Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - The Everything's Coming Up Simpsons Interview

Episode Date: September 21, 2018

Another Simpsons podcast? It's true! And in case you missed our guest spot on Everything's Coming Up Simpsons, we're hardly the Plow King to their Mr. Plow. In fact, we're united in our love of both The Simpsons and podcasting! On this interview, we chat with Allie Goertz and Julia Prescott of ECUS about how they got started, living the wild podcasting lifestyle, and—most importantly—their new book, 100 Things The Simpsons Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. (Available now! Buy it today!) This podcast is brought to you by VRV, the streaming network full of cartoons, anime and more. sign up for a free 30-day trial at VRV.co/WAC and help support Talking Simpsons! Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons!

I heartily endorse this event or product. Ahoy, ahoy, everybody. Welcome to another Talking Simpsons interview. This is one of your hosts, Bob Mackie. And if I write a book, I hope they tell me when it comes out who is here with me today. Henry Gilbert in my book is mostly transcripts from the oliver north trial and you might be thinking bob and henry talking about books has the world gone topsy-turvy well mister we're talking to you about books because ali gertz and julia prescott of the everything's coming up simpsons podcast have a new book out called 100 things the simpsons fans should know and do before they die and we're about to talk

them all about their new book full of trivia and as the title says things to know and do before they die and we're about to talk to them all about their new book full of trivia and as the title says things to know and do before you die it is a death curse the book is once you read it you have 30 days uh but hey at least it'll be a simpsons filled 30 days uh but now ali and julia they are super cool they in case you're brand new to our podcast just a couple months ago back in the summer of 2018 they invited us onto their podcast and we did kind of a dual crossover of them on our show and our us on their show and we flew down to la for it they were super awesome and giving them their time when we recorded a ton of stuff in la and so this is us checking back in with them now that their new their first book together is out,

all about Simpsons facts. It is. And it has a foreword by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein as well, who are friends of all of us, really. Yes. We're going to go camping soon. I know it. But now you, the listener, might be thinking, what advantages does this book have over,

say, an encyclopedia, which I could also afford? Well, I think Allie and Julia do a good job of letting us know in this interview. I'm excited to read this book. I'm about to crack open my copy right now and let them know how I feel about it. No, me as well. And also in this little chat we have with them, we get to hear more about how they got together and even started doing a Simpsons podcast, which is actually rather similar to me and Bob's origin story, except ours was- With women in it. With women in LA instead of men in San Francisco.

So yes, now that you've heard us introduce this little interview, listen to the interview. It's great. We are here with Julia Prescott and Allie Gertz. They are the hosts of Everything's Coming Up Simpsons, and they have a new book coming out called 100 Things the Simpsons Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die. So, Allie and Julia, you are on the competing Simpsons podcast. We're all friends here. And we really wanted to know how both of you got into podcasting, this crazy world that we inhabit. Yeah, I got into podcasting from doing a previous podcast called, what was it called? It was about Twin Peaks and it was called Fire Talk With Me.

It was so good. Thanks so much. And Julia was a guest on it. And Julia had had her own previous podcast. Yeah, I did a podcast called Friday Night Film School. I was going to say Film Club. Friday Night Film School. I was going to say Film Club. Friday Night Film School with comedian Dave Child. And it was a podcast where we interviewed comedians and director people and other creative

friends about what their favorite cult movie was. And so that, of course, required us to watch a cult movie a week. And it was great because it opened my eyes to a lot of films that are now my favorites of all time, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and, you know, other stuff like that. But it was a little bit more labor intensive than watching an episode of The Simpsons, let's say. Yeah. And so the two of us were friends that connected over our love of The Simpsons. And we kind of very quickly both realized that we independently had thought about starting our own Simpsons podcast in one way or another. And it only made sense that the two of us joined forces. Initially, the show was going to be called Best Episode Ever.

Yes. It was taken by a podcast that I think reviews commercials from the 50s. Here's the thing. This is like the classic internet thing of like, they're holding down a title and I don't think they've even been active with it forever and it i guess we could have reached out but i was partially afraid that it would be one of those classic internet stories where it's like hey can i get that you know um website domain from you and they're like yes for forty thousand dollars and you've already agreed

oh no um yeah but i i think that what the name we landed on originally, Everything's Coming Up Podcast, was great. And then switching it to Everything's Coming Up Simpsons feels natural. And I don't even remember that old podcast. I do miss us being E-Cup. Yeah, I do miss us being E-Cup. But E-Cuss is cool, too. Yeah, because it's a little harder, edgier. You're cussing.

It's like an online swear word. Crap, hell, edgier. You're cussing. It's like an online swear word. Crap hell damn. Yeah. But then to go off of that, Allie and I, we started being super indie, recording it in, I feel like we bounced around between your kitchen, my kitchen. Another friend's kitchen. Another friend's kitchen. Oh, that's right.

We started another friend's kitchen. We just did a kitchen tour for a little while. And then eventually, I want to say a year and some change in, we got scooped up by feral audio, which is now a defunct podcast network, but we had a good time when we were there. Um, other podcasts from that network included, uh, the dough boys and, um, you know, a bunch of different other podcasts. Uh, the Harmontown podcast was on there and then, um, they, uh, closed. they closed. And so now we're here at our home at Maximum Fun. Which we love so much.

Yeah, it's a nice little family here. And the rest is herstory. Herstory. I've found that guesting on other people's podcasts are auditions to eventually find a host for a future podcast you'll do. Oh, yeah. Yeah, exactly. And it's also really hard to, you can't go through a dating process

with somebody that you're about to have a creative partnership with. So I think that in that way, Allie and I got severely lucky because it just clicked instantly and we're very sisterly in our creative bond in that way. Yeah, it's actually one of the, because we're, as I'm sure everyone relates to, because, you know, busy people with varying types of jobs and commitments and, you know, aspiring to do so many things. It's very rare to find time to build a friendship when you're at this stage in your life.

And so it's built in friendship time for us where we get to learn more about each other through the Simpsons. And it's such a good way because a lot of our show is very philosophical. We like to talk about the politics and we like to talk about the emotions behind things more than the trivia, which, you know, I think what's so nice is that your podcast works complimentary to our

podcast where we're, we're covering the same episodes but in very different ways right yeah and there's room for all i'm i've had enough with this rivalry all right stop putting flaming bags of shit on our podcast from the porch there's a lot of vicious rumors out there well in like your simpsons fandom too is, I think, a little different from ours, Justin, that you're a little younger than me and Bob, I think. Bless you. Yeah, I mean, I'm 27. This was not my way to ask you guys your age. I did not want to.

I'm a Pisces. I'm an Aries. I'm from Long Beach. April 6, 1988 is my birth date. My license number is... My star sign is... My home address, if you want to write me. My husband's bank routing number is...

Let's see. How can we trust you if you were born after the Tracy Ullman show? That's ultimately what we want to ask. Oh, right. Yeah, that's like the 60s, like, don't trust anyone over 30 bullshit i'm not hearing that but it's really don't trust anyone under 30 because they can't appreciate the simpsons in the way that an old person right now i'm i i kid i kid uh i hate i hate that i use that like bill maher says that shit oh i hate i said i kid we forgive you. Okay.

We should roll into talking about the book. Where did this idea come from? Were you approached to write this as being Simpsons knowledge havers? How did it all come together? Yeah. So there is this great publisher, Triumph Books, and they have been publishing this series, which is like 100 Things Blank Fans Must Know and Do Before They Die. And I don't recall exactly how they found us. But, you know, it was after we had signed with Ferrell and we're kind of climbing the charts in that way and broadcasting our fandom. And so an editor from Triumph had reached out to us and said, hey, you know, we do the series and we have

been trying to get more into these sort of like TV film, pop culture type areas. And we think that you guys would be, you know, the perfect match for, you know, the kind of book that we want. And we are also, Allie and I respectively, write our things and we are active in the TV industry. And, you know, Allie's the editor of Mad Magazine. Like we're all, you know, kind of's the editor of Mad Magazine. Like we're all,

you know, kind of coming at it from a very writerly standpoint, which I think, you know, you see in our podcast too, and sort of the discussions that we have. So I think that with all of those, you know, little details that led them to us. And then from there, you know, we had conversations with them saying, we didn't want this book to be something that was just very like bland airport paperback kind of thing. Fill in the blank, like, you know, color the numbers kind of stuff. Like we wanted it to have personality. So, you know, that's where we got really creative with trying to make it, even though this is part of a larger series, making it distinctively our own. And, you know, Allie's a musician. So some of the chapters are like, write a Simpsons song. And I do Simpsons

trivia here in LA. I wrote a chapter on that. And I think one of my favorite chapters is the pathetic people of Springfield. So we got to talk about Hans Molman and Lionel Hutz and, you know, all these different characters. So it really was like a really interesting assignment to kind of do a an even deeper dive into the parts of the simpsons that really resonate with our particular fandoms in ways that we're not able to you know fully go into in our um podcast format because they are sort of like off-roading from an episode um so we got to spend a little bit more time in that world yeah uh so so the topic is so large and vast, but having 100 things to discuss, we weren't sure if we were allowed to kind of

just make it very obscure, trivia-heady type topics. We were actually asked to make it something that would be interesting to people that really know their stuff, but also cater to people that really know their stuff, but also cater to people that are new to the show and maybe people that have always wanted to get into The Simpsons, but maybe don't know where to start. So this could also be a companion to people that are just being welcomed into The Simpsons world.

And so it was a challenge for us because we were talking about like, you know, one of the things to do would be like how to make a Simpsons, you know, a recipe, but the other would be who is Homer Simpson? Exactly. And so how do you write a chapter, uh, for people that already obviously know who Homer is and still make it interesting. And so, um, a lot of the book is, uh, meant to be kind of, you pick the chapters that really speak to you as opposed to maybe reading it chronologically but in those chapters that are um at their face condescending to a true diehard Simpsons fan we still found ways in our opinion to make them really fun and and uh unique to us yeah it was kind of like a mind trip too because we joke about it on our show like um you know Wikipedia will write uh the synopses in these very sterile, alien-like ways where they're like, Bart Simpson, Homer's son.

So that's where that kind of becomes a running joke in our podcast. But then also, now that we've done a couple live shows, we have those under our belt too, in addition to writing this book. At each live show so far, there has been, albeit a small population, but at least one person in the audience who, you know, says they've never seen the show before, but they're just here to have a good time. And that blows our mind every time. And of course, we always have to point them out and, you know, kind of tease them for a little while. And that's fun, you know, because we're doing the live shows

and we're like, I bet this is so confusing to you. But I think that that also, at the time when our editor suggested, hey, do chapters that are just like, who is Bart, who is Homer, you kind of roll your eyes because they're such global entities and that if we have things that are bootleg Bart,

bootleg this, like surely the whole globe must know about them. But we are seeing the evidence that that's just not the case. So it's kind of like shame on us in a little way. But I think even with that, we were able to, again, inject our voice into those chapters so they don't feel like they were written by some textbook. Absolutely. It's still so weird to me to mean anybody who like does how have you lived this long and not afraid no we said this uh at

our live show that we just had um because there we talked about the auto show which had spinal tap in it we were talking about spinal tap before realizing like no wait a second there actually might be some people here who haven't seen that. And there was a little bit of an inkling to, there was a desire to kind of, you know, razz on someone who hasn't seen it. But we presented it more like, no, no, no. Like we have this gift of getting to show you this amazing thing. And we can't wait to help you experience one of the greater comedies, both in Spinal Tap and in The Simpsons. So the book, if you are new to it, we wanted people to feel like it's not this daunting thing. Like, for example, like,

I've always wanted to get into certain comic books, but because it's hard to start from a beginning, or just because you don't know how, you kind of just don't do it at all. So in those ways, these types of triumph books of, you know, 100 things so-and-so must do before, you know, those fans should do, it makes it a lot easier to kind of enter that world. Yeah. And I think that it also provides, you know, and what I think they get right, this is like nerddom in a nutshell, but it almost like challenges, you know, those hardcore nerds. And I feel like we did stand up to the plate in this regard of like, you know, oh yeah, I bet I know everything in this book, or I bet I've done everything in this book.

And so that was really the fun part for, I want to say both of us in like going down the deeper dives of like, okay, all right, but do you know about this character? Okay. All right. But do you know about this? And I think that that's, you know, really well represented in the book as well as, you know, the kind of basic stuff. I just feel like overall the book is very kind and welcoming and, you know, which anyone that listens to our show know that is not who we are at all. But we hope that people like it. We got a really good compliment recently.

The forward is written by former Simpsons showrunners, Bill Clee and Josh Weinstein. You of course know them to be, I will say golden age showrunners of the Simpsons. They are responsible for a lot of bit character actors making a, a very strong presence in the Simpsons. But then also episodes like the Armenten Zarian episodes and different episodes that really changed the

shape of the show. They wrote the forward and then Gus Weinstein just emailed us and said well he emailed me but I shared it with Allie that he's already started reading the book and he really enjoys it which I don't believe. I kind of can't believe it.

It blew my mind. What a stellar recommendation. No, Bill and Joss are the nicest guys in the world. They're the best. I really want to know, as someone who hosts a Simpsons podcast, what the research process was like. Because in the few times we've gotten something wrong, we never stop hearing about it.

And having that on a page sounds like a terrifying prospect. So what was that like for both of you? Yeah, it's very scary. That's one of the things that I'm the most scared about to this moment because that book has not come out yet, depending on when you're listening to this. If it is out, go get it. But I know that both of us were kind of struggling with where to get our research, obviously commentaries on the DVDs, the Simpsons 1 through 20 encyclopedia, the guide. There are many, many articles. There are a few things where I was quoting specific articles that are a thing where I've had to cite my sources since I was in college. I know. So it felt kind of bizarre to be doing this again

because when I was writing them before, I wasn't really quoting like places, you know, like the ones that like, you know, Vox. Yeah. Or like, you know, there's a, there, there are great interviews on Vox.com and it felt weird to write.com in a book. I know. It felt a little evil and bad, but the book would get hurt that you were referencing outside media. Yeah. But that is the reality where there are so many amazing interviews and anecdotes. And for example, there's a chapter about Sam Simon and one of the quotes about how his memorial service went was a Facebook comment, but it was one that was really touching and interesting. And so, you know, you quote that, but in terms of your question of

getting things wrong, I'm positive we will. I've already found some things that are wrong, but that's part of life. I know it's part of life. I, Ali and I, you know, we've been, of course, like we wrote this book together, so we've been very, you know, like, uh, close in, in our communication as we've been writing it.

And, um, uh, then Mike Reese's book came out semi-recently, uh, the Springfield files, which is excellent. If you haven't already read it,

um, I recommend it just across to anyone. Um, people have seen the Simpsons or not, but that book came out, which gave a lot of details that overlap with what I will say our book includes.

And I texted Ali something like, oh, well, Mike already did it. So might as well just, you know, hang it up here. And we'd already turned in the manuscript. It was already done. And I forget exactly what you said, Ali. You were like, well,

it's good because he wrote on the simpsons yeah like calm down yeah there's no way we're fine yeah we're we're writing it as fans um and uh it is something that i think i i i've also talked about this with julia and we feel similarly of like uh for some uh talking negatively about something and finding the mistakes or the continuity errors in a movie or the ways in which a Harry Potter movie is different from a Harry Potter book is part of the enjoyment process. So to be a true optimist

here, I think that we peppered in a lot of opportunities for people to have fun. I find our book very peppery. You mentioned your live show, you guys. Are you coming straight from Austin to record this one you were just late last night we are just we are feeling it baby well again the book is called 100 things the simpsons fans should know and do before they die ali Allie and Julia, where should we buy this book? That's a great question.

If you want to go to our Twitter, we will post where we'll have a couple of live readings where those are mostly going to be local for Los Angelinos. However, you could buy our book on Barnes & Noble. You could go to an actual brick-and-mortar store, which I always recommend. But we will also have it. It's currently available on Amazon.

If there are any places that are local to you, though, that carry it, I always recommend that the most. And, you know, if I don't know how this part of the business works, but if you want, you demand that it is represented in your local bookstore, I'm sure if you contact Triumph Books, they will happily accommodate. And they'll probably think nice things about us. Yeah. Well, awesome. Yeah. Thanks for joining us. And everybody, check out Everything's Coming Up Simpsons.

We were on it. If you need a good way to break into that podcast, I'm a listener. I love it. Thanks so much, you guys. We're such big fans of yours and had such a fun time doing our simultaneous crossover episodes. I loved getting to do that and having you guys on ours. We really hope that you guys in particular like the book. It's obviously a little scary as Simpsons fans to share a Simpsons thing with Simpsons people. But we hope there's at least something in it that you like, so if possible,

you can find out. I'm sure we'll love it. Definitely check it out. So thanks again to Allie and Julia for being on this shorter interview. If you want to find them on Twitter, their Twitter names are pretty easy. Allie Gertz is online as, guess what, at Allie Gertz, her last name is spelled G-O-E-R-T-Z,

and her first name is Allie, A-L-L-I-E, just in case you need to figure that out. And Julia Prescott is just Julia Prescott, and Prescott has two Ts, so that should be easy to figure out. I follow them. They're great. They're funny online. I follow both their Instagrams, also very funny. Yeah, they're really cool folks to follow on Twitter. They share some Simpsons memes with the best of them.

I like following both of those folks on the internet. So to wrap up, we have some brief announcements, and we're going to put this on Talk to the Audience. We'll never stop shutting up about this, by the way, until they happen. So just to let you guys know, they just talked about live shows. We have two live shows coming up. It's going to be like, what,

six live shows so far in 2018? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, you know, just hearing about six live shows so far in 2018 yeah i think so yeah you know just hearing about their live shows made me remember like hey me and bob are doing something we have we have two coming up in october that's correct so the first one will be happening in portland that's right we're leaving the bay area yes uh mainly because i'll be in portland for portland retro gaming expo so come see me there too i I'll be doing a RetroNuts panel. But on Saturday, October 20th, we will be at Kelly's Olympian. That is a great little venue in Portland. We'll be doing a Halloween-themed live show with video clips.

It's going to be a hoot. So check it out. The date is confirmed, but not the time. But we'll have all that info for you very, very soon. Probably by the time this goes live. And just to be clear, in case you're not a West Coast liver, this is not like Portland, Maine or Portland, Florida or something. This is Portland, Oregon.

Portland, Oregon. The coolest Portland of all. Yes, prove us wrong, Maine. It'll be like we're in an episode of Portlandia, Bob. We can ask Bill Oakley all about that, maybe. So on October 27th, a week later, we will be back at our haunt a piano fight in san francisco i believe at 5 30 p.m doing another halloween episode i think what we'll be doing

is pulling random segments well not random we'll curate them of course pulling pulling uh pulling curated uh trios of horror segments and commenting on them playing clips it's just like the podcast except there's video and we'll be there and there'll be boos. So it's all a great time. And I love live shows so much. They're like my favorite things to do now. We'll see you at StaceyCon94 and in Portland or San Francisco. I even did the point when I said that. And if you're not there, you better be dead or in jail. And of course, this is all brought to you thanks to patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons, which makes me and Bob

doing this full-time worthwhile. If you're not a subscriber yet, $5 a month gets you the episodes a week early and ad-free, not just of Talking Simpsons, but of our sister show, What a Cartoon. That's right.

And all of our great patrons who give to us allow us to work overtime and do great interviews like this, no matter what time of day they happen. We don't have a day job to work around anymore,

so we can interview whoever we want to as long as they will pick up the phone. So other things that are happening on the Patreon at the $5 level, if you're not a patron, we have things like a mini series like Talking Futurama and Talking Critic. That's 13 episodes of Futurama in podcast form. We talk about it, we do clips, we do trivia, all the stuff you love about Talking Simpsons. And also Talking Critic, which is 23 episodes of Talking Critic in the same format as Talking Simpsons. We go through the entire two seasons of The Critic. It's great fun.

If you haven't even seen The Critic, it's a great way to get into the show and become a huge fan of it, just like us. And there's so much happening at the $5 level, so many bonus podcasts. It's too much to list right here, but we swear, if you sign up today, you will be bowled over. You'll have to be hospitalized. There's too many podcasts for one body to handle. And if I must mention one more thing in promoting it, you heard us talk about Josh Weinstein and Bill Oakley in this interview. Well, we've interviewed Bill Oakley twice before.

And just recently, we finally interviewed Josh Weinstein, but not about The Simpsons, but about the whole first season of Disenchantment, which is brand new. So if you've finished the season of Disenchantment that's on netflix listen to our interview with josh weinstein where we talk all about how the show came together the cast the other writers the animation secrets teases of the future there's tons of cool stuff just in that interview with josh uh-huh and if you like our interviews there's about a dozen others on the patreon exclusive to the patreon so yes thanks again for listening and thanks if you're a donator if you want to donate thank you in advance we'll see you on the next talking exclusive to the Patreon. So yes, thanks again for listening, and thanks if you're a donator. If you want to donate, thank you in advance. We'll see you on the next

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