Latest / Four Finger Discount (Simpsons Podcast) / An Interview with Maggie Roswell

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An Interview with Maggie Roswell · Four Finger Discount (Simpsons Podcast)

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Four Finger discounted. Hey go on, everybody, Dano here for a very
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special episode of four Finger discount. Obviously, this week we are not going
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to be doing an episode review. As you can tell from the title of
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this podcast, I was lucky enough to be joined by the one and only
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Maggie Roswell last week, the voice behind a characters such as Maude Flanders,
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Helen Lovejoy, Luan van Houghton, Sherry Bobbins, Miss Hoover, many many
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women in the Simpsons universe. We don't only to discuss her voices, but
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we also cover things like the nineties Christmas parties with the Simpsons stuff when we
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were all still living close to the studio. We discussed the recording process between
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comparing it from the nineties when she first started to now, and it's really
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really interesting. We even cover things like what microphones they use and what microphone
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she prefers to use in their home studio, how she gets the script center
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her these days, and it's just it's really really really interesting stuff. Plus,
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what I was most excited for was that we finally got to the bottom
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of just how and why she quit the show twenty five years ago and how
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she came back and the reason she was able to come back. Plus she
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gives her thoughts on the death of More Flanners, which is really cool.
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It's just great being able to finally hear from her point of view what she
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thought about that whole situation and how they it might have been mishandled. And
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she kind of agrees as well, misheaded the situation when she left the show
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and the unfortunate passing off More Flanners. But before we get into all that,
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though, I need to just remind you guys that you know, please,
1:32
if you haven't already done so, check out our other shows here on
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the fourth fing of Discount Network. We've got Going down to South Park.
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We've got the one about Friends, which I do with my wife. Plus
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to over one hundred hours of exclusive content. We've got exclusive podcasts such as
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Tales of Futurama, Talking Seinfeld, Speaking of the Heel Movie Guys, and
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so much more. This month we reviewed Jaws and for almost three hours,
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So if you love Jaws, it's worth money just that in itself. But
1:57
enough shilling. It's time now to sit back and enjoy my conversation with the
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legendary Meggie Rosewell. Now he with the one only Maggie Roosewell and Meggie,
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how are you doing? How are your holidays? Oh my god, it's
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fantastic everything. Actually, these holidays were probably the busiest that I've ever had,
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which is really great parties and things and stuff. And I actually skated
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on plastic. That's kind of a new thing. I think you can skate
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on ice here in Colorado, but for some reason, a new deal is
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plastic. So I put these skates on. We went on and said,
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it's like Paul your Thane. And so I said to the guy, so,
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how often are you guys doing this? And he said, oh,
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about fifty people a day And I said really, I said how long did
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he stay on the plastic? He said two minutes, So it's like But
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then I thought, oh, well, that's kind of a weird thing because
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it was at the top of a hotel here in Colorado. So I figured,
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okay, they can't have ice at the top of a hotel. But
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then I was reading that they're doing it all over the country and places you
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know that are warm. Are you kind of go okay, I don't understand,
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but okay, be free. Isn't the idea of skating novelty being on
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the ice? Isn't that why you do it? That's what I was thinking.
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But I was thinking if they had something that you could actually do ice
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with, you know, or something that was kind of like ice, then
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people in la and all over the place could go skating anytime they wanted to
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without being on the inside of an arena. But you know, no,
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it was all good. So how are you doing down then? That?
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It's always good down under? It's actually been a really cold summer though it's
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bizarre. I feel like some of those shifting so I feel like some is
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just starting now. Used to start just before Christmas. We usually have like
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a I don't know what it is in fahrenheit. We have a thirty degree
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celsius day usually on Christmas Day, so it's usually pretty warm. But yeah,
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but it rained on Christmas Day and that's never happened in my life.
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First time ever it rained on Christmas Day? Was cold? What's going on?
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Where are we? What? Global warming? They said, you know,
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it's at with us? Where one day and on fourth of July we
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were getting hailstones that were bit like golf balls, and then you go,
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Okay, don't understand. It's fourth of July. It's supposed to be sunny
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and hot dogs and outside, and you know, so yeah, so I
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think it's crazy everywhere. And then our summers have been getting hotter than they
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ever wore. This is from another planet. And then we just had these
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this cold snap that happened, and then I guess another one's coming through.
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But they're my favorite. Thing that they're calling what is it there that's going
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to hit the West Coast is like it's like a you know, a wave
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solution, whatever it is. It's like some sort of thing that's going to
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hit California that has never They just kind of came up with these things where
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it whirls in and then hits you kind of like a tornado, but it's
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not a tornado or hurricane. It's not a hurricane. So I don't know
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this. Do the Simpsons crew ever have a Christmas party back in the day,
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didn't Did you ever attend a Christmas party? Yeah, we always did,
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and it was really really fun. They used to bring in snow for
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the Christmas party and when, of course it was in la and it was
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on the studio lot, so they brought in snow so the kids could go
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sledding. And this was back in the day when they had everybody and like
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they had just started, and billions of dollars to do everything. And I
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remember they brought in a taffy sculptor that this guy could sculpt anything out of
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taffy, and then they they've had incredible parties. Now the parties are getting
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less and left of the guy that's thirty six years So you know what,
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Apple, when's the last time that you all got to get that? Can
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you rete? Because obviously you live fire away from the moll Man Well,
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see, I'm far away, but so's everybody else. So hany GAZERI in
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New York, and Harry lives in New Orleans, and Julie comes back and
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forth, sometimes in California but also in Shelter Island and then sometimes in Michigan.
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I think, so she's all over the place and then whenever anybody else
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is working. But from what I understand that all of the table reads now
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even are just all remote. Everybody's at their house, like the people don't
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even come in. All the producers and directors and everything don't necessarily come in
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anymore. So it's just kind of everything is as remote as it can possibly
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be. But ever since COVID, they just went you know what, why
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go back? Yeah, so part of it. Yeah, you know,
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I know you set that trend many many moons ago of recording from home.
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But how do you think it's impacted the team dynamic of the show, because
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you must have loved back in the day when you're all together all the time,
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it's the best. And we would play ping pong during the day because
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you know with The Simpsons, which doesn't happen on any you know, with
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the cartoon shows like that I used to do for Hanna Barbera and things like
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that. They all you would come in, you would pick up the script,
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you would read through it once and then you'd record in. With the
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Simpsons, we would do a table read on Thursday, and then they would
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write all through the weekend, and then following Monday would get another script and
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then would all sit around on that Monday and from like nine to five we'd
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be working because sometimes I do something and they go that doesn't work and then
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they come back with some cups or whatever. But that was all, you
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know, it was just so much fun. And then even before this,
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they had everybody just standing around in a very small studio. Back in the
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day we were in at twentieth Century Fox, where we were in this big,
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like cavernous team you know, place where you would have an entire recording
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or you would shoot a movie. And now they're in like a little kind
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of sound room. But even with that, a lot of the people just
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go in individually because they're all doing other stuff. Yeah, you kind of
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recreate that energy, can you when you're all in the studio together. Kind
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of crazy, although we've all been doing the characters for so long that you
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can kind of get a hit off of what you do. And especially with
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the directors, they can hear if your energy is up or it's not up
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or whatever, so that makes a huge difference, you know. So but
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it's it's really it's such a trick to keep doing the show. I mean
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all this time, I mean I do. I do a podcast with Jim
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Cummings, the Disney Voice actor Winnie the Pooh, Tiger Tazzy Devil, and
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he always says that because he's a big he's big on improvisation, and he
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feels like you can't really improvise when you're all in the same room because it
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got bounceslf of each other. Well, you ever want to improvise or did
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you ever experience any great improvisation in the Simpsons studio? Oh? Yeah,
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yeah all the time, because how are haik is it or not? Hank
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Harry Dan Dan Dan good? Isn't Heah? He used to improvise together.
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We used to do sales and company in La so we were doing sales in
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company forever and then so we used to improvise. So there's little moments you
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can do things like you know, I remember, you know, there was
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a line where I was like, oh, netty, and then my when
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I was doing it, the writer saw that my shoulders up were oh netty,
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and then that's what they animated. So that also helped everything, like
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be everybody being able to see everything. Plus the fact back in the day
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we would have also that, you know, so all the writers will be
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sitting around the table and with all the actors as well, so then somebody
9:05
like like they never introduced you know, you knew who Conan was because he
9:11
looked like an elephant who was six foot five, but everybody else you didn't
9:13
know until like, really incredible guys, don't Swartzwelder and John Vetti, you
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know who used to write a lot of the things that I did, and
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they would you would go and it's John Vitty's showing. You watch one guy
9:24
go like this and you go, oh, that must be John. Okay,
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But but they're all amazing. You know, it's been I mean really
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now what they do is they do the Halloween show and then they have a
9:37
big thing at Universal, which is pretty ironic because they do the party at
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Universal, although it's a Disney show, so you know, so they had
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all the Disney things to do. But that's pretty fun. They didn't have
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it this past year because the strike, so there was you know a lot
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of things that have shifted between COVID and then the strike and now everybody here
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doing all the things that they do. But it still is the best to
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be a part of. Do you still get videotapes when you're doing your bits,
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when you're recording from home, so they can still watch you do it.
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Now it's just sending the audio through watch me do it, But they
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don't video it. They're just they're the directors are watching me do it.
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And they saying, Okay, try it like this, try it like this
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because we're doing a zoom. But other than that, and sometimes they don't,
10:20
they go just do three in a row, five in a row,
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ten in a row. You know, of these character of the characters.
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But it's interesting because there there's a couple of different writers in their new writers
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now and Matt Selman kind of does half the group and then you know the
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rest of them are it's like two separate groups. Okay, so but the
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Matt Selman's crew likes to write more for the characters that you don't see very
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often. So I've had a lot of different things for the wyn Van Houghton
10:50
and for Miss Hoover that you know, you didn't never knew that it was
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gonna kind of unfold like that. So that's really that's been really fun to
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kind of see where the characters are going. Yeah, because he likes to
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focus on what I call the format bending episodes two, doesn't he He likes
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the quirky sort of stories. Matt. Yeah, yes, this that Matt
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does. He likes it, you know because for so many years everything was
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about the family and stuff, and then he's been kind of you know,
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really kind of going on, Okay, what's what else is happening in the
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Springfield? Let's look at what else is happening. So so yes, it's
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been really it's been a blast also this many years to have to be able
11:35
to uncover something new in a character that you didn't even know you know,
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it's I mean, it was kind of like when I guess what was it?
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Harry Sheer kind of figured out that that his you know, mister Burns
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and Smithers, that Smithers was in love with mister Burns, and all of
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a sudden he was like, what, wait a minute, what and we
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were there started laughing. We went, yeah, Harry, like, where
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have you been? Haven't just seen this song? That's the joke? A
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joke? I love you man? Which Simpson's cast member. Do you think
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you've developed the strongest relationship with over the years, Probably, you know,
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I mean Dan and I probably as far as the cast, But it was
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so much fun with Nancy and Yardley and again those first years we all bonded.
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So we're still like when I go, well, like I went back
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I forget which two years ago to the Christmas party and a lot of people
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were there and so it was really nice to see everybody. And I bumped
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into Hank and we were just like, oh my god, how are you.
12:45
So it was you know, as our lives have gone on, we
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still haven't forgotten those first years because it was so intense for so long,
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because we would do two weeks on in one week off for the entire year.
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So you'd start probably in March, and then two weeks on and one
13:01
week off all the way through, and then January and February people would be
13:05
doing stuff, but you'd still do pickups. And so for me, a
13:09
lot of the things when I came to Colorado were that I would be doing
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the things that would make it much more current, like when people go,
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wow, how did you get that? You know something global warming or this
13:18
or what has just ever happened that they just throw it in there, But
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they've thrown it in a year later after everything's been animated, and they leave
13:24
a little bit of time for them to make it, you know, new
13:30
and different and current. You know. So it's been I think that that
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has been the most fun to see, although when people say to me,
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so what's on for this week? You know, what goes on in this
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weekend. I go, I got nothing, it could be anything. And
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then to see how the scripts that you read and then how it all is
13:50
transformed, whether the writers have transformed it or the animators have you know,
13:56
thrown something in. You know, it's just it's really a black because then
14:01
we're excited watching the exact same thing as the audience is watching, because you
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go, oh wow, I didn't know they were going to do that.
14:07
That's really great. Do you still receive the scripts in physical form or they
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email to you? Now, No, they're emailed to me, you know,
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So I get an email and then you know, go through everything.
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See the they just finished the Halloween show for next year, I guess for
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this year, twenty twenty four. So then I was able to get the
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script see all of that, and then each one, like I can read
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all the script and then see just where my characters are and all of that
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stuff. So that's been It's really advantageous because if I only got there's a
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lot of places that will only give you your scene, and that doesn't help
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at all. So it's really great for me to have exactly what's happening and
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what we're doing. And so it's it's been nice. It's been really nice.
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How often do you receive scripts? So when they're working on the shows,
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I can imagine it wouldn't be weakly beginning a new script. How often
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are you receiving a new script? Well, what they'll do is they'll compile
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them. So like just after in January, I think I did three different
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shows and then well, no four. So they usually do two or three
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shows at a time, like they'll do some pickups and then they'll do two
15:15
shows. But what has also been exciting is that writers that are doing this,
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one writer Brian Kelly, I just meant another another writer that now they're
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having the writers that have written the scripts direct them, because they used to
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have different people like Al Jean or whatever would direct. But sometimes I'll just
15:33
oversee and then the writer who has actually written it will direct it. And
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it's so much fun because you get to hear how he heard it in his
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head, you know, and then if you're not getting it to him,
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then you can go, Okay, what do you got? Am I not
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getting this? What else do you need? But that's really neat, that's
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fun. Can you recall any moments where they heard it one way in their
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head? But then you did it one way and they went that's better.
15:58
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that definitely. And then you know
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they a guy named Brian Kaufman is one of the line producers. Sometimes he'll
16:06
say, hey, did you think of it like this? Or what about
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this? And I will do it numerous ways, so they have like eighty
16:12
five choices of what to do. But and because our recording studio is so
16:17
good, and then we're also using a recording studio called the Keep because my
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husband Hal Rail, who's you just saw coming here, he still does.
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He's been writing a voiceover book. But you know he did G I,
16:30
Joe and Transformers and Muppets and all that, and I that's why you know,
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we know all those old cronies that you know that you interview that then
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you go, oh god, hi you guys, how are you? The
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only time we really see each other from all the animation community is if you
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go to a comic con, which I loved all the Australian comic cons Australia,
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New Zealand. And now they're not doing as many, or they're not
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bringing me. Tell them to bring me more. Daniel from Super and Iva,
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I say, bring Maggie back, get back, Yes, exactly because
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it is. It was so much fun and I love the people so much.
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But it was pretty funny because when I was there and they went,
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they'd be signing their name and then say, you know, what's your name
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and they go, let's again, Okay, again, it's again, and
17:18
they'd be like and and the person next to me would be is Jonathan,
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oh right right. But sometimes the accents were so thick that I would just
17:26
like, go okay, and you don't want to say too many times Okay,
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I don't understand. I'm trying. I'm really trying. How do you
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spell your name? And then they go or j o hn oh john Oh,
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that's a whole other way to go. Then we have a tendency down
17:41
in Australia to blend words, so instead of saying, how's it going,
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we'll go as down and just it's just one long sound. And that was
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it, And that was so much fun being able to hear the accents.
17:52
And I remember when how was on the bus for the first time and he
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did something about you know, I think there was and he goes, oh,
18:00
I do everything all I can to protect it, and they said all
18:03
of a sudden, you know, oh yeah, because it was like the
18:06
Crocodile Hunter and the bus driver said, are you making fun of our national
18:11
treasure? And he said no, no, oh no, I just loved
18:15
him because we did. We love crocodile hun her look at his beauty.
18:19
This is great. Yeah. Well, we'll have to get yourself and how
18:22
on Jim Show at some point, because yeah, Jim, he talks to
18:25
all the greatest voice actors. Well, Jim is one of the greatest voice
18:26
actors of all time, you know. Well, and that's it. Jim
18:30
coming sat next to me on this last comic con and it was so funny
18:33
because my daughter called, he goes, oh, mom, is he saying?
18:37
Next to her said yet, she goes, can I talk to him?
18:38
And then he did the Winnie the poof for and she was like,
18:41
and she's thirty now, but she was like, oh, oh my god,
18:45
but I love Jim. Have you ever heard him sing? He's a
18:48
killer singer. One of the reasons why we started the show was I thought,
18:52
with Jim, no one really appreciates just how much of a talent he
18:56
was, how much he voiced, you know, and how lucky's he isn't
18:59
incredible singer, but people just don't really seem to realize that, and you
19:02
go, he voiced that character and that character, people go, wait a
19:04
minute, he voiced all of those characters. Yep, that was old Jim
19:08
and that's it. And I think that that was at the time when I
19:11
got in, which was I did film and television for forever. So when
19:17
I was doing the Tracy Omens Show, then they asked me if I wanted
19:21
to do The Simpsons and I was just like, I guess, I don't
19:25
know. Well there's this sketch and somebody doesn't want to do it and you
19:27
could do it. And I said, why would I want to do it?
19:30
And they said, well, it's with Carol King and Clarence Clemmens of
19:33
the E Street Band and you'd be doing Leader of the Pack. And I
19:37
went, you know, I could do that. So that was really fun
19:41
to sing with those guys. But then afterwards they came back and said,
19:42
do you want to do this show? And if I hadn't been on that
19:47
show doing that at that time, who knows, you know that the rest
19:51
was history. But I was just I was really about film and television for
19:55
so long. And if you if people go on at Maggie Roswell dot com
19:59
or else, really go on YouTube and then use I said to somebody,
20:03
Okay, go and put Morgan Mindy, Maggie Roswell, you know, like
20:07
all these different shows. But if I have the Maggie Roswell, I guess
20:12
channel or whatever. And but you have to kind of scroll down to see
20:15
some of the stuff. But my daughter was looking at She goes, Mom,
20:18
you were so young. I said, yeah, you know, and
20:21
then you get older, I said to But all lot of the film and
20:23
television that I did was so much, you know. I did films like
20:30
Pretty and Pink and Lost in America and a lot of different things that when
20:36
people there were people from here, and I remember I was leaving to go
20:40
back to Ala for something and we're getting our nails done. Someone looked up
20:41
and said, is that you? I said, why, yes it is,
20:45
and they were rich going Pretty in Pink. But I think having done
20:48
so many television shows and so much theater and everything for so long that now
20:52
being on this show, it's so great because everybody just it is. It's
20:57
like you're in this cast that just goes on forever and ever, you know,
21:02
And I think that when they said to Matt Grating in London at one
21:07
point, well, how long do you think the Simpsons is going to go?
21:10
And he said, well, we're closer to the end than we are
21:12
to the beginning. And then of course it had in London Times the next
21:15
day Matt Grating says, Simpsons is ending. So he said, that's not
21:21
what I said. So now when they say how long you think it'll go,
21:22
it goes forever, just forever. And I said, good, I
21:26
like that go forever. Well said in the past, you don't want to
21:30
be the guy that cancels the Simpsons. You don't want that to be your
21:33
history, do you No, you don't want to be that guy. Well,
21:37
you know, also with AI, it's pretty scary because essentially, you
21:41
know, Fox and Disney have enough on all of our voices to just keep
21:47
doing the show. That's it. And that is the part that is so
21:51
frightening about it, and why the actors had gone on strike and why I
21:55
think the animation people are going to go into strike. But you know,
21:57
you can't really put your arms around AI. So I always say to people
22:02
it's kind of, you know, like you're like you're trying to put your
22:04
hand in front of a moving train. It's not going to happen, jump
22:08
on the train or not. But to be so frightened of it by not
22:12
doing anything with it. I'm just hoping that, like, here's the common
22:15
cold, because if it can go through all the things and figure out what,
22:19
you know, what the care for the common cold is, you go
22:22
okay, or it's currying cancer. Okay Ai, that's good. But I
22:26
think in our next election you'll see a lot of scary things. They had
22:30
something where they had a robo call from Biden that was not true and it's
22:36
but it sounded exactly like him. So it was like it was all these
22:38
different things that they can do and the deep fakes that they can do,
22:44
which is the really scary part. I don't think people are going to believe
22:47
anything they say on the internet anymore. But I think it's going to be
22:49
a case of unless you see in the flesh and the person is speaking in
22:52
front of you, you're just not going to believe it anymore. You're not
22:55
gonna believe it. And why would you you know, you'd go yeah,
22:57
sure, okay, fine, you know you don't know if it's true you
23:03
thought so. With AI, obviously they were everyone went on strike. There's
23:06
that fear of being replaced by AI. But you just sort of start touching
23:10
on it. Then, do you think there's a way of blending AI into
23:12
what you do to sort of continue on your legacy? Just say, for
23:17
example, you eventually retire, would you be okay with them to AI your
23:21
voice as a character? Would you prefer they replace your character with another actress?
23:26
Well, I think it would be great to put it with another actress.
23:29
They tried at one point when I put on the tenth here and came
23:32
back on the thirteenth to replace me with someone. But even with that,
23:36
I think what they will find with AI is there's a stiltedness about AI.
23:41
You can kind of tell when you're hearing some no matter what you do,
23:44
it's kind of like there's a human nature part that just goes that's wrong,
23:48
you know. So you you get the feeling that there's something not right here.
23:53
And I think they'll keep AI going for a while and then go,
23:56
well, you can't give it nuance and that you know right now? I
24:00
know with a lot of it, they can make it happy, make it
24:03
sad, you know, make it edited, but for the nuances for how
24:08
people really speak, it's just it's hard. I think it would be really
24:14
hard, So I would. I know a lot of people that are getting
24:18
their voices patented. I think who was it, Robert Downey Jr. Just
24:23
patented his voice so that they can't do an AI for it. So I
24:27
mean, I think the other thing that people are doing is trying to get
24:30
to where you can't. If you do it, you'll be sued like there's
24:34
nobody's business. So that's about the only thing I think that you could possibly
24:38
do. You know, but that's a standout when you watch the new as
24:44
Simpsons is that some of the voices don't quite sound the same, which is
24:47
understandable. You know, everyone gets older, you know, the voices get
24:48
bit shredded. Has the idea of AI ever been thrown out in the Simpsons
24:53
world and Simpsons? I think I think for Matt he would be completely freaked
24:59
out. And what you might be hearing is not so much the people sounding
25:03
like the people, but a lot of people in different studios. You know,
25:07
we were in the same studio, we were using the same mic,
25:11
so all the people in different studios and trying to put all those and blend
25:15
them together, you know. And there's a point during the pandemic, you
25:18
know, Hell and I had a recording studio, but a lot of people
25:22
had to go in their closet and record. So that's going to be a
25:23
whole different sound than what's going to come from recording studio. So I think
25:27
that in itself is whacky and bizarre, you know. So, But but
25:33
I think it's it's coming. I mean, it's coming, it's here.
25:37
Actually, it's not even coming, it's here, it's here. I'm not
25:41
a real person, I'm ai what what what macrophone do you prefer to use?
25:49
Do you have a microphone of choice that you have to use? Use
25:53
Annoyman for just because of the depth of my voice. I think with Senheiser
25:59
with women a lot of the time, although on Simpsons they did it and
26:00
I don't know how they quite made it well. Women can sound a lot
26:04
sibilant, the essays on you know, if you get the Sendheiser. But
26:10
it's a beautiful mic to use. It's just I think the Noyman has all
26:15
the depth of especially a lot of the voice that I used to do all
26:19
the money voices and ads and all that kind of stuff that it really it
26:25
kind of plays your voice better, you know, I mean, it really
26:29
is. I think for some people's voices really helps a lot. So that's
26:33
what we use in there for Simpsons as Noymans. So the Simpsons original studios
26:37
had Sennhi's, Is that what you're saying. I think senn Heiser's. Yeah.
26:41
I don't think that they were in now, but you know, I
26:44
would have to remember, and that would be hard. You mentioned earlier pretty
26:48
in Pink Losson in America, all your movies, but I want to touch
26:52
on some of your guest appearances on shows like Happy Days and Mesh. I'm
26:56
a mass tragic. I love Mesh and you play Sister to get It described
27:00
me in the atmosphere on set of Mesh. What was it like being on
27:03
set for Mash? Well, that was insane because Mash was at that time
27:08
the biggest show ever, Like, there was nothing bigger than Mash. And
27:12
they had and I had been doing Love American Style American Style and that was
27:18
my first job, and then they wanted me to do Mash, which is
27:21
a couple of lines, and so my agent said, well, it's just
27:23
a little couple of lines, but you know, you should be on Mash
27:26
because it's the biggest show. So they I went for the audition and they
27:30
said to me, and of course I went to Catholic school, so being
27:33
a nun, how great would that be? So I went in and they
27:38
said, can you drive a stick shift? And I said sure, you
27:41
know, no I figured how hard hit. So we are in We're in
27:48
the show. I'm doing my scene and I'm supposed to drive up in a
27:53
jeep and I get him the jeep and they have this woman get in with
27:59
me and and they have adopted this Korean boy. And so then the mother.
28:03
I bring the mother. She said she came to me looking for her
28:07
son. I took a chance. That was my big lines. Those are
28:10
my big lines. But so she, you know, gets the kid and
28:14
they get in the car. So the whole cast is standing there and it's
28:18
just like the great Stad moment. And so they say, okay, you
28:21
say your lines, get back in the car and then drive out. So
28:22
I put it in gear. Where's kind of was in gear, It just
28:26
was holding it. So and I drive and the you know, I'm driving
28:32
here and the camera's here and the cast is here, and so I'm driving
28:37
and I see the cast face like this, and I actually hit with the
28:41
mirror the camera to the side. I like clipped the man. So I
28:45
was like okay, and still they drive out and then they have this Waki
28:48
taki, Maggie, could you come back? And I went because I don't
28:53
know how to back up and turn around, so somebody had to come back
28:57
up and turned around for me. But I just about killed the mash cast
29:00
on my first one of my second jobs, so that was good. So
29:03
Treppa didn't actually the show. You just read, Yeah, you just have
29:07
to, you know, you just go if I if I can't be the
29:10
lead, I just got to run over. But if sweet and Alan Alder
29:12
came up to me, and I mean he's so huge and he just said,
29:15
hi, my name's Alan Alda and I go, no, here's fantastic.
29:21
And when I did Happy Days in the Verga, truly, I had
29:22
done a Happy Days and I did one show and actually that was kind of
29:26
wacky because I was supposed to be with Henry and this other girl was supposed
29:30
to be with Chachi and so I'm with the Fawns, except I'm five seven
29:37
and he at that time he's five six. I don't know whatever it is,
29:40
but he's just shorter than me. So then they said, well,
29:41
why don't you guys switch? So then they at the very end were kissing
29:45
them and I'm thinking, ooh, I'm kissing Chachi. He's like, this
29:48
is bad. He's a little boy. This is wrong. And then they
29:52
decided not to use that one. But then they had me come back and
29:56
I ended up selling the Cunningham's house at the very end, very end of
30:00
the series. And then with with la Verne and Shirley, I, you
30:06
know, played Lenny of Lenny and Squiggy's girlfriend. I was a college girl.
30:10
So that was really a sweet episode. And Michael McKeon and I are
30:15
you know, probably if they had put us in a series together, it
30:18
would have run for a billion years because Michael and I just had this incredible
30:23
I don't know that thing. You know, there's a couple of people that
30:26
you go, okay, you know these two people have that thing. He
30:29
was one of them, and we just we clicked. Then that was really
30:33
really sweet and such a nice show to do. So but I did all
30:37
of those all those crazy shows, and you know, I at that at
30:41
that time, you know, you go, it'll never stop, I swear,
30:45
and then you start as people get older in the business. That's why
30:48
I always tell the kids that, especially women that are in the book business,
30:52
I go, you should be doing voiceover because that has taken me over
30:56
that time. And now, you know, going from I'm twenty or nineteen
31:00
years old when I started to seventy one years old now and then being able
31:04
to do all these characters still is pretty insane, you know. And because
31:11
on The Simpsons we get to do the boys. Man, oh, don't
31:14
be a buttead board because our voices never changed, So you're not gonna have
31:18
like a kid that the voice is gonna change. But yeah, so it's
31:22
it's good, it's fun. How did you change your acting approach when you
31:26
went from on camera to off camera with voice acting? Did you change your
31:29
approach or is it just you just pretended you were still on camera. No,
31:33
it's definitely a big change because I you know, I told I tell
31:36
people when you're doing voiceover, like if if I saw a line and it
31:41
said the cat ran down the street, and you go, oh, the
31:44
cat ran down the street, and then they say, Okay, could you
31:45
do that again? But a little smile in your voice. Oh the cat
31:48
ran down the street? Okay, now could you do it again? And
31:53
could you do it little higher? Rich the cat ran down the street?
31:56
Oh okay, now can we do it again? And all these different levels,
32:00
and then you realize that like not only how you approached copy, which
32:06
is very different, you know, for animation you have to have so much
32:08
energy, which luckily I have a lot of energy anyways, but you have
32:12
to have so much energy for animation, which is very different than when you're
32:15
doing film and television. And if you're too big, then they go,
32:19
could you know, bring it down a little, But in animation they go
32:22
the bigger the better. You usually turned down the Simpsons Gate, didn't you,
32:27
Oh the Tracyellman, leader of the pack spot, Well, I almost
32:30
did because they it was it was, you know, they they were going
32:36
to do that, and then they call my agent and then I would well,
32:37
you know, I don't know, I mean, should I do it?
32:39
And they were just saying, yeah, it's just a sketch. But
32:42
it was because of those people that I did the sketch. And I thought,
32:45
oh my god, thank God that I did that, because I never
32:47
would have done the show. I mean, Bonnie only saw me on that
32:52
show and then saw what I was doing and then said, why didn't you
32:54
audition for this? And at that time, they're still when I went into
32:59
anim and when I went into voiceover, I was in LA, and I
33:02
remember I started to do voiceover. The first commercial I did was for Jack
33:07
in the Box and it said and all I said was white meat. And
33:13
so right after that, all of a sudden, these residuals started rolling in
33:16
and I went, this is the greatest thing ever. I've got to do
33:20
voiceover. And then I started doing more voiceover, not as much in LA,
33:22
but a lot more in New York. Then I came back to LA
33:25
and said, look, you guys, you know I'm doing a lot in
33:28
New York. I should be doing a lot here, you know, so
33:30
changing agencies, doing all that so you can have a good voice agent.
33:36
And then once I started doing more voiceover, but there was still only a
33:38
handful of people, like people would say to me, oh, you know,
33:42
it's a really tough business to get into, you know, don't get
33:45
your helps up because it's just too hard. But now things have shifted so
33:50
much because even now they use algorithms a lot of times, like they will
33:53
say Maggie Roswell and then they'll someone looks it up. Well, she's seventy
33:58
one. So there's no way that I could to a forty year old voice.
34:00
My voice sounds like in the forties, maybe early fifties, thirties,
34:05
you know, but you're not going to have me, do you know?
34:07
I could do seventy one, But for them, a seventy one year old
34:10
woman sounds a little more like a grandmother, and I could probably do a
34:15
grandmother's voice. But even so, like you go, well, so I
34:19
can't do anything else, which is where it's rough, because you know,
34:22
you can do everything. I mean, we do little boys and this and
34:25
that. Luckily on the show they have had everybody because of the culture now
34:31
of having you know, a poo be an Indian and a who's wife like
34:37
I had played missus Uppool for a little while, you know, all of
34:39
those things. I played doctor Hippot's wife. But now they have an African
34:45
American woman that plays doctor Hibbert's wife, which all makes sense as you go
34:49
along in the in the picture. At that time, we were just doing
34:52
everything because there were only seven people that were in the cast, and so
34:57
we just say, okay, you do that, and you do that,
34:59
and you do that, you know so. And at the time they also
35:02
paid, you know, three voices for one price, so you do the
35:06
three voices, on the fourth voice you get something else. But all of
35:09
that, again has shifted so much. For what we know is the voice
35:14
business. And what I knew was the voice business, which was totally different
35:17
than a lot of people. And did you see that I had snowball too.
35:22
Here, wait a minute, Snowball too. Just for you? Was
35:27
was the idea of a non Indian voicing a pood that? Were they were
35:30
those questions that were raised in the nineties or was it just just part of
35:34
the job. Just did it? I just did it now I and I
35:37
did Bumblebee's wife in Spanish, you know all of that. So that no,
35:44
there was just like, okay, do that? Can you do that?
35:46
Yes? I can? And in fact, how had been on The
35:50
Simpsons when Hank Kazaria was doing the bird cage then he did a poo and
35:57
snake and bus driver and something else, you know, so, and so
36:01
he was doing it but done the sloop pick up. So it was that's
36:07
just what we all did. But who knew. And now it's kind of
36:10
it's really everything shifted as it should to the next part, so you have
36:15
to kind of ready for the next part. Did you say haw a voice
36:17
the Pooh when he was a standon for hang? Is that what you just
36:21
said? Yeah, yeah, didn't we do that? Well I did not
36:24
know that. Yes, we did Pooh and Wigham and and I think snake,
36:30
Yeah, a pool and Wigham and Snake. So and I'm sure had
36:34
he been in La now he'd be doing much more of those things. But
36:37
now they have some of the casts that comes in and you know, it's
36:39
all of that stuff. You go, okay, well cut it what it
36:43
should it? Should we have stayed there, should we have done whatever,
36:45
But we're really glad that we're here, really glad that we're here. Yeah,
36:49
well, we just touched on earlier. You got the gig Bonnie gave
36:52
you the she cast you for the Simpsons. I want you to take me
36:54
back to that first day working at the Simpsons. Describe the energy, the
37:00
vibe of the room, what you were thinking going in there. Tell me
37:02
about that first Can you remember the first day? Yes, it was wild,
37:06
because it was like, I said, this huge soundstage, and you
37:09
know, I had a buffer because I'd worked with Dan Cassanetta, so that
37:14
was amazing, so we already knew each other. And then Yardley was so
37:16
great. But it was funny because I've just seen Yardley in a play and
37:20
she was she played British and I thought she was a British girl with the
37:22
name like Yardley Smith. And I said, you're American. She goes yeah,
37:27
and I said, oh, sorry, I saw you in your play.
37:30
Fantastic. You just looked like a brick to me. I had no
37:32
idea, and she was just so good. And then how knew Nancy from
37:37
the voiceover world, and then I knew Nancy kind of from that. But
37:42
it's like it's you know, so you kind of get in there and you
37:45
know everybody, but you don't. You're standing up in front of the microphones,
37:49
and for all of us we stood. I think Harry she is the
37:52
only person that can sit and keep that energy up. And then Hey or
37:58
Dan when he does is he's in plexiglass, so it's here and here so
38:02
that his voice doesn't boom to everyone else in the room. But Harry Shearer
38:07
could actually be listening to something, looking at a script to get to do
38:12
his thing, look back down and why read the newspaper? I mean he
38:15
was he multitasked like no one I've ever seen. It was amazing. Yeah,
38:21
I've spoken to Harry once before. Many people say now that he he
38:24
sort of hasn't lost that energy, but you know he sort of just The
38:27
Simpsons is a is a job? Now do you do you still say the
38:30
Simpsons as a job or is it just part of your life? Is it?
38:34
Is it? It's really part of my life. It's I'm still excited
38:37
to do it. I'm still so happy that, you know, after I
38:42
you know, after I quit, and then you know, they asked me
38:45
to come back because they had these these little characters that they put into an
38:49
environment and the toy company and said, well, if Maggie's voice isn't in
38:53
there, if the voice chip isn't in there, then we're gonna not buy
38:55
those characters. So then they said, hey, do you want to come
38:59
back on the show. So for me even coming back, that was amazing,
39:02
But it was also getting our insurance and all of that stuff while we
39:06
were here. But as it's wild because even like, we just went to
39:10
Portugal, and what I didn't realize is in Portugal they used to use That's
39:16
how they learned English. Was the Simpsons. Now a lot of places it
39:20
wasn't ever in Portuguese. It was only in English. So the people only
39:25
knew me as the person, you know, and so that is really a
39:30
trip to me. Is that that that they knew my voice. Like if
39:36
I go to Mexico, you know, I say in Spanish, okay,
39:38
this, I'm the person that does it. Or Italy or any of the
39:40
places that I've gone to. They love that I'm on the Simpsons and that
39:44
I was the original voice on the Simpsons. But then they have their person.
39:47
But what I think will be interesting to see and this is something who
39:51
knows that when they do the Simpsons all over the world, now that they
39:54
have AI being able to do everybody's you know, all these languages, if
40:00
they'll just have us do it and it will be translated into a thousand languages,
40:04
and the person in France and Spanish and all those people lose their work
40:08
because they're not as integral to the parts of what they want to do.
40:12
That still remains to be seen. If you know, if Jim Brooks and
40:16
Matt Granny go you know, no, we don't want that, or yes,
40:20
this makes it much easier. So it's so that's hard to say.
40:24
It's kind of a bad look, but you can say from a business perspective,
40:28
it would be probably more wis eruption, wouldn't it. Yeah, very,
40:31
but it's yeah, it would be bad. Bye. I don't think
40:35
they're going to be the first to do it. I think everybody, as
40:37
you see in every movie, when you see all the people that have been
40:42
doing those characters, and then you say, and here's the British version,
40:46
here's this version, here's this version, here's this version, and then you
40:50
know the Chinese version, and then you go, well they just say by
40:53
some and so AI blah blah blah, that does the voices, and then
40:58
that's it, and that will be I mean, because unless I don't know,
41:01
if we sign a contract that we say that, I don't think there's
41:05
anything they can say that you can't say you can you can't use someone else
41:09
to do my voice, or you can't use AI for my voice if you're
41:14
doing it in Spanish or Portuguese or wherever. You know, so ill don't
41:19
know, it's interesting what you's brought up there where you said that everyone's just
41:22
waiting for someone to do it. It's almost like everyone's going so they want
41:25
to, but they don't want to be the first. Yeah, they don't
41:29
want to be the second. That's the first person does it, then you're
41:30
gonna go okay, well yeah, and it is the dam is broken and
41:37
everything it's it's definitely the wild West. Definitely the Wild West again, and
41:42
it is in voiceover itself anyways, and that's shifted. But because also back
41:46
in the day, you know, I did film and television and commercials and
41:52
industrials and theater and you know, voiceover in all of that. That that
42:00
kind of made what I was going to do for a living. But now,
42:02
if you're a kid and you're getting into the business, there's not that
42:06
many commercials, and if they do, then want to use a star a
42:07
lot of the time, or they'll use somebody from the radio station where they're
42:12
already paying. And then you know, industrials, some of them they'll use
42:15
people. But then you start to see all those places have been cut down
42:20
for income for actors, and so you can't like I was, you know,
42:24
I would get classes and everything to people to do voiceover. But then
42:29
you go, well, you know, it's very different than when I started,
42:31
and when I was doing it. I mean, we were kind of
42:34
in the heyday because not only were we in the heyday of film and television,
42:37
but where the residuals were amazing. And then now everything is shifted to
42:42
streaming. So shifting to streaming also has changed our pay structure. You know,
42:47
so all the actors that pay structure and what used to be, you
42:51
would, you know, get your pay and then they would run it the
42:54
first time and you would get the exact pay for the first time, and
42:58
then it would go down from there. But now you get paid and it
43:01
goes to streaming, and it can be like we'll run a million times and
43:05
good luck on them, you know. So I just don't know, not
43:08
a whole lot that you can say about it or you can do about it.
43:12
Yea. I was going to ask you that, because it's hard to
43:13
sort of get the numbers specifically when it's on a streaming like when Simpsons went
43:15
to Disney Plus. When I was growing up, you just watched it on
43:19
the local TV station and they rerun episodes over and over. So was your
43:22
pay your payment impacted greatly. Yeah, yeah, because of the residuals of
43:30
everything, and because you know, now they can run it on Fox,
43:34
but they had FXX that was running at twenty four to seven and that was
43:37
the whole thing into itself. And then now going to Disney Plus, they
43:42
can do it the next day on Disney Plus and that is a whole different
43:45
pay structure, drastically different, certainly not what it was here. And if
43:49
they don't run it on network TV again, then it will be the streaming
43:52
structure, which is very much like foreign residuals. So it's you know,
43:55
it's all of that has changed everything. And luckily for me because you know,
44:01
having pensions and everything and Social Security and all that kind of stuff besides
44:07
money coming in from the residuals that they have. I'm really lucky, I
44:10
mean incredibly blessed and lucky. But a lot of the kids starting out in
44:14
the business, will they see pensions, I don't know, you know,
44:17
And it's very like when I was doing film and television, you would get
44:22
top of the show like that was it. You know, you're going to
44:24
get paid top of the show thirty five hundred or four grand or whatever.
44:28
Now they don't have top of the show. And when you're doing a series,
44:31
a streaming series, the leads, the stars are getting this and everybody
44:37
else is not. And I remember when we did the Comic Con and we
44:40
saw the people from Game of Thrones and Game of Thrones people didn't get any
44:45
residuals like here's your pay, good luck on that, that's it, And
44:50
that was also a business model that then they looked here and went, hey,
44:53
this is really good, okay, perfect, you know will why don't
44:57
we try this? So you know it's it shifted so much that again,
45:01
like with AI, can't put your arms around it, and you can't push
45:05
your arms as much around streaming. And there's very horrid for them to say,
45:08
well they've run it forty five thousand times, and as far as screen
45:12
actors will goes, they go, well, they'll tell us how much they've
45:15
run it. That the producers are going to tell you how much they've run
45:16
it. Okay, if I just believe that, yeah, okay, good
45:21
luck on that our new times had changed. Where in Australia we have where
45:25
you al it's called cable, it's called foxtail here and he came in the
45:29
mid to late nineties and Bart Simpson was the mascot. He had the catchphrase.
45:32
It was all based around Bart and the Simpsons. You could have given
45:36
them their own station, you know. The Simpsons been a station on They're
45:37
called Fox eight. They do marathons to the Simpsons all the time, YadA,
45:42
YadA, YadA. And then last year they cease their contract with the
45:45
Simps, so the Simpsons were taken off Foxtail and that's when you knew things
45:49
had change because Foxtail was the Simpsons. Everyone who grew up in Australia in
45:52
the nineties, that's how we watch the Simpsons. And they go, no
45:55
more citionens on the on Fox Tale. It's now all on Disney Plus.
45:59
We went, ah, that's kind of sad. Even though I didn't necessarily
46:02
watch it on Foxtail all the time, it was just nice knowing that it
46:05
was still there. But now that's gone, let's see, that's it.
46:07
I think that that in that change for people and do people want to go
46:10
in and go to Disney Plus and look what it is and you know,
46:15
and when Rupert Murdot first had everything with Fox also Fox at the time when
46:21
they first did, it hadn't been a cable network like back in the day
46:23
when they were going you know, there was NBCABC, CBS, and Fox
46:28
was considered like a streaming, a second tier only because then it didn't have
46:32
to pay what they paid on network television. But then that all shifted,
46:37
and so it's just, you know, it just I mean, the cycle
46:39
just keeps going and you just keep watching it and hoping for the best.
46:45
I know, I sound like an old man shaking my face at the cloud,
46:46
but I miss those days when you could just turn the TV and there'd
46:50
be a Simpsons on. You didn't go through and pick it out, because
46:52
when I'm going through and trying to pick an episode, I can never pick
46:54
one. I'm just scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. But you would just turn
46:57
the TV on there'd be a Simpsons on, and you sat down and you
47:00
just watched it, and you watched it and that was it the end.
47:04
I missed miss thase days because I've got two small kids, three year old
47:07
and a five year old, and they're spoiled for choice, and I don't
47:08
think they have any idea how lucky they are. Oh yeah, exactly,
47:13
Oh my god. And that's what I think. But anyways, can you
47:17
remember the first line that you remember recording for the Simpsons? Oh no,
47:22
what was the first line? I don't do you was your first character that
47:30
appeared on the show, wasn't she? That was the thing, is when
47:32
I was doing my Flanders. And that's the other thing. A lot of
47:36
people don't even know my because she died, so that is that's weird for
47:40
like a whole crew of people to go, well, I did want Flanders
47:44
to go, oh who was that? Ned Flanders wife? Oh? Okay,
47:47
yeah, and you go no. But I don't remember. What I
47:52
do remember is that one line that then they changed into a whole character was
47:58
when they had Rush with Greatness and they had and she was painting a picture
48:05
of mister Burns and then she painted the picture of Ringo or did all that
48:07
stuff. So then mister Burns is there and this woman walks up and says
48:14
he's bad, but he'll die. And that was it. And they came
48:17
to me and they said, could you do that for a character? Could
48:21
you just make her? So that's how Miss Hoover was born. He's bad,
48:24
but he'll die. That's the one that I can remember. Doing it.
48:29
But oh my gosh, when I first had because all my characters,
48:31
when I did mod Flanders and when I did hed Enough Joy, I already
48:36
had to create them because they were already created. You know. You already
48:38
had Ned Flanders and you already had Reverend love Joy. So those were That
48:45
was a trick for me to be able to have to play off of those
48:47
two people. Here's a woman from the Midwest. He's very sweet, and
48:52
here's a woman that you never want to get in it, you know,
48:54
and a catfight with like I think she was the original Housewives of Springfield.
49:00
Yes, now with mord right. So I was a child when she was
49:05
killed off the show. I've heard conflicting stories on why this all happened.
49:07
Let's just get it all officially on the record here, correct me, stop
49:10
me when I'm wrong. So it's nineteen ninety nine. You're having to fly
49:14
to Ala to record your lines. It is costing you a fortune in flights,
49:17
so you decide to request that Fox increase your pay from around two grand
49:22
to about six thousand. Ballpark aroundt there, and it's just so it covers
49:27
the cost of travel so you can get there and do your job. Properly.
49:29
They refuse, and I've read they only offered you one hundred and fifty
49:31
dollars extra something along those lines. It wasn't much, no no for me.
49:36
They said what do you want to do? And I said, I'm
49:39
not going to do the show anymore. So it was the wild thing is
49:44
is that they do have something somewhere that said you know, and then they
49:46
fired her. Now I quit the show because I realized I was flying myself
49:52
back and forth. I was also doing another pilot for Fox where I was
49:58
getting paid an inordinate amount of money for this pilot. And if that series
50:01
had gone, so I went, I don't get it. So hearing beginning
50:04
paid this, I'm getting paid a lot of money to do this, you
50:07
know, Venus on the hard Drive, which was another series or a pilot,
50:10
And I said, what you know, it's both Fox. Why aren't
50:15
we doing that? And so they said, oh, we can't afford this,
50:19
and there's and I knew that they were making money hand of profess.
50:21
So I was really good, Okay, that's it. I'm not doing it
50:23
anymore. So and I remember hanging up the phone and crying and then I
50:28
thought, okay, well that's really good. And you know, people from
50:30
the show like Hank a Series said, oh, you're my hero. Yeah,
50:34
I'm a hero without a job. But if and they said, on
50:39
on Entertainment Tonight, Maggie Roswell's no longer doing the show because she's too tired
50:45
to fly from her home in Denver, color. So that was one of
50:50
those ones that I went, oh, really okay, because I'm so I
50:52
need just some you know, some geriityl or something and they'll give me enough
50:57
energy to go and do it. But and I think that that it was
51:01
really a dragon sad and I kind of was clear that I probably wouldn't get
51:07
it, you know, that they wouldn't come back and go, okay,
51:08
fine, we're going to do this. But when they did try to replace
51:12
me, and then they killed Maud and I remember seeing Ian Maxtone on the
51:19
lot and I just said, oh my god, and they will you know.
51:22
Pam Hayden called me and said, well, did you hear what they
51:24
did? And I said, well, she said, well they killed you.
51:27
I said what and she said. They were sitting there and everybody was
51:30
doing the table reading. A lot of people don't hadn't read through the script.
51:34
And they go blah blah blah blah blah, and then Maud's hit by
51:37
T shirt canon and dies, and she said the whole room went and then
51:40
everybody's like oh, and they just totally freaked out because they didn't know.
51:45
And then when they had the show where you know, they had the you
51:50
know stones that said mad Flanders and all the different people that have died on
51:53
The Simpsons, and it was mind blowing because I thought, oh my god,
51:58
this is really horrible. But then in the years that I wasn't on
52:01
there, my characters were seen but not heard. So if they did a
52:05
thing in the town, they would just see a bunch of people and my
52:07
characters would still be in it. So I didn't know how it would resolve
52:12
itself. But I'm so glad that they ended up doing the thing with those
52:15
characters because now I'm back on and I'm happy. So it worked out well.
52:21
It really did, because I've just always wondered, how do you build
52:23
up the carriage to quit the number one show on television? You know,
52:27
it's still a time, but was it? You just didn't think that's how
52:30
you made that decision. It just happened. I really thought about it,
52:32
and I thought, you know that I felt that my characters have value,
52:37
and I thought that they can't pay more for those characters. And then especially,
52:42
I mean, it was very gratifying when they couldn't find anybody to do
52:45
the characters. And Ian said when I saw him a lot, he said.
52:49
I said, Ian, you had to kill me, and he goes,
52:51
well, you know, we tried to find people to replace your characters,
52:53
but your characters are really hard to replace. I said, yeah,
52:57
it's only as if I could do them. So it was, you know,
53:00
on one hand, it was for an ego thing that I just went,
53:04
Okay, you know, I'm just gonna have to suck it up and
53:07
do it. But it wasn't like by accident. I definitely said, you
53:14
know what, now I think I feel like these characters are more and they
53:17
were and now I'm back. You don't think there's any spot there from them
53:22
doing killing off Moud. I know they say to you, oh, we
53:24
couldn't find the replace you, but did they have to choose your character at
53:28
that time? Well? And the sad thing is, which I think on
53:32
the writing perspective, is that Maud Flanders and probably Lisa and sometimes Julie Kavner's
53:39
character. You know there's a vulnerability, but Maud had a vulnerability that nobody
53:45
else has. I mean, if you look at all the characters on the
53:47
show, nobody's vulnerable. And so I think in a way, they shot
53:52
themselves in the foot by killing her off, because she was kind of a
53:57
voice of reason and a voice of sweetness, and her her religious beliefs and
54:00
her being a mother and all of that stuff. She if you look at
54:05
all the characters they've created, have never had something so sweet, and so
54:09
I think that that you know, for them, then went oh, wouldn't
54:14
this be funny, and then later went oh, huh. So they have
54:16
had me come back as ghosts and all sorts of things are flashbacks, and
54:20
even in flashbacks, they had one where I was a little bit surly,
54:23
like the Thanksgiving show where I was a little bit surly, But and Matd
54:28
really was never like that. She was just like she was sweet. She
54:30
left, her husband, left her kids. It was great. Well,
54:32
what the Sayson eighteen now going through in chological order and again sense the negativity
54:38
coming into the show just feels like everybody's upset and angry, and this characters
54:43
never used to be that way, but it sort of it crept its way
54:45
into the into the writing. I'm not sure why, but yeah, it
54:49
managed to do that. Yeah, and then you know, and sometimes I
54:52
mean it was different producers that produced at times, but there are some key
54:57
shows now where you see because us that you can get little moments of the
55:02
sweetness and especially between Bart and Lisa and stuff that they used to have Mike
55:09
Reese and Al Jean would really do some incredible, you know characters and and
55:16
you know, John Vittie and those guys that would really write some real warmths.
55:21
But now I think that the way that the world is, there's part
55:24
of it that they just go well, I don't know if that's how it
55:27
creeps in, but I still think, you know, reading the scripts that
55:30
we're doing now, I think that maybe it's be coming back the other way,
55:35
because just the ones we've done seem to be going back like back in
55:39
the day, you know, better sweeter. I do think season thirty four
55:44
was a real turn in the positive direction. Yeah, so that's that's I
55:47
think it changed. All right, Well, will you tell everybody to tell
55:51
people down in Australia that I really want we really want to do the comic
55:54
cons again. I'll make it my mission. You'll see you at super and
55:58
over this year. I'll make it my mission. Okay, And then you
56:02
know I do those cameos. So I wanted to say he wants me to
56:07
do those characters for cameos, I would love to do them. Yep.
56:09
I'll chuck the link for that in the description of this podcast. So if
56:12
you want Maggie for cameo, check out the link for this description of this
56:15
and you'll be able to find it there. Okay, Well, it was
56:17
so great to talk into you again, and it was wonderful. Yes,
56:21
it was loveing to have you on and all the best with twenty twenty four.
56:22
Thank you, Maggie. I'll talk to you later, all right,
56:30
guys, how fun was that? I told you it was a good conversation.
56:32
I forgot to mention the AI stuff as well. I forgot how great
56:36
that was. But of course I was just mostly excited to hear her thoughts
56:38
on the Maud Flanders death situation, which was great. I forget you can
56:42
I get a cameo from Maggie as one of her many characters from the Simpsons
56:45
via the link in the description of this pod, and if you want to
56:46
get access to over one hundred hours of exclusive content from yours truly and all
56:51
the others here at the Forthing your discat network, you can support us on
56:52
Patreon. But for now, thank you so much for checking out the show.
56:55
Rate and reviewers on Apple Podcasts, Spotify review find this show. But
56:59
until next week, I'm and have a great and safe week, and I'll
57:00
see you then. Hm.