‘The Simpsons’ Writers Thought They’d Be Fired Over One of the Greatest Episodes
A not insignificant number of Simpsons episodes have focused on characters being fired. Homer has been let go from the nuclear plant on multiple occasions, Principal Skinner was canned from Springfield Elementary after Bart brought Santa’s Little Helper to school and Kent Brockman lost his anchor gig after uttering an unforgivable curse word on the air.
In retrospect, perhaps these storylines were, to some extent, informed by the writers’ own job insecurities? Apparently, some Simpsons staff members were worried about being dumped simply because they wrote one of the greatest episodes in the history of the show.
In a recent interview with The Guardian, which coincided with the show’s 35th anniversary, longtime Simpsons writer Al Jean revealed that nobody involved with the show in its early years had any idea that they were making a future comedy classic. “Having been there during the ‘golden era,’ I’ll just say it didn’t feel like that at the time,” Jean confessed.
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As evidence of this disconnect, Jean recalled how the now-classic episode “Homer at the Bat,” which is full of cameos from baseball superstars, didn’t get the warmest reception at first. “There’s a show from Season Three that I think of all the time: ‘Homer at the Bat.’ We had two script reads; that was the second, and it was dead silent. It was the worst read ever. Mike Reiss (Jean’s co-showrunner at the time) and I looked at each other like: We’re going to get fired,” Jean explained.
Yeah, that didn’t happen. “Homer at the Bat” was so good that it actually managed to beat both the Winter Olympics and The Cosby Show on the night it aired. It went on to not only become a beloved episode of The Simpsons, but also, a fixture in the world of professional baseball. As a result of this one episode, Homer Simspon was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
And Don Mattingly can’t walk down the street without strangers telling him to trim his nonexistent sideburns.
The writer of “Homer at the Bat,” the famously reclusive John Swartzwelder, recently took to social media to mark The Simpsons’ anniversary. He similarly conveyed that nobody making The Simpsons in its early seasons had any idea that it would still be on the air three and a half decades later.
Jean also noted that people have been complaining about the show from the very beginning, including some folks’ criticisms that Lisa became “too wordy and brainy.” But as Jean pointed out, Lisa was dismantling her Aunt Patty’s criticisms of Homer using an advanced vocabulary way back in the Christmas-themed series premiere.
“So I guess we jumped the shark in act three of the very first episode,” Jean, who retains the job he thought he might lose 33 years ago, joked.
