Stuff You Should Know - Episode 999: The Simpsons Spectacular Part I

Episode Date: October 24, 2017

For our 999th and 1,000th episodes, we go down the rabbit hole on a TV show that quite literally altered popular culture as we know it. The Simpsons has been around since Josh and Chuck were in grade school, and is still cranking out episodes today. Join us for two very special episodes as we pay tribute to The Simpsons, and celebrate a milestone of our own - numbers 999 and 1,000! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey friends, when you're staying at an Airbnb, you might be like me wondering, could my place be an Airbnb? And if it could, what could it earn? So I was pretty surprised to hear about Lisa in Manitoba, who got the idea to Airbnb the Backyard Guest House over childhood home. Now the extra income helps pay her mortgage. So yeah, you might not realize it, but you might have an Airbnb too. Find out what your place could be earning at Airbnb.ca slash host. On the podcast, Hey Dude the 90s called, David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're going to use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back

into the decade of the 90s. We lived it, and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. Listen to Hey Dude the 90s called on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to The Simpsons. I mean, the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. There's Jerry over there. And this is Chuck, episode 999. Yeah. Well, you know how I think of this? I think of it as 1,000. Just a big fat 1,000 that had to leak onto two days. It actually leaked back in time. How amazing is that? Yeah, because we have to do a two-parter because upon looking at this research and this topic, very special topic

for us for this show, we realize it had to be a two-parter. And rather than do 1,000 and 1,001, what kind of person would do that? An unwholesome person. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So this is episode 999. In your view, it's really just part of episode 1,000. I'm with you on that. Yes. Can you believe that? You know what, Chuck? Up until today, I could totally believe it. But the fact that we're doing The Simpsons for our 1,000th episode, it drove everything home. All the gear teeth fell right into place. And now the gears are spinning in sync. And I can feel it. And I'm amazed. Yeah. So we just wanted to acknowledge the 1,000 here up front. And I think, frankly, we're doing that because we're both so excited about doing this. I think I should tell people what you emailed

earlier. We were furiously sending links back and forth this week. And you said, I don't even want to record. I just want to keep researching The Simpsons forever. It's true, man. Last night, Chuck, I was sitting there watching Simpsons episodes. Oh, yeah. And I thought, well, this is the pinnacle of my career. I am literally being paid to watch The Simpsons. Yeah. And we just had to stop. We could have done this for weeks and researched. And this could be an entire podcast and into itself with 1,000 episodes. Well, maybe not 1,000. Close to it. I'll say 998. But at some point, we had to stop. So just know, if we didn't cover your favorite thing from the show that's been on for 30 years. Or if we're

not referring to episodes under their specific naming convention? Yeah. Calm down. Yeah. It's just impossible. So we're going to do our best here to talk about some of our favorite stuff and a little bit about how the show works. But here we go, right? Oh, man. Let's do it. This is like an actual intro. Yes. That was an actual response. So, Chuck. Yes. Have you ever seen The Simpsons? I have, sir. You caught it back from the beginning. That was right in our wheelhouse. Maybe even yours a little more than mine. Yeah. And I mean, let's, we should go ahead and just talk for a moment about episode one. Yeah. Because I have a very distinct memory, which is I'm in high school.

It's my senior year. All right. Nice. Chris Buten, my friend in future roommate in college, calls me. Buten. And he says, dude, have you, and I have to admit, I did not see the Tracy Elman shorts. So let's get that out of the way right now. They were bizarre. Yeah. And this is, that's where the show began, as most people know, is little short animated bits in the Tracy Elman show. But Chris Buten calls me up and says, man, I'm coming over. I'm meeting you in the basement. Open the back door. I have a VHS of this show called The Simpsons. You got to see it. And he met me over there. It was winter. It was December. Well, it aired on the 17th. On the 17th. But I have a feeling this was the next day, probably. And Buten came over and we watched the very first

episode, which was Santa's Little Helper. And we cried tears of joy and laughter. And my life went on a different course. Yeah. Boots did not visit my house personally with the video. We didn't call him Boots, by the way. Well, I'm calling him Boots. That's classic Boots, by the way, to show up in the basement. Oh, yeah. But he did not come to my house. But I did see that one. And I think I saw it when it aired, actually. And I remember watching the Tracy Elman shorts, too. And just being like, what the hell is this? Yeah. But then by the time I think the Tracy Elman show, we'll get a little more into it. That one started in 87. And the actual show started in 89. So between those two points, they really like, it really started to come together

to where that first episode where Homer finds out he's not getting a Christmas bonus. Yeah. So he gets a job secretly as a mall Santa, and ends up taking his check to the dog track and betting it all and losing it all on Santa's little helper, which was the dog. Right. But then he ends up with Santa's little helper. So he gets what he was after all along, which is a great Christmas present for his family. Right. What a beautiful episode, right? Yeah. And interestingly, that first episode was really the eighth one to be made. But they ran that one first. So there were there were some weird differences. Like the show actually, originally, I think Matt Groening thought it would be redrawn a little more slickly, but they just traced over

his original drawings. So the animation was fairly crude in this episode. And then you'll notice in episode two, it actually looks a little bit better. Okay. And, you know, the Simpsons still looks like the Simpsons. But that early episode and kind of the whole first season was a little more crude in drawing and voice. And the pilot was the only episode missing that very famous opening sequence, which we'll talk about a little bit later. Oh, yeah, wasn't it like a cold opening or something like that? I can't remember exactly how, but it didn't feature the iconic opening that we all know and love today. Gotcha. So where shall we start, Chuck? I mean, I guess we kind of just did start. Yeah. And I think I

already made a mistake about what? Well, Santa's little helper wasn't the name of the episode. It was Simpsons roasting on an open fire. Yeah. So I mean, come on. That's the one that you were talking about, you know? Yeah. But I just, I know that like probably about 25,000 people just slam their laptop shut. But that's what I'm saying. Everybody chill out. That's not what this episode is about. We're not trying to show you how little you know. That's right. Ed, the grabster, Grabinowski wrote this article. Actually, this one was written by Uned Grabinowski, if you ask me. Why did you say that? Because it wasn't like five times as long as it should have been? No, I can't remember who calls himself that for every treehouse of horror, but there's somebody

named Ed and they call themselves Uned. So I thought that was probably, I'm really surprised he didn't actually get that as his byline for this one. That's a nice Easter egg there, my friend. And then we did just, I mean, so much supplementary information. It's sort of ridiculous. Yeah. But this is like a special request from us, wasn't it? Oh, yeah. We said go forth, grabster, and write the well. Write the, oh, okay. Write the well. There were two E's in that, the... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I should have noticed by the flourish of your hand what you were saying. All right. So let's go back to Simpsons creator, one Mr. Matt Groening, and we have actually met him and we will talk about that in a little bit. Yeah, we will. Life highlight for sure. Sure.

But he had a comic strip called Life in Hell, and I think the original conceit to pitch to producer James L. Brooks in 1987 was a cartoon version of that. Ed writes in here, he thought it would be a failure, but I read that he wasn't too keen on signing away sort of the thing he had worked on all his life. So he changed his mind at the last minute and thought of the Simpsons. That's awesome. That sounds, the second one sounds much more like Matt Groening for sure. Yeah, and he had no idea that would make him a super rich gazillionaire either. But if you know that story, the fact that the Simpsons started out on Tracy Olman makes sense because James Brooks, who himself is a pretty like bonafide cool guy, right? He created the

Mary Tyler Moore show. Oh yeah, legend. He wrote and directed Terms of Endearment. He produced Bottle Rocket. Yeah, you could say he has an eye for amazing things. For sure. So he had come across this life and hell strip and wanted to basically turn it into animated shorts for the Tracy Olman show, but then Groening swapped it out at the pitch meeting and said, let's do this instead. But I think either way, he came up with the characters and the idea fairly on the fly, right? Yeah, I mean, it obviously wasn't like while he was waiting outside of the pitch meeting. But what he came up with, and if you haven't seen the Simpsons, maybe you should go watch an episode or two. Crawl out from under the rock that you're under and go watch one. But

obviously, we should at least say what it is. And it is a sort of a traditional sitcom about and follows the sitcom conventions in many ways of a family living together under a roof who encounter fun hijinks along the way. Yeah. And that's kind of the subtext for the whole or the pretext I should say for the whole series, right? Yeah. It's a sitcom. It's a family sitcom. But there's a couple of big differences with it, right? It's animated, which is huge, because it was a, it became in 1989, a primetime animated series. And it was the first one since I think 1972, where wait till your father, 1974, where wait till your father gets home, went off the air. Did you ever see that show? No. It was like a proto family guy, basically. Oh, interesting.

From the early 70s. And it was actually super entertaining. And then before that, of course, there was the Flintstones. But those were like the two big primetime animated series before the Simpsons. But there's a good, you know, 20 something, 30 something year lull in between those in the Simpsons. So that was a big difference in and of itself. Well, it's easy to take for granted now with the advent of like Cartoon Network and Adult Swim and Family Guy and Futurama, which also from Graning. Yeah. I mean, there's just an explosion of animation, right? Yeah. You've got, you know, starting back with Beavis and Butthead. That was a descendant of the Simpsons. And then of course, you've got King of the Hill, South Park. Today, you've got Rick and Morty.

Have you seen Rick and Morty? I haven't yet. Everyone, I'm remiss. Everyone said it's the greatest. It is. It's the greatest. And man, it's one of those. It's under the same thing that the Simpsons was initially taken for where, you know, there's a lot of belching. So people are like, this is low brown. It's like, no, look past it to what they're actually doing. It's insanely smart and really entertaining too. Like it's laugh out loud, funny in a lot of parts. I think we've kind of proven that we can be smart and still make fart jokes. Sure. And Rick and Morty's doing the same thing. And by the way, you know, they listened to us, right? Rick and Morty? Yeah. Remember, they sent us that science book and it had a flask? Was that them? That was the

Rick and Morty people. No way. Yeah. So thanks again for that, guys. That's a treasured possession. Holy cow. Well, I'm definitely watching now. All the adult quote unquote cartoons that we see, but it was revolutionary at the time. I mean, Flintstones aside, like you said, it had been a long time and it was, it quite literally leveled the TV industry because it was such a smash hit right out of the gate. That's right. Yeah. No, it was huge, right? And a lot of things came together for it. The fact that James L. Brooks got in touch with Matt Groening, that was a bit of a fluke because he got in touch with them for a different reason, but also because it was a show on Fox. And Fox was just starting out as a network and they were looking to make waves. So at the time,

you had basically, so here's what the Simpsons were up against in 1989, family sitcom wise. You're ready for this? Yeah. My two dads, major dad, Mr. Belvedere, who's the boss, Hogan family, family matters, growing pains, the Cosby show, full house. And like that was what family sitcoms or TV sitcoms in general were at the time. And you had Roseanne. Roseanne had been on for a couple of years already and it had shaken things up some. Yeah, that pushed the envelope a bit for sure. For sure. But for the most part, like this was, America was this clean and tidy, wholesome place where everything was just peachy keen. And all the problems that a family encounter were about as superficial as you could possibly come across. And this was the other big thing about the Simpsons.

And it actually went really well, at least superficially with married with children, which was that family wholesome sitcom spun onto its very gritty, dirty underbelly, right? Yeah. The Simpsons was initially compared to that same kind of thing because they were both on Fox and they both like kind of took the family sitcom and turned it on its head. But it took a minute, but not too long for people to start noticing, oh, wait, actually, this is really subversive satire. Yeah. And that was the big thing that I think initially gave the Simpsons its base for to keep going for 30 seasons. Yeah. I mean, I remember when Fox first came out and it was like, there's a fourth TV channel. I know, it was a big deal. It was a big deal. And their thing from the beginning was,

you know, we're going to be edgy, we're going to be different. This is not your mom and dad's TV. Right. And like you said, married with children and the Simpsons firmly put them on a different track. And it was funny when you were just going through all of shows, it was like they were no more edgy than since TV's inception. And it might as well have been, well, maybe a little more edgy than like Beaver Cleaver and Ozzie and Harriet. But not too far off for the most part, TV was kind of the same for decades when it came to family sitcoms. Yeah. So the Simpsons was just, this is not overstating it. It was a cultural revolution in every way. It definitely was. And it took up like this already kind of nascent

revolution and from Roseanne and from married with children. But it was different, man. It was its own thing and still is today. Oh yeah. And again, like you were saying, it's easy to look back and be like, well, yeah, I mean, animated, really smart, subversive, satirical shows. It was like they're a diamond dozen is a weird way to put it, but it's true. Like they're all over the place now. That's because the Simpsons came along. It's as simple as that. Yeah. So the early episodes in the first couple of seasons, Bart Simpson was sort of the star of the show as far as pop culture goes. I mean, he was front and center. He was on every t-shirt. Every kid was saying, eat my shorts. Every kid was talking back to their teachers more.

Yeah. And it created quite a ruckus in schools. I know that some of the t-shirts were banned in certain school districts. Yeah. The underachiever and proud of it, man. That one was banned. And I think I'm Bart Simpson. Who the hell are you? Yeah, but it wasn't long before it became pretty clear that it was an ensemble show for one. Mm-hmm. And sort of Homer's show, let's be honest. Yeah. It ultimately ended up that way in large part. He became the central character, didn't he? Yeah. I would say easily. But then, I mean, we'll go through a lot of these characters, if not all of them, because we don't have time to read like 500 people's names. Right. But it ended up being like a memorial or something.

I know. But the Simpsons side characters and the guest characters have become just as beloved as the family of, of course, Homer and Marge and Lisa and Bart and little Maggie. Absolutely. You want to take our first break? Yeah, yeah. We're so excited. Let's go ahead and take a break real quick and calm down. Woo! Hey, everybody. When you're staying at an Airbnb, you might be like me wondering, could my place be an Airbnb? And if it could, what could it earn? So, I was pretty surprised to hear about Lauren and Nova Scotia, who realized she could Airbnb her cozy backyard treehouse and the extra income helps cover her bills and pays for her travel. So, yeah, you might not realize it,

but you might have an Airbnb too. Find out what your place could be earning at airbnb.ca slash host. We're going to use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s. We lived it and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. It's a podcast packed with interviews, co-stars, friends, and non-stop references to the best decade ever. Do you remember going to Blockbuster? Do you remember Nintendo 64? Do you remember getting frosted tips? Was that a cereal? No, it was hair. Do you remember AOL Instant Messenger and the dial-up sound like poltergeist? So, leave a code on your best friends beeper because you'll want to be there when the nostalgia starts flowing. Each episode will rival

the feeling of taking out the cartridge from your Game Boy, blowing on it and popping it back in as we take you back to the 90s. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s called on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, we're back. Chuck. So, the earliest clips of The Simpsons were animated by a different studio than they use now and have used for many years. It's called Claskey, Suppo, or Kupo? Zupo? CSUPO, I'm not sure how they pronounced it, but they were all, of course, based on Matt Greening's original sketches that had these yellow-skinned characters, very bright, primary color palette, and it became a little more refined over the years, as we said, but it never

approached like a slick-looking animation by any means. No, no, the earliest stuff definitely not, and they were with, I think it's Claskey's Zupo, I'm not sure, but they were with them for two years, and despite this stuff being really rough and like kind of hard to watch even if you look at it now, they gave The Simpsons like their yellow skin, Marge's blue hair, and supposedly, Matt Greening, when he saw the yellow skin tone palette for The Simpsons' skin colors, he was like, that is perfect. Like, when somebody's like clicking through the channels real quick, their eye is going to catch that, and they're going to stop because The Simpsons are on, and they're going to watch it. So, apparently, that's where the yellow came from. It was kind of

a fluke, but they went with it just because it was so catchy. That's a great idea. But then after, I think, two years, they moved over to something called Film Roman, or Film Roman. I've never heard it actually said out loud, but they were the ones who, starting in, I think, season two or three, really gave The Simpsons its defined look that stayed for years and years and years. Yeah, I remember Homer's voice early on sounded a little bit different, too. I mean, same guy. It was Dan Castellaneta, but just was it not the same Homer's voice that we know and love today? No, it was much gruffer. Plus, his dialogue, too, was way more, I mean, it really was much more about Bart, and Homer was way angrier. Yeah, for sure. And like,

he strangled Bart at like the drop of a hat. He did that a lot. That was like a go-to gag. So, this, the show is still really smart compared to who's the boss. Yeah. But compared to, you know, later seasons of The Simpsons, it was really just, it's rough by comparison, for sure. Don't knock who's the boss too much, though. I mean, it's fine, it's a fine show, but man, it wasn't smart satire. You put a who's the boss episode up against like a season seven episode of The Simpsons. Yeah. Who's the boss is not going to win that one? Yeah, they're not the boss. I mean, like even Tony Danza will tell you that. So, let's talk a little bit about the main cast and the crew in those early years. Of course, Matt Groening was around from the beginning,

and James Zillbrooks, of course. Then there was a man, the dearly departed Sam Simon, who's an EP on the show from the early days. And the great Al Jean has been the showrunner since the 13th season. But I'm pretty sure he was around before that, right? I didn't exactly look at when he joined up. I believe he was an early producer as well. Okay. But eventually he rose to showrunner. Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein, and Mike Scully ran the show previous to that during the first 12 seasons. We cannot list all the writers. It would be impossible. No, but some some made some pretty huge contributions. Yeah, like George Meyer and John Schwartzwelder are generally given credit to kind of defining who these characters were

from the early days. Yeah, the worldview, the jokes they would make. Yeah. The fact that and this is another huge thing that we take for granted today that The Simpsons really established was referential humor. Yeah. Like making making fun of, you know, film, literature, trends, whatever. Not necessarily part of the plot, but just part of a joke, maybe, or something like that. Or in addition, a little layer just to make the whole the whole idea that was being put across that much more palatable. They really kind of blew that out. And that was thanks to that early brain trust you just mentioned of people who established the show for for what it's what it was. Yeah, I mean, it was a blueprint and everyone that that came along afterward sort of had their

show Bible thanks to these people. Yes, you know, which if you look up show Bible, there's a there's one episode that just screws up any Google search for that. There was The Simpsons Bible stories episode, which was a stinker anyway. But it sucks because now you can't find any examples of this show Bible must exist somewhere. I don't know if you could find that online. You can find the style guide examples online, though. Yeah, for sure. And of course, we got to mention Conan O'Brien because he very famously worked for a couple of years on The Simpsons. Yeah, I think it's credited with four or five episodes, including one of the all time classics, Marge versus the monorail. It's so good, which Conan is still talks about that being one of his great career

achievements is writing that episode. I can imagine because not only was a great episode, but you got to write and then Phil Hartman brought your stuff to life. Like that was a big one. All right. Well, speaking of Phil Hartman, let's start talking about the cast. Okay, because this is going to this is going to take a little while. Are you ready? Yeah. So so there's hundreds of characters in The Simpsons universe, but really a lot of them, a lot of them boiled down to the voices of just six people. Yeah. So two of them focus almost exclusively on just one character each. Julie Kavanaugh does Marge, but then she also obviously does Marge's sisters, Patty and Selma and her mom, Jacqueline in one episode. Yeah, the Bouviers. Yeah. And then

Yardley Smith does just Lisa for the show. Yeah. And she's the only one that does a single voice. Dan Castellanetta obviously does Homer. He also does grandpa Abe. It's hard to not laugh just thinking of each one of these characters. I know. I kept laughing out loud researching this stuff or at the very least, chuckling to myself. Oh yeah. Strickland in the office today was like, I got to ask what the heck is going on over there. It's like, we're doing an episode in The Simpsons leave me alone. He was like, what? Castellan also does Barney Gumbel, Krusty the Clown, Groundskeeper Willie, Mayor Quimby. Man, so great. Yeah. Hans Molman, Sideshow Mel, Itchy, Kodos, Gil, Poochy, the squeaky voice teen, Mr. Burns' lawyer,

Krusty's monkey, Mr. Teeny, and he did Bill Clinton. Great Bill Clinton, too. Yeah. Real no fooling pigs. What about Nancy Cartwright? The great Nancy Cartwright. So she does Bart, that's what she's best known for, but she does some other voices of some other prepubescent characters like Ralph Wiggum, one of the great all time voices ever. Great. Todd Flanders. Great. Nelson Muntz has a great one. Kierney, the bald headed or shaved headed bully. Yeah. And database. Don't know who database was. I think database is more recent. And this is probably where I should say that I haven't seen The Simpsons in a few years. I dabbled a little bit a couple years ago and I was like, this is not bad. And then, you know,

it was kind of hit or miss, definitely compared to years ago, but I'm not gonna hate on anything that's going on today. It's still The Simpsons, you know? Of course. The great, great, great, great Hank Azaria, one of the fantastic additional cast members. Well, I say additional because he's not one of The Simpsons, but he's a primary cast member. Sure. He voices Apu. Do you want to try and say Apu's last name? Apu Nahasapimapadalon. And by the way, we should mention Apu has taken a lot of heat in recent years for the very least being an ethnic stereotype and some say straight up racist. And there is a documentary airing, I believe, on TruTV next month called The Problem with Apu from a comedian I really love, Hari Kandabolu. And, you know, you should watch it and

sort of think of Apu a little bit through Hari's lens or the lens of an Indian person. So. Well, you know, this is not the first time that The Simpsons have been called a task for offending a group. Oh, sure. An entire group or race or country. Yeah. Like, it's definitely happened over the course of this 30 seasons that have been going on. Sometimes they apologize. Sometimes they acknowledge it. Other times they're just like, whatever. No, for sure. So going on Hank Azaria, besides Apu, most is lack of the great characters. Yeah. Chief Wiggum. I mean, these are all great comic book guy who, by the way, has a real name. Jeff Albertson. Yeah. Never knew that. I can't remember where that one came from, but yeah. Carl, a beloved, beloved friend of Homer's.

Yeah. From the bar. Dr. Nick. Hi, frozen body. Remember, he went to the Tijuana upstairs medical clinic. That's where he graduated from. Captain McAllister, Superintendent Chalmers. And of course, when I think of Chalmers, all I can think of is a camera with episode title, but the one with Skinner and the steamed hams. I think that was like the 22 episodes about Springfield one. Oh man, that's such a great one. 22 short films. I was never into that one. I loved it. And I had no idea, but apparently it's a reference to, there was a documentary or... It was a movie. Okay. A movie. 22 short films about Glenn Gould. Yeah. Love that movie. Okay. I'd never even heard of it. Yeah. And this raises a really good point that I'd like to make here, Chuck,

if you'll indulge me for a second. Sure. One of the things that The Simpsons did for me, and I suspected for a lot of other people, is that it pointed me in the direction of culture. Oh yeah. It cultured me. It inculturated me. I'm not sure what the word is. The Simpsons never taught me. But the, just the little signposts that they point to through the references they make that you don't get, but then you find out about later what they were actually talking about, it might lead you to go see that movie or read that book or just have a better understanding of the world than you did before. It's like backwards reference. Yeah. I mean, some of them are so subtle too. Like there isn't a human alive that picks up on all the culture references that

The Simpsons throws out week to week. Right. You know, whether it's something like you were just talking about, or whether it's just simply like in a show title, like don't have to live like a referee, little things like that. They're just nuggets all over the place. Yeah. Continuing of Mr. Azaria, Professor Frank Cleetus, the slack-jawed yokel, who we'll get to a little bit more, some of his children's names. We have some good stuff coming up. So I love Cleetus. So get off the dang roof. Bumblebee Man, Snake, Kirk Van Houten. Man, that divorce episode was one of the best. Yeah. Can I borrow a feeling? Dredrick Tatum and Pyro, also known as Chase. That was from that episode too, I think. Yeah, I think so. Wasn't that the American Gladiator that Milhouse's mom

dates? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I forgot about that. Well, that's it. I think these may not be complete lists from Harry Shearer. No, I'm sorry from Hank Azaria, but Harry Shearer's next. Do you want to tackle some of these? He does Mr. Burns and Mr. Smithers. Yes. It's great to basically take those two halves of a whole and be able to fill them out like that. Yeah, and by the way, Burns was in the very first episode, and Smithers is heard over the intercom, but not seen in that episode one. Oh, that's a bit of trivia, but he can put in their pipe and smoke. Ned Flanders, Principal Skinner, Reverend Lovejoy. Great. Dr. Hibbert, that laugh. He's got a laugh that almost rivals yours, Chuck, in awesomeness. Kent Brockman. Great. Scratchy. I don't know who does itchy,

do you? I don't know. I kind of figured he did both. You'd think so, but yeah, I'm not sure. Somebody will write in to let us know. Yeah. Otto the bus driver. Otto Mann. Jasper Abe's friend with the long beard. I can't feel my beard. And Lenny Homer and Carl's other friend. Yeah. Anybody else? Yeah. Wolf Castle in McBain. Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah. And here's another old tidbit I can't even wait on from our Easter egg section later on is apparently if you take out all the Wolf Castle pieces throughout the years, there's a little coherent story that you can actually follow. That is masterful. Yeah. And I'm not sure if someone has, I'm sure someone has pulled that. I didn't get a chance to watch, but that's pretty amazing. Yeah. Herman, George Bush,

Judge Snyder, Eddie Reneer. Those are some of the other sheer characters. Do you remember who Eddie Reneer was? No, I don't know. I don't either. Maybe. We've got some digging to do, man. Some in big and digging. We have to mention the great Pamela Hayden. She does Millhouse, Rod Flanders, Janie Powell, Jimbo Jones, Malibu Stacey, and Sarah Wiggum. Yeah. And a couple of dearly departed cast members, occasional cast members, Marsha Wallace, the great Marsha Wallace from the Bob Newhart show passed away in 2013. She was Mrs. Krabapal. I mean, what a beloved character Edna Krabapal was in so many ways. She was. They describe her in this article as sarcastic and sexy. That whole subplot that went through multiple episodes where she was

dating Seymour Skinner. And then later on, Mary's Ned Flanders. No one saw that coming. But the fact that this show could take steps like that and then would commit itself to continuing it as long as could be and keeping it up, you know what I mean? Rather than just being like, I'll forget about that. It doesn't matter. That was another hallmark of the show as well, that it had the chops to make big leaps like that and then keep it going without it seeming tried or tired or anything. Absolutely. Marsha Wallace won an Emmy in 1992 for her voice work. And they paid tribute to her in the episode for regrettings in a funeral. Bart's chalkboard gag at the beginning said, we'll really miss you, Mrs. K. So sad. So sad. And the man who

grew too much Ned Flanders wears a black armband to mourn Edna, who of course took the place of his departed wife, Mod Flanders. Yeah. He's a widower twice over. Yeah. Man, that one where Mod died, that was really just a great episode. Yeah. I mean, that's the thing about The Simpsons is as silly as it was. They managed to pull the heartstrings every now and then. It was always, they didn't do too much of it, but it was always just well timed, you know? For sure. And like, they could take on something like death and grief and do it like with heart, but also without making a very special episode of The Simpsons. Yeah. It always felt like The Simpsons. Yeah, exactly. And of course, Phil Hartman, who left us way too soon. Yeah. He did a couple of classic,

classic characters in Lionel Hutz and Troy McClure. Yeah. And I had to get a few of my favorite Troy McClure lines in here. And he was very famous. If you don't know The Simpsons, Troy McClure was a former semi-famous actor who would pop up every now and then in kind of like school films and stuff like that. Sure. Or an infomercial. Yeah. He was just like a former pretty boy actor, basically. Yeah. And his, his running gag was Troy McClure. You might remember me dot, dot, dot. Right. So here's, here's a few of my favorites. I'm Troy McClure. You might remember me from some self-help videos is smoke yourself thin and get confidence, stupid. Here's another one. You might remember me from such driver's ed films as Alice's Adventures Through the Windshield Glass and The

Decapitation of Larry Ledfoot. And then this one. You may remember me from such educational films as Two Minus Three Equals Negative Fun and Firecrackers, The Silent Killer. So good. And Attorney Lionel Hutz was just great too. That was good. And then which one did he date? He dated Patty or Selma. I can't remember which one. You're just, I'm mortified. Well, they're so interchangeable to me. Well, they are. One of them came out as gay, actually. Right. In one of the recent seasons. So it was not that one. Right. I think it was Selma. That was a great episode. No, no, it would have been Patty. Because Patty is the one who was engaged to Principal Skinner. Oh, that's right. So I guess he was dating Patty. I just remember in that episode when he,

he went out with her one night and then showed up the next day and said, you might remember me from certain dates as Last Nights. Right. My favorite lines from that episode was they're in like a nice restaurant and Selma or no, Patty lights up a cigarette and everybody's like, oh my gosh, she's smoking, smoking. Yeah. Somebody goes, waiter, I ordered a Zima, not emphysema. What a great line, man. Yeah. So guest stars over the years, they have, there have been some very beloved people playing other people and then many people playing themselves. And I made a list of my favorite people playing other people. Martin Sheen played Sergeant Seymour Skinner, aka the real Seymour Skinner. Oh, that was

Martin Sheen, wasn't it? Yeah. Okay. The great Albert Brooks played Hank Scorpio. Nice. Yeah, that was a great character. Glenn Close played Homer's mom. That was so sweet. Just such a great episode. That one, and I think also the one where he goes and tries to find what his middle, his, the J stands for in his middle name. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know if she was in that, but like she, she's like a, she's like an off camera character because he meets like some of her old friends from back when he was born. Right. Such a sweet episode. And then they all end up on peyote, I think. In true Simpsons fashion. Patrick Stewart played number one in the Stonecutters episode. Meryl Streep played Jessica Lovejoy, Bart's love interest,

brief love interest. The late great Johnny Cash played Homer's spirit coyote. Yeah. Remember that? Sure. Remember Rodney Dangerfield as Larry Burns? Yeah, I get no esteem, no regard either. Ron Taylor played Bleeding Gums Murphy, Lisa's sort of mentor on the saxophone. Who played him? Got him. Ron Taylor. Okay. Give him his due. And Artie Ziff was played by John Lovitz. Sure. And John Lovitz played Jay Sherman, the critic in one of the more hated episodes of all time. Oh, really? Yeah. The crossover episode where they throw a film festival in Springfield, and Jay Sherman shows up to lead the jury for the film festival. I don't think I saw that one. Well, it was basically a vehicle to introduce America to the critic, which was now going

to be on Fox after The Simpsons. And did you ever see that show, The Critic? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I saw that. It was a little schmaltzy, but I mean, it had its charms here or there. It wasn't like the worst thing anyone's ever put on TV. It certainly wasn't Simpsons caliber. But supposedly, Matt Groening was so upset about this that he made them take his name off of the opening credits on the TV screen. He was that mad about this crossover that had been like shoved down his throat by Fox executives as the legend goes. Good for him. Sure. And then, you know, they've had some legends that played themselves before Bob Hope passed away. He was on the show. Yeah, Ernest Borgnein, Robert Goulet, Steve Allen, Robert Goulet. He swings this. Hold

on. He's sitting here. He's doing The Treehouse at Bart's Treehouse. He's doing a show. I don't know how he got booked there. I think Nelson maybe was his agent. And like he's swinging his microphone and the quarters are so close in The Treehouse, he smacks like I think Milhouse's glasses right off his face. Like, oh, sorry, kid. And then they I think there have been more than like 70 musicians and bands through the years. They've always loved featuring bands. So at the time, all the living Beatles before George Harrison passed and the Ramones and the Who and Metallica and R.E.M. and U2 and Aerosmith, Tom Petty, the late great Tom Petty, Lenny Kravitz, like the list goes on and on. But they've always had great musical guests. And that U2 episode,

that was the Garbage Man episode, right? I think so. So one of the great, there's like, this is a great illustration of just a throwaway joke on The Simpsons that just made it that much smarter, that show, right? So like Homer's trying to sneak backstage. So he dresses up like an Irish potato delivery man. Like there is such a thing, right? So the joke is that this is what Homer thinks is going to get him backstage. But then the added bonus to the joke is that it actually works. Like when he shows up, the security guards like, where in the devil have you been? Like they've been waiting for the guy who delivers raw potatoes backstage at a U2 concert. Like that's just the thing, right? I love that show so much. And finally, as far as guest voices, we would be

remiss without mentioning the great Kelsey Grammer at sideshow Bob, prominent, prominent character. And then they ended up getting David Hyde Pierce to play Cecil, his brother. And then John Mahoney, all from Frasier, to play his father, Dr. Robert Tawilaker. Nice. So good. So, so good, Chuck. All right, let's take another break. And we're going to come back and talk a little bit about these episodes and how they are put together. Hey, friends, when you're staying at an Airbnb, you might be like me wondering, could my place be an Airbnb? And if it could, what could it earn? So I was pretty surprised to hear about Lisa in Manitoba, who got the idea to Airbnb the backyard guest house over childhood home. Now the extra income helps pay her mortgage. So,

yeah, you might not realize it, but you might have an Airbnb too. Find out what your place could be earning at Airbnb.ca slash host on the podcast. Hey, dude, the 90s called David Lasher and Christine Taylor stars of the cult classic show. Hey, dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're going to use Hey, dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s. We lived it. And now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. It's a podcast packed with interviews, co stars, friends, and nonstop references to the best decade ever. Do you remember going to blockbuster? Do you remember Nintendo 64? Do you remember getting frosted tips? Was that a cereal? No, it was hair.

Do you remember AOL instant messenger and the dial up sound like poltergeist? So leave a code on your best friends beeper because you'll want to be there when the nostalgia starts flowing. Each episode will rival the feeling of taking out the cartridge from your Game Boy, blowing on it and popping it back in as we take you back to the 90s. Listen to Hey, dude, the 90s called on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, Chuck, we're back and you promised that we were going to talk more about The Simpsons, so go. All right, well, we should talk a little bit about, I mean, we can sit here and quote lines all day long. No, I know, I hope this isn't getting annoying for anybody. Hopefully everybody's

having as much fun as we are. No, I mean, this was bound to get super wonky. Sure. But we should talk a little bit technically about how the show is made. Hey. So here's how it starts. And the Grabster did a good job of kind of breaking this down, I think. Yeah. And also, also, I want to give a shout out to an article on The Verge called How Simpsons Episode is Made. Yes. It goes into even greater detail. It's nuts what they do. All right, so like most shows, or I would say probably every show, it begins in the writer's room. Writer's going to pitch ideas to each other and the producers. An episode will get a green light. And then a single writer usually, sometimes they'll work in pairs, will go off and create a draft in a couple of weeks. Yeah. But

that is not the end of the writing process. No, no, no, no, no. Supposedly the writing process is one of the most shapeshifting parts of the entire process of making an episode. There's a lot of people poking at it. You got the showrunner who in this capacity serves as the script editor and the head writer. You've got the actual writers. You've got the writing team. You've got the writing assistants. You've got producers who are thinking about it. You've got all these people who are thinking of the script and rewriting it and editing it that supposedly a script goes through rewrites for like four to six weeks or something like that. Yeah. And like most shows operate this way. There's a lot, especially comedies, a lot of rewriting that goes on to just, I mean,

they'll come down and debate a word for a couple of hours to make sure they're getting the funniest stuff they can get. Right. Then what comes next is the table read. And brother, you and I got really, really lucky. When was this? Four or five years ago. I think it was 2013 or 14. So here's how it went down. We had a listener named Jesse Rytus and say, she didn't work for the Simpsons, but she was in somehow. I think she had a friend. She was friends, I think with Tom Gamble, the producer, one of the producers of the Simpsons. Yeah. And she said, you know, dudes, whenever you want to come out to LA and go to a table read, and then we were basically at the airport about an hour later. That's how it went down. Now we had a trip booked for some reason

or another and we went out there and we met at the Fox lot and the building, little bungalow outside the Simpsons, first of all, is just so exciting because they have topiaries of Simpsons characters. Yeah, pretty great. And then of itself. And then the table read is a bit of a public thing. Like it's not 100 people, but they were probably besides the cast and writing staff, an additional, what, 25 people in there? Of like tourists like us. Yeah. Yeah. I would say something like that. Like friends, family members. Just special invitees. Like the ambassador from Spain. Yeah. Like just people were there and they were like, you shut up all of you. Don't make a sound, turn off your cell phones. We'll kill your whole family if you say anything because this is serious

business. Yeah. So they're all the people who work on the show are sitting at this big, huge, long conference table. And then the room is lined all along the outside on four walls with chairs for people to just sit there quietly and sit at the altar in reverence of what they're about to see. And we saw the one we were there was a script read for the episode that became the wreck of the relationship, right? I think Nick Offerman guest starred in it as a sea captain. But basically Bart and Homer go off on this father-son bonding tour, like aboard a ship. And the B subplot was that while they were gone, Marge had to pick Homer's fantasy football team. Right. And she decided that she should pick all place kickers. Yeah. And it turns out that she

was right. Like she ended up winning. But in between picking them and not knowing what she was doing and winning the whole thing, she ends up like trash talking with Mo and Lenny and Carl. And it's a pretty good B subplot, actually. Yeah. And I would love to say that all of the voice actors are in the room together. That is not the case because everyone is busy and doing other stuff. And they've got it down to a science now. So they don't have to rub elbows. But they're, you know, calling in on the phone and they're doing the voices and stuff either via phone or in person. And Matt Groening was there, though. Dan Castellaneta was there in the room. Julie Kavanaugh was there. Julie Kavanaugh was there.

Yardley Smith. Yep. Yardley Smith and Pamela Hayden was there. But we got no Azaria or Shearer. Right. But they were on the phone. So like we were sitting there listening to them do the voices. Yeah. So they basically read through the script. They'll stop every now and then and make suggestions or something on a different line reading and the writers and producers are all furiously scribbling and making notes and stuff like that. And then afterward, they finish it up and we very like a couple of six year olds sheepishly grab our scripts that we get to take with us because everyone gets a script to read along and Matt Groening. And it was surreal. It was, yeah, what was I think even more surreal was that he was

like super nice. The nicest dude you could imagine. Like he was like really nice. Like Dan Castellanetta like didn't ever look up when like Yumi was there and she took a picture of me with Dan Castellanetta. Yeah. And I'm sitting there giving a thumbs up and he's like looking down like signing my script. Yeah. It's not like he wasn't a nice guy, but he just wasn't quite as personable in person as Matt Groening. But I think like Matt Groening like stood up and shook hands and was like, Hey, great to meet you. And he didn't know who I was from Adam. He was just this surprisingly friendly guy. Yeah. And we I remember telling him that we Yumi was just laughing the whole time. She was like, you guys are just hysterical. Yeah, we really were like a couple

of six year old. I was surprised at both of us actually just how quickly we were like kids. Yeah, I don't get super star struck anymore. And this one just had me like I was super, super nervous. But I remember I think I told him, Mr. Groening that, you know, we have a podcast and we talk about The Simpsons so much. It's almost like an additional character on our show. And he asked what the name of it was, wrote it down stuff you should know on his script. And then ate that piece of paper in front of you. And then he signed our script and he scribbled out a quick drawing he drew Bart on my script. I got Homer. And it says your pal Matt Groening. Yeah. So nice. Man, that script is like under plexiglass under lock and key train Momo to kill

anybody who comes anywhere near it. It's just like a prize possession now. Oh yeah, for sure. We got Dan Castellanetta to sign it. Julie Cabner to sign it. And I think those are the only three autographs I got. But it was neat. So to us, we were just losing our minds. It was so amazing to them. Like it was straight up work, right? Like this is work to them. And that was nice. Like they're fine, like seeing people that they're friends with who they invited or whatever. But I read an interview with Al Jean. And Al Jean said that he hates will reads more than anything else because it is real work. But it's it's in this weird kind of in between state, like letting people come watch. Yeah, I wonder whose idea that was. I don't know. But apparently

accustomed that they've been keeping up this whole time despite at the very least one of the high powered executives in charge of the show hating it. Interesting. Yeah. I think there's lots of distractions and stuff like that. But apparently they muddle through every Thursday. Yeah. And it's I just can't say enough. It was this is not hyperbole. It is a genuine all time life highlight. You know, it was just amazing. Agreed, Chuck. All right. So I think we've reached the end of part one of episode 1000, technically episode 999, right? That's a cliff hanger too. It is, man. I'm pretty I'm pretty psyched. Like this is not planned, Chuck. This is a genuine cliffhanger. Yeah, right in the middle of the production process, people are going to be

like, I have to know how they make these shows. Well, just cool out, everybody. Cool out. You can wait until what, Thursday, right? Yes. For our actual official episode 1000. And in the meantime, you can get in touch with us on Twitter. I'm at Josh Clark and what the official handle is sysk podcast. Charles Chuck is at facebook.com slash Charles W. Chuck Bryant. There's also I'm on there somewhere. You can try to find me. And then there's also an official stuff you should know one on facebook too. You can send us all an email, including Jerry to stuff podcast at howstuffworks.com and as always hang out with us at our home on the web stuff you should know.com 1000. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com.

On the podcast, Hey, dude, the 90s called David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show, Hey, dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're going to use Hey, dude, as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s. We lived it. And now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. Listen to Hey, dude, the 90s called on the I heart radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new I heart podcast frosted tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because

I'm here to help and a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to frosted tips with Lance Bass on the I heart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts.