The ‘Simpsons’ Staff Freaked Out Over This Guest Star More Than Any Other
The Simpsons have welcomed a number of big name guest stars over the years — from Paul McCartney, to Meryl Streep, to ‘80s pop superstar . But the actor who drew the most interest and awe from The Simpsons staff was an aging TV star who was arguably at the lowest point of his entire career.
A highlight of Season Four’s “Mr. Plow” came when Homer and his family attend the Springfield car show, and encounter a wistful, vaguely embittered Adam West, who bemoans the current state of the Batman franchise before spontaneously breaking into the Batusi.
This memorable cameo only came about because Simpsons writer Jon Vitti decided that he would really like to hang out with Batman. “I wanted to do a winter episode,” Vitti told The Hollywood Reporter, “and then it occurred to me that if Homer bought a snow plow, we could have him go to the car show, and Adam West could be at the car show, and I could meet Adam West.”
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The car show bit wasn’t an invention of The Simpsons; following the cancellation of the ‘60s Batman series, West made regular appearances at car shows in character, as Batman. And the part about him being super annoyed at the new Batman movie, well that, too, was true. West actively lobbied to play Batman in the 1980s, but was told that he was “too old.”
It wasn’t just Vitti who wanted to meet West either. Despite the fact that his career was about as hot as Mr. Freeze’s underpants at the time, West’s recording session was a big deal amongst the Simpsons writers and producers. “We were all just in heaven,” Al Jean claimed. Dan Castellaneta, who, as Homer, would instruct Bart and Lisa not to make eye contact with West, recalled that more people showed up for that particular session than any other. “I had never seen so many people come to the stage to see one of our guest stars. All the writers showed up and so forth.”
Co-star Yeardley Smith was similarly shocked: “All of a sudden it was like, ‘Who are all you guys?’” And Castellaneta himself was similarly in awe. “As a big fan of Batman growing up, I was saying to myself, ‘I can’t believe I’m recording with Batman!’ That was a big deal with him as a guest.”
While the appearance poked fun at West’s cultural importance in 1992, according to his daughter, The Simpsons became a “career milestone,” paving the way for future work in other animated shows like Family Guy, in which he also played “Adam West.”
This story just goes to show that joining the writing staff of a popular TV series and writing a part for your favorite celebrity is a healthy alternative to stalking.
