It's short for L of A

L of A loss of Anguis But yeah it was on par with words like fucking stuff, hell people fucking stuff. Look, I won't publish anything that says hell, fucking stuff. HR fucking stuff.

Did not get off the ground until the 90s. Fucking stuff. It's a bad word is what you say. So most people wouldn't even publish it. But then... Would they publish the C word? But then he gained employment.

Oh, that's fine. Just not fucking stuff. Please. Yeah. Keep up. Sorry. Keep up with the early 80s. I cannot. I was not alive.

Late 70s early 8. He gained employment. So no one would publish it until he gained employment at the Los Angeles, Los Angeles, pardon, reader, which is a newly formed alternative newspaper. His job was slowly stuff like delivering papers, typesetting, editing, answering phone, sort of everyday tasks. But then he showed his cartoons to the editor, James Vowl, who was impressed and eventually gave him a spot in the paper. Life in Hell made it sufficiently.

made its official debut was a comic strip in the reader April 25th, 1980. And it became a popular, almost, immediately. What's the A sample there? Angolese, it's always Angolese. It'd be confusing if it was anything else. Yeah, if it says A, it's just Angolese. Okay, sorry. Come on, mate, Jesus.

So you spell my name D, A, Angulus, V. My middle name is, it starts with an A, it is. Anglese. Jessica, Angeles, Perkins. It's not far off, actually. Anyway, do go on. It's Anne. It's Anne.

For anyone who hasn't heard this before. Anne. In November 1984, so a few years later, Groening's then-girlfriend, Deborah, who was a co-worker at the reader, offered to publish Love Is Hell a series of relationship-themed life-in-hell strips in book form. released a month later the book was an underground success and it sold 22,000 copies.

Oh wow. It's not bad. Yeah. It's all than I expected. Cool. Many people say his girlfriend, Deborah, who would eventually be his first wife, Deborah Graining, was the brains behind his early success. She was the one who sold his comic book to newspapers across the USA.

She enlisted the help of George DiCaprio. Excuse me? Leonardo's father, genuinely, who was at the time a cartoonist, and he became Matt and Deborah's distrable. contributor for the comic. That's pretty cool. It sounds like everyone was a cartoonist back there. It's cool, isn't it?

I don't know any cartoonists now. I've never met one. You guys know a cartoonist? Matt, do you know a cartoonist? They all died out. Peter Thomas? Oh, okay, we do know Peter, yep. Actually, I met a cartoonist

at a wedding mid-December. I reckon we got some great cartoonists listeners. Oh, that's very true, actually. It's some of the best. We've heard some pretty amazing artwork comes through. All I say is, prove it. Dave, you've just encouraged them to draw a more weird shit of us.

I love it. talking about the cartoonist at the wedding. Was it like a cacature artist? No, no, no, no. He was like a, well, it was one of the many skills this gentleman had. He was like an illustrator, cartoonist, does a whole bunch of visual art sort of stuff. Lovely guy. He sounds great.

Yeah, he was lovely, yeah. Is he available? No. But that's, that's okay, Matt. Did you get a card? No. Shit. Shit!

I got a card. Jess after the gig last on Saturday from a real estate agent who was sitting in the front row So he saw a comedian and thought She!

Women can be real estate agents That was Barry That was a bit on the noise There Dave Wow Dave Dave crash the car mate 5050 I'll take that

I'll take that any day of the week Crash the car mate You're done Because I called her I hope you're listening On a windy road mate Hello me Stop sign, whichever that.

I like to imagine that future Dave hears past Dave say, hello me, and he goes like, oh, hello. I won't be listening back to this one. In 1986, after the book, which I talked about before, was named Coffee Table Book of the Month in Playboy. Hello. Which apparently at the time was a big deal. Yeah, because a lot of Playboy listeners subscribed purely to get the

tips on what books are read. It's not even book of the month. Coffee table book. It's a very specific kind of book. They've also got novel. They've got bird watching book of the month. Pages and pages are different kinds of books. Lots of reviews.

And right at the back, they're like in the corner they've got Playmate of the month. But no one cares about that. No, I'll get it for the articles. Yuck. Put it away, lady. Playboy, does that still exist? Absolutely.

And they've just brought back nudity. They went a couple years without, but they decided, hang on, we need this. Because the internet kind of stole their thunder. Yeah, so I think they were not making as much money. Who buys magazines? At all. True, definitely true, but also like, nudy ones.

Yeah. If you want to be, like, unless you get a kick out of a guy behind a counter knowing that you're a dirty purve. Or that. There's no reason to do that. Or you don't have a. Or that somebody will possibly and probably find it in your room at some point, too. You know? You notice how Solan I've been?

Oh no, we're going to have to introduce Dave to porn later. Women can do porn too, Jess. Wash your dirty mouth out. That's not sense. I'm just feeling bad because I called a real estate agent a man. At least you didn't call Jess what I called her before we started recording. Which we still haven't said. We'll never reveal.

We'll never reveal that. I'll sneak it in. So the book was named Coffee Table Book of the Month in Playboy. And it's as a result of this, the comic started being published. in the village voice, a newspaper that Graney had stated he wanted to get into from the start. So, as well as, and eventually it was published in 200 newspapers and had millions of readers. Wow. So it's doing quite well.

And it's featured anthropomorphic rabbits sort of hastily drawn. I reckon I heard about this. I'm not to jump ahead, but I feel like that had a longish life, I reckon. Yes. Well, I'll tell you that this comic strip, was published from 1977 all the way up until 2012. Oh shit. Kept versions and additions going of it.

You're kidding. And did he have creative control of it? Yeah, it was still his thing. I think because after The Simpsons made him a rich, rich man, he could do this just for fun. Right. That's cool. Nice one.

And he had creative control of this. But maybe he didn't over The Simpsons. David. But I jump ahead. The Sizzle. Love a little Sizzle. Can you hear that? Sizzles.

Run up Dave. boy's tongue. Sizzling. Old hot tongue over there. Golden Tunsels. Hot tongue. What a package. It's the two things people look for.

How are your tonsils? Why is his tongue so hot? Oh, get out of my mouth. I really like Dave, but his tongue is so hot. It's hurting my eyes to look at. Put away your tongue. What you mean is like staring into a fog. I just don't know what you're talking about that.

He doesn't have to cook, pre-cook his food. He just puts raw meat on his tongue. Yeah, but he can't eat. Shears at both sides for 15 minutes. It's a pretty long and painful process, but... That's eating with Dave. He gets good results. Eating with Dave, the new program coming to you soon.

Matt and Deborah married in 1987, and they had two sons, Homer and Abe. Oh. Oh. I'm assuming everyone knows this. Abe's obviously Homer's dad in The Simpsons. That's right, Abraham. Yeah, everyone will know that, right? Yeah, but just in case.

I don't know, maybe people have seen this and thought, The Simpsons. I've been meaning to get into that. Maybe this podcast will catch me up on all those jokes. Oh, God. Of which we butcher a couple at the start. We'll leave Madeline for a second. We jumped to a guy called James L. Brooks,

who was already. a TV and movie legend at this stage. A bit of a ledge. A bit of a ledge, especially in the biz. And the L stands for... Lafayette. Lafayette. I'm sure it's going to be lost.

Los Angeles? I don't know. I don't know this system at all. I cannot figure it out. A is always Angerlese. Yeah. Elle could be anything. Elle can be anything.

It's Lawrence. I've looked it up for you. Of Arabia. Who was Lefayette again? That was not told you. El Ruffa. Right. Oh, fuck.

Lafayette Runnard. Last one. Yeah. It's been a big leak, man. It's been a big leak. So James L. Brooks, he's a legend in the industry, got a real aura around him. Ooh.

That you can see. Positively glowing. People will do whatever he wants because he is Merlin. Remember when I had that aura for a bit? And then I got that cream. Yeah. The aura cream. I don't want to wear.

Do you regret curing it? Kind of. Yeah. Wasn't my colour, though. It was purple. I don't look good in purple. Well, you know. Who does?

Name me someone who looks good in purple, apart from obviously, Jeff the Wiggle. My Year 9 science teacher only wore purple. Everything was purple. That's weird. It's so weird. But it would be like purple pants, purple t-shirt, purple jacket. Oh my God.

Purple hair type. Woman. Fucking hell, Dave. Women can be... Women can be teachers. I was imagining. I was imagining wake up Jeff the whole time, just in full purple garb.

That is a real shorthand for letting people know you're eccentric without actually having to say it. And or getting anything weird like a, you know, a pet turtle that you walk on a lead or something like that. Just go, look, I'm headed so purple, okay? Accentric. I'm eccentric. I can be eccentric just by going down to Kmart, you know.

I don't even have to bring my turtle, which I've got. Which I've got, obviously. I'm not an idiot. Of course I've got a turtle. Yeah. Anyway, Dave, do go on. What about Oprah? The colour purple.

Ah, the movie that she made. Took me a second. I thought you were trying to say that Oprah meant purple. That entire time, he was completely zoned out thinking of that joke. Oh, would you call that a joke? Well, he would. And could you tell why his face, how proud he was of it? He's looking his face now.

He's so good. It doesn't know. What went wrong? It's like, I don't understand. I said the best thing ever. I forget the listening can't see my face. Oh, man. I can't wait for the live one.

They're going to love your face. Oh, my face. I really hope you get like stage fright and just freeze in front of them and you sit there very seriously. That would be fun for me. I will be wearing a mask. I'm Oprah. Color purple. That's all right then.

The greatest role. You know women can be Oprah. I don't think so. They can have estate agents. They can have science. They can have them. But they can't have Oprah. Interesting.

She always always in my heart. My purple, purple heart. What about Prince? He could wear a pebble. I was thinking of Prince. That's true. But your year... I'd call him accent.

She was Prince. Don't I mention my year nine science teacher was Prince. God, I learned a lot of science that year. You learned a lot about what happens when Doves cry. Write out the hypothesis. What do you think is going to happen? The aim? You also found out about cream, Shibugi, Bop.

Oh, Bob. Oh, there you go. That's the lyric. Well, Dave can be cream. You can be Shibugi. I'm Shibugi. I'm Shabugi. You're definitely Shibugi.

I'm cream. That's how we In colour and flavour Hi, we come out When we do a live The Prince Experience I come out Welcome

Cream And Dave comes I'm cream And then he does the double point to me And he goes Shibugi And I'm Shibugi And we both go

Duh do Duh do Duh do not Duh do But And I come out from a, like, something in the stage. Like a riser. Yeah, I rise from the stage.

But it shoots, something goes wrong with the mechanic and you just get squashed into the ceiling. And the music just stops playing. No, just keeps playing. No, just stop. They're looking at like a blood-soaked ceiling. Jess is dripping down from the ceiling. Like, she's been obliterated. Wait, but I was wearing like a cool sequined dress though, right?

You were. And the thing about the drips coming down, purple rain. and it was all fake and then another Jess popped out but this time it goes wrong Oh what a show that'll be The cream shibuggy bar What do we do It's like we knew this was going to be a long episode too

So instead of doing long bits about cream shibugi boop Should I talk about James O'Brooks? Yeah I'd love to hear about this go So at this stage Got the aura about it That's how we got it Do you have any, like, examples of movies he's...

Okay, so he'd won several... Any movies. Especially once he's put together. Several Emmys already for creating the Mary Tyler Moore show, which is a groundbreaking show. He then created Taxi... It's a show about groundbreaking. Oh.

About breaking ground, the jackhammer. Backyard style. Yeah. I'm going to make over this ground. First, I'm going to jack into it. And then I'm going to get the jackhammer to clean up my mess. He also created a taxi which won 18 more Emmys That's the one with like lots of classic comedians

In a taxi All of them in a taxi, right? Like a clown car Yeah Is that what you were saying? No Is it driving in cars with Danny DeVito? Yeah

And it's like Michael Richards in it and stuff It was like some crazy cast I think of If I'm thinking of the right show Including that guy who died ages ago That people love Eddie Kaufman Yes, him.

You know that. Danny DeVito. Still alive. Tony Danza. Tony Danza. That's so I get him and Kramer confused. Who's your boss? And also, hey, I'm Kramer.

You know the two? Yeah, no, that's fair. Who's the boss? I prefer who's your boss. Do you say who's your boss before? Who's your boss? No, I thought you said who's the boss. Okay, good.

James L. Brooks also produced, wrote and directed movies as well. He's a production company, which he started under Fox, called Gracie Films. They did. All right, I'll list some for you. Finding Nemo. No. Mary Poppins.

Sorry, Mary Poppins, too, back in the habit. That crossover movie that we all love. Oh, God, classic. He also did Driving Miss Daisy Crazy. It was a spin-off. Drum of Miss Daisy Crazy. Is that that one?

Yeah, I'm just being silly, do you go on. He also, so Gracie Films, which is named after the comedian Gracie Allen, just the sideback there. He produced Big Tom Hanks. Great film. That's one of my favorites as a kid. Great film.

Say anything. Great film. Never heard. Writing in cars with boys. Did I not just say riding in cars with boys like two minutes ago and you did not hear me? Listeners will have heard that. I didn't hear it.

You said driving Miss Daisy crazy? No, I said that. But before I said writing in car. Anyway, yes, keep going. Jerry McGuire. Let's go to the tape. Oh, was Jerry McGuire? Very good.

Wes Anderson's first full-length film Bottle Rocket. Ah, with the classic phrase, show me the bottle rocket. Show me the bottle rocket. That was it. James L. Brooks saw the success of Jeremy McGuire, decided to use that line in every production. You must.

Yeah. Wait, once you find the formula for success, you keep going, you know? Yep. He was an extremely hardworking perfectionist sometimes to the point of being a little crazy. Was he a Virgo? Was he a virgin?

Dave. Dave. Get your juices out, mate. Before. What? Before? Please do go on. Well, I was saying, look, okay, so you were saying it was a bit full on.

And then one of you also said he was a virgin. So I was like, you've got to release the tension. And I called it juices, which was wrong. But I can't, of all the dumb things I've said, that one stopped you guys in your tracks. Matt, do you ever listen while driving your car? I will listen on. Wrap it up.

I want to rent a really expensive car to do it in as well. Yeah, please. A Mustang. Yeah. He's the, so James O' Brooks is the first of the crazy people I'm going to introduce. There's a lot of these hardworking TV executive types all seem to be geniuses, but also I imagine very difficult to get on within your personal life. Richard Sackay is James O' Brooks, what people have described as, his henchman at crazy films, like he's sort of assistant, right-hand man, sidekick type person.

do anything for James L Brooks and they modelled smithers on him as he was devoted to Mr Burns like Sackey's devoted to so just making fun of him I like henchmen too Will you boys please be my henchman Well because if you had to fire someone

James apparently wouldn't want to do it himself Oh I would never do that He'd send the henchman in to do all the dirty work Another player in the early Simpson story is Barry Diller Who was the guy at the helm of Fox At the end of the 80s Fox is the production

or network that produced The Simpsons. He was a CEO of Paramount when Taxi was winning all those Emmys, so he knew Brooks well, but he and Brooks had a tense love-hate relationship because they're both pretty tense guys, much like Matt and Jess, that's right. We're very tense.

Love hate. Barry Diller is now... I love to hate you. Another intense guy who is now worth an estimated $2.6 billion with a B. Hang on a sec. Hang on.

All right, okay. Carry the one. Okay. That is a lot of dollars. Yes. I thought you were about to say that is probably more than all of us put together. Yeah, no probably there, mate. So Barry Diller is still a TV executive,

but he invests in lots of websites. That's where he got a lot of his money. He's the chairman of the website Expedia. And last year paid $100,000 to have his Jack Russell cloned in Korea. What the fuck? Fuck. It's the main reason I bring him up because that's crazy. That's awesome.

Yeah. And probably fuck day. That's fuck day. But he was head of Fox at this time. So he's the guy that's green lighting or red lighting a lot of these projects. Wow. Rupert Murdoch in 1985. Our very own, Rupert Murdoch.

Rupy. We don't claim him anymore. He's not an American citizen now. He's theirs. Yeah, we don't want to be. They can have him. Have anything to do with him. But he says, he says.

spent $250 million in the 80s to buy half of the network from financier Mark Rich. Rich having fled the country to avoid a $48 million tax bill needed the cash. So he sold it. Murdoch had partnered with another investor called Martin Davis to buy that half and in September Murdoch bought the other half from Davis, making him the sole owner. Reportedly Davis wanted to flip a coin with Murdoch to see who would buy the other one out. I guess Murdoch called his blood. Wow, there we go. And the Simpsons feature Rupert Murdoch once or twice? Yeah, quite a few times.

I make fun of him. Fox lost $95 million the first year after Rupert bought it due to some pretty average TV shows, but Murdoch was committed. He wanted to make it work, mainly because he's $500 million in at this point. Yeah, you probably want to make that work. Jim Brooks, as people call him, had left TV for film, but he was enticed back when he began

receiving videotapes from an actor and comedian called Tracy Olman. She was up from the UK and already big over there but wanted to do something in USA so she got her LA agent to keep sending videos to James O'Brien and he was taken by what he saw in

Olman. She's a very talented lady. He decided to take the young actress under his wing and return to television. He was determined to develop a vehicle to showcase her many talents, including acting, dancing and singing. And he decided to create a sketch comedy show around her. Oh, though it's called the Tracy Olman Show.

Cool. A typical episode would begin with Olman giving a brief introduction. It's pretty much from her dressing room, which would lead into the opening credits, which would have the show's theme song, which is Your Thinking Right, written by George Clinton. Then two or three comedy sketches would be presented in each episode,

most designed to showcase her ability to mimic various accents. Oh Those always go well, those shows Yeah, very good Oh hello, how are you doing? I'm Tracy Ollman Say I can do it too Tracy Tracy Olin

I'm also Tracy O'M Oh wow we're a couple of classic Tracy Ommas here Aren't we just a couple of Tracy's Whatever we here we got The third Tracy Ommon Oh boy Three Tracy Ombands Oh here we are

Oh boy boy Oh boy boy boy boy Oh boy boy boy Hey hello Bangers Bangers and mash All right These sketches would typically

Last 25 to 30 minutes each. No, that's not true. I imagine it that for 25 minutes. Let's do it. So eventually there's like 75 Tracy Olman's on screen. Oh, hello.

Very confusing. But typically the final sketch of the night would include a musical or dance number featuring Olman solo or with other members of the cast. So that's what it would usually do. A five, six, seven, eight.

Tracy Olman, Tracy Olman. Have you seen any of it? It doesn't sound super good. Apparently is critically. Tracy Alba Well received didn't get the great ratings Right

Interesting But they needed something to separate the scenes and sketches Something that completely broke it up So the audience would realize It wasn't a continuation of the last scene Which to me Stuff like Saturday Night Live does that all the time Like you don't need something to break it up

End of the Tracy Ollman sketch Next sketch Why is she wearing a mustache now I don't understand what happened to her character Why is she not saying Tracy Ollman Tracy Ollman over and over again Initially the idea they had, they almost

set it on this idea was talking animals. They threw around the idea of a talking bear to break it up. They weren't that into that idea, but it was the best they had at the time. Let's pencil in the bear. That's great. There is two versions as to how

The Simpsons was chosen over the talking bear. Ken Esten, who was the producer of the Tracy Olman show, remembered that Richard Sackai, the right-hand man, the hench man. Or hench woman, Women can be henchmen too. That's true. I'm learning.

Ken remembered that Richard Sackai, the smithers, to Mr. Burns, James L. Brooks, had given him a drawing for his birthday, and it was a drawing from Matt Grainings' Life in Hell cartoon. Ken said, how about we get that guy to do drawings in between the scenes? Does anybody like that idea? And everyone was like, yeah, we like that idea. The bear's out. Fuck the bear. Oh, the bears has got a tear rolling on his face.

Or her face. Bears can be women too. The bear was finally happy that they was going to be able to put food on the bear table. And then it was fucking out, starving. Fuck. Brutal. Hey, that's show booze, eh? It's beer.

Bear-based showbiz. The other story is James O'Brook received an original drawing from Life in Hell from another person. He had written, directed and produced a very very... successful film called Terms of Endearment. It was an incredible success with 11 Oscar nominations of which it won 5 including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted

Screenplay, all for James L. Brooks. Who starred in Terms of Endearment? Shirley MacLean won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Jack Nicholson won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. I do know the one. Yes, I'm with you. So it was a big success and this is part of the reason why James O'Brooks, he's conquered TV,

he's made his own movie and then he smashed that as well. So everyone's sort of in awe of this guy. Why he's allowed to do whatever he wants. Cool. He says, I want to make this Tracy Allman show. Fox says, sure. But the production designer of terms of endearment, terms of endearment, designer Polly Platt worked on the film.

She was also nominated for an Academy Award for her work. So as a thank you to James O'Book, she wanted to get him a gift. She liked Life in Hell and claims that she bought an original print from Matt Graning's wife, Deborah. It was called Los Angeles, way of death. And the Hollywood joke

was that even if you become a success in Hollywood, you're still just as miserable as you were when you were a nobody. James apparently loved it, laughed a lot and put it up in his office. And she claimed she said to him, you should do a TV special on the characters in Matt's cartoon.

So they're the two stories. Either way, he's seen life in hell, James O'Brooks. They approached Matt and thought he might shut them down as working in TV. It was a bit too commercial because he's a bit of a hippie, and the cartoon's very anti-establishment.

So they think they're coming at him with Fox, which is a cable network now owned by Rupert Murdoch, that he might be like, nah. They ask him if they can do one-minute cartoons, they could be split up into three segments to break up. So 20 seconds at a time to break up the show. And he says, sure, why not? Yeah, because he's not an idiot.

But another producer had teed up another cartoon by Heidi Perlman, who did a comic strip about a psychiatrist. I guess they're going to see heads their bets and see whose cartoon suited the show more. And when they started making the show, when it went to production, they were only getting submissions from Heidi, but they stopped getting cartoons from Matt. And when they looked into it,

Graining had bailed because when he got the contract, part of the deal was that life in hell, the merchandising would now belong to Fox. And at that point, that's how he's scraping along making a living with mail orders, people like T-shirts and merchandise and stuff. And he thought, well, this cartoon's not going to make me rich. And then I'll lose this money.

So he was like, nah. Also, he had a deal with a publisher, so it was going to get a bit messy. he would work it out so he said don't worry about it they were pretty keen on his drawings over Heidi so they said how about you create some new characters ones that we could license and he said sure why not oh wow that's cool and the story is that on the way in the car and the way to the pitch meeting with fox where you had to tell them a new idea he was asked have you got your new idea yet and he said no and they said we're on the way to the meeting now so he sketched out a few characters

based on his own family the simpson family another story story is that he did it in the Fox waiting room. Either or. But probably pretty last minute. Yeah. Yeah. And when you think, even if it was just a couple of days before, because it was last minute, even if it was, if it did a time, when you consider the thought of a totally new idea

that would go on to be the most successful and longest running cartoon and primetime show of all time, it's amazing even if you spent like a couple of weeks on it. Yeah. That's so cool. His Simpson family were crude drawings named after his own family. The producers of the Olman show liked them and Fox liked them, so they signed a deal with Matt that would prove to be extremely lucrative. He was going to be given a percentage of all merchandise sold.

To this day, Matt personally signs off every bit of Simpsons merchandise and gets a percentage of all the sales. Wow. That's a good deal from him. Yeah, holy shit. Especially a male coming from a relatively strong position, but I guess he proved that he was willing to walk. And it's been speculated that Fox offered in this deal

so they could pay him less up front because they were thinking, we're just signing you to do some one-minute cartoons. Who's going to want to buy merchandise anyway? Yeah. So we can pay him half as much, but give him way more merchandise. But because of this,

TV companies apparently don't do deals like this anymore because of what it can, because at the time of the meeting, the then 33-year-old Matt had to take a bus home because he couldn't afford a car, and now he is worth $500 million. Wow. Mainly because of this deal.

That's amazing. So he should be. Fucking out. Yeah. But isn't that awesome? Yeah. So they probably paid him shit all, but then... He's still not okay.

Wow. Totally good. Now, because the rest of the Tracy Olman show was not animated, they had to find an animation studio just to make the Simpsons short. Fox looked at roughly 200 animation studios for the job. That's too many. A small company called Claspi Chupo was chosen, run by husband and wife team, Gabor Chupo.

And Chupo. And Arlene Klasky. What a, that sounds like a made-up gibberish name. Claskey, too, I know. It totally does. That's offensive. Those are their names. I believe he's, uh, Hungarian.

You fuck. I'm so sorry. I love Hungarian salami. That's not the same as the people. I'll accept it. Oh, interesting. Redemed. You're now the king of Hungary.

But have you heard of Klaspy Chupo? No. They, uh, they'd go on to produce and animate the Nickelodeon classics. Rugrats. Rugrats. Our real monsters, the wild thorn breeze, and rocket power.

I knew I knew it. They've played at the end of Rugrats. They've got a very similar style, so that's different, very different from the Simpsons. Yeah, so I guess that was they're making their own thing. Yeah,

that this is. That's cool. Yeah, and they got the gig by offering to add colour for the same price as just black and white, which is what James L. Brook initially wanted.

He wanted. And they were like, I'll do it for color, which is way harder for an animator. It was like, All right. You got the job. Cool.

Suckus. Matt Grating reportedly found... What was that? You just said there? Said suckers. Oh, suckers. But I said a bit funny. I thought you'd want to say success and you said it weird.

Like, suckess. I was like, all right? Both work. Yeah, both good. Sorry, Dave. And I was just saying that Matt Grading reportedly found human skin tone portrayed in cartoons to be quite freakish at the time. Animator Georgie Pellucci decided to make Marge's skin yellow on her hair blue.

Fox at first went so keen, but Gabe or Chupo asked them, talked them into it, and they decided to make all the characters yellow. There you go. And also, it's been pointed out that when you're flicking channels, it's very distinct. Oh, that's true, yeah. It's unlike anything else, even since the success, no one else has made. Well, nobody else would now, would they? No.

Because it's so classic to The Simpsons. So now, even if a show was completely different, if they had the characters yellow, people don't know it's not the Simpsons. You know, like it's so unique to them. The success of The Simpsons, which I will talk about, a lot of cartoons popped up. Trying to catch on the success. Yeah, totally.

But interesting that no one would be like, I want to go to that extent. Yeah. Even Future Arm, I didn't go that way. Yeah, so they look similar. Obviously, it's a Matt Growning created show, but didn't have the yellow. For the voices in the original one-minute shorts,

for some of the main characters, the producers decide to keep it simple with Homer and Marge and just use actors that were already regulars on the Tracy Olman show. That makes sense. So they grabbed Dan Castaneletta, who voiced Homer and still voices Homer. He was appearing on the Tracy Elman show just as part of the cast. Before landing the role on the show,

he was working as a voiceover guy in radio. Oh, cool. His voice for the character started out as a loose impression of Walter Mathau. He's from the odd couple. Can you do a Walter Mathieu? I'm sure he can I can't Dennis

He was also on Dennis Samanus Dennis Dennis I said it just like that too I can do an impression of Matt doing an impression of Walter Matt Yeah please what was that Dennis

Oh very good Dennis Very good indeed Oh Dennis You've got up to mischief again Oh the pointing is nice Oh Dennis You've got up to mischief again

Oh not as good You pointed out the wrong hand That was Matt Yeah no I know you were doing Matt I said that Matt did it twice and the listener was like, oh my God, but they never did that. They definitely knew.

No putting words in your mouth, listener? Get that hot tongue out of their mouths. Interesting, no response. And there is. Your eye work today has been... Just off chops. When you've got eyes this big, you may as well use them. You may as well use them.

You may as well, what them? Look, I'll talk with my eyes from our one. It's going to make for a weird podcast. So it was originally a Walter Mathout. but it later evolved into a more robust voice self-subscribed and he said because he said he couldn't do the voice he initially did for nine or ten hours straight

so the original homer he just legit couldn't keep doing it week after week after week after week but yeah just more of a deeper version of his own voice but yeah I remember the early you know that 138 episode spectacular and they showed old clips were they actual old clips

yeah what does matter never mind that clip I always wanted if they were fucking with it and saying look how these old episodes didn't exist but that was real

I'm sure he genuinely is a clip show yeah but they also add in other stuff like and he did sound a bit like Walter Math yeah the voice is completely different totally is but they stuck with him

and he would go on to voice numerous other characters including Grandpa Simpson Barney Gumble Krusty the clown groundskeeper Willie Mayor Quimby Hans Mallman

Side Show M. M. I'mel, Itchy, Kodos, the squeaky voice teen, Anni Pie, an old Gil. That's all one guy. Old Gil. Make the sale. Gil, make the sale. I love Gil. He's one of the best. Gil's so good.

It's like, who's that there? Is that Fred? Oh, no, don't put him on. His wife's something in a fair. That's good. Julie Kavner was already an Emmy Award-winning actress, as well as being a regular on the Allman show. she was chosen to voice Marge, using her normal speaking voice almost exactly. Oh, wow.

She also voices Marge's mother, Jacqueline Bivier, and sisters Patty and Selma. So he just does all the Bivier. That makes sense. Yeah, but we'd have someone did a near, a very close Marge impression, but they got Dan to do it. So that's the two people that were already on the show, but then they started casting around. Yardley Smith was brought in because the casting director remembered that she had a funny voice. It does have a pretty funny voice. She was only 22 at the time

When she was asked to read for the part of Bart When they didn't work out She auditioned for Lisa and got the past Yeah, cool She was born in Paris And came at the USA age 2 And holds dual citizenship She is the only member of the main cast

Who solely voices one character So she just does Lisa Oh that's cool, yeah No other character Is she a Scientologist or something? No, she's not a Scientologist But Nancy Cartwright Who was initially brought into audition

For the role of Lisa but when she saw a picture of Bart and read a brief description about him she improvised the line well man yeah to which Graning said that's it that's him, that's our Bart So one came in for Lisa

one came for Bart and they switched Oh that's cool Oh man yeah that's the line that got of the role That would make her an absolute millionaire That's some good improv Matt That definitely is Matt

On spot go Give us some improv I'm coming in I'm playing a boy character Okay Oh no Buba de boo Boo we'll call you

and it probably will be a no it's just the second week in a row we've auditioned oh I've got one how about yeah man whoa oh you got the job thank you so much yeah that was so clearly that's him that's him that's our boy that's our buddy boy that's our daddy boy that's our Dave on the podcast

wait wait wait wait wait before you give it to her give me one more chance was that you welcome that pal whoa whoa booboooooo yeah see it's the boobboob Booty Boo that I'm not... Yeah, that's the problem. I'm...

I will not budge on the boopty boob. And I will not budge either. Well, I think we're at an impasse. Thank you for your time. And for wasting mine. Look, I'm not gonna take... And I will see you in hell. Oh.

Good day, sir. Like the cartoon. There is the door. You'll see me... There is the door. There's the door. There's the door. Right there behind you.

Yeah, I'm looking at the door. What next? Walk through it. All because you said... The door. Boob-Bibit-boo. This is fucked. Yeah, well, you can.

This is how you're going to run business? Well, this TV show is going to be bullshit, and you'll never be successful, and suck a fuck. You can also suck a fuck, sir, and you can suck a fuck, sir. Hey, I just can. And you can also suck a fuck fur, and you can suck fur, fucker. There's so many people in this audition. We've actually got a different part that you would probably be great for.

It's an angry old man. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I accept. Thank you, I accept booby-to-boo. Oh, he did it again. No, get out.

Remember, that's exactly what happens when the auditioned poochie? He does his voice. Oh, I'm rocking poochie. And then he says, I'm sorry, next. And he's like, oh, I didn't get the part, hey. Yeah. They gave him because he sassed him. That would be what happened with you, Matt.

If you ever got an audition. Back to Nancy Can't write. She joined the Church of Scientology in 1991. She was awarded Scientology's patron laureate. award and all she had to do with that to win that was to donate 10 million dollars. What? Twice her annual salary to the church in 2007.

How? How did she? Oh in 2007. I understand. Oh not straight away. She didn't buy away. Yeah, I thought she'd done that within the first two years and I was like how? 10 million dollars. That's all. She has paid 5 million a year. Well, we'll talk about their wages.

I wouldn't mind that at all. Be honest. Cartwright also voices Nelson. Todd Flanders. Ha ha! Ralph Wiggum and Kearney. Kearney. Oh, so only one of the Flanders boys? Yeah.

I assume they're both the same. Who's Kearney? The white t-shirt wearing a bigger bully. Yes, gotcha. Yep. Thank you. Harry Shearer came on board after producer Sam. Simon asked him to and told him it would only be an hour of week's work.

Harry's later said, Sam lied. Shearer had at this stage already had two stints on Saturday Night Live and co-created and starred as Derek Smalls, the bass player in one of the greatest movies of all time. This is Spinal Tap. Do you guys like Spinal Tap? Yeah. Yes.

They rock. Please don't ask me any follow questions. I also like the movie we're talking about. They sing your theme song. What's your anti-themed song? Big bottoms. Big bottoms. Oh, I like Big Buttons.

I don't have one. Oh, okay. He likes Big Butts and he cannot. lie. Fuck. That's my one weakness. I cannot lie about it. These other brothers can't

to know. My other brothers? Buppety boop. You've got the part. Wait, hang on. Harry doesn't voice any of the main family, but he voices many, many characters, including

Monty Burns. Skinner. Yes. Monty Burns, Skinner. He does, well, he does... Oh, Reverend Lovejoy. No. Yes.

He does... I yelled over you and did not hear your answer. Yes was the answer. He does Monty Burns. He also does Smithers, meaning he has a lot of conversations with himself. It happens to all of us. Ned Flanders,

Principal Skinner, Otto, Reverend Lovejoy, Dr. Hibbert, Kent Brockman, Jasper, Lenny, I was definitely going to get all these.

Eddie, Mickbane, Scratchy, and many more one-off characters. Oh, Jesus. That's such good range. There are some pretty varied voices in that. The difference between Lenny and like McBain.

Yeah. What's the difference? Give us an example. I am Lenny And I am McBain There we go, very good That's the range right there And finally

Hank Azaria Also just 22 years old at the time of auditioning He was starring in a one-man play That apparently no one was going to see When he got a call to audition for the role of Mo He did a bad El Pacino impression Impression he was doing in the one-man play And he got the gig

Awesome When he joined the show He'd previously only ever done one voiceover role, which is amazing as he too does millions of characters, including Apu, Mo, Chief Wiggum, comic book guy, Lou, Carl, Dr. Nick,

Snake, Kirk Van Houton, the sea captain, bumblebee man, Cletus, Superintendent Chalmers, Drederick Tatum, and many more. I love Dr. Nick. Dr. Nick is great. Ah, but isn't Mr. McGreg, with a leg for an arm and an arm for a leg.

Hi, Dustin. A poo feels troublesome now, now a little. A little troublesome. So apparently at the time, yeah, he claims that they wanted it to be like a stereotypical Indian person. But then they later said that he came up with a voice for that one. Oh, everyone blaming everyone, eh? So there we have our main voice crew. So the one minute shorts for The Simpsons was pretty basic, focusing on the family's daily life with the kids being kids and annoying their parents.

Kids. They love to annoy. That's right. Matt Graney would turn up on set with a two-page script. and then the voice actors would go up and record the voices in between blocking and rehearsals for the show. And then the animation studio had one week to make the show week to week. Cool. I just tried to keep ahead. In the first two seasons, the shorts were divided into three or four parts, but in the third season, they were played as a single story.

And according to some, out of everything on the show, the cartoons got the biggest laughs from the live audience, and the producers knew they were onto something good. So we're in multiple seasons now? I didn't realize it lasted that long. Well, they did four seasons of the Tracy Olman show. Oh, cool. You'd call that some sort of a success. Yeah, so it's not like a bomb or anything.

It's just that sadly it's only remembered. Yeah. Because of the show The Simpsons came out of. Yeah. It's like anything would come out of that. Even the Drew Carey show would feel dwarfed. We all know how great that was. Did the Drew Carey show come out of Tracy Elvin?

No. Cleveland rocks. Cleveland rocks. Ryan Stiles. Cleveland in. In what state, Jess? Ohio. Ohio.

The greatest... He yells Ohio, right? The greatest state of them all. Yeah. Ohio. Jess Perkins in Geography Girl. She can identify anything on a map. If it's clearly labeled.

What's that? Land. What's this? That's some water. That's some water. More land. What's that? That's the edge of the map.

That's a cork board. This is my fridge. That's my mom. She... Just put... Like just touching her face of the point. Just. Just kind of touching her nose or like her cheek a little bit.

This, mum. Annie. Annie. Stop touching Annie on the face. She loves it. She hates it. She's like, get off me. I'm like, I love you.

No one loves that. Being pointed out. She loves it. To the point of touching their nose. Interesting. No one. Oh, I like it. Oh, no.

Dave, do go on. When the cast were being made up, in order to entertain the audiences, the crew would play. a bunch of these one-minute cartoons back-to-back and the audience loved it. But one of the main reasons James L. Brooks considered taking the show to a full series was the director of the many

shorts, David Silverman accosted him at a Christmas party whilst very, very drunk, and Brooks had never heard someone speak so passionately to him, mainly because people were scared to death of him, about how making The Simpsons into a full show, what it would mean for animation,

and for primetime television. Wow. So he was like, yeah. Someone's finally telling me how they feel. Well, that's cool. So you know what happened there? Alcohol. Uh-huh. Saved another day.

As it always does. Just another example where alcohol proved to be good. Mm-hmm. I rest my case, Your Honor. And yes, I will drink drive again. And no. And you can fuck your tree off. I don't care that it was in your front yard.

Uh, I was drinking the good juice. as I call it Whiskey I came up with that, May The good juice I think we should hire him after all The improvising Madman Bubbidi-boo

Nope, he ruined it again Whilst all this is happening Fox were actually looking to shut down The Simpsons shorts Because they're costing about 15 grand a week And apparently not testing well With the audience survey Despite when they play it to the live audience,

they love it But now Jim Brooks had an idea And when Jim Brooks has an idea he does what he wants. Jim Brooks, what a cool dude. You'll notice at the start of every episode of The Simpsons after the couch gag, you know, when they sit on the couch,

which I never considered this, but when researching this, it makes complete sense. They tailor the couch gag to be as long as they need to make up the rest of the episodes. So if they have an extreme, like a short episode, if they're short a minute, they play that really long one

where they're all dancing with elephants and the circus and stuff. But if they don't have enough time, they shorten the intro altogether or make it a really quick one. It's just a device to kill an extra minute of television each week. That's why they have the long... Matt Graney wanted a really long theme song.

He didn't realize, because he hadn't watched TV apparently since the 70s. He'd given up on it. He didn't realize that TV shows no longer did long theme song at the time. He was like, yeah, just like they did in the 70s. Great long theme song. We'll have a car chase. It'd be amazing. And then they were like, well, at least we don't have to animate a minute of TV every week.

Yeah, that's pretty good. That well. Smart. Smart. But you'll notice after the couch egg on the main TV, it says created by Matt Graining, and that says developed by Matt Graining, James L Brooks,

and the third name is Sam Simon. We come to our third main player in the development of the Simpsons. Sam Simon was already a veteran writer and producer who had worked with Brooks on Taxi. He worked on the Tracy Olman show and had also written for Cheers. Where everybody knows your name.

And that name, Sam Simon. He assembled the first writer's room for the Simpsons. He assembled the best writers in the country, a writer's room that is still revered to this day amongst American TV writers. Still talk about how it was so good. He is often, as in Sam, credited with being the chief architect behind the Simpsons, responsible for developing

the heart and soul of the show when adapting it from these one-minute shorts about a family to a full-length series about an entire town. Sam developed and defined the looks for Chief Wiggum, Mr. Burns, Dr. Hibbert, and nearly all the characters voiced by guest stars. He put together the models, which are the basic set of drawings of each character

that the animators work from. So here's like the basic. Here's what they look like when they're doing this, this, this, and now you fill in the blanks. He made those. Reading what people say about Sam, he seemed to be revered, but much like James Book,

probably a bit... James L. Brooks are probably a bit hard to work with. Matt Grading said, I think Sam is brilliantly funny and one of the smartest writers I've ever worked with. although unpleasant and mentally unstable. Oh. A bitter relationship would develop between Matt and Sam.

In the Washington Post after the first series had aired, Matt said, I'm involved in every creative aspect, from conception of ideas to writing scripts, to directing voices, to designing characters. Sam replied, he's doing a lot of other stuff for the show, merchandising and things like that.

He's like the show's ambassador. Oh, wow. They both wanted to be the man. Yeah. about the show. Matt actually developed the template of the Simpsons, specifically the family, and Sam turned it into a whole world and made it more than just The Simpsons. Oh, okay, yeah, cool.

So yeah, he came up with the idea, and then many people that Sam, over the first few seasons, developed it. When The Simpsons exploded, Matt would be the face of the brand as he was listed as the creator. So everyone wanted to interview him, the newspapers wanted to write about where's his show come from. They saw the creator. And also James L. Brooks, because he'd won all those Oscars. and those Emmys, everyone already knew who he was. Sam Simon was famous in the TV world, but largely in the mainstream, was unwritten about,

and this pissed him off. It also made the other writers laugh that Graining would lap up the spotlight and talk about being in the writer's room late at night when he actually didn't have that much involvement with the writing of the full show. Running joke early on in the writers' room was that Matt had been assigned a script

to write a full script that he was in charge of, and over the first seasons of the show, it never materialised. The joke was that he was going to hand it in any day now. And it never came. Oh. But Sam was like smashing out ideas. Apparently, most times, a lot of times they'd come up with a punchline for a joke

and everyone would say theirs. And about nine times out of ten, they'd go with Sam's idea. Wow. But I've also read that if you had a better idea than his, he was happy to go with it. He wasn't like, no, you've got to do my idea. The best idea won. So much like in this podcast, we would go for... Dave's joke.

Nine times out of ten. Yeah, come on, mate. Yeah, look, I'd like to run the numbers. Oh, fuck, here we go. Matt, you are the numbers guy. The relationship between Matt and Sam got worse. Most like Matt and myself. Matt and myself.

Matt and myself. The problem with the podcast is, I'm not given the credit that I'm doing again. I don't know where that word is, but do you go out. Matt eventually snubbed Sam at the Emmys and did invite him to sit at the Simpsons table. Oh, brutal. Hi-oh.

Hi-oh. Sam would eventually leave at the end of the fourth series, but as a credit to how much he developed the show, he would continue to earn $20 to $30 million a year up until his death from cancer in 2015. Wow. He then bequeathed his entire $100 million estate to various charities that he'd supported throughout his lifetime.

Oh, wow, that's cool. But to get to the end of the four series For him to leave We've got to have the first series So to get the first series off the ground They put seven of the one minute episodes together And secretly tested it with audiences And it tested through the roof

People love that shit That's a huge surprise They love that shit Yeah They showed Barry Diller Who's the guy The head of fox that resurrected or cloned his dog He was skeptical

Oh He was like Can I clone my dog? I clone my dog from this Yeah That's all I care about I want a Jack Russell on my desk by the end of business. And if not.

And I wanted to be the exact same as my current dog. Thank you. And if I don't have that dog, you don't have a series. You know what? James L. Brooks got that dog. Because he's fucking James L. Brooks. He knew animation costs a lot. And he knew that James L. Brooks probably wouldn't want to just do a pilot.

He'd want a full series. Because he's James L. Brooks. Sure. You don't give James L Brooks a pilot. He give him a fucking series. He doesn't half ass. No, exactly. So Barry,

was a bit worried because it was going to cost heaps. Barry took Rupert, the big boss of Fox, aside and secretly showed him the shorts that they put together, and Rupert loved it. He thought it was hilarious and told Barry, you've got to buy this tonight. Wow. But they shopped around, they shop the idea around,

they showed it to the heads of ABC television, who loved it, and they said they'd buy it on the spot. Diller heard that the ABC was interested, so he committed $13 million to secure 13 episodes. What? They played a muscle against each other. A million dollars in episodes. What?

I imagine that's heaps in the 80s as well. Yeah, big money. That's so much. For a cartoon. Because, yeah, I wonder how much it would cost now. Imagine, just because it's voice talents. The voice talents cost millions in episode. And I've got to say, at this time, the very idea of doing a cartoon for adults at prime time was super out there.

The last time they'd done it was at the end of 1966 for the Flintstones. So no one's done over 20 years. And there's no like South Park or family or anything like that, obviously. They get influenced by this. So people are unsure if this one minute show that people like could actually be a half hour TV series. Yeah. Wow. To make it suitable, James L Brooks wanted to make it way deeper than the one minute short.

So that's why you wanted more about the town, more stuff going on. Yeah. Not just because the one minute shorts, I've watched a few of them on, because some are on YouTube, it is like Homer being pissed off that Bart does silly stuff. Yep. Which is cool for a minute, but like, you know, they don't have the heart and the soul and like the recurring jokes. Yeah. Just the context.

Yeah, and how The Simpsons makes you feel human a lot of the time. There was a big change right when early on, especially it was a show about Bart, and then I've heard people say that it got better when Homer became the main guy. Yeah, so I will talk about Bart Mania when that dies down what they do instead. But initially, money was tight

and they had to edit the series out of the back of a tiny trailer for the first six months. But the Simpsons moved up in the world in 1988 when they got their own lot at Fox. The writer's room was in Gracie Films Bungalow, which was a bungalow formerly owned by Marilyn Monroe. Oh, cool. It was probably nicer than any bungalow I've ever been in here.

Oh, definitely. I imagine some shitty bungalow. I don't think so. Better than the bungalow you lived in, Matt, as a teen. Three by three metre cube. Yeah, that's right. Did they have a window? That was a small window.

Thank God. Yeah, it was permanently open. Because the Simpsons looked unlike all cartoon, tunes of the old animation style, Disney, Warner Brothers, Flintstones, all that kind of stuff. If you think about it, looks nothing like that. The animation head, Sherry Gunther, got a lot of younger animators and student animators who would come in and easily adapt to their new style, unlike older veterans who are sort of stuck in their ways. Yeah. Things like Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny.

They found it easier to teach new young talent how to do it. So these young animators would, and also that have new ideas, so they'd define the look at the show, young people. Wow The Simpsons ended the theme song For that very long intro I was talking about So they got Danny Elfman Legendary Composer and Musician To make the theme song

Took him three days, two hours 48 minutes and 19 seconds But who's counting? But who's counting? He is a very famous composer Won a lot of awards And he realizes that his most famous work Is the Simpsons theme song

Wow It's great tune Matt Graney had approached him And has that one go Lou away Lou away Oh no We're going to go

Aye Aye Yeah that's right Louis Louis Was that the Kingsman Yes Matt Grading had approached Alfman And asked for a retro style theme song

And it took two days to record With a full orchestra That's pretty cool Now for the first episodes The animators would draw a storyboard For each of the commissioned episodes That would be accompanied By extensive notes for directions

And camera instructions and then they'd send the rest to South Korea where they were animated by hand by hundreds of artists who were paid not very much. Really? Wow. A little bit dodged. Because it takes so long. So send these off and they'd have to wait months

before they see anything back. Obviously when you're making a pilot or series or another thing, you can watch the edit from that day. So you have an idea of what's going on. But they had to wait months and they had no idea it was going to come back. And when it finally came, they were pretty excited to see, you know, the pilot.

50 people crammed into a tiny room to watch the first episode. They were so fucking excited And it was awful Oh really? The animation was unwatchable It was out of sync The colour was off

Everything looked shithouse Oh no The animators had also taken some licence Including when the family Are watching a TV show called The Happy Elves Meet the Curious Bear Club A bear cub Tears the head off an elf

And starts drinking its blood And they're like This is not the show we want to make Great, great That's pretty funny Yeah So everyone's super excited they've all watched it, everyone's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, they watch it, then no one says

anything, it's silent. And then James L. Brooks says, he stands up and says, do you think we could thin out the ranks a bit? And everyone fucking ran out the room. So, and it was just left was a couple of producers, Matt Granning, James L. Brooks, and head animator. And they all felt like they were fucked. They were like, we just ordered 13 of these. This looked terrible. So they had to delay the series to work out the kinks. A big problem with the animation is, people were struggling to draw in gratings and style. So he's really like cartooning and just draws it in a second and throws it off. But that's not good to reproduce over and over and over again.

So I had to round out the characters a little bit, make them a bit rounder. So you'll see between the shorts and the first episode, they look a little bit different. And then as the series goes on, now they look completely. In that 138th episode you see, yeah, it's so different. They sort of get unsquashed. Yeah, and that's much easier to, like, even the shirts they're wearing and stuff. Super easy to make. Fortunately, the next episode that came in was a Christmas-themed episode called Simpsons

roasting on an open fire, and it looked a lot better. So it was decided that everything would be delayed up until Christmas so the Simpsons could debut as a Christmas special. Oh, cool. And that's what happened on the 17th of December, 1989. A good year. A good year, Matt. And that's the first year with, that's the first one with the dog.

Yeah, that's right, the first one with the dog. And that's the first ever, It was the second highest rating show in Fox's history up until that point. Wow. So it did well. What was number one? I'm not sure. Marriage of the Children was on at the same time.

That was their big show. So probably that, I would say. Cool. The series continued the following month. So they had the Christmas special a few weeks off, 14th of January. So the only episode to be in the 80s was that first episode. Everything else is the 90. 1990, 14th of January.

A good year. A good year. The year of our birth. Birth. Birth. We are your lord The year of hell Or what was it again that you called me earlier today

Was it Lord? Did you call it a religious figure? Something like that Something like that But I digress I mean we've talked about it so much People don't want us to talk about that anymore No they don't want to know

The Simpsons continued the 14th of January In its regular Sunday 830 slot in America That's when it first came out The numbers only improved By May the Simpsons was number one At its time slot top 20 for the week Wow. And at that time, Fox was only available in four out of five homes in America,

so they're missing a big part of the market. So considering it's doing very well. Four out of five. So they're missing... One out of five, which is... A fifth. Which is, as a percentage, yes. 20.

20, well done. I clapped for myself. Numbers. The Simpsons quickly became Fox's biggest show, even bigger than married with children. And that classic Married with Children theme song A louis, louis Oh

Oo, oh We go, go Ay, aye, yeah, yeah, yeah, great Oh, it's such a good show. Frank Sinatra, what a great singer. They did some married with children on The Simpsons, I reckon. Oh, oh, hell, I want to have sex. I don't know, Peg.

And then a toilet flushes and they all laugh. That's funny. That's great. A little no pig. In a nutshell. That's it. Critically, monetarily and comedically, The Simpsons was a huge success

from the end of its 13 episode run. It went so well that they were worried about what to do when the series finished. Murdoch wanted constant reruns, but Brooks and Simon didn't want to exhaust their success with saturating the market with their show. This is a time where the executives were right and the creators were wrong

because the reruns were incredibly popular and just kept bringing more and more fans on board. Well, that's like how we would watch the same. But it freaks me out to think Like when I started watching it You know it's like 1990s or something So they've got the first eight series It's about 200 episodes to cycle through

But if they're playing six a week That's every series on the Saturday and Sunday I can't think of a time when The Simpsons didn't exist Yeah When the second series came The Fox executives had a big bold plan A big bold plan A big bold plan

A big ball plan To move the Simpsons from Sunday To Thursday No It's a bold plan I've always loved Thursday And Thursday night would mean it would go up against the biggest show on TV at the time, the reigning champion. Oh, let me guess.

Sign. I don't think he said saying, yes. I was going to say 60 minutes. I heard that was really popular. It's a family-friendly show that now you wouldn't even rerun because of what's happened since. Cosby. It's the Cosby show. Yes.

That was huge. So that was a fucking massive. The biggest family-friendly show at the time. Yeah. Not so family-friendly, am I right? It was decided that the... Simpsons would go up against this juggernaut and the newspapers built it up like a boxing match.

The LA Times headline, Bart versus Bill. Oh, New York Times. Simpsons to compete with Cosby. That's crazy, yeah, cool. Sam Simon didn't like this idea and thought it was distracting away from the show. So what he did, he created a character called Dr. Hibbert that all sweaters laugh stupidly and made fun of Bill Cosby. Yeah.

I like Dr. Hibbet's laugh, which I cannot do. No, it's hot. It's like a Matt, have a go. No, I think Jess got pretty close there. I don't think I'll beat that. No, but I, if you could please, there we go, that's a bit better. If you could please laugh like that from now

and that would be really great. Yeah, it's not bad. That's not bad. So the big night came, Bart versus Bill. And when the ratings came in, Bill Cosby. This is as a percentage of all viewers 18.5 That's big

The Simpsons 18.4 Oh But when you think about the fact that only four out of five televisions got Fox Yeah It was pretty great And only continued to improve And by Thanksgiving

They beat Bill Cosby Take that, Bill Cosby And that was the last series of the Cosby show They met, The Simpsons Rat him out of town They genuinely That is sort of That's pretty brutal TV to go

We're going to try and take you down Isn't it? Yeah. In there. I guess it's business. Yeah. It's a bit crazy light. Bit lady light, bit crazy light.

No, no I'm saying all right. In there. I'm really sure I know what you're saying, but I like it. I like how you're saying it, even though I don't know what you're saying. The Simpsons continue to improve and officially beat Cosby by Thanksgiving. And now the Simpsons approved they could officially compete with anyone. Oh, that's, if I was going to audition for a part with Bip-Diboo, it would have been Cosby Show. Oh, yeah, no, okay.

Oh, Jesus. Oh, the flipping and the flopping and the beeping and the pooping. The world went crazy for The Simpsons. It was a hit, ratings wise to Fox, and was a top ten show overall. A merchandising boom began, and Fox signed a deal with Mattel and 50 other product licenses. TV merchandising like this had never been seen before. When TV Guide put the Simpsons on the cover, it sold more issues than any other that year. six TV cartoon sitcoms were put into development by other networks trying to compete,

all inspired by The Simpsons. Stephen Spielberg and Tim Burton developed Family Dog. Show created by Brad Bird. We worked on a lot of cartoons and now directs films like Mission Impossible. It started off with Family Dog. Family Dog. It only aired two episodes. Oh, really?

I would have thought Family Dog would have done really well. The Can to the Family Dog. Family Dog was put. in the bin. But as Bart said, in the early, as Bart said, as Matt said, about Bart, in the early days it was all about Bart.

He was a cultural phenomenon and it was described as Bart Mania. Bart was seen as critics as obnoxious and a bad influence and shirts that read underachiever and proud of it were banned from many public schools. No fun.

In an interview with People magazine in 1990, then first lady Barbara Bush described the show as the dumbest thing I've ever seen. Marge responded. in character with a tongue-in-cheek letter saying, I've always thought we've had a great deal in common, each of us living our lives to serve a great man. The lady wrote back and apologized for her loose tongue.

And if you remember later on, they had two bad neighbors. Yes. Barbara Bush and George Bush Sr. A really good episode, which was based on Dennis the Menace. The revenue for the first year from merchandising was estimated to be $750 million. In the first year, did you say? $750 million.

In 1991, Matt Grading made Forbes list of top 40 richest entertainers with an estimated $18 million in earnings. Oh, my God. Imagine if he'd stayed anti-establishment and said no. Yeah, that's why you should always say yes to the man. Fuck yeah. That's where the big dollars come from, baby. Name a rich hippie, you know?

Name one. Can you be rich and a hippie? Can name some rich past hippies. Exactly. Sell out. Sell out. Sell out. Sell out.

Sell out. Get your millions. Get a yacht. Live your life. I am willing to sell out for a yacht. I'll say that. I don't know if I want a yacht. I don't know that big on boats. You don't want a yacht?

I don't get it. We're rich people want yachts. Yeah, I don't get that. Don't you like the idea of sailing the seven seas? Not really, no. I'm a land lover. Yeah, or I'd like to fly. Fly.

Yeah, fine. I'll buy your fucking golf street. You want that? Yeah, that's the things that make the water sparkle. That's only funny to you because Dave never remembers the name of Soda streams. Soda stream. I can't remember what it's...

Now, that doesn't make any sense to me. We know, mate. We know. I'd take a yacht. Would you rather a soda stream or a yacht? Soda stream. You poor bastards. Growing up in the Afton East,

more Ophay with the yacht life, not the soda life. I don't make my own soda. I fucking own Pepsi. You would so get seasick. Yeah, I would. You wouldn't even be able to enjoy your own fucking yacht. Have these bubbles to calm your stomach.

I'd be like, I refuse. I will never. not put them near my tum-tum. My burning tongue-tong. A hot tongue. Tum. 1991. Music and record label legend

David Geffen had the idea of doing a Simpsons Christmas album Christmas that year. It became the Simpsons sing the blues. The writers wrote humorous lyrics for the characters to sing over blues and hip-hop tracks produced by DJ Jazzy Jeff.

Oh man, that sounds like the worst idea. The album went triple platinum within weeks. Could I be DJ Jazzy Jaze Jess. Yes. Oh, that's good. Thank you so much. That could be...

I'm pretty jazzy. I mean, I don't know when you're going to be able to use that. DJ, Jesse. Would you call yourself DJ Jesse, Jeff and the Fresh Princess? No, I wouldn't call it that. Wouldn't say that? I would probably call myself DJ Jazzy. What would you say?

Yeah, Jazzy Jess and the fresh princess. Matt? Would you call me a princess? I'm not O'Fay with that at all. How good is the word of Faye, by the way. O'Fay is great. I'm so O'Fay with O'Fay, with being O'Fay on all topics, young and old, small and large, especially yacht related. You're O'Fay with yachts.

I'm so O'Fay. I've never been sailing in my fucking life. Been on about two boats. Does you get seasick? I did. I did. Did you? Oh, yeah.

Bloody landlubber. I'm a landlubber. I'm a pirate. Ayah? It sounds like a nightmare. It's just sailing around the world. A lot of maintenance, too. You're relying on the wind.

And it takes forever. Yeah. Like, just fly there. Where do you, is it, because you, you reckon you're going to enjoy the journey, being in, like, horrible swalls? Squalls. Swalls aren't things.

Are you trying to say squirrel the American way? Squirrel. Squirrel. Why do you say squirrel? Look at the word. Why is it squirrel? Squirrel. Squirrel.

Squirrel. Also, why do you say Graham and not Graham? If anything, it should be Graham. Or Craig. Graham. And not Craig. Yeah. Anyway.

Craigslist. We have. Squirrel is. We have quite a lot to still get through, I'm assuming. No, we're nearly there, nearly there. The biggest song... The biggest song from Arthur Simpsons sing the blues. Yes.

You know the single? Bartman. Do the Bartman. I remember that. I was alive when they came out. I thought you are co-wrote. I co-wrote it. I was quite old at the time.

It was one of my last hits. It was originally called Do the Mat-Man. But no one knew who I was. No, didn't catch on. So it didn't catch on time. Do the Mat-Man. It was co-written by Michael Jackson, or is that just a rumor? That's right, it was secretly co-written and co-produced by Michael Jackson, who denied it at the time.

Oh, I love the episode where Michael Jackson is in it. Also uncredited, right? Yeah, that's right. He couldn't do the voice. He was contracted. Happy birthday, Lisa. We couldn't be credited as the voice. Yeah, and if you think about it, Lisa at your birthday is a genuinely good pop song.

It's really cute. A little well written song. I love it. So is Lisa. Your teeth are big and green. Lisa. You smell like gasoline. Lisa.

Da-da-da-da-da-disa. She is my sister. Her birthday I miss her. Mark, that's very funny. I've forgotten that, but I'm glad I still know it. Do the Bartman never officially released as a single in the USA, but it was in the UK where it sold 400,000 copies. That's insane.

I remember saying on like rage or video hits on Saturday mornings they used to play the film. Did you go and buy the cassette? Nah, I didn't. The eight track? Did you go and buy the record? Uh, no. Did you use that Thomas Edison's original gramophone?

Yeah, this is it on your gramophone? Someone... Did you play it on your player piano? No, no, someone sent it through to me via Morse Code. Oh. Do do do do do do. I don't know why Morseco is making noise. It's all like.

In the tune of... Yeah, that's awesome. Oh, yes. But eventually BartMedia died down. This was evident when Burkey King had to send a lot of Bart toys back. Oh, no. But... Mania.

Mania. Butt mania took hold. Everyone was obsessed with butts. They still are. To the butt man. But the show itself went from strength to strength. So even though Bart Mania died down, people still love the family. And Homer eventually stepped in as the main character, as you were saying, Matt.

Yeah. And they actually found it easier. For Homer as an adult to be in more situations than Bart as a naughty kid. Sure. You can't do that much. But Homer can go to space and do all kinds of crazy stuff. But Homer can go to space. Not Bart.

As we all know, kids are banned from space. They're not allowed in. They just can't get through the atmosphere. And of course, over the years, the show has helped along with a plethora of Simpsons' guest stars. The first credited guest star was actor Sam McMurray, who appeared in Homer's Odyssey, the show's third ever episode. Sam McMurray is best known as Supervisor O'Boyle in The King of Queens and also plays a character in Breaking Bad,

like a small character. But he was the first one to be credited as guest star, but he's not like a big name. It's like I'm a guest star on this podcast. Yeah, permanent guest star. Yeah. Every week, guest star and JP. JPE.

We did say that you are. This is your 74th episode, which makes you make more episode appearances than the person who's done the most guest appearances, 52 and that is Phil Hartman. So he was never actually a... He was always guessed as. Yeah, right.

He played... Some of the best characters. Lionel Hutz and Troy McClure. I was about to say Troy McClure. And he basically doesn't... I can love Lionel Hutz. His own voice. It's pretty close.

Yeah, they're very similar. Both characters had to be retired when he was murdered by his wife in 1998. Oh, that sucks. Oh, my God. I remember that morning hearing that on the radio. On the wireless. Yeah. Did you hear that on the wireless?

Yeah, yeah. That's shocking. You and the family standing around, sitting around the wireless. Yeah, it was almost like we could see it. Wow, this. When we first heard radio waves. Yeah. It was so vivid.

Like, it felt like you could see the goonies and Phil Hartman. Was it in your imagination? Orbitrary and stuff like that. Oh, I can picture Phil Hartman now. Yeah. I couldn't before. It's sad. Yeah, no, no, I do know exactly.

Two of my. They are two of my favorite top ten characters. I think probably my favorite character ever is Lionel Hutz. Yeah, so funny. The tie bit. How good is the tie bit? If you look again. I'm not really wearing a tie at all.

A red and white strapped tie with a wins or not. Can we talk about that recently? Yeah, yeah, we did. I think we did. It's so great. Scientology. Last week. God, thanks for listening to my reports, you dicks.

Well, we did a lot of Simpsons references last week in anticipation for this. There's been less since. Simpson's actual joke references on this show. Yeah, which is interesting. And there'll probably be more to come. You were really getting us ready. Yeah, I was hamming it up. You knew at the time?

Yeah, I'd chosen it. I've been researching for ages, as you can tell. At the time of his death, Phil Hartman, this is a side fact for fans of other shows. Is it a fun fact? Yes, it is. And there will be lots of fun facts at the end of this episode. I was supposed to say a record amount, I imagine. Excellent.

Hartman was preparing to voice Zap Branigan, one of the main characters specifically written for him in Grand Prix. ending second animated show Future Drama. He's one of the best characters. I love that character. I know. Yeah. It was written for him.

Yeah, he would have been so good at that, yeah. Now, just The Simpsons Legacy here. At the time, because I could go on and on about, well, you all know the show, the success it became, but that's sort of just how it all started. Yeah. And at the time of recording, 613 episodes of The Simpsons have been broadcast.

Wow. It's 28th season began September 2016. It is the longest-running American sitcom and the longest-running American animated program and in 2009 it surpassed Gunsmoke, the old Western, as the longest running American scripted primetime television series ever. That is incredible. And it's like a cartoon.

Yeah, that's amazing. I mean, it hasn't been good for a long time, but still, geez, it keeps going. In its time on screen, 244 other shows have come and gone on the Fox Network. So it's outlived, nearly 250 other shows. Wow. Have started and stopped in that time. Do you think they, I mean, obviously you say they're not as good now. Do you think they'll like wait?

Will they quit while they're ahead in a way? Can you imagine a world in which the Simpsons stops? I know. It will be weird to watch the final episode. It has to, eventually. It has to. Yeah, I mean, because the voice, the cast, has remained the same. Oh, true, yeah.

So they had to take a pay cut. We were talking about pay earlier. They were on 400 grand an episode. But a few years ago, they had to cut it down to 300,000. Oh, they all get the same. It's making less show. Yeah, it's making less money. A hundred grand.

Pay cut. Pay cut. Per episode. But how much work are they actually doing? How often would they go into the studios? Do they even go into the studio? I think a lot of them have it written in it. Oh, this might be bullshould. But I think they might do it remotely.

I'm pretty sure I've heard Harry Shrew. As in what, they have a studio at home. Yeah, they just, is that that might not be true. Fuck. If I was making that much money, though, I'd have a podcast studio in my house. Oh, yeah, you could build one. Yeah, it's not that hard, is it? But I meant, like, you could build one on a couple of months wages.

Yeah, totally. Like a professional one. Like a really good one. one. I just feel like what? With a foyer and a receptionist. You'd have to enjoy doing it. Bill, because men can be receptionist too.

He's learning. It feels so good to be equal. Actually, one of the receptionists at the radio station I work at. His name is Phil. There you go. Great guy. I just, I just, yeah, I can't believe that. Phil.

Receptionist. Yeah, Phil. I know. That's something. I know. Time named The Simpsons The 20th Century's best television series Out of all of them

Bart was named part of Times 100 Most Influential People of the Century That's insane He's the only cartoon character on there So no Mickey Mouse No Bugs Bunny but Bart Simpson is That's amazing 100 most influential people of the 20s

He's not even a real person And he out ranked Homer Yeah Wow And Lenny How about that Lenny January 14th 2000 The Simpson family were awarded a

star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It has won dozens of awards since it debuted as a series, including 31 primetime Emmy. So, can you imagine James L. Brooks's shelf? He's got five Oscars. Mate, we're talking shelves. Shelf. Oh, imagine. Wow, you reckon?

Holy moly. He's got a room for him, I reckon. Out in the shed. Chuck it in the pile. In the pool room. Now, straight to the pool room. Are you ready to finish off with some fun facts? David.

Yes. I am so ready. There's like about, oh man, maybe 15 of these. Are you serious? So many. I really want to watch some more episodes now because I keep saying it's gone shit but I haven't really watched much of it.

When I see it, I don't like it. Yeah, that's what's happened to me too. It could be bad luck. Maybe we're both just coincidentally seeing the only bad new episodes. All right, here's with some fun facts. Here's some fun facts. Springfield was chosen as the town's name as there are 49 Springfields in the USA.

Matt Graning did not want people to know where it is. There are even more towns called Lincoln, but Matt thought Springfield sounded funnier. It's pretty funny. Good call. Mo's number, his phone number is one digit longer than a usual US number, so people don't prank call a real phone number. That's great. In France, or France, Homer's dough is translated as toe, like T, or POSOOOA.

To! And in Spanish, it's ouch. Oh, okay. That's good, too. I saw Super Simpsons when I was in Paris. and yeah, the Marge's voice is done by a man. Wow. And it's really manly and gravely.

But still trying to be French. I'm not speaking in French though. Wee, wee. Bo bon bon bon. Bo bon. Bo bon. Bon. Bon.

In the script, Doe is never written down. It's only ever written as annoyed grunt. They refer to it. And in 2001, the word dough was added to the Oxford Dictionary. I remember that. 2001, wow. God, my memory's all right. I was 11.

Yeah. I remember things that have happened in my life. That is ridiculous. La de fricking da. Matt Graining provides the sound of Maggie sucking her dummy. Gross. That's cool. That's him.

So different reaction. We went different ways there. Homer Simpson is the most downloaded Satnav GPS voice available. Really? What I thought, John Cleese, but there you go. Michael Kane. Oh, Michael Kane. I love to hear Michael Kane.

Take the next left. No, not that left. This left. Hello, I'm Michael Kane. At the roundabout, continue straight ahead. Yes, Michael, anything is there. Dave's face looks disgusted. He's ready to go, look at him.

Hello. There he is. I'm Michael Kane. There it is. And you are on the fastest route possible. Mr. Wayne. What? Am I Batman?

In the film and book, Day of the Locust, there is a character called Homer Simpson. The book was published in 1939. What? The film made in 1975, starring Donald Sutherland as the character. Donald Sutherland. That is a fun fact.

That is a fun fact. Paul McCartney reportedly only agreed to do the guest star if Lisa gave up meat forever. Oh, that's a weird... Yeah, it's a weird request. Yeah. Like, okay, I'm going to convert everybody by making a cartoon character be vegetarian. That was a cool episode, though. like that one.

Me too. And I reckon that was the first time I heard maybe I'm amazed and I'm a big fan of tune now. It's a great song, isn't it? Love me all the time. I was singing in this episode. I'm so sorry. The writers had a backup line for Buzz Aldrin's line.

Second comes right after first. Very good. In Deep South Home, on Home Goes to Space, in case he was offended by it. The backup was first to take a soil sample. That's fine. Whoever Aldrin didn't mind the original

and they went with it. I reckon the second one is almost, Probably a bit more of it. But they're both very funny. And the joke's the same both times, so I don't know why I'd be different. Anyway. Matt Graney,

this one's for you, Jess. Is left-handed. Yes, that's why it's a success. Everything we touch turns to gold. The man with the golden left. Name me a single unsuccessful left-hander. You can't. You can't do it.

My sister just tweeted it. She just started listening to the show, and she's got up to the left-handed episode. And she tweeted saying, Hey, Matt, you mentioned in the episode that you thought I was left-handed? Yeah, I was. You should believe in yourself, man. Oh, that's sweet.

I like that she didn't, because if it was my brother, I'd be like, how the fuck do you not know that I'm left-handed? So that's nice that she's taking that angle. Yeah, it was a nice angle. Because I would have been like, you dickhead. I'm your sister. There you go. Different sisters, eh?

How about them? Sounds like a sitcom, different sisters. And they're not. And their take... They'd both be different from each other. Imagine what different sisters would... When their take on the world would be. Oh, Lordy.

Probably a bit bloody different. I think it would go a little something like this. Hey, look at that. Is that a plane? I don't think so. And scene. Roll the credits. Different sisters recorded in front of a live studio audience.

Yeah, they gave them fucking nothing. Really? It sounds like no one was there. A life shoot audience in brackets of 500 people were in attendance. The mics were turned up full. Milhouse Van Houten, his middle name is Mussolini. What? Bam.

Sorry, Dave, what was that? Is that ever in an episode? Bam. Bam. Marge appeared on the cover of Playboy, the real Playboy, in 2009. And I know that because I bought it, because I buy it every week. Perv. Month?

I don't know. You buy it for the book reviews. Book reviews. The coffee table book review. How else would I know what to put on my coffee table? Exactly. You wouldn't know. My final fun fact about my favorite character, Lionel Hutz.

Yes. He claims to have a law degree from Princeton University, a university that does not, in fact, offer law. Ah, very good. Beautiful! And that is my Simpsons report, and I would like to say a big shout out. And thank you to Justin McCain for making me finally do that. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Justin McCain. Mr. Caliccany. If you're from Australia, Mr. Cliquity, if not, there's a song about Mr. Click, you can't look it up. If you want to know more about The Simpsons, I read a great book before starting this report. The Simpsons, an uncensored and unauthorized history. A book by John Autveth. It was a good read with a lot of stuff that I obviously couldn't include in here about stuff on the scenes in Riders' room and Conan O'Brien and stuff.

That was really cool. And also, a cool book of you're a Simpsons fan is actually by Matt Graney. It's called The Simpsons, The Complete Guide to Your Favorite Family. And it actually goes through every episode from seasons one to eight with like behind the the scene stuff. Oh, cool. So I really enjoyed... And that was written by Graining.

Yes, it's written by Matt Graney, edited by someone else. Yeah, but it's really, really cool. So every year episode from one day, the golden years. And he goes, anyway, Sam Simon was a fucking about somewhere else. Yeah, well, I was getting it down. Right and everything that you, that you love... That joke you didn't laugh at? That was Simon.

Everything else, that was, man. Yeah. So it sounds like you were kind of more sympathetic in that partnership to Simon? Well, everything I read, all the people behind the scenes were like, he's the man. Right. That's interesting. But also, I think that Matt Grading's got to be, have some, because he also created a Futurama, and that's amazing.

Oh, yeah, of course. So he's got to be great. I love Futurama. Yeah, totally. There's crossovers between the two as well. I didn't get as into Futurama. I didn't get into it straight away. They didn't play six episodes on a Saturday and Sunday morning at a podcast.

Exactly. So like, why would I give a shit? What am I watching on Saturday morning while I ate in breakfast? Simpsons. Very good point. And then it would be up until 12. And it was like 12. I'm still in my pajamas.

Me too. It must have been my parents would be like, what are you fucking doing? Yeah, and you'd be like, now I can start my day. I'm like, I'm just eating fruit loops. I'm watching this. And then as I got older, like, and I got out of bed later, you'd still get out of bed like late on a Saturday and the Simpsons would still be on anyway, you know, as long as it was before 12.

Always there for you. That's the beautiful thing about this. And then you had Fox 8 plus two, which was two hours behind. Oh, how good is that? So then you missed the first couple. If you miss the first couple, you could catch up. Or if you got up really late, because you were a little bit older, you were a teenager, and maybe you were hung over

or you just slept more on weekends. You could watch it in the afternoon. What a time to be alive. What we're talking about? Wow, what a time to be in the Affluent East. Oh, what a time. Matt, you should have been there. What a time to...

You had a channel just for the people who were on delay. So a big thanks to Justin McKin. And everyone that has to me to do this episode. I hope I did not disappoint. There's a lot of information about the Simpsons there. So do with it what you will. And if you would like us to thank you personally, you can subscribe to our Patreon and support us over there.

You can get bonus stuff like... bonus episodes that we do once a month just for the Patreon supporters and tickets to live shows all that kind of stuff and of course thank you at the end of the episode so we'd like to say thanks

to three Patreon supporters right here right now and Matt's going to kick us off with a big thank you I'd like to thank you this one's interesting because he's just a one-name person some of the best people are

Cher, Prince the Queen I reckon every time this happens you name check Cher which I like I like how she should go to I love my girl share My girl.

Not Madonna, not Rihanna, no more contemporary people. Eminem. What's that? Hmm? Sure. Academy Award winner. Thank you very much. Well, this guy just is known only as Michael and I'd really like to think.

I'm kind of assuming it might be Michael Jackson. I was thinking Michael Perkins. Your brother. My brother. Could be. Big supporter. Your brother from the same mother? Yes, my biological brother.

Just trying to confirm. Yeah. You are related. Anyway, this guy's got a very sweet, singing voice. Michael. Oh, yeah. And I want to send this one out to you, Michael. Thank you, Michael Hudson.

I just figured out his surname because his email's Michael Hudson. At something or something. You assume that could be his middle name. Oh, interesting. It's not just Michael Hudson. Don't read the whole email. Oh, it's Michael Hudson, something, something, at something or other dot something. Okay, sorry.

If you would like to contact a Michael Hudson, I'm sure Michael Hudson, at something.com If you want to thank him as well. Why not? I said he's got a sweet singing voice and then I sang like with my better voice which was kind of in a lot of ways that was mean.

Very patronising. I'm trying to put him in his place. Yeah, I guess in some ways that was a power play. Yeah, you're a bit like that. Hey, I would also like to thank a Patreon supporter who, you know what?

I was going to try and make a pun. You know I can't do these. How about you just talk about their email? And their email That seems to be the cool thing to do. No, I would like to thank Dave Berry. Oh, that is a great name. Now, we are big fans of Dave's here at Do Go-On.

Oh, they're right for the picking, much like berries. Yeah, that's why I was kind of going for either berry picking or I was going to make like a Chuck Berry joke. And then I was like, you know what? Do you know who died this week? He died. Chuck Berry. At time of recording, he died in the past.

Yeah. 90 flat? 90 years old. 90 years old, which you'd like, Jess? Yeah, bang on 90. And you know what? For that, I thank Chuck. And for his music and contribution to...

Do you thank Dave? Oh, of course I thank Dave. I've already thanked Dave. Dave, it means so much to us that you support the show and we love you. And now, as a tribute to you, we will all list our favorite berries. Okay. Mine would be, if we're talking ice cream, boisenberry. If we're talking...

Boys and berry. Yes, agree. An actual berry, strawberry. Thank you. Okay, great. Matt. Dave, is it true that strawberry isn't a real berry? It's literally got berry in the name of it, though.

All right. I think I'm going to allow it. I'm going to allow it. The seeds are on the outside, yes. I heard that. I reckon I heard that from Dave. But it's called a straw berry. No, no, I agree.

I just thought. So why did you bring it up? It's a good point. I just tell it. Just tell Dave your favorite berry. I think my favorite. I'm with you, Bois and for ice cream. Love it.

But I'm going to say Bloob. Bloob. I'm a bloob man. David. My favorite. Barry? Yep. Dave Berry.

Oh, fuck, he's good. I genuinely didn't think of that at all. Thank you, Dave. Very good. And also raspberries. Oh, okay. Interesting. Second favorite.

Top two. Top two. And Chuck. And Chuck. Top three. And the old Victorian wicketkeeper, also known as Chuck. Oh, and the Melbourne comedian Daisy Berry. Yes.

Who I really like. So you're in the top five now. Very funny. Yeah, she's great. Okay. And the old business phone, the Blackberry. Yes. Dave, would you like to thank someone?

Grapes are quite nice. I eat a lot of bananas. Don't like them that much, but I eat a lot of them. They're easy to eat on the go. Also, don't mind a little bit of Brian Ferry, but that's by the bye. And the final thank you that I've been putting off because I'm so sorry that I will mispronounce your name. First name, Danyan, surname, Grotorix. Oh, that is so cool.

Danian Gritorics, thank you so much for your support and I'm so sorry that it's spelled Great O'Rex. Oh man. That's too good to be a real name. It's so good. It's such a great name and I appreciate your support, Danian. Danian. Danian.

Danian. That's exciting. Jess, you've got nothing to say to Danion. Danion Canyon. Danion Canyon. Thank you so much. Let's all say our favorite canyons, mine. Grant!

Yes! The Canyon Walking Bright, Victoria. Fucking idiots. And mine? Name another canyon. Dave Berry. Canyon. Mine's the Canyonero.

Canyonero. 12 foot long, two names wide. 65 tons of American proud canyonero. Yeah. All right. Thank you so much to Michael, Dave and Danion for supporting us. If you want to support the show, which we welcome at all times. And it's open 24 hours a day.

The bank of Patreon do go on. Do go on. We don't close on Sundays. We're not fucking. Gumbags, like the banks, sticking it to the man at the end here. Like Matt Growning in the 1970s before he sold out, became a half-billionaire.

A billionaire. When you put it like that, not that impressive. Not that impressive at all. It's only half a billionaires. Oh, would you not accept half a billion dollars. Give me the whole thing or nothing at all. You're an all-or-nothing man. Totally is.

But get in contact with us. All the links in the description of this episode down below here. But you can at Do Go On Pod us for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can do go on pot of Gmail. dot com. We read your correspondence. We read them. All right team thanks so much and until next week I will say

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