Culture
He Wrote Over 692 Simpsons Episodes (with Nancy Cartwright and Mike Reiss) (Simpsons Declassified Ep. 3)
In this episode of Simpsons Declassified, legendary writer Mike Reiss joins Nancy Cartwright to discuss his extensive career on The Simpsons, sharing behind-the-scenes stories and insights from writin...
He Wrote Over 692 Simpsons Episodes (with Nancy Cartwright and Mike Reiss) (Simpsons Declassified Ep. 3)
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Interactive Transcript
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We were all Lisa and then we all woke up one day and suddenly we're all more
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We're all bald and fat and angry
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Mike Reese has been a writer showrunner and producer for more than 30 years on the Simpsons
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He's won four Emmys is a playwright and an especially prolific children's book author
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He's also written for many major animated film franchises like Ice Age, Despicable Me, and of course our beloved Simpsons movie
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He was also the co-creator of the cult classic animated series the critic. Please give it up for my longtime friend Mike Reese
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Mike, I can't believe you're actually doing this. This is so sweet of you to to come be a part of this were
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Play in this wild game and it's really fun experiencing and trying to figure out you know
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Which piece goes where and how you do this and that and getting the right team together and having you as a part of this is a huge huge help
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So thank you very much. Yes. Thank you Mike. Oh
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My gosh, it's my pleasure the Simpsons has just been such a gift to us all and
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And Nancy and Nancy especially she was so good to me when I was promoting my book
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I said who's gonna come out and help me in you came and you know, we're kind of friends. I've been to your house
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Do you miss being live remember remember the days when we were like in the studio together and
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Yes
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Yes, it was it was just the pleasure and you guys were all so much fun. I
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Know the work was so hard and was so long but I
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I loved I always said I would tell people this job was fun
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100 hours a week. Wow. That's so great to hear I bet it was fun too when you kind of game out of your bubble and
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Everybody's together performing what was written. It's like a whole different part of the gut part of the gig
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It was and that was really nerve-wracking
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It's that was really scary. You've been working on a script for a month and then
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You're hearing it out loud and one thing we if we'd love about our cast is we knew we were getting the best delivery of the material
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everything would be
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What we expected or much much better and if it didn't work it was our fault
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That's a lot of pressure
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Mike just just let the public know all our all the viewers and fans know there's a we met on the Simpsons and
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We sat there together like you were at the south end of the table. I was kind of like at the northeast end of the table and
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Sam Simon was the original
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Show runner, but then in seasons three and four you and Al joined together and
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Co-show ran it and I think yeah, and you guys also you created the critic and
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You were on that was and I was so nervous. I was so nervous for that because I mean here
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It was the opportunity to be a lead or a co lead on another
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Primetime animated show
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written by these guys that I work with meaning you and Al and it's just like I was more nervous for that because I thought this
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Simpsons was like what is this it's not even a show because it was just a vignette right?
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right
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But then
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Here I read for this part. I was so scared and Margot
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I think she's about 15 or so
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14 15 years old, but it's kind of refreshing for me to be able to do just a a her voice was pretty much like this
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Jay you've got to be kidding me. Come on. I mean that first step. Welcome to our crappy family, you know
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That is so spot on you know
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I'm just this week they turned up on to be and I literally hadn't watched the shows
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since we made them and
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So it's it Margot was fresh in my mind and that's just how yeah, I don't know how you remember the boys
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30 years that was such a dream watching you play a girl
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normal girl and you so grounded the show you were really great. Thanks
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Thanks, it wasn't hard. I just talked
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Open my open my app and just talked it was really really fun. It was a great cast and I love that show
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I wanted to come back. It would be so amazing. Why not?
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Owl and love it's around pitching it right now
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I'm starting to make it happen again. That's amazing and obviously Mike
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You're best known for the Simpsons, but for sure the critic is a huge class cult classic and you also
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wrote on Alph which is another huge show
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I have a question. Did your approach for writing on the Simpsons? Did that change from working on any of the other shows?
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It was you know the show I worked on immediately prior
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To the Simpsons was a show called its Gary Shanling show now not Larry Sanders show is the sitcom Gary Shanling had before that and
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Every trick we used on the Simpsons we had done on its Gary Shanling show
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Really? Oh wow. And don't worry you know
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more but
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More than half the original Simpsons that had worked on that show previously Sam Simon was on it Jane Wally
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Jacob and Wally Wally darskies were
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Were production assistants they just got us lunch and that guy think oh my gosh
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I had no idea and it was brilliant a lot of people
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I'll help you tune it in because now it's this this the watchers of Gary Shanling show will go up now because of this because it's just curiosity to see like the comparison
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very fun
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Just like the Simpsons
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except super slow
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It's so Gary Hawks slow
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Hammer moves slow for some reason they said we're gonna do the whole show with just 10 edits and it's like why
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So it moves really slow. It's really like the Simpsons and molasses
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All the creative tricks
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We do on the Simpsons. We really pioneered their first had a lot of musical numbers had a lot of celebrity guest stars
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Oh my gosh, that's so fun and now do you have any anything
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Mysterious ever happen on these sets like was the FBI sniffing around the cats go missing
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Or do you have any had any fun stories nothing nothing ever happened
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It's every yeah, so including nobody watched it it was
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It was here's all this Simpsons talent work on the show the critics loved it. We won all these awards
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And we were the next to the bottom rated show on TV only Tracy Olman looks below it
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Wow
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It's unbelievable thinking because I thought it was so well done
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It just kind of was a slice of life. It was kind of to me like documentary style in a way
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Yeah
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Oh well, oh well, you're just on the Simpsons which did pretty good, so I think that
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Well, let me in fact, I'm gonna tell this story real like which was
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Uh, so I'm working on it's Gary Shanling show and we had three months off between seasons
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And the showrunner on that Alan Swipe Bell had created a new sitcom called The Boys and it was just about
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Old Jews at the Friars Club and I really wanted to work on the boys
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But they didn't hire me so I have to take my second choice job which was the Simpsons
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So the Simpsons were just the summer job I took and I
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And uh and the whole time I was working on it. I'm going. Oh, I wish I could be writing for the boy
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Wow
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That is some declassified information right there that is so wild because you started working on it
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You know seasons one two and then come three and four you and Al gene ran seasons three and four which the fans call the golden era
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I don't know how that happened. Yeah, we were scared to death and I mean Alan
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They put us in charge. We have never run anything. We hadn't run the writers room
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We didn't know how to direct actors. We didn't know how to edit or they say all right
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Today you have to do music spotting and it's like what is that? I never know
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Such a learning experience and I had read in some interview that you said that um Mr. Lisa goes to Washington took six or seven
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Re-rides because you were terrified that you weren't going to be funny enough
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after
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Seriously
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Yes, that was that was very I think that was the first thing we had up and yeah, we were petrifying and
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It wasn't quite working, you know, we've built
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To this climax where all of the government gets involved and
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It just wasn't working and right at the end we said oh, let's put in time codes and let's show this is everything that's happening
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Isn't happening over three months. It's happening over 10 minutes. Wow. So it's like one problem after another
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Um as a learning experience
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But what was the toughest part of show running the Simpsons? Do you think and I would just say I was just the sheer
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hours, you know, we would work all day we'd come in at 10 o'clock and start writing and we had a broken down
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We go we're gonna do an act a day three acts three days then
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A day or two of polishing and so very often we'd come in at 10 or the writers came in at 10 and we'd work till 10 at night
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And for Alan me our day was just beginning because then we would go to the editing bay and have to edit the audio
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And that would go from 10 at night till two in the morning
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Then we come back we come back at eight in the morning and edit and then the writers would roll in at 10
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So we were working six a.m till two a.m
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The writers are working 10 to 10 and
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Complaining about it all the oh my gosh
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And here I was thinking that you know recording for eight hours a day was ridiculous because I
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Okay
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Starring in my little pony and glow friends and snorke's and pound puppies and all these syndicated
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Saturday morning whatever I thought I was
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Such a pro and I am so glad I kept my big fat mouth shut and I thought it was so excessive what they were doing
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And I had no idea that you did that you weren't even sleeping six hours a night Mike
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No, wow, it was it was brutal. You'll remember though nants. I mean I came in that job
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I was fairly healthy man and by the end I gained 70 pounds
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And I went to the doctor and the doctor said to me you a 239 and I go that's what Homer way
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I mean that's
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Real commitment to the process
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Wow
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Well, what's a specific moment that you fought for to make those episode shine
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Can you recall like one special thing that you did?
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No, no, I don't I mean we just kept working and working and working
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I know we're gonna talk about the monorail show which was just
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That was not working for the longest time. We just couldn't get that right and in fact
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I remember the animatic screening of that there's the rough animated screening we had
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What's it?
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Wow, and we just threw everything at it and
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And it came together right at the end. I think that's
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That's it, you know, it's a lot of people's favorite episode. I think it may be my favorite episode
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And I think it's because
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Everything came together right at the last minute. Oh my god. The other one like that is crusty gets canceled where
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We had all these different celebrities in it, but we recorded them over a nine month period
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So we couldn't even hear how the show sounded
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Till we had the last actor and put it all together and we went holy cow. This is pretty impressive
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And that's incredible
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And now you actually credited Sam Simon for the idea of putting margin
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Marge versus the monorail is that right? Oh, I didn't say that. I don't even remember
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It's probably if it's if somebody says you said it. It's usually Al
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I see but
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But I'm sure he did. I'm sure that was his idea. Could you tell us what it was like to shape that episode's wild energy?
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Yeah, well, it's a great story and that our junior writer on that
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They had just come on staff. He'd never written a script in his life
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Uh, it was a kid named Conan O'Brien
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And we've heard of it and within within three days. I think of him getting on staff
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He had to come to a story retreat. This is where we would all get together in the hotel room and pitch story ideas
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It was the most high pressure day of the year trying to please
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Jim Brooks trying to make this old room of writers laugh and we're pitching and that's not what we do
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I mean we pitch jokes. We don't stand there and tell a story
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So there's Conan we threw him right in the deep end of the pool and
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He told us all I want to do this monorail show and we said
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Jim Brooks will not like that
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And so he pitched and I think sold two ideas and then there was just a little bit of time left
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And he pitched the monorail episode and Jim Brooks wow shows you
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Al and I were showrunners. We really didn't know what we were doing. Oh, it's incredible
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Well with your couch gags it from the very beginning like you and I wrote that extra long couch gag
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That ended up being my favorite one, but you and I wrote that extra on couch gag to fill time
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You know, and it just sparked tons of creative versions. That's done
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Done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done
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So it's changing key changing pitch all this stuff. That was genius
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Well, that's great to hear and I'll be the caddy one to say we did that and then when family guy came on the air
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It looked at the opening credits of family guy looking exactly the same the curtains. Oh, that's true
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It's a big production number still from the best. That's right. Yeah
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I'm sure you know we did that because the show was too short
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We we had no desire to write an extra long couch joke
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But Al and I were very ruthless and we cut anything we didn't think
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Was working and we were to wind up with like
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17 minute shows we were supposed to be coming in at 22 minutes and we say to Fox
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Well, this one's only 18 minutes long
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You're gonna have to sell more commercials and they go we love to
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So that wasn't a problem, but
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Wherever we did that extra long one the show was extra super short
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And we just wrote that out in necessity. It's the same thing very famous joke on the show
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Where side show Bob is stepping on rake that really became a running joke
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Then because the first time we did it it went on and on and on side show Bob keep stepping on rake
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And we only did that because again the show was too short. It was just a time filler
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Well, that was such a creative way of doing it instead of adding
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Sponsors and going to commercials where you could lose your audience
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You guys filled it with the show with couch gags or
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You know writing on the chalk or whatever you did to extend anything to keep the audience's attention right there
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I think it's genius pivot. It's like you know you could pivot
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Great good
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Good I had one good year. I've been coasting off of it for 30 years
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Well, I want to talk about another really great episode the episode where crusty is revealed as the son of an orthodox rabbi
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Oh, yeah, I'm changing using this side character and kind of talking about his faith so
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You consulted three rabbis for the Talmudic debate we had
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We had three rabbis on the payroll
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That we just calling them, you know it ends with the scholarly debate about Judaism and calm
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Adi and we didn't know any of that
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We were calling these rabbis for help now and that was something go ahead
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I'll tell you real quick. It was it was another story retreat and Jay and Wally
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Came in with that idea they just said we want to do the jazz singer with crusty the clown now
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We had never said crusty with Jewish
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We certainly never thought he was something you could build an episode around and I could see
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The bosses especially Sam Simon were not loving the idea
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They were not on board and then al-jean who was what the rare non-Jew on the Simpsons staff
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He said maybe crusty's real name is crustopsy
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and that
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And that made Jim Brooks laugh so hard and sometimes
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That's all you need to sell a show is just one big joke there
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That makes everybody realize okay, we can we can make this idea work
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Well, it's really interesting because if you jump forward like a couple years because that was the first season right that was in the first season
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second season okay, so in 92
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The Simpsons six of us ended up getting Emmy Awards and they had never acknowledged voiceover people before and you were mentioning about
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Jackie Jackie Mason is was rabbi
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Christophe ski and he ended up getting one of the Emmys he I think he'd already gotten one for something else
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But it was pretty groundbreaking that Dan
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Julie me yardly
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Jackie Mason and martial walless all got Emmys and it was said it was such it was in a parking lot
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I think at a holiday in or something that we got it. It wasn't a big ceremony
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But still the Emmy it looks and feels and tastes like a real Emmy
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Yeah
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That was great. I was sort of extra happy for Jackie Mason who's not an actor and again, it was
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This is kind of funny about that episode is
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Sam Simon was not on board didn't love it up once we cleared the idea
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He just ran with it and he he really figured out oh let's end with this debate and he figured out
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To end with a quote from Sammy Davis Jr
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And I'm pretty sure he's the one who said let's get Jackie Mason to do a jack
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Amazing's not an actor and
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We were all stock you know he was really good, you know
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He was Emmy good in that show and uh of course we we kept bringing him back for 30 years
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And then we killed the character and then we still kept bringing him back he came back a couple more times as the ghosts
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That's brilliant now on that particular
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Episode let's going back to the to the crusty's Jewish roots
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Was there any kind of behind the scenes detail about crafting
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crusty's arc as a character that the fans don't know
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Oh
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No, I mean it was just the idea you know
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First season crusty came in he was illiterate that was his character
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He literally could not read
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And then second season we said all right now he's Jewish now he can read and uh
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So that was it, you know
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This is early Simpsons where we didn't realize people were paying attention or that people cared about consistency
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so
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And that was amazing
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Just suddenly yeah, right he's a different guy this week and then the idea that he could carry a show
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Uh a whole episode not only could he carry that episode that when that one aired
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We were flooded with calls that I think
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Up to that point, you know might have been episode 20 got the huge response
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Of any episode we had done to that point
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I remember somebody calling and saying I just talked to my father for the first time in 15 years because of that episode
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That's amazing incredible. I know the worldwide influence that we've had and I know that you're a your traveler and
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Read somewhere that like you went to all 71 countries that the Simpsons aired is that true
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That is true. I mean except you know
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There were more countries
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I didn't know they had it and I think they may be watching it illegally but
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Next month I'm going to Zimbabwe on a speaking tour of Zimbabwe to talk about the Simpsons and I'll be in the Rwanda
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I went to Saudi Arabia they love they love the show in Iran or they don't even get the show
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But this is all people kind of illegally finding it on the internet. They love it in Iran and
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You should know all of us have to go what are they getting out of it? What is the magic that they get?
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You know that we didn't expect you know we would we would have been happy to be
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Semipopular in America. They don't get it they don't get it in Istanbul and they don't get it in Taiwan
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It's people just you know
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I've gone and tried to surprise these people and they're just kind of looking at me like
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No
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ah
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It's interesting
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incredible
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Well, and speaking of cultural phenomenon
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um
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I'm just curious it
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What was it like writing the Simpsons movie as opposed to writing the show
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It's uh was this ties into an earlier story which was
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From I think season two of the Simpsons on
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Fox was saying you got to do a Simpsons movie and the writers would go no we go what can we give people
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on uh and in the movies that we don't give them every week we turn them down year after year after year and
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There was one episode camp cross the where Bart goes the camp and Jim Brooks said
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This could he he's it didn't sound like he goes
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We can just pad this out and make it the Simpsons movie and we said Jim
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That episode that episode to 16 minutes long. It's literally the shortest Simpsons episode in history
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But uh that was when he was gone. Oh just this like spend three weeks and make turn it into a movie
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So we turned it down
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For 15 years and then finally they came to us with
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Research that said people wanted to see another
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They wanted to see a Simpsons movie more than they wanted to see another star wars or star track or Harry Potter
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And we so
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We said all right, we'll give it a shot and
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We met on a Sunday we had to come in on a Sunday just
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Eight or nine of us and said all right. We've got an idea for a movie and within two hours
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We had figured out the entire plot of the movie it was so easy and then writing it was very very hard
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And uh and that's why you even you know the Simpsons movie is the giant hit
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It's the second biggest
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2D animated film of all time only Lion King
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Amazing amazing
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And that despite that nobody saying let's do enough movie
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It was just too hard. It's been 19 years
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I think since the last one you know, I remember the table read for the Simpsons movie it
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It was a was it a two hour? I thought I this the script was this thick
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It was so thick. It's like you're doing six movies instead of just one
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It was just the editing. I can't even you
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they were
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As written were you just trying to it was purposely that big so that you could make more specific choices and narrow it down to what's the funniest
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No, it was uh, I mean, it's what it wasn't even the first draft that we read
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That was like the fifth draft it was we came in with what a movie script should be it was like 120 pages
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It would have been a two hour script that yeah, you know, you got to cut it down
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The 90 minutes and in fact once again
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We were we were hacking away so much at the Simpsons movie
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That Jim Brooks consulted a lawyer he goes how how short can something be and we can still call it a movie
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So because he was sitting and he found out all right. It's got to be at least 72 minutes wow and uh
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But that was it. I think the movie came in at 88 minutes something like that
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Just pretty much as short as you could expect to charge people for
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Well, I'm sure if we posted it on Nancy's Instagram if the fans want a Simpsons movie number two
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Maybe that'll help push push that along because I think a lot of people want that
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I'm sure people would want it. It's uh
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We always I think we always assume yeah, we'll do a second movie when the show gets
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But it just never goes away doesn't and another thing that we talk a lot about on this show and in general
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Is how eerie it is that the Simpsons so frequently is able to predict future events
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Sometimes it's months in advance sometimes it's years in advance
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So Mike why is it yes that the Simpsons predicts the future so often
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Because if if you wrote computer code
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To make a computer write the Simpsons the one line code would go what's the stupidest thing people could do
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I mean
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That's the Simpsons. It's just everybody is terrible at their job and doing stupid things
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And suddenly we woke up one day and oh that's America
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Everybody is doing the stupidest thing all the time
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You know these things they were jokes when we wrote them yeah, that's amazing
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So it wasn't it's it's kind of like a byproduct of
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Holding a lens to the society for as long as we have but also just kind of
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Honestly thinking what's the silliest thing that could ever happen
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Right a lot and I mean
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It's easily explained we're not prophets. I always make the joke that people think you are
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If the Simpsons writers if the Simpsons writers could predict the future
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They all would have married their second wife's
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But we're always just going alright people are doing this what will they do next that and
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More and more yeah, they're doing just that that's incredible. That's a great answer Mike
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You feel you do seem to the fans like you're one of the prophets you know the anyone who's a writer they they really think you guys have some kind of
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Magic sauce which is brew something you guys got going on over there to to guess right so many times
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It's the number one question I get now about
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Sure from everything else and in every country. Oh, yeah, I go to it to me
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It's kind of refreshing because usually the fans are asking like what's your who's your favorite?
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Character what's your favorite episode? There's always going to be those you know
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Kind of baseline questions that everybody's curious about so who is your favorite character
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Yeah
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Actually, I'm just kind of kidding about that
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But you know what almost everybody that's worked on the Simpsons anywhere near as long as you have
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Have done so because they
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Bring something that's totally irreplaceable to the show and I mean could be a non-secret or storyline or something
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It veers off and plot a or plot b
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Heart-felt moments or something, but what was the one thing that you contributed to the show that is unique to you
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Mike Reese
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It's a mic mic that you especially enjoy doing
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You know, I'm always
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Just they're not good and you always come in. They're not original ideas. I'll just come in with like
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Another episode that people consider the greatest of all time is
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Gee, I forget the last things at the Springfield where they go on strike at the end
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And where they go on strike and Lisa needs a dental plan and all that stuff all of great jokes, but we had no ending
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And so I just said oh, let's end it like how the Grinch soul
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And that's not the most original idea in the world just to copy something else
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But that gave us a really good ending it worked on the Grinch and it worked on that episode
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I did a lot of that you know, we had an early episode and I said oh, let's end it like officer in the gentleman
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So I'm pretty good at that unoriginal
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That was a brilliant ending
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Officer in the general homer picks up Marget that factory and I remember
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Geez I was my my children were babies at the time and I hurt I didn't get to watch the show
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Lot as it was airing you know on Sunday nights at at eight o'clock. It was um, I'd have to record it on VHS
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This is like so long ago, but when we did see it I
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It's embarrassing, but like I don't even remember recording this and that's how I it's just
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They all get kind of complicated and stuff, but at that moment when you kind of picture Richard gear
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picking her up in her in his arms and there's margin or hair is kind of like wow
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Waking all over the place and it but it was so it was sentimental and that's not that's not what we were noted for
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Yeah
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That's a well done that's really really well done great well, you know
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I think some credit as to go to the people who wrote off
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Was out of doubt
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But still Mike after so many episodes is there a process that the writing team uses to vet whether or not a storyline or joke has ever been used before
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It's a you what they use is al gene al gene al
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GPT
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GPT
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Accepted
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When the internet has a question it calls out
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He just has this magnificent brain and he retains everything and
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One day I pitched the joke and
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The they're in the nursing home and grandpa says I want to watch TV. I want to watch this show and
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Someone says who died and made you boss and he goes
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Frank and you see Frank is dead on the ground holding the robot and
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Everybody laughed at that joke and then I'll just held up a hand
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Wait a minute and he says to our writers assistant
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He said check episode 7 F-03 now it doesn't go check the episode where grandpa gets a girlfriend
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He uses the code number 7 F-03 and the writers then pulls up the script on screen he goes go to page 22
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Now 23 24 there's the joke. Let's be pitch it. Oh my god. He's amazing
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He's been my best friend for 45 years and he still just dazzled me. Yeah, it blows me away. Yeah
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I really admire him so much over the years and then when he
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became a showrunner and did it for so long longer than anybody who has nobody in the history of man has ever done anything
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As he did that is like we so remarkable and just so kind and makes our jobs
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Makes everybody feel so appreciated
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Yeah, yeah, and he you know, I met him when he was 16 years
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old and
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None of it's gone to his head. It's just he's just the man a driven hardworking man
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Yeah, for sure huge all gene fans too
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All right, I got to move the set up here
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No worries well people behind me can see the platinum album. Yeah, yes
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Since things the blues we like it. We love it. Yeah, very cool. It's your somebody like me who
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Has no musical ability the idea that I could win a platinum album is just amazing. That is so cool
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We can see it's my Greece platinum award winning
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My crease platinum album and behind me. Oh, you can't see it now is my award from Pope Francis
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That's it that sort of trumped all the assumptions awards. I got I
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Pope Francis had a charity called joke with the Pope
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And they would call me every night at midnight. Can you write a joke?
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This was this before their simpsons oh
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No, no, this uh, I can't even remember now. It was about
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Maybe 2010 something like that
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Wow
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He had a limitless talent every night. They would call me the the way it worked is
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Every day a different celebrity would tell a joke to the Pope
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And so they would call me at midnight. Oh, we're doing
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Al Roker to the weatherman tomorrow. We need a joke for him to tell the Pope that's about religion
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And weather and I would write the joke for him and it was just kind of a bit was like Sudoku
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It's just a fun hobby at midnight and then a few months later
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I get this certificate from Pope Francis calling me a missionary of joy
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Wow, that's amazing
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A Pope Rabbi in a priest walk into a bar
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Keep going what else tell me more
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Well listen, I'm just kind of curious almost everybody who's a fan of the simpsons has a character that they relate to the most right would you agree with that?
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Absolutely, even tours rear whatever. I know it's hard to pick
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Like just one when you've helped to bring life to
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Probably I was gonna say hundreds but maybe even thousands of characters through the years Mike and
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I am just curious so just let me ask you this key question
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Which character is the most like you?
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I'm afraid it's Lisa. I think all the writers when we were kids
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We were Lisa. We were little smarty-pants
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And we didn't fit in and we would see
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Someone who didn't learn we we all had our parts there was that kid who didn't work as hard as us
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But it was so much more popular and kind of glided through life happily
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We were all Lisa and then we all woke up one day and suddenly we're all more
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And fat and angry
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You know, we all wish we'd been barred. I have to tell you. I don't know you probably don't really
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Barth was always the hardest character to write for
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Marge was hard to but Bart because we got well. We were never barred
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You know, we never had a bar phase and you know, he's a tricky character because
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He's sort of the cool popular kid, but he's also a bully kid and
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He gets terrible grades sometimes he looks like he's really stupid, but you realize
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Oh, he's incredibly sharp and perceptive very very tricky character. I didn't realize that
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Yeah, you know and as a writer and producer Mike you have this birds eye view on everything that's going on with the show
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Like including the characters the writing the art the voice acting you name it
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What are some of the most shocking or surprising things that have happened backstage on the Simpsons?
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Wow, I have to think about that maybe an episode that just barely made it onto the air or a bit that
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Yeah
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Boy, you know, I just have to go back to that cross rabbi crostovsky show or even
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I'll go you know, they it's the same story a lot which is the ones that really hit the public
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We never saw it coming and then agree one again many people's favorite episode is the one not with Dustin Hoffman
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Lisa's substitute
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where
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We just never had a hook on it so much of that episode was just
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dictated by James L Brooks and we would just take it down and very often we didn't understand it and you know
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We were sitting in the room with him and
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uh
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We said all right Lisa saying goodbye to
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the substitute
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and what happens and Jim Brooks he writes something on a piece of paper and hands it around and we're looking at it
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And he written you are Lisa Simpson that very classic moment in that episode and
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We didn't get it we can we're what does he think I'm Lisa Simpson? We never understood it. We put it in
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And then we got the color screening the final version of that show back and I got to say
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We thought it was a catastrophe
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We thought it was just terrible and we actually took it to Jim
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We didn't say it was a catastrophe, but we go what do we do here?
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And he said oh well i'll call Dustin and
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Then i've a key he can reread a couple of these lines but
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And then we put the show on the air and again up to that point
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The most popular show we ever did and so one i can't watch it. It's so wrenching at the end
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It's so touching so incredible and that was Dustin Hoffman right?
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Dustin Hoffman and he sam eddick he didn't put his name though on the credits
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I don't know why I wonder why do you know?
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No, you know he was Dustin Hoffman and his peak he didn't do cartoons
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You know it was still pretty early in the show for
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You know for people to say oh i'm a huge star and this will be even better of my career to be on a cartoon show
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And it was
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Sam eddick was just uh Jim Brooks's joke because
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He has some minute good looks that's where the name came from
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Was genius it was just genius and positions him actually
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It's kind of funny, but to me it makes him stand out even more
spk_0
Because it was such a unique
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identification
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Yeah, he did a great job did a great great job and again we heard it we
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He's very quiet in the show it didn't sound like a cartoon performance so
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That's it the show was full of surprises nobody ever knows anything
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Your kid the things you literally are the most worried about turn out to be the most popular right that's always such a surprise
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I know you've
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Already like a million times been asked to pick your favorite child so to speak by picking your favorite character
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And i'm about to do it again um of all the simpsons episodes you've written produced and or overseen
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What few episodes do you consider
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Truly essential of the ones i've wrote and produced uh
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You know i was there for that episode lease substitute the monorail it was a pretty good run of shows
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Uh
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Those all turn out fine and then they're the most popular thing Alan i ever did
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Was something i just bought tooth and nail which was the sherry bob and show
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You
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I'll have that he had that idea i don't know in like season three and we didn't do it for seven years
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Because i just thought it was wrong i didn't you know we i love maric
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often but i said you can't do magic on the simpsons you know if you do that then the next week
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They're gonna they'll have a genie in the week ever that they could do ghost it just seemed all wrong
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And we i finally
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grudgingly wrote the episode without underdress and
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The show people love it. It's much worse
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Because of me because if you watch the show maric pop and sherry bobbins doesn't do anything
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Uh magical she has no magic powers. She just acts like maric poppins and
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The show would have been much better if she had magic powers
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But i just didn't think it was right
spk_0
Meg Rosswell did the voice for sherry bobbins and i remember when yardley and i were doing the singing session for that
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And i was higher than a kite so to speak it was just i was so happy and singing that if you want to be our
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Center, please be sweet and never bitter
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Hahaha
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The whole push was math. I mean it was really just
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I love the musicals. I just think they are so fun
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Yes, I hope people like them because we sure do a lot of them. Yeah, there's some of the best absolutely
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So for this game nancy and mic we are going to rank these simpsons characters without knowing who comes next
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Okay, and as a bonus, we'll look at the fan voted order of these characters and compare Nancy and Mike's lists to the fans list and see if the fans agree with you.
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Basically, you're gonna be given a character and then rank them. You don't know who's coming next. So you gotta figure out where on that list they're gonna live because you can't change your mind after you put them on the list.
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Got it. Okay, ready to play. Yeah, great. Here we go.
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Cleetus Spuckler. I'm gonna put cleetus to number seven.
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I'm gonna put them at number four. That's pretty good. That's pretty good.
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Because I don't know. I don't know. All right. Okay. Okay. That's fine. You locked in your answers. The next one is
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Duffman. All right. Where'd you put them? Where'd you put them? Wait, if I want Duffman to be number four, would cleetus move down to number five?
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No, you can't change your answers. I've got to pose them. That's right. That's the high stakes, man. Oh, no. Okay.
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Oh, so you know, I gotta choose. Okay. I quit Duffman at five. Duffman's five for Mike. Okay. Nancy. Three. All right.
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Okay. Next character. Lionel Hutz. Oh, he's my number one guy. Oh, wow. She's already put him at number one.
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Okay. That's spot's been taken. Yes. I put him at number two. Just, you know, because he's dead. Amazing. Okay.
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Okay. Next character. Comic book guy. I like him, but I'm gonna make him six.
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I've got him at number three. We seem to just be doing hang characters here. Okay. Here's the next one. You guys ready?
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Yeah. Yeah. Consmolman. Oh, I'll put him at number six. Number eight.
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Nancy has no respect for the elder. I think you're finding out more about Mike and me than you are about
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the rings of the characters. That's true. That's true, actually. This is like one of those plays where
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they just play a game and then everybody winds up yelling at each other and somebody gets shot.
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Okay. The next character is Ned Flanders. Oh, I'll put him at four. I want to switch him with
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Cleetus, but I can't do that. So I'll put him at five. Okay. We only have two characters left,
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you guys. Oh, wow. All right. The next one's Bumblebee Man. Oh, I'll leave man. Seven.
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I'll put him at eight. He's last on the list. Yeah, there's a, I created Bumblebee Man and I had to put him
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at the bottom of the list. Wow. That's funny. Okay. Last one. Here we go. See more Skinner.
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Oh, boy. Well, all I had open was number one. Well, I had left. Yeah, was number two. I mean, this is
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an interesting game because if I could switch it around, I would, but there you go. Well, that's all my
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time. Okay. So now we're going to see how the fans voted because we had them play the same game
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on Nancy's social media. Fun fact, we asked the fans on Nancy's Instagram stories for their
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take on this. And we got a whopping total of 12,336 votes. Wow. Come on. Oh, my. Now,
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since his fans are literally the best fans in the world, right guys? Absolutely.
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The best. Thank you all so much for voting. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Keep watching.
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That's right. Watch out please. All right. And here's the take from the fans at number eight.
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They voted Bumblebee Man. So they agreed with you, Mike. He was the last. Last time I agree with the
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fans. Okay. All right. And then at number seven, they voted Hans Mulman. Nancy, didn't you have him at
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number seven? Where was Hans for you? Hans was eight. Oh, Hans was eight. Okay. Those two were switched.
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Okay. So number six, Lionel Hutz. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, that was still. He was still Hartman. He was
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like, I love that character. That's the character. He delivered 100%. Yeah. There's no bad Lionel Hutz.
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Totally. All right. So then at number five, they voted C more Skinner. He came right in at five.
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Okay. And then at number four, we have Cletus Spuckler. Wow. Pretty high rank for Cletus. Did you vote
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for Cletus at number four, Nancy? Yeah. Wow. The fans are great. They're already these are number four
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for the fans. All right. You tried to change your answer at the last minute. Okay. So number three,
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Duffman. Oh, I did that too. Yay. Oh, wow. Wow. You know the fans with your fans. Okay. Good. And then
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at number two, we have Comic Book Guy. I don't think that guy is pretty great. So that leaves number one,
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Ned Flanders. They ranked flander. They did. They did. They did. They did. They did. They did.
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All right. He won by kind of a landslide. So wow. There you have it. Wow. Wow. I don't get that
spk_0
at all. Good for them. Well, that's a new one, Joyce. Do you have a favorite Simpson's fan theory
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hot-tailored conspiracy theory? Like what's yours? The funniest one. I mean, I hate them all because
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they're all wrong. I mean, I just know this stuff and it gives you good, you know, view into
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how people think and how the world works because, you know, none of it's right. You know,
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they're not even right by accident. The craziest one is the theory that we we knew 9-11 was coming. So
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in our New York episode, there's brochure that says $9 to see the twin towers and the twin
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towers look like an 11. And so we're somehow they they the fan theory goes that all the Simpson
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writers went to Yale. None of us went to Yale. We went to Yale. We joined the CIA. We knew 9-11 was
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coming. Son of like six years before it happened. Oh, wow. And instead of informing the government,
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we put a subliminal visual about it on the Simpson's. This is brand new to me hearing that. I find that.
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So I never know, but oh, just Google it because it's a nice picture of Bart holding the brochure that
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says 9-11 on it. Wow. So just the fans can create anybody can create anything. In other words,
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is what you're saying out of the images. Well, the image is from the show. It's a real image.
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You know, if you're if you're looking for conspiracies, you can find it there. The other one
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that's really crazy, which again, I'm sure you remember and I was the boss of is the April Fool's
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clip show where are Bartbles that great Frank to make Homer's beer explode and
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Homer goes into a coma and the fan theory is that happened in season three and then everything
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has happened since it's been a dream Homer's had in his coma and he never came out of the coma.
spk_0
That's a great one. I heard the fans say that one. That's a great one. I like it. It explains a lot
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of bad. Oh, that's good. That's a good fallback. Okay. So Mike, we are going to be playing another
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game with you. Okay. Oh boy. I love the game. We're going to play another game with you.
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We are going to be playing how well do you know your own show?
spk_0
Well, okay. Let's give it a shot. This is trivia contest with a rolling leaderboard. Okay. So I'm
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going to point for each question. And if any of our guests get a perfect score, they'll be brought
spk_0
back on a later date for a trivia face off, which Nancy will host to get a t-shirt signed by me.
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You'll get some some some cool memorabilia. But Nancy's going to play this trivia game with you.
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Okay, Mike. So she's also going to be a part of this. All right. First question. What is the
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full name of comic book guy? Is it? Oh, I think I know this. A. George Haliburton. B. Jeff
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Albertson. Or C. Ray Kruger. I know it. It's I was going to say Jeff. I say the same. Yeah.
spk_0
Ding, ding, ding. You're both correct. The correct answer is B. Jeff Albertson. Yeah. Yeah. Well,
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he said, let's just give him the most boring name we could think of. Yeah, we thought that's
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a good joke. Oh, the fans were really mad. Well, he's apparently the second most popular character
spk_0
in our tier list. Oh, that's so fans love the guy. And now you know, is it? I like him. Okay. Here's
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the next question. What is the name of the hangout where fat Tony and his goons hang out?
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Is it? I know that. A. The legitimate business man's social club. B. The stone cutters
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lodge or C. The frying Dutchman. A. Yeah, it's a. Oh, you guys are killing this. The answer is
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A. The legitimate business man's social club. Okay. So far, you've got a perfect score, Mike. So
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this is really good. This is really good. We got these are from episodes I produce. Oh, okay. Great.
spk_0
Great. We'll see you remember. All right. Next question.
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Krusty the clown has a rival clown named what? A. Shakes the clown. B. Dippy Dave. Or C. Hobo Hank.
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Hobo Hank. Ooh. I'll say Hobo Hank. You are both correct. The correct answer is C. Hobo Hank.
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And he's only referenced one time in the episode. Krusty gets busted in 1990.
spk_0
Great memory. All right. So the next question. What is the name of the charismatic
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monorail salesman from the episode March versus the monorail? Is it A. Kyle handy? B. Lyle landley
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or C. Niles spanning. It's Lyle landley. You guys are correct. It is Lyle landley.
spk_0
Awesome. Okay. Here's the last question. And Mike, you are still on a perfect score, which means
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you could come back for a later phase. I want that. I could get a Simpson's teacher.
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Yeah.
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Tad to your collection. Okay. Here it is. Who did the Simpson's predict would win a Nobel prize
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only for them to actually win it six years later? Was it A. Benkt R. Holmstrom? B. Harumpf P. Holgenstein?
spk_0
Or C. Herman G. Morgan Helman. Oh my gosh. Oh, I'm going to go with A. Okay. I'm going to go with
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I kind of want to go with A because Mike went with A but I'm just I'm going to go with the last
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I'll go with C. Okay. The correct answer is A. Benkt Holmstrom. Mike, you've got a perfect score.
spk_0
I remember writing the joke. I didn't write the joke. We were all writing this scene where the
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bullies are handicapping the Nobel prizes. And we called some expert. I think it was in economy.
spk_0
And we said, who's the front runner to win the Nobel prize in economics? And that's where we got
spk_0
that name. That's the kind of deep research for no good reason on the show, but it paid off.
spk_0
It paid off, but it paid off today. Well done. Yeah. Okay. So Mike, we have to hear straight from
spk_0
the fans. They wrote in with some questions for you. Okay. So here is the first one.
spk_0
From Tom Burke's author, Hugh writes, how did the idea for Bart's skateboarding dare in the Simpsons movie come about?
spk_0
Oh, to go naked that one. Yeah. Dangle. Yes. Yeah. I don't remember. I was even in the room for it.
spk_0
I it may have been Jim Brooks. It may have been Jim. It could have been back raining. I don't think
spk_0
came from the writers, but I you know, whenever you have a question like this call out,
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yeah. I will tell you, I remember doing the record for that over at the studio. And at that time,
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they were sitting in the same room that I was it's not usually done that way. That was so unusual
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that Jim was sitting there and the production assistants were sitting there. And I just saw
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a description. You know, it says Bart, you know, on his skateboard jumps down his rolling down the
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sidewalk and then he leaps up on the back of a chair and he describes the whole thing. So as I'm
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reading it, I'm supposed to make these sound effects. And I just remember going, whoah,
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and I'm telling you Jim Brooks, I must have done 30 takes. He laughed at every single one of them.
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I was exhausted. He loves that stuff. He's a pretty great audience. He's a terrific audience.
spk_0
That's amazing. Okay, the next question from the fans. Superman loves you 1984 asks,
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how long does it take to produce a Simpson's episode from the initial idea to the finished product
spk_0
airing on TV? The very quickest you can do it is nine months, just like a baby nine months from
spk_0
the conception to birth and my water broke. And there are certain episodes. It took us five years.
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I can't remember now which one, but just the idea was laying around for a while and then
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come back to it. But nine months is the minimum. And that's why we never do topical jokes on the show.
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And yet when they air, they are topical. That's, you know, the same thing. I mean, it's the same
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reason we seem to predict the future is the same things just keep happening over and over.
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Every episode's a baby. That's amazing. Okay, and our last question from our fans is from Jane
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Doe 3085 who asks, how has the humor and perspective of the Simpsons influenced the observations you make in
spk_0
your own life? Oh, um, gosh, I hasn't changed me at all because I mean, at least my contribution
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to the show has always been the same thing. I think that except that we could put these great
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super smart jokes in the show and get away with it. And, you know, and that's not my really proud
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of the idea that we can make jokes about Herman Melville's twin novels, O'Moo and Taipei. And I
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just loved it. I think that I remember it was written in the room. I go, oh, we're on a show. We
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can do super smart jokes like that and not care if the audience gets it or not. So I carried that
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through and also just in my writing, non-Sympons writing just work really hard. You know, it all
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it looks like a fun job, but it doesn't come out good unless you work really, really hard at it.
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That's great advice too for budding, budding writers, artists, etc. That's very clear that you've
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done that in your career, Mike. So Mike, aside from helping the Simpsons get to 800 plus episodes,
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what else have you been up to these days? Well, I have a substack. It's a very low profile thing,
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but if anybody breathed substacks, please subscribe to mine to go to subsstack.com and either look for
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Mike Reese or look for now I've seen everything. It's a substack. It's a funny travel newsletter
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that comes out once a week. It's free. You can pay for it and get it twice as much material,
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but it's just funny stories. I didn't really come up that much that I'd been to 147 countries.
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I've been to the North Pole and the South Pole. I got pretty famous a couple of years ago because
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I took that submarine down to the Titanic, the one that imploded a year later. So I've done a lot of
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crazy stuff and then I can tell you about it in a funny way. And then on top of that, my wife
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is Nancy Carnaugher. Now it takes a thousand photos a day. Love the take pictures. So I've got
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even if you don't want to read my prose, you should look at the funny pictures that have come to
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it. Amazing. So I'll say again, now I've seen everything. Cool.
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And subsstack.com. Yeah, people should check it out. Check it out. Check it out.
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You've had such an impressive career. It has been such a treat having you on this show.
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Thank you. Thank you so much for being on our show. We really love you.
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Thanks man. That's great. I never get tired of that. It's always a little miracle.
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Yes. So thank you. Thank you, Paul. Thank you, Nancy, just for being so great all these
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are just a great person, a great talent, a great friend. Well, that gacha. It's been a privilege
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seriously. Thanks again, Mike, for being a part of this Simpson D classified.
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Yeah. Thank you so much, Mike. Such a pleasure.
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Shows over losers.