Latest / Four Finger Discount (Simpsons Podcast) / Talkin' Simpsons with Michael Price (Simpsons writer/producer)

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Talkin' Simpsons with Michael Price (Simpsons writer/producer) · Four Finger Discount (Simpsons Podcast)

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Four finger Discount.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: Dude, Hey everybody, welcome to a very special bonus episode
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: of four figure Discount.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: I am Dano, and I am very excited because I
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: was lucky enough to chat with the one and only
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: Michael Price, legendary Simpsons writer, slash, producer, slash, you name it.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: His fingerprints are all over the show, and we had
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: a really fun discussion. We covered, of course, his time
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: joining the show, his first day on the job, a
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: really funny story there about how he didn't know who
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: Gil was and he was remanded for it. We also
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: covered season thirty six and some episodes are going to
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: be airing in the upcoming season, in particular the premiere
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: episode Bart's Birthday with a few notable guest stars, and
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: I think I may have drawn a little exclusive out
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: of Michael in that discussion as well. We also covered
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: the upcoming treouse of horror gags that they know may
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: or may not piss off the audience, but it was
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: just an absolute laugh. Michael was an absolute champion, So
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: I thank him and thank you for tuning into the show.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: I know you guys are going to love the discussion,
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: of course, Please if you can continue to rate and
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wheve you do enjoy
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: this show helped spread the word about the show, and
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: if you can do so, and you were early in
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: ad free access as well as access to over one
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: hundred hours of bonus content, you can do so by
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: supporting us on Patreon for as little as one dollar
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: per month. Link for that is in the description of
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: this podcast. But enough shilling, It's time to get into
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: my discussion with the legendary Michael Price. All right, so,
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: Michael Price, you just said you just got finished working
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: here on the Simpsons. What was the daylight today at
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: the at the Simpsons studio? Did you go to the
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: studio or is it just Simpson Studios your house now?
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: No, no, no, we were in the studio. We work
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: back in We're back in our writers room.
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: Oh great, gether.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: We've been there since time, since the beginning of last
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: year last February, and then we took a couple of
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: months off because we were all on strike last year.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: But once the strike ended then we came back. So
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: we're all in all together inside the writer's room again.
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: Because I joined covid, obviously there's a lot of virtual rooms.
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: I must have just been hammering to just get back
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: into the right with the room of each other right
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: because the energy you just can't compare the energy when
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: you're doing over zoom compared because we were doing our
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: podcast during COVID we do what I A zoom just
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: can't embrace that that same energy, can you.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: No, it was it was different. I mean we were
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: able to get Thank goodness, we're able to get the
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: work done, and we came up with a lot of
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: great episodes and the whole the whole show was produced virtually,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: you know, by remote, with the actors recording their parts
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: from their homes and the animators working from home and
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: in the writer's room. We made it work. But it
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: was great to come back. We were all so excited
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: to come back.
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: What was it like when you first got back to
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: to she had together? Was it just one big embrace
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: almost almost?
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was great. It was great. We kept we
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: kept in touch, you know, through Zoom of course. But
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: then during the course of the pandemic, as as things
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: started to get a little better, we had a couple
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: of outings where we met a like we had a meeting,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: a group meeting like at the outside and in the
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: backyards of one of our homes and things like that,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: we're able to start together. Yeah, there were some people
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: who were hired. One writer who was hired onto the
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: show in the middle of the pandemic. So we had
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: never met her and her name is Lonnie Steele Sausin.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: We had never met her in person, so at one
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: of these backyard things, we you know, finally met her
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: in person.
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: So that's going to be intimidating, right, joining the Simpsons
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: staff but not actually mating them until after you've started.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so it's intimidating anyway. I mean it
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: was for me, you know when I started all this
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: years ago.
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: But yeah, late two thousand and you, wasn't it correct?
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: One Yes, Stuart Burns and I both started day. It
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: was something like December nineteenth or something of two thousand
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: and one. I tell the story a lot, but we
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: had one day. It was a Friday, I think, and
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: then they were like, okay, that's it. We're off for
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: two weeks for Christmas vacation. And I was like, this
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: is a pretty good.
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: Job because you came into the show post what people
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: referred to as about the Golden Era, and I believe
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: during that time it was late, late hours, all night
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: as it wasn't that case when by the time you
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: started pretty I think it was. Was it Mike Excallutt brought
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: in the nine to five kind of mentality?
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: I believe that's true. I mean, I don't think that.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: I think, you know, I've worked on a lot of
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: different shows, and I've had my own shows that I've run.
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: And it's a family, huge excess.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Oh thank you. It doesn't have to be that way,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: I think often. I mean, I wasn't around here for
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: the early years of the show, so I don't know,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: like what the dynamic was, but it doesn't have to
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: be that way. Like there's no there's no correlation often
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: between like working all night or working until three o'clock
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: in the morning and quality. I mean, it turned out
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: that those early years of this show are fantastic and
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: great and legendary, you know, but I think that you
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: can make great stuff and not have to drive every
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: ready at the point of exhaustion either, exactly. Yeah. So yeah,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: so we we have a pretty good, pretty good work day.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: We worked usually from around ten thirty in the morning
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: till around five thirty or six at night.
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: That's a good way ten. That's a good slate. That's
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: a good slate. Thank you. You needed for the LA traffic.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Right, that's true, that's true.
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: What was your relationship block with The Simpsons before you started?
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: Were you were a fan of the show? I mean,
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: obviously I say you were a fan. Everyone was a fan.
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: But did you watch the show or what was your
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: relationship block with the show?
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Well, I would say that when it first started,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: I hadn't yet begun my doing, you know, I was
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: I wasn't interested in I was an actor. I was
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: doing theater, and I was doing comedy performance like improv
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: and sketch comedy stuff in you at a little group,
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: little comedy group in New York City. So we were
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: all comedy nerds. And so when the show started, well,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: first it was part of the Tracy Ullman Show, so
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: you know, a lot of us were aware of that.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: And I knew about mac Raining's work a little bit
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: because I had seen some of his cartoons, you know,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: and Life and Hell cartoons. And then when the show
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: itself started in nineteen ninety, that's when I was really
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: in the middle of all that with working with young
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: people and we're all excited about comedy, and somebody said said, oh,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: my god, the Simpsons is so great. It's so incredible
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: right out of the box. We all watched it all
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: the time, and I have a really great memory of
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: us all being at an outdoor outing kind of thing
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: in New York City. It was for Earth Day, where
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: they had a huge concert in Central Park with the
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: b fifty twos and a bunch of people playing, and
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: we all got hot and sweaty, and we all went
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: back to someone's house and said, oh, the Simpsons are
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: coming on, and we all watched it together, and we're
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: all remarking about how funny it was and how great
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: it was. So yeah. So I was certainly aware of
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: it huge phenomenon living in New York City at the time.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: So that's when suddenly everywhere you looked there were the
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: T shirts on for sale, you know, these bootleg T
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: shirts for sale on the sidewalk of every kind of
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: version of Bart, the black version of Bart, like the
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Roster version of Bar. You know, all those are everywhere.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: It was so fun to see. And then as a
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: then around that time is when I started really taking
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: you know, comedy writing and trying to make a career
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: of but seriously, so I stayed aware of the show.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: I watched it whenever I could. I wouldn't say I
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: watched every single week, because back in those days, like
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: you couldn't like it. It was on Sunday Night, and
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: if you missed it, maybe you got to rerun. So
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: by the time I got on the show, you know,
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: about twelve years into the show, thirteen years into the show,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: I certainly knew about it. It was on all the time,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: reruns were on all the time, and I was and
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: I'd worked with people who had worked on it. I
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: had worked on. I'd worked with Al Jean and Mike
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Reese on a couple of shows, and then I had
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: But right before I got on The Simpsons, the last
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: one of the last shows I'd worked on was called
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: The PJS, which was a animated show with starring Anddie
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: Murphy and the showrunner on that with Larry Wilmore and
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: Steve Tompkins who had worked on the show during the
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Bill and Josh years next season seven or season eight.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: So anyway, I was certainly aware of it, and we
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: talked about it a lot, and sometimes episodes would come
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: on and we'd watch them together. But there was a
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: lot of episodes I hadn't seen. So when I started
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: on the show, I knew I had about two months
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: or so where I knew I was going to I
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: had had the job, but we weren't starting yet. So
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: I used that time to just watch it every night,
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: and I had a VCR, so I would record the
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: shows and whatever and.
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: Trying to be alive, right, cutting out the commercials.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: That's right, that's right. So I watched as many as
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: I could, and there were there weren't even any books
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: or anything yet. I think there were a couple of
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: those little tiny guidebooks that come out, but it was
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: mostly just watched as many episodes as as I could,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: which I did. But even when I started, there was
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: a vast knowledge of the show that I didn't have,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: and I had to do some catching up. And I
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: remember one of those first days, Uh, we were working
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: on the episode that's called barting Over, which has turned
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: out to be episode three hundred, the one we're bart
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Tony Hawk and all that. So they were working on
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: the episode, working on the scene where there's a trial,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: and they were talking about the writers were all talking
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: about like who should who should the lawyers be and
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: and so someone said Gil and I just kind of
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: met there, like I had no idea what they were
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: talking about. Oh really, because I had missed that episode.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think he hadn't been around a long
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: time by then, but now he's one of my favorite characters.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: But they're like, what if was Gil? And they're like, yeah,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: that sounds good, that sounds good. And I just sort
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: of just just shut shut up and nodded along.
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: But then I did open my big mouth and made
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: a huge mistake, which was one of the writers said
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: we need lawyers, like I think Gill ended up being
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: Homer's lawyer. I think, uh, and then Barton ended up
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: bart ended up hiring this other lawyer to be well,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: the blue haired lawyer. No, but lawyer worked for Home. Yeah.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: It was a weird thing, but somebody pitched him. Somebody
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: pitched him. But see what we call him in the show.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Everyone calls him blue haired lawyer, but in the scripts
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: and everything, he's called Burns his lawyer because way back
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: when he was first introduced to the show, he was
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: worked for mister Burns, and he would occasionally show up
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: and like work for mister Burns and have Homer signed
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: like a waiver saying you know you are now you
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: know like that, but then he just became like all
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: purpose annoying lawyer. So I didn't know this. So so
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: one of the writers pitched like, what if it was
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Burns's lawyer and they go, oh, that's good, that's good,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: And I go, well, I don't know. Why would Burns
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: his lawyer work for BARTI why would Burns his lawyer
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: work for Homer? He works for mister Burns. And Ian
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Maxtone Graham, who was running that room, he looked at
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: me very patiently but also with a little bit of
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: like he goes we just called him at this part
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: like that, you know, and I like, oh, man, I'm
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: such an idiot. So luckily I had that two weeks
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: of Christmas vacation to sort of like remind myself, does
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: anything stupid? And learn more about the show, and you know,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: at Christmas vacation, watch as many episodes as you can.
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: Do you think the episode? Do you think?
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: I think? I was talking about this with someone the
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: other day because one of our newer writers who's young, young, young,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: her name is Brothny Gupta. She just joined the show
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: a couple of years ago. She is younger than the show,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: so I think she's around thirty maybe thirty years old
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: or so, so, you know, the show is older than her.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: So yeah, so she is recently. I mean she said
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: she said it on her she said about making her
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: quest to watch every episode, you know. So so she
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: started at the beginning and just went through, watched, and
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: she just finished and she's out. She's now caught up.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: So we were talking about that, and I think there
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: might be a one or two that maybe I still
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: haven't seen all the way through. Yeah, yeah, certainly, certainly,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: but there's there's a few there probably if I, if I,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: if I go through the episode list, I may find
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: one or two that maybe haven't seen all the way
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: through or don't quite remember.
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: Can you rewatch the ones that you wrote or do
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: you say there just nitpicking them all the time?
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: Well, yes, and yet so I watched them. I do
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: watch them. Uh, And it's funny. I will nitpick sometimes
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: I will say, oh, this, that joke could have been
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: better or whatever. But often what happens is I'll watch
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: them and I'll be put back in the space of
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: the memory of the writing of it, or like what
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: I was doing at the time that time in my life,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: or what was going on, like why this joke became that?
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Uh So that's often what I think about when I
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: watch those old shows. It's hard for me to just
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: watch them it's just a show. It's easier for me
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: to do that with every other everybody else's shows, like
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: from seasons I worked on, But if it's the one
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: that I wrote, then I'm off and thinking about like
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: how did this idea come about? Or what was I
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: doing then, or what was going on?
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: Or how long do you do you give yourself before
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: you go the joke's fine, move on to the next one.
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: How long? How long do you sort of just focus
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: on one gag? It can be better, it can be better.
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: You haven't enough time just going to move on?
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: Well, usually it helps to have a deadline of some kind.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: So so like when I when I'm off, when you
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: get sent off to write a script, you usually get
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: two weeks to go away and just go off and
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: work from home or go to coffee shop or whatever
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: and write it. So I guess if I didn't have
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: a deadline, maybe I would still be tinkering with stuff
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: because it's often it's hard to let go or it's
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: hard to like, you know, and sometimes I'll find it,
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: then I'll hand it in and then I'll look at
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: it like a day later and realize something some mistake
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: I made or I could have done better on that.
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: But they'll fix it anyway. I'm different, Tell me guys,
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: they have absolutely.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Then then it gets handed over to the the
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: whole room, and the whole staff works on it and
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: makes it way better.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: Describe that two weeks. So you get a star into
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: the episode, You got two weeks to write it. Do
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: you go and write it straight away? Or you said
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: you got to a coffee shopping relax? Do you ponder it?
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: Do you wait to the last second before you start
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: writing it? What's that? Two weeks?
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, Well, actually it turns out to be a
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: kind of a combination of several weeks because because the
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: first thing that happens is you do well, the first
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: thing happens doesn't come up with the idea for the thing,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: And then we spend a couple of days in the
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: room with a smaller group and ultimately with our showrunner
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Matt Selman, like working out the beats of the story
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: and just talking it through and sort of arriving at
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: the basic structure, and then you get a week to
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: go off to write an outline so that then you
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: turn into like a treatment, which is like a prose
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: version of the show, and then we go through that
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: again then you actually write the script. But yeah, to
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: answer your question, like I tend to procrastinate a little bit,
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: So like what I might do is like the first
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: day or two, I don't do anything. Or maybe what
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: I'll tend to do is I'll take the outline and
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: then I will then sort of convert it from the
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: outline software is Microsoft word right, which is like word
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: like a pros and then I'll import it into our
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: screenwriting software which is called Final Draft and sort of
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: I'll just format it so it looks like a like
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: a script. And sometimes we'll have like little sample lines
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: in the outline, so I've already written, like I feel like, oh,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: I've already written most of it, like there, you know,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: So they get to take a couple of days off
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: or whatever, and then what I'll do I'll pick it
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: up again and I'll print the I'll print the script
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: out either physically in paper or I have a program
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: on my iPad where I'm able to sort of look
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: at it and make notes with the iPad pencil, and
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: that's what I'll do. Then I'll sort of make notes
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: about it and think of funny things. And again I'm
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: sort of just like, to me, it's like, this is
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: the fun part. It's just to think of funny things
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: and I don't have to worry about it. Just be
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: crazy and write a bunch of funny stuff. And then
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: then after a couple of days of that, then I'll
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: start in and like, Okay, now I'm actually doing it.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: But those I have those notes that I've made over
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: the first couple of days to sort of turn it
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: into something, and then they get scared. Then they always
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: get scared of this is going to be terrible, it's
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: going to be too long, or it's going to stink.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: You know. I always get through that every time.
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: I was going to ask anxiety with writing because I
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: just you know, I'd love to write things, but there's
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: always that moment where you just second guess yourself all
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: the time.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: All the time. Yeah, I think if you didn't, if
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: I didn't, I feel like I'm ready to that's time
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: to hang it up, like I always feel, I always
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: every time like this one's going to stink. This one's
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: going to be terrible. I don't know how to do this.
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: What are your coping mechanisms for anxiety? When it comes
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: to moments like that.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: Coping mechanis for anxiety? Boy, I don't know. Maybe go
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: for a walk or something, or take my dog out
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: for a walk, or just hang out with my family
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: or whatever, or just do anything else, watch a baseball
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: game or something. And you think, after all these doing
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: all these years I've written how many scripts, twenty so
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: scripts for the show, they feel like I got this,
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: And I usually kind of hear that in the back
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: of my mind, but in front of my mine is
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: always like, this is no good. This is the one
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: that's going to be terrible.
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you mentioned Matt Salmon before. How reliant are you
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: guys on the likes of Al Jean and Matt Salmon
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: when it comes to has this been done before or
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: just knowledge of the show, because those guys are just institutions.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Now, right, Yeah, certainly, I mean, we'll Al's been here
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: since practically day one, so he.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: Did for The Critic for a couple of years.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, but even then, when he and Mike
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: were doing the critic. They were still still doing things,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: which show they never quite left the show full time.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: And Ali's an amazing, amazing memory. Matt does two. Matt's
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: been here a little bit less time than that, but
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: still and yeah, I mean the other thing that's great
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: is now again, when I first started in two thousand
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: and one to two thousand and two, we didn't have
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: a whole lot. We had those little books, you know,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: and the internet was there was some stuff on the Internet,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: but it wasn't like a as much as it is now.
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: I've got behind me the complete Godbooks. You may.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, now we have those giant books. But now there's Wikipedia,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: like there's an article about everything. And and then now
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: the other thing is that every episode is now available
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: to be seen on Disney Plus. So everything I think
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: it was an episode, blah blah blah, then we can
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: like google whatever was in there and then it'll say like, oh,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: that was this season, season seven, episode twelve, and then
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: we go call it up by Disney Plus and watch it. Yeah,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: so that's.
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: Where they're worried, whether worries when Disney purchased Fox and
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: the Simpsons, because for me, O, his thought's just been
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: anbsolute positive because, like you said, Disney Plus, I feel
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: like a whole new audience has been able to discover
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: the show as a result. It's it's so easily accessible.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, I mean I think that now. I think
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: there were many worries because the show has such a
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: reputation that built itself, and then they from what I
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: can gather, I'm not at the high highest level, but
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: that they assured it was still a Fox Network show.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: So Fox Network has said, like, this is still the
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: same show you know in Disney. You know, they've never
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: told us to like, don't do that joke or don't
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: do this joke. You know. To me, it doesn't seem
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: like it's much different.
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: That's why I feel like the fear would have been
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: this Disney, you know, Disney's Disney. They would have liked
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: to sort of put their fingerprints on it. But that's
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: not the case.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: That's not the case as far as I'm concerned. I mean,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: they've been very helpful and very supportive, and yeah, and
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: it helps that the show remains popular, you know, on
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: the network, but also on Disney Plus. I think it's
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: one of the if not the highest, one of the
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: highest like streaming shows on there, So why why mess
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: with a good thing.
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: I think it's just helped for me as a as
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: a podcast, as a fan of the show, to keep
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: up with the show as well, because here in Australia,
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: when it was on what you guys call cable I guess,
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: or just or just commercial television whatever, it was sometimes
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: airing at different times, different days. You couldn't keep up
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: to date. Now I know because newing habits have changed.
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: Now in twenty twenty four, I know every Wednesday in
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: Australia is gonna be New Simpsons. I'll get to it.
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: When I get to it. I know it's there. I
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: know it's gonna be there ready. So I think that
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: another plus as well, just being able to keep up
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: to date with the show.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's amazing, you know how they're out there
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: and they you know, so even there's people here in
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: the United States where it's on Fox, but then uh,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: two days later it's on Hulu, which is the streaming site.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: But then then when the whole season is over, then
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: the whole season will then move on to Disney Plus.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: So I know there's people who are saying I'll watch
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: that when it gets on Disney Plus, so I'll watch
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: that when it gets on.
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: So we get them straight to Disney one where one Way,
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: so you air on the Sunday in the States the
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: following Wednesday, we've got him on Disney Plus, which is
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: it's never been Wow, fantastic.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's incredible because I know, like in the UK
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: it might be a month or two, you know, like
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: because there was a show that I wrote that was
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: on earlier this year that was about Willy going back
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: to Scotland and getting married in Scotland, and and that
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: aired in the United States and I believe in October,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: and then it didn't air in the UK or Scotland
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: until like anywhere.
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: We get it within Awaken. Now it's fantastic.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: That's great.
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, season thirty six starts soon, Matt, both Matts.
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: We're actually at SDCC this week. Yes, and they announced
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: that the premiere Bart's Birthday is going to have some
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: guest stars. Yes, John Cena, Dane de Vito, Tom Hanks. Now,
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: first times question is PA, please tell me Unky hov
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: is returning.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Well, I can say that Dan Avido is playing a show.
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: We've been saying for years, please be back. Unkie hebe.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: I can tell you that. I can't tell you much
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: more about it. I know that I heard that, I
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: saw a little bit about Matt Salmon said. It's kind
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: of a big, big, crazy, big swing of an episode.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: It does involve Bart's story, involves Bart's birthday, but that's
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: just a small part of it, I would say, and
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: the other these other characters show up for various reasons.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: Uh that we're going to keep it under keep it
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: kind of under wraps until the premiere.
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: But it's very exciting.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Sorry, I'm serious.
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: There's some serious a list is to all put into
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: one episode.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, that's true. Tom Hank, Uh, Danie Devido Johnson
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: I think did mention it. But Joel McHale is in
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: this episode as well. Uh and some baseball players and
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: uh and Conan O'Brien, Conan O'Brien playing himself. Uh. It's
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: gonna be very fun, very exciting. Episode is written by
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Jess Conrad, who's a great writer who's joined who joined
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: us within the last couple of years. He's written a
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: lot of amazing episodes. H And I'm you know, we
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: have a newer system here on the show where we
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: have I'm one of the co runners. Mean that, you know,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: Matt is our main showrunner, BUTLF myself, Robinson, mctim long,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: and Brian Kelly are the co runner. So we have
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: a certain amount of episodes that we are responsible for
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: sort of supervising, and that's this is one of mine.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: So I'm very very excited about it.
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: That is very very cool. Yeah, so can we expect more?
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: Guest stars are just gonna like blow them on the
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: first side.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: No, there's more, there's more. I can't think of any
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: of the bah. Yeah, there's there's certainly, there's certainly some more.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Andy Serkis is going to be returning to the show.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: He was on the show a couple of years ago
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: doing Gollum, I think some other things. He's playing a
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: new character. We have our second We have a Halloween,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: our main Halloween show called Trios of Horror, and then,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: as we did before a couple of years ago, we
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: had a second kind of horror themed Halloween show, which
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: was the one based on Stephen King's It. Yeah, so
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: this one now is based on the stories of Ray Bradbury.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: So it's called something. It's called Simpson's Wicked. This Way comes.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: So it's a little bit of Andy Serkis is playing
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: kind of our version of the illustrated man who helps
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: tell these introduce these tales that based on famous Bray
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: Bradberry stories. And that's a really great one. And j
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: justsict read that one as well. So it's a very
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: very exciting love a great show.
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: I one of my favorite episodes of the last decade
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: as Halloween of Horror, the Canon Halloween episode. Yes, do
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: you think you'll ever do Cannon Halloween once again? Because
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: I thought that episode was just absolutely fantastic.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was great. I don't know if we'll do
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: a canon Halloween show again. Maybe if a great idea,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: only because that one covered it all and was so amazing,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: you know, so we tend not to try to duplicate
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: or do something we've done in the past. But you know, no,
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: I was currently a me and I wrote that episode.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: That's yeah, that's such a great, amazing episode too.
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: I've always said he could put that in season six
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: to seven or whatever and just it wouldn't feel out
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: of place. It was just so great.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's a really really great episode.
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: So you got so many guests in the premiere, is
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: there is there sort of like a do you feels
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: a need to have to start with a bang each season?
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, it's fun to start to start the season
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: off with something fun and exciting and without without I
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: can't get into spoiling more about this episode. This one
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: makes sense to be the premiere, and it makes sense
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: to be kind of big in that way, kind of
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: a wider scope of an episode. It'll all make sense
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: after you see it. Yeah, certainly. Yeah, it's going to
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: air in the United States, I think in September, at
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: the end of September. Yeah, yeah, I mean it's it's
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: fun because we're starting the season, so you want you
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: want the first episode of the season to be something,
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: something exciting and something fun that people wanted to an
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: end for, and this one just happened to be work
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: out that way.
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: Had the kind of I Brian aspect come into it.
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: Did he contact you? Do contact him?
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: We contacted him, so we had this idea to use
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: him in this episode, and we asked him and he
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: happily said yes and came by and recorded with us.
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: I mean, wow, that's it was great.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: It was wonderful. It was wonderful. It was great. I mean,
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: he's such a. He's so funny, he's so great, and
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: we kind of caught him. We didn't know this when
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: we recorded him back in January or so. I guess
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: he was sort of at the beginning of like a
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: big a lot of cool stuff that's going on with
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: him with his podcast and his show where he travels
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: in the world, and so we kind of caught him
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: in the middle of like this kind of another upswing
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: for him. He was great. He was just fantastic.
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: What were you expecting from Kinnan And did he surprise
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: you in any way?
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Not really, No, We're expecting him to be really as
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: funny as he always is, and he was, and he
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: was really I mean, he was really pleased and really
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: happy to be back here. He came to the studio
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: and recorded in a recording studio. Then he came and
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: visited us all in the writer's room, and we have
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: in our writer's room we have this wall covered with
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: these posters for the show that we're Actually these posters
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: were issued back in two thousand and eight or so
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: when they made these United States postage stamps of The Simpsons,
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: So the posters all have the characters faces on them.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: But we started using them around that time, around twenty
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: ten or so, whenever anyone came celebrity came to be
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: on the show or visit, we asked him to sign
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: this wall. So we have now like five or six
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: of these posters that are filled with like people's signatures,
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: and so we had Conan you know, signed the wall
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: and it was great. He was happy to be back.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: He had a lot of great memories from working on
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: the show. And yeah, and he's friendly with He's friends
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: with some of the like Roblezevnik, you know, knew him
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: from school. A lot of a lot of the writers
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: knew him going back to like college and everything.
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, you mentioned the Tress of Heart. I think
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: Denham was the one they revealed, as they say, say
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: with the Jets, Yeah, do you intend to do you
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: tend to enjoy those ones more most than others, the
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: Halloween ones because it is so fun, right, Yeah.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: There's super fun. They're super fun. I've always loved those,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: even when I was when I was just a casual fan.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: I remember, those are the ones I never missed, Like,
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: I never like when it was Halloween time. I always
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: made sure I watched Simpson's Halloween episode three hours of horror.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: So they're really super fun to work on. I will
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: be like producing whatever co running the one that will
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: be on a year from next year. So we haven't
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: even started that one yet, but we started to come
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: up with some ideas for it, getting some ideas, but
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: we really have anything super set yet. But we'll start
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: writing that soon and put that into production and that
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: will be the Halloween show that will be a Halloween
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: of twenty five?
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: Is the transff Horror? Is that sort of what every
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: rider in the Roter's Room wants to be a part of?
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: Is that the one they won't get the idea for that?
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: Because having your idea for a transfer setment must be
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: sort of like one of the top two things as
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: in the Roter's Room, right.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: I would say, so yeah, I mean, yeah, it's really
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: fun there. They're fun to do, they're different, they're crazy,
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: you know. And then I mean this is going to
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: seem like the most whatever you want to call it,
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: not insignificant, but whatever little thing is that they always
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: put out a big poster every year, you know they do.
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's very cool, and the poster.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: Lists the names of the writers on it, you know,
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: So for me this. I'm going to make sure I
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: write one of the segments, I guess, but it'll be
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: fun to have my name on a poster like that
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: that I can then put up in my house or whatever. Like,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: it's fun that they really still go all out and
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: make a big make a big presentation for the for
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: the Treehouse and send out it's usually for for TV
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: critics here in the US. They send out like a
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: box full of like candy with with the DVD of
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: the episode and everything. It's still still kind of an event,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: which is fun. It's really fun to be part of.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: And I'm looking forward to to be more of a
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: have more of a hand than the one for next year.
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: Can remember the first time you saw your name on
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: the TA eve a scene written by Michael Price.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: Oh absolutely, for Simpsons, certainly for everything. Yeah, but even
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: for the first thing. The first time I ever got
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: one of those whis for an animated show called.
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah oh great.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah that was fun. That was I mean, I was
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: so happy to do that and I enjoyed that a
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: great deal. Yeah, So That'll never forget that, Like, this
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: is a huge, huge moment in my life. And then
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: for the first time I had said on The Simpsons
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: that was even like me, that was.
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: Like I gather around children.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: Yes, So, as I was saying earlier, you came onto
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: the show post golden era? Are there many people left
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: besides you? Matt? And how really in the writer's room?
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: Sure? Oh, certainly, I mean yeah, I mean when I start,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: there's so many people here who are still there when
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: I started, Tim Long, Brian Kelly and still there. And no, No,
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: Ian a few years ago went on to other great things.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: He was a writer on the show Beep, the Great
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: Great Show Weep, among other things. No, like Dan Graney, Uh,
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: Joel Cohen, Tim Long, Like I said, Matt Selman, and
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: several of us all started around the same time, like
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: like Stuart Burns, Jeff Westbrook. Uh, I'm sure leaving somebody out,
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: but yeah, a lot of us are a lot of
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: people who have been there longer than me, and a
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: lot a lot who have been around the same time,
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: joining around the same time as me.
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: So you mentioned a few of the newer rods just before. Yeah,
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: one of the questions they tend to ask you the
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: most often when they're looking just for advice and things
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: like that.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: I don't think they really tend to ask me or
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: ask for advice. But they sometimes we'll have to say
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: Who's they learn who Gill is. But it might be like, oh,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: it might be a thing where they go like, oh,
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: we're thinking of doing this, this is an idea I
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: have for a show, and someone like me might say like, well,
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: actually we did we did kind of a thing like
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: that back in season eighteen or whatever.
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: Gett come up with guy on them will, Actually we
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: did it in season twelve.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah. But they're all great. I mean, they're all incredible people.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: They're all super talented. I'd say the people that we've
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: joined in the last five or six years, Like in
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: the last ten years we've added like Ryan co Dan
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: Vebber super hilarious. And then after that, like in the
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: last six or seven years. Uh, saysar Masriegos, who wrote
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: the It thing. He also wrote the The Flanders two
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: parter Serious Flanners. Yeh yeah, fantastic show. Great, right, there's
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: Christine Nangel, Jess Conrad Brothy grouped, Lannie Steele, saatand Jess Conrad.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: Like I said, just they're all fantastic and wonderful people,
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: and they're also smart and and they're a pleasure to
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: work with.
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: Do you find the younger ones, younger writers who didn't
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: necessarily grow up on the Golden Era when it was
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: first on? Do you feel that they bring a fresh
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: approach to the show because they're not trying to sort
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: of rely on that Golden Era sort of style.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd say so that's true. I mean they also
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: bring a fresh approach of their everyone that's what's great
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: about it. Like everyone brings their own experience, their own
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: life experience, or the kind of the kind of work
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: they've done previously, or the kind of other things they've done.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: And I give full credit to Matt Selman for for
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: really you know, adding different voices to the to the staff,
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: you know, that enabled us to sort of reach out
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: and too all different kinds of stories. So Lannie, you know,
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: as a really interesting, you know, family story. She's she
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: comes from a mixed race family, you know, half white,
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: half black, and and she has in her in her
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: her husband is a cool guy who's a stuntman but
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: also like like a cow like a rider, a horse
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: rider guy, and so based someone based on his past.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: Is the story that she wrote about Carl learning that
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: his his roots go back to like the Rodeo and
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: all that, you know, So that's based on her. But
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: she also wrote an amazing story about about Lisa befriending
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: the son of Blee and Gums Murphy, who's death one.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: That's right because Lannie has a deaf relative, so she
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: was able to draw on that, you know.
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: And well, my wife loved that because she works so
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: she manages the officer who books the interpreters for the
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: news and whatnot here in Australia, and when she heard
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: that they were doing that, she thought, that's so inclusive
• 34:52
  Speaker 3: and it's just it's it's so lovely to say that.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it was lovely to do and she she
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: does a great job with it and h and so
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: we're all, yeah, everyone's coming in with different fresh perspectives
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: and it's fun. It's fun to sort of like in
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: the show who's been around for thirty five thirty six
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: years now and done almost eight hundred episodes, So we
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: need we need that, we need that fresh perspectives to
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: keep the show fresh and keep it new. And that's
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: part of what I think that what's made Met so
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: great as the showrunner is that he really encourages that
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: encourages us to find unique stories based on what's going
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: on in our own lives and to take big swings,
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: big creative swings that we've has been really fun to do. So,
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: like we did the great show that Brian Kelly wrote
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: that was the one that was on earlier this year
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: where it was like juxtaposing the modern story of March,
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: trying to get bart tickets to this, you know, Spanish
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: rap concerts, you know, with the with the story of
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: like primal kind of story of Caveman times March. And
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: it's so fun to do. The challenging to do and
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: shows that break the form, that play.
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: With so many more of those now and I love that. Yeah,
• 36:08
  Speaker 3: that is that's more enjoyable for me because by season, well,
• 36:11
  Speaker 3: season thirty six now, oh, season thirty five, you know,
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: but we've seen pretty much everything we could possibly say, right,
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: give us something fresh and different. I like people complain
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: about continuity thirty five years. You can you can bend
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: that a bit. And that's so I found. That's Matt
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: Sunmond's mentalities. No, if it's entertaining, it's.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: Entertaining, absolutely, and I think that it would it would
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: kill the show. I think to sort of hold on
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: to this rigid kind of thing, you know that sometimes
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: I feel that certain amount of fans get get upset when, like,
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: for instance, I wrote a show a couple of years
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: ago that that dealt with Homer's love for these these
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: robots and the pizza parlor you know, you remember from
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: his teenage years, and so it was really fun that
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: was based on a real thing, that was based on
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: a real person here in the United States, that that
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: there were these places called Chucky Cheeses. I don't think
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: there was in Australia or not, kind of robot bands
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: playing and.
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: Wally Ways, yeah, yeah, that's.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: One of them, and that they ended up shutting them down,
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: but people became nostalgic for them, and they tried to
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: restore these things. So we said that would be a
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: fun story for Homer to do. So we concocted like
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: a backstory that when he was in high school he
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: worked at one of these places. So so we wrote
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: that show at Aaron I guess in twenty two or
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: twenty three, and it was like, all right, well, Homer
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: is Homer was whatever, fifteen years old, then that's whatever
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: twenty years ago, twenty two years ago, that's nineteen ninety
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: you know, so in that episode, Homer was a teenager
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: in nineteen nine, year ninety one, so he was a
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: fan of like Digital Underground all those things. And you know,
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: some people got really upset about that. And we even
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: put in a joke that it was fun that I
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: felt that that Matt added a joke where we saw
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: one of the kids at the pizza parlor, at the
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: pizza parlor that Homer was working at, was wearing a
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: Bart Simpson T shirt. You know, it's fun to me that,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: like the show is always taking place now in the present.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: So Bart our current version of Bart is ten years
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: old and he was born in twenty twelve or twenty thirteen,
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, you know, so he's that he's a kid,
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: a ten year old kid now, and Homer is a
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: forty year old man now. So that is fun to me.
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: And do you sometimes rot Jackson, go, this will piss
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: him off, but you do it.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: Anyway hardly Ever, Yeah, I will say, I will say
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: there is one particular joke in this premiere that they
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: can't tell you about. Yeah that if you talk to me,
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: you know, in September after that aired, I'll tell you
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: what that was, but there is one that we put
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: in there that to me, it was like, oh, we
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: got to have this in there because you know, it'll
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: make these people go crazy.
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: Sometimes going to while I'm up, just to get some
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: sort of people talking about the show, right.
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a little bit, a little bit, But I don't
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: think we don't do that otherwise, we don't do that
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: on purpose, like, oh this is really good to screw them.
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: Over all, the Simptons fans, the sobs.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: No, it's great, it's amazing. I mean that's sometimes we'll
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: we'll go online. I'll go on line and see it's incredible.
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's amazing to me that that it's still
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: even though like a lot of the references are still
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: to older episodes, but it's still great to see that
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: the show is still part of a national conversation about
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: things and like when so when when big things happen
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: in the news, like people find Simpsons means to use
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: it to comment on or you know, or or like
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: this whole thing about how we predict things, which we
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: really don't.
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: But you guys just so sick.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: Now, Yeah, it's it's a little crazy. I mean, what
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: what's made it even crazier is that. I mean, there's
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: certain things that the show did do that did happen.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: That's fine, you know, and like, but there's no one
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: here that has any kind of you know, psychic power
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: or whatever. Some things just seemed to happen, ye, Like,
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: for instance, the fact that Dan Greeney wrote that episode
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: twenty plus years ago, twenty three years ago predicting like
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: Lisa would be a president and would inherit the budget
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: crisis from President Trump.
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: So that happened, did you got? Oh shit?
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, in the way it was because I mean
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: but also like if you go back to that time,
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: around that time, Donald Trump, at least here in the
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: United States was famous already and he was already talking
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: about like forming a third party and running for president. Then,
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: so the fact that he would have run for president
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: wasn't that big of a deal. And to say, like
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: twenty years in the future he was president was a joke,
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: you know, But then like the joke became real because
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: like someone says this, I didn't say this, but like
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: the show rights stupid things, and then America got stupid.
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: You know, so you play subconsciously.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: I guess. I mean, then there's other things that are
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: that are just weird and like looking for stuff that
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: isn't real. I mean that that we would never have predicted.
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: And then the third thing is that they've now taken
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: over and thinking creating things that never happened. And like
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: let's say a news, a news, a thing will happen
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: in the news, and then someone will doctor up an
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: image seemingly saying like the Simpsons did this, but we
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: never did. So that that just muddies the waters. It
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: makes it even more crazy. But you know, I wish,
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: I wish we could really predict things, but we don't.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: Like the one thing that I was the show I
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: wrote that just sort of happened that way was the
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: one where Homer became the referee at the World Cup
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: in Rio, and we wrote out a year or two
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: before the World Cup and we had to have a
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: final game, and we said, oh, we know Brazil should
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: play Germany and the final thing and that's what that
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: is what happened. But I mean those were big Brazil
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: and Germany are major soccer football powerhouses, so happened that way.
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: Of course, of course it was going to happen eventually.
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, but you know that's how it.
• 42:12
  Speaker 3: Goes, but speaking with the newer episodes, right, because you know,
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: you always gonna get these people that say it's not
• 42:17
  Speaker 3: as good as it used to be.
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 42:18
  Speaker 3: But I put my son is now just turned six,
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: and I've got an almost four year old daughter. When
• 42:23
  Speaker 3: I put the Simpsons on, they want to watch the
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: new episodes, right because I just think it's more visually pleasing.
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: You know, it's brighter, it's more colorful, it's more happening,
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: and I think I think the jokes are more written
• 42:34
  Speaker 3: for a kids of today's generation. That's the moment for
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: me when I realized, you know what, even though I
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: may not necessarily enjoy the Sympsons as much as I
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: did when I was a kid, it might necessarily be
• 42:43
  Speaker 3: for me anymore. These are for today's generation.
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: I could see that. I mean, we're writing it for now,
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: like we're existing in the present day, writing it for
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: what the present day audience now.
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: II the nostalgic connection with those earlier episodes as well,
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: which obviously helps. But now I watch it and they go,
• 43:01
  Speaker 3: you know what, maybe I just need to just embrace
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: it and say, this is now for today's kids who
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: are now going to have nostalgia connection with the show
• 43:08
  Speaker 3: in twenty years time.
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting, you know, because I can use an
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: analogy of that, which is that because I mean, naturally
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: I'm part of the show. So I mean, I remember
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: watching the show, early episodes of the show before I
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: was a part of it, and I still go back
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: and watch those and I still enjoy them. I'm I'm
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: immentally proud of all the shows that I've worked on,
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: you know, starting with when I started with the show
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: in season thirteen. So it's hard for me to say,
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: like whatever, but like I have an experience as a
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: fan of a different franchise, which is Star Wars, which.
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: Is like, I say, the same thing Star Wars. Yep.
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So I mean I remember, I'm old enough to
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: remember Star Wars when it first came out in nineteen
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: seventy seven and just like loving it and being so
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: thrilled by it, and then the Empire strikes back and
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: I couldn't believe that that was like the greatest movie
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: I've ever seen. And Return of the Jedi was was
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: pretty good. It had some stuff I wasn't so crazy about,
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: but it was still like I still love those and
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: I have huge memories of those, and then the prequels
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: came out in like nineteen ninety nine and two thousand
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: and two, and I was not a huge fan of those,
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: and I was disappointed by those. And if you've seen
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: any other things I've done, I've done some stuff with
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: Lego and Star Wars and some of my other time. Yeah,
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: I've took I did some jokes in those about how
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: boring some parts of the prequels are. But then I
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: was surprised. I guess you could say I was surprised
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: to see that like people who were kids in nineteen
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: ninety nine. Let's say, if you were a ten year
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: old or so, or eleven or twelve year old in
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety nine, that's the Star Wars that you watched
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: growing up with. And there's a huge amount of devotion
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: and love for those prequels by people who were ten
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: or ten or eleven years old when those movies came out,
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: and to them maybe the In fact, it's interesting because
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: years I went, I had the chance to go back
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: and see a friend of a friend had had a
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: print of the very first the original Star Wars movie,
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: which I just we still call like the Star Wars,
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: you know, episode four. But anyway, and we all went
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: to see it at a movie theater and it.
• 45:17
  Speaker 3: Was really really the untouched version, or yeah, it was.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: It was a it was a print from the very yeah,
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: like an original print from like nine eighty or something maybe,
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: but it was before yeah, the the special edition and
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: all that stuff. And we watched it. It was great. It
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: was fun. But the first like forty minutes of that
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: movie are incredibly slow.
• 45:39
  Speaker 3: Oh. I put off my son thinking I'm gonna shine
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: style wars Naw's and I love it, and I got
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: to you and I'm like, oh my god, does anything
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: happening right?
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: But that's by modern standards or by contemporary standards. It's
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: incredibly slow moving, and it doesn't really get started. It
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: really doesn't really get started until after they.
• 45:58
  Speaker 4: Like, yeah, well, I say, until until the stuff with
• 46:03
  Speaker 4: Han Solo and the canteena now like kind of blast
• 46:08
  Speaker 4: when they're blasting away.
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: From from most Isley and everything, and then you know,
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: and then they when they get they get to the
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: depth Star and they rescue Princess Lea. But the beginning
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: of it is very slow moving. But I remember at
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: the time seeing it as a teenager in nineteen seventy seven,
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: not thinking that at all, thinking like, this is the
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: most amazing thing I've ever seen in my life. This
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: is absolutely incredible. So everyone has like a different floating
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: relationship to things. So I think, in a way bring
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: back to the Simpsons, like everyone has a memory of
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: seeing the early episodes and will always be there and so,
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: but they're you're older now and your life is different,
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: you know, so when these new episodes come around, you
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: have a different relationship to them, and everyone everyone that
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: gets to experience it their own way. So you're saying,
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: like your children, they're watching the newer episodes, and maybe
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: they if you watch, if you watch the season one episodes,
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: now you go back through them, you might say like, oh,
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: this is kind of slow moving, or you know, it's whatever.
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: It's just everyone has a relationship to things that The
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: things don't change, the shows don't change, but your relationship
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: for them changes and your view on them changes.
• 47:15
  Speaker 3: Well, just becoming just becoming a dad and being married.
• 47:18
  Speaker 3: I watched those shows from when I was a kid,
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: and through a whole new lens. Now I enjoy the
• 47:23
  Speaker 3: jokes that I never enjoyed as a kid, and the
• 47:24
  Speaker 3: jokes don't joy as a kid, I'm just.
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: Like whatever, yeah, yeah, yeah, totally.
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: Do you think the pacing of the writing has changed
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: over the years.
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: You mean the actual shows, the pacing of the shows, Yeah,
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: I think they have. I can't think. Well, they have
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: partly for out of necessity too, which is that over
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: the course of these past thirty or so years, the
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: business model of Fox has changed so that they put
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: more commercials in there. So I believe like the early
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: the early seasons, episodes were maybe let's say, twenty two
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: minutes long. Let's say, you know, now we're about twenty
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: minutes and thirty seconds, so really, yeah, because there's more
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: commercials squeezed in. That's why largely, that's largely the reason
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: why you don't see as many like couch gags and
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: full credits of all this bart skateboarding, and it takes
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: up too much time, you know, so, and we also
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: have to get a little more into the story as
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: quickly as possible. I'm a huge fan of talking to
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: one of the writers last week about this of the
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: kind of older way of storytelling in the show, which
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: is that like often the first act would be just
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: we call like a first act set piece. It would be,
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: you know, they go to the swap meet, you know,
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: and you have all these jokes and butter and then
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: by the end of that suddenly it turns out that's
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: what the show is about, you know, like the one
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: with George Bush moving in next door. I believe started
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: that way with like that's what it just goes to.
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: I think first shows up, but it's like the swap
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: meet whatever, because the neighbors are the neighbor are moving,
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah blah. Who are the new neighbors.
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, it's it's former President George Bush. And
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: that's the end. That's the first act break. There isn't
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: as much time for that anymore. So often we'll find
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: ourselves like not having as much of that kind of
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: style of storytelling because we have to get there's a
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: limited amount of time now, you know, because of the
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: shows being shorter, So we'll get into this, we'll get
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: into the main story a lot quicker than than we
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: used to. And and this and the scenes are shorter
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: and quicker because again we have to We still want
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: to tell our story, we want it to be funny,
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: but there might not be as much time for these
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: kind of extended, long, longer digression kind of things that
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: we used to do.
• 49:40
  Speaker 3: Do you think the show would not being not improved,
• 49:44
  Speaker 3: but sort of benefit from being a streaming show where
• 49:47
  Speaker 3: you wouldn't have to worry about commercial breaks anymore. Do
• 49:49
  Speaker 3: you think that the Simpsons being on Fox Fred on
• 49:52
  Speaker 3: television is an important aspect of the show that should remain.
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: I feel it's an important aspect of the show, and
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: that even if the show became a streaming show, I
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: would imagine that they would still write it the same way,
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: like it would still have the same act break structure.
• 50:08
  Speaker 3: Okay, but do you think they gave me the twenty
• 50:10
  Speaker 3: two though instead of the twenty thirty. It gave me
• 50:12
  Speaker 3: the extraty ninety second doesn't seem like a lot, but
• 50:14
  Speaker 3: it is a lot.
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: Well, it's sometimes it has to do with not just
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: the time but the budget, because every every few seconds
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: of animation costs this much, this much money, you know too,
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: So like on efforts for family show on for Netflix,
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: we there was no time constrained and we had to
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: be We couldn't be any longer than twenty five minutes,
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: I believe, and they didn't want us any shorter than
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: like twenty two or twenty one minutes, so some episodes
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: were longer than others. And that was an interesting, whole
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: different experience of working on a whole different kind of
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: show because that show had no had no commercial break,
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: so there was no act structure, conventional act structure, and
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: it was a whole different It was fun because I
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: got to I was still working at The Simpsons, and
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: I would just sort of take time off to work
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: on the other show.
• 51:06
  Speaker 3: So sort of how'd you find that balance because that's
• 51:08
  Speaker 3: two completely different styles of shows.
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was fun, It was great. It was a
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: really interesting thing. And I was so happy that the
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: people who are my bosses here, like Jim Brooks and
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: Al Jean and Matt Zellman, they allowed me to take
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: time off, you know, whenever, whenever we'd do a new
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: season of ephis for Family, I would essentially take like
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: five months off or six months off, like a sabbatical
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: as it were, and just go and do the writer's
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: room for Officer Family. And then when the show got
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: put into production there was also animation going on. I
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: would then come back to The Simpsons and spend a
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: year at the Simpsons because every season of Efficser Family.
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: We would make one like once every year and a
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: half or so, so so, but I would still be
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: I would still be involved with Simpsons in some small
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: way when I was away, But for the most part,
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: I was just like, Okay, now myn Officer family had
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: Now I get to be back, and the Simpsons said,
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: and it was It was really fun and exciting and
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: to do a whole different kind of show, and it
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: was a show that was I employed a lot of
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: the same kind of humor and comedy and like sign
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: jokes and things that we do on The Simpsons and
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: style of humor, but at the same time, it was
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: different in that this was an ongoing, like serialized story
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: and we did season arcs and things like that.
• 52:26
  Speaker 3: Seventy four, wasn't it.
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: That's right, Yeah, that's right, Yeah, seventy three to seventy four.
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: But it was whole. It was all like every episode
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: led into the next, and it was sort of like
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: writing for me. It was like writing up seasons of
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: like my kind of shows that I really prefer to
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: really watch on television, which are shows like Sopranos, are
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: Breaking Bad, mad Men, which which has like season arcs
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: and the characters, remember things that happened, you know, seven
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: Episode or Wire, another great show. So it was really
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: fun to be It would have been hard to me
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: to have to do like a if episode only had
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: been like a Simpsons, but in this andies like it
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: would be like there's no reason to do it, like
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: there already is a Simpsons, you know. So we were
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: so happy that we were able to sort of find
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: a different kind of show, a different kind of storytelling,
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: different kind of characters, and it was very, very exciting
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: and fun to do.
• 53:15
  Speaker 3: Do you think it sort of just kept you creatively
• 53:17
  Speaker 3: just engaged because you would do this fresh project that
• 53:20
  Speaker 3: wasn't the same thing you've been doing for twenty years.
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, yeah, absolutely yes. I mean as great as it
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: is to be part of the Simpsons when when you're there,
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: and until I became sort of somewhat elevated to be
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: this kind of co runner, you know, when you're when
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: you're a writer on staff of a show like this,
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: it's really fun. You get to write your episodes and
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: you're there every day and you're pitching on great things
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: and working with everybody else. But it's not as personal
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: of a stake as like a show it's your show
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: that you created, your running and also that's where it
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: was her family was get to work with the amazing
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: Bill Burr on that show and we were to cost Yeah, yeah,
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: it was incredible, and we were both pouring in so
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: much of our own lives into it. So so much
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: of it was based on Bill's life, and the main character, Frank,
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: is based largely on to some degree on Bill's father
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: and his family situation growing up. But so much of
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: it is based on my family situation growing up, my neighborhood,
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: growing up in New Jersey in the seventies, And so
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: it was really fun to be able to sort of
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: put all these so much personal stuff into it that
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: made it great and exciting and different, and that where
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: the Simpsons will put some personal things in, like a
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: story from your life or something like that, but you're
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: still sort of serving this amazing show created by Macarini
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: and Sam Simon and you know, with incredible characters. But yeah, so,
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: but it was really fun to get to go every
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: couple of months and just really have a thing where
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: it was my show and I was a showrunner, and
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: get to work out my own issues.
• 54:55
  Speaker 3: What did you learn making family that you could bring
• 54:59
  Speaker 3: to the Simpsons. Is there anything sort of just from
• 55:01
  Speaker 3: a creative perspective that you could sort of learn from that,
• 55:03
  Speaker 3: Oh that's different, that works, I can maybe apply it
• 55:05
  Speaker 3: to the Simpsons as well. Or was it just true completely?
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: So I think there was two completely different entities. I'd
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: have to say it was fun because when I'd be
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: at The Simpsons waiting for let's say a new season
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: Officier Family to hopefully get picked up, I'd be there
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: saying like, oh, I can't wait till I can be
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: It's never a thing where we'd like argue that much
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: or whatever, you know, but like some occasionally you'd write
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: something and then maybe the showrunner would say, oh, we're
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: going to go this way, this direction, you know. So
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: I'd have that kind of feeling of like, well, if
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: I'm in the showrunner, I get to say what goes
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: whatever like that, you know. But so then then i'd
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: be over there at Efficier Family. But where an Officer family,
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: I was sort of like the one man kind of showrunner.
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: Like Bill was amazing, but he was busy with acting
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: and he would go off and do his comedy. So
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: I was essentially like the showrunner. And so there was
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: a lot of responsibility, which was all very challenging and fun,
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: but it was like, you know, approving designs and going
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: to edits and things like that, and also being the
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: one in the room saying like, well, we're not gonna
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: do that, We're gonna do this. So then when that
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: was by by the end of six months of that,
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: I was like, just kidn't wait to get back to
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: The Simpsons, where I would just be one of the
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: guys in the room again, just thrown out some stupid,
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: crusty joke whatever, and like it's not my problem, you know.
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: So it was fun to be able to go back
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: and forth.
• 56:24
  Speaker 3: Did you struggle being the show runner at first telling
• 56:27
  Speaker 3: people what to do?
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: Yes, I did. I did because I like to think
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: of myself as being a nice person, and so so
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: much of when you're running a when you're show running
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: a writer's room, a comedy writer's room, is you're dealing with,
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: you know, seven or eight people that are all really funny,
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: all really talented, all have amazing ideas, but only one
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: of them is going to work, you know. So I'd
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: have to be the one saying, well, we're going to
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: go there, but that this you know. So I found
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: myself in the beginning of it being having to sort
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: of maybe I used a lot of times sort of
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: explaining why, you know, I think we're gonna go this instead,
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: you know, like because I didn't want to. I didn't
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: want to hurt anybody's feelings. And you know, it took
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: me a while to I still was that way, but
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: like I was able to have a little more confidence
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: in myself to say, like they'll understand, like it's not
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: the end of the world. Like everybody pitches and it's
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: kind of like I'm a big baseball fan, you know,
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: and they say, like in baseball, yeah right, yeah, of course, yeah.
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: But in baseball, if you get a if you if
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: you get up ten times and you make three hits,
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: that's three hundred average, and that's that's great, but you're
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: still going to strike out or make it out seven
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: times out of ten. So everyone feels that way of
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: like you know, when we're all working together in a
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: comedy room, everyone's pitching, and the idea is like you'll
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: get a few in. You might not get a few in,
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: but it's all for the greater good. So well, I
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: ended up being able to sort of not have to
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: be so much. Every time I'm like explaining away why
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: we're not going for that, I just say, I know
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: we're gonna go there whatever like that. And it was great.
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: We had a great, great writing staff on that show,
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: just an absolutely great staff, and so it was fun.
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: It was it was a really great learning experience for
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: me to learn how to be a show runner on that.
• 58:15
  Speaker 3: Show based on the success, just because it was just
• 58:19
  Speaker 3: critically just acclaimed that show five seasons. Do you think
• 58:22
  Speaker 3: Netflix would ever tour the idea of another Michael Price's series.
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: Well, I would hope, So who knows. I mean, you know, Netflix,
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: this business has changed a lot, even in the last
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: since the last time we did, like that last season
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: came out three years ago. Now it's changed so much
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: that they had a huge boom and then a huge
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: contraction and animation. And I always.
• 58:44
  Speaker 3: Say, is a good effort for a show these days?
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: Everyone says that. Yeah, Like everyone says, like, you got
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: five seeds out of Netflix. That's that's like thirty five seeds.
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: So that was great. I mean, we felt we felt
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: we could have done more. It wasn't our choice and
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: it but so you know, it was such a great experience,
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: and I loved those characters so dearly, and and we
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: had some ideas for possible like another ship, like a
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: spin off of taking a character and giving them a
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: spin off show, or possibly like a sequel show that
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: Netflix at the time didn't seem to be interested in.
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: But you never know, Like it's amazing to see like
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: everything is being rebooted, Like, yeah, they're doing Trauma, They're
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: making a new King of the Hill. Yeah, you know,
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: so who knows, maybe someday down the road, Netflix or
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: somebody else will decide they want to do a little
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: more with those characters. I'd be very happy if they did.
• 59:40
  Speaker 3: It's good for us because we do podcasts on King
• 59:41
  Speaker 3: of the Hill and on Futurama. It's like give us case. Yeah, well,
• 59:48
  Speaker 3: thank you so much, Marga for you Tom, it's been
• 59:50
  Speaker 3: much appreciated. Yeah, it's just been lovely just to finally chat.
• 59:52
  Speaker 3: We've been trying to do this for what months now,
• 59:54
  Speaker 3: it feels like we've finally made it happen. And yeah,
• 59:56
  Speaker 3: but yeah, all the best with them with Sason thirty
• 59:58
  Speaker 3: six and on when he says, say thirty seven, So yeah,
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 3: congratulations on that and all the best.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much. It's been so fun to talk
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: to you. It's been great. Thank you.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 3: As I say, guys, A really fun discussion there with
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 3: Michael Price, an absolute legend. And yeah, did you guys
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 3: pick up on these sclusies. I may have gone out
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 3: of that discussion. Yeah, yeah, I think you know. I
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 3: think you know the ones I'm talking about. It was
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 3: when I said, I thought that's interesting. I don't forget guys.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 3: You want to get in touch with the show, it
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 3: is simply mailbag at four figure discount dot com, dot you.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 3: If you enjoyed this chat, you're also going to enjoy
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 3: another interview I've got coming up next week with Matt
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 3: Salmon himself. He's going to be coming on the show
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 3: to discuss season thirty six, and in particular that ninety show,
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 3: the episode that's going to be reviewed by us in
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 3: the next week or so. We loved it spoiler alert,
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 3: and I'm sure Matt will have great delight in discussing
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 3: why he loved writing it as well. A very divisive
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 3: episode of the Simpsons. I really enjoyed it, guy, I
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 3: really enjoyed it, and I'm sure Matt someone enjoyed writing
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 3: it as well. So we're gonna be discussing that ninety show,
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 3: season thirty six, and so much more Matt Salmon on
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 3: next week's show. Please also don't forget to rate and
• 1:01:07
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• 1:01:09
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• 1:01:24
  Speaker 3: Thanaks again, guys for all off at fourfing of thiscat.
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 3: Thank you Michael Price for joining me on the show
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 3: this week and I'll catch you on next week for
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 3: that ninety show. Slash My interview with Matt Salmon s