#55 I Will Interview Al Jean Executive Producer of The Simpsons

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All right Moe thank you so much for that amazing introduction. You get the show going each and every week. And this week is no exception. Welcome, everybody. Tell the lie from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show. As always, I am your host, Jeff Dwoskin. Great to have you back for Episode 55. special episode 55 because it also marks the one year anniversary of live on Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show. Can you believe it? It's been an entire year of amazing guests and interviews and episodes. If you're new to this show. Go to Jeffisfunny.com or the castbox app or wherever you listen to your podcast and catch up because there's a lot of great stuff there. Just a waiting for you.

Today's episode is no exception to all that goodness. We have Al Jean with us today. Al Jean. That's right, the writer, producer executive producer showrunner of The Simpsons. That's right Al Jean is with us fun conversation coming up in just a few minutes.

Since it is my one year anniversary. I do you want to take another moment to thank all of you for liking, subscribing, following my podcast Telling all your friends about live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show means the world to me. If you're like wait a minute, I haven't told any of my friends. Then after the show, go tell all your friends. That way. When you listen to this episode again, one day you won't get that gut wrenching feeling of guilt that you're feeling right now. But anyway, moving on. Thank you all for listening week after week. It means the world to me does it is my one year anniversary. I do want to thank a few people. It's so exciting to get to Episode 55 so many podcasts don't even make it past episode 10. And here we are going strong.

I want to thank Aaron Weinbaum for all the help early on with equipment. I want to thank Nate Armbruster for personally coming over to my house and plugging stuff in and showing me some production tips. I want to thank my brother, Jon Dwoskin, for all the advice and help that he gave me along the way. Also my wife, I do not want to thank all my friends on Facebook who have never listened to my podcast. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Of course, I want to thank all my guests, both past and future for sharing your words with me for trusting your words with me so that I could share them with my audience. It means the world to me. Thank you all for an amazing first year and I'm so excited for what's to come.

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And now it's time for the social media tip! This is the fun part of this show where I bestow a little bit of my social media knowledge and some news that I've heard on the street with you. It's one of my favorite parts of the show. It's quick to the point, go Google, whatever you need to Google after that. For those of you listening to past episodes, you know I had the honor of being the guest of honor on Madeline Skylar's Twitter chat #TwitterSmarter last week. That was tons of fun, a lot of great Twitter knowledge bombs were dropped. But since it is my one year anniversary of my podcast, I did want to share a few ways for you guys out there listening to get your voice out there. You don't have to necessarily start a podcast. There are other options option one clubhouse, you're like, but Jeff, I only have an Android and that's only for iOS. Well, not anymore. Now it's on Android. Also, you go on there. And you can talk and share knowledge, live and interact with other people. It's great. Shoot me a DM or tweet at me at Jeff Dwoskin show, I might have some invitations that I can extend you on clubhouse. Another great tool, of course, is Twitter spaces, which I know we've talked a little bit about in the past, where they keep making it better, you can now schedule Twitter spaces. And it's assumed to be open to everyone, which is awesome. So it's another great way to kind of have a meeting of the minds, talk to other people and share your voice. So check those out. Hopefully I'll be hearing you soon. And that's the social media to an era wraps up a year's worth of social media tips. Can you believe it? So much information at your fingertips. You're welcome. Maybe I'll go put those onto a book and you can download the book and I could be a New York Times Best Selling Author, world renowned author and badass Oh Jeff Dwoskin Hello everybody. Whoa,

I could live with that I could deal with that. This past year has been amazing. In addition to pretending to be a best selling author, I was honored to be named one of the top 25 indie podcasts of 2020 by Indy pods. The inaugural snobby awards blessed me with Best Comedy podcasts, best interview podcasts and podcaster of the year thanks to Mick Manhattan and all they do over there at the scene snobs network. Awesome, folks.

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It being my one year anniversary. It's very exciting for me to be talking with Al Jean who has been the executive producer of The Simpsons and season 13 he was hired as one of the original two writers for the Simpsons to talk to someone who's been so entrenched in pop culture in a show that's touched so many of our lives over these 32 seasons was was calling in the middle of my amazing introduction. Hello?

The Brege's 7:12

wow. You know, Jeff Dwoskin is Geoffrey the giraffe from Toys R Us. Dwoskin show off. giraffes trying to say Hello Nice. Who He says clever. You're being rude. You know it's Jeff's first year anniversary shelf say Happy anniversary. Oh, Happy anniversary. You're happy Happy anniversary. Now let's talk about lg undersuit can talk about algae? Most beer with Lj many times you never told me that. Well, it's not your business. I was in movies. Tell us what you're gonna talk about.

Jeff Dwoskin 7:55

We're gonna talk about a lot but I think a lot about you guys for sure.

The Brege's 7:59

Do you suppose Al Jean wears jeans all the time? Get it Al Jean, jeans. Isn't that funny? Maybe we should have gotten Al Jean a pair of jeans. what about al jarous? i wonder if al jean knows. You gotta ask him that. Why? Because al jearou ro sings great song. Adelgid singing voice. wants just like Jeff's podcast and I'm never What? Yes, all the time. All the time. We listen all the time. And we look up to Jeff Dwoskin Dwoskin it is first anniversary special.

Jeff Dwoskin 8:38

Thank you so much for that. I really appreciate maybe a little spider pig before you go.

The Brege's 8:43

Spider pig... spider pig e, I don't know the words or else words aren't in front of me. I get lost. You're just trying to see it. That's the best you can do those. Spider Man. Sure, why not eat a pig?

Jeff Dwoskin 8:57

Well, that was exciting. I you never know who's gonna call into live from the droid, the Jeff Dwoskin show. But this seems to me the perfect segue. And now ladies and gentlemen, my interview with A Jean.

All right, I am so excited to introduce you to my next guest writer executive producer TV icon Al Jean, Al, Welcome to the show. Very glad to be here. Oh and I both grew up in the mean streets of Farmington Hills.

Al Jean 9:26

Well, I always tell people okay, Eminem was Eight Mile were 12 mile so you know or maybe like half as tough

Jeff Dwoskin 9:33

Exactly. before the interview I was telling out about when I was growing up his father on jeans hardware, and this is before all the big box hardware stores and I would go there with my dad very frequently. It was like a thing we would go and you know, he'd be buying stuff. I had no idea what he was buying, but he upstairs downstairs all that kind of you know, that kind of stuff. So that was that was neat. And I remember like watching The Simpsons all the time. Anytime l Jean, your name would come up on the screen, I'd be like jeans hardware. So that was a nice thing.

Al Jean 10:06

Yes, in fact this week, Bob Seger detroiter is on the show. And my dad used to rent him u haul trucks.

Jeff Dwoskin 10:14

Yeah, Bob Seger is the best. I love Bob Seger. I saw that he was gonna be on that's exciting. Is he singing or just to talking a little thing, little thing, and that's exactly. I love the Tom Petty when Tom Petty was on they play that a lot on the Tom Petty channel. He was

Al Jean 10:30

a fantastic guy. I worked with him on the Garry Shandling show, too, if you just come in and no pretension just one of the guys it's really really nice. Very sad when he passed.

Jeff Dwoskin 10:39

Yeah. Oh, that was he was horrified. I was supposed to see him at mile color pine knob too, but like, I was supposed to see him for the big 40th and like my friends, we were supposed to go with one go see him because it was like $100 a ticket. It was pretty expensive. I'm like, yeah, I'll see you next time. And then he passed away and I became obsessed with the Tom Petty channel on Sirius XM, but yeah, that was quite a quite a loss, but they always play The Simpsons clip it's always on. So you went to Harrison High School, but you you left for Harvard when you were 16 so how long were you actually in high school for four years?

Al Jean 11:14

I started a little early and I skipped second grade. Harrison that time was only three years was 10-12 so I was at Warner Jr. It for nine three and then now I understand Harrison you know all the championships and everything is closed. It's crazy. Yeah, it's a great bill. I mean, I actually lived across the street from the school I saw the building up as a kid and so I should hope they could use it for like a rec center or something for seniors. It's just that great you know tennis courts and all that

Jeff Dwoskin 11:42

I was in North Farmington guy but we always used to tease it Harrison kind of looks like a jail from the outside it did.

Al Jean 11:49

The minute it went up it was strange, but it was it was nice inside I mean, I was stunned when it closed Did you skip second grade because you're you're a math whiz. That's

Jeff Dwoskin 11:58

what I was reading your a math major.

Al Jean 12:00

Yeah, college for all the good it did me graduated 16 which I don't recommend because like you only learn to drive and your senior year just ask anybody out to date. You get to faster and you know I did part of it was I didn't really want to work at the hardware store. So I got on at 16 I got two years off. So that was it. That was an attraction

Jeff Dwoskin 12:18

to you were so motivated not to work at the hardware store. You left for Harvard and then later created the longest running TV show of all time. Well that's that's a hell of a motivator. I wish I was motivated that much. I wish I was motivated that much by my dad.

Al Jean 12:32

The hardware store also glad so the show is less than the school and it's easy.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:37

When jeans I don't wear clothes. That was sad. I was sad when that clothes It was like yeah,

Al Jean 12:41

you know what happened was it was a bigger stories all anchor there was a series within a mile and maybe a Home Depot. So they would ask questions. People who worked at Sears jeans and then they would go buy the item at Sears. So people weren't buying from us. Yeah, it's really hard to do. It's like a court.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:56

Yeah, the little shop around the corner type thing. It's hard to compete. It was I've got some good memories there. Cool. All right. So you went to Harvard. At Harvard, you met your future writing partner, Mike Reese, and then his airplane too. Is that accurate with one of your first writing gigs?

Al Jean 13:13

It is we we were on the Harvard Lampoon, which is the college magazine. And he got there first he wanted to be on it. And when he joined, he was my roommate. And I just thought the people that he met that I met to him are just the funniest guys in the world. They were so just the corner of the room and laugh and I still work with like headphones. So I joined after him. He'll be he had on and then we went to the National Lampoon, which was a professional magazine, semi professional for six months, because of an article we wrote there. We were hired on to airplane to as like punch up writers. And the article that we wrote was Thurgood Marshall, the Supreme Court Justice, because the judges review pornography to see if it's obscene, we had him telling the reader how to write pornography was like a how to Article get it out of the magazine. It looked like an authentic ad. So he got a hold of it until the FBI find out who wrote this and arrest them. And they said it's a newer magazine. It's freedom of speech, Mr. Justice, so I have an FBI file somewhere.

Jeff Dwoskin 14:11

I'm sure we all at this point two. You also wrote for the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. So that's pretty awesome.

Al Jean 14:19

It was awesome. meeting him was like meeting the President or something. Just a really amazing thing that you very rarely saw. In the year and a half. I was there. I saw him in person maybe three times. I mean, you go down and see him at the desk during the show, but to actually like be in a room where he was saying something. He was very, very were very aloof. I call them the Citizen Kane of comedy. And we did a documentary where they showed that his his rosebud was like magic. He loved doing magic tricks when he was a little kid. That was his way to get out of Nebraska and showbiz.

Jeff Dwoskin 14:47

That's cool. So did you write monologue jokes are also just some of the sketch types of everything

Al Jean 14:51

but the monologue so he wrote cardiac and he edges wetness and sketches. Occasionally he'd have nine showbiz people interview. So we'd like suggestions like if he's interviewing a very elderly lady or something, although he never needed and he always was really fine with them. And then one time, he or he do these actual kids letters to the New York Post Office department to Santa, the kids asking Santa for stuff and then go, you can't make these up. They're just too sweet. And then one year, we get the notice from the head writer, the letters suck, got to make about

Jeff Dwoskin 15:22

the right letters and the job that is really funny. Did you ever perform or is a writer have just always written for other people?

Al Jean 15:29

Very little. I've been on a lot of panels, a, you know, did a lecture tour of two places before we move back to the next job. But I have a hugely admiration and a little bit of fear, you know, respect for stand ups? Because it's really hard, do you they go up with nothing, and they're trying to get people on their side? And the ones that you know, like Seinfeld or Sarah Silverman that do it? Well, they're really impressive.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:50

So my question is, so as a writer, so obviously you take great pride, you must love hearing other people say your words, and then having other people react to those words. No, oh, I put those in his mouth.

Al Jean 16:02

Well, the amazing thing with the Simpsons is the megaphone is so huge. Like, I really did get Valentine in the third grade that said, A choo, choo, choose you with a picture of a train. And the girl wrote, I really do. And I thought, Oh, she really likes me. Wow, that's great. And we turned it into a real story. And now that Valentine is probably the most famous Valentine in the history. And things are right, you know, and we're trying to think of their dream frumos buyer and I said, I want the flaming Whoa. And now they make one at Universal Studios that you can buy for eight bucks, not alcoholic. So the kids get to see these things actually exists is beyond, you know, anybody's imagination, I

Jeff Dwoskin 16:39

think everybody, at least so what's it like to create something that then just becomes so part of pop culture, because those are the things that's what we were talking about right there for saying I'll get back to the writing in a minute. But like, you create the flaming Mo, it comes to life universal, you know, deaf ears now thing you can buy, like, what is it?

Al Jean 16:57

It's mostly fantastic. And then the The only drawback is in your in show business. Everybody's in your business. And so if somebody has like an episode, or there's some criticism, everybody knows this, you know your case, but the things that come with it, for example, a girl a common convention, and there are some will come up and they'll you know, as a kid has gotten through a hard time my parents are getting divorced, your show really kept me going. And I go well, it couldn't mean more, or you go to another country. And it was in Italy with my wife. They said, you know what you do for a living and I go out for the Simpsons and ate all the Simpsons, they were so happy and hit a happy reaction from a stranger in a foreign country. Just because what you do for a living is really great.

Jeff Dwoskin 17:35

I mean, that's amazing. I mean, just to be able to touch people's lives, and it's wonderful

Al Jean 17:39

irreplaceable,

Jeff Dwoskin 17:40

so it'll seem a little shallow for me to re ask them. What was it like when Johnny Carson was saying your words? And because like when you're first starting out, this guy's the kingpin. Right? So it's like it must have that must have been,

Al Jean 17:51

I have to say, I do respect him enormously. You were for what he was. He's still raised me the most charismatic late night host ever. One story I can tell you is there was a magic word he discovered that will always get a laugh. That word was McNuggets. So I wrote this joke that McDonald's is looking for new products. And the celebrities and the junk Allen said, was producing beach McNuggets. I wrote that joke in my writing articles. I don't really get it. But we'll put in the act and a head writer walks in he goes, I don't really get this big, big nuggets. But I'll put it in. And then you see Johnny with the paper, he's reading it, and his eyes go like but but does it he reads it aloud and it gets like a standing ovation. And you can see him go with that. So that's the power of the word mcnugget.

Jeff Dwoskin 18:29

It's an awesome word. Is that many times you're able to slip that in or was that the one magical time? Oh, no, you

Al Jean 18:35

never did it once. It's something where I mean, you couldn't do that there. We actually did get a meeting once where they were saying Okay, enough for the McMahon 40 jokes a day for jargon. But would you use maybe five? You did like five you got a good number. And it's like a lot of writing jokes. You would think it was super exciting. Because again, everybody wants it show but you're just sitting in a little office. You know, nobody knew the writers. You just wrote your 40 and then you would watch the show live like 530 No, sometimes we work extra hard and like write something the next day or something

Jeff Dwoskin 19:04

you wrote on one of my favorite shows ALF.

Al Jean 19:07

ALF was a lot of fun. Paul Fusco did the voice of elf and upgraded the puppet is really really funny guy. And this character really provided a lot beginnings I can provide from that is something I found out years later, which is the cast was losing their minds because the way elf operated there were trenches. Now the puppeteer would be down in the trench holding a puppet parallel to the performer but the performers were so terrified of making their move and then falling in a trench you know, breaking their neck but they said it was a three day shoot. They just said it would have been another year they would have gotten preserved it was just so that predict technically difficult, that's fine. And you might have seen two alpha You know, there was an opening shot where there was a little person in a suit running around that was only like in the opening of the ship of the show that you never really say out move that much or go that many plays you know it's really hard to actually become do something or go somewhere.

Jeff Dwoskin 19:55

So with the tonight show crossover without you Was that your idea or you just happen To be there and wasn't my

Al Jean 20:01

idea we had left off to work on the Garry Shandling show and the Alf writers said, Hey, we're doing a crossover. Do you have any Johnny Carson jokes he rejected click Yeah, we have about 2000. And we did we got one on the Alfredo, who's Johnny never did, which is St. Elsewhere. What's my Mother Teresa's answering machine. The current Eric, that was good. Never let anything go to waste.

Jeff Dwoskin 20:23

Perfect, because Alf probably killed with it.

Al Jean 20:25

Yeah, it didn't work. And yeah, there's very happy to ask if

Jeff Dwoskin 20:29

there's really fun. So as much as I did later love Larry Sanders. It's Gary Shandling show is one of the best I think sitcoms ever I

Al Jean 20:38

would say I thought so before I worked at like the first two years it before its time was unbelievable and revolutionary, and just the most brilliant thing. I had nothing to do with it. I fully stand by that opinion of those two years.

Jeff Dwoskin 20:49

The theme song was brilliant.

Al Jean 20:51

I wasn't there. But Gary and his writing partner, Ellen's rebel, Gary said the first part, this is what we're looking for. And they went down the elevator, but they got down and they've written a song like they just had lived. It's great, though. Yeah, everybody loved that song. And then what would they what they would do with it was really clever. And Gary, I would say I am in a lot of funny people. But he's in the top five. I mean, he was just one of the sheer funniest people I ever met. And it's very sad. He's no longer with us. This is actually five year anniversary of his passing.

Jeff Dwoskin 21:16

He was one of my favorite comics, stand up comics. What was it like working on the show? Because this was the show you worked on just before going to the Simpsons?

Al Jean 21:25

Well, it was a good reading references because it was a really prestigious show. We won some Ace awards. It was extremely relentless production. Gary, although really funny, wasn't great at organizing tended to just keep getting ideas, but not committing to the last minute and then he would wait and rewrite till the wee hours in the morning. And I remember like one time after the season ended, I went home and I slept till three that afternoon because I was so exhausted. And what he would also do is he would always change jokes, and then he would do the job, the second version, and then you'd go back and put in the first one that looked like he was ad libbing it the next day. But it was actually the first thing we did in the beginning of the week, was like see it worked all along. And he was really funny. Like, you know, our writing rooms are a little cranky. So when he would come to Sears to be joining us he going okay, I'm coming Stop whining about me. Find us in the room and it was very game to do stuff. A theory said you got the guy had a big tragic upbringing turned

Jeff Dwoskin 22:20

it into an enormous sense of humor. His comedy was definitely a gift between between that and the Larry Sanders Show

Al Jean 22:25

those entertainers it was it was great. Yeah. And I was just recommending somebody. Yes, if we wanted to write out but we were in The Simpsons, and it's just, you know, had a chance to work where you might wind up in Seinfeld, which was was fantastic. But I've never turned down the Simpsons.

Jeff Dwoskin 22:40

How did the Simpsons come about? How did that opportunity presents itself to

Al Jean 22:44

Matt graining it like an owl comics and I had found those a woman named Polly Platt showed them to Jim Brooks, who's to me like the best television writer, one of the things there ever was taped. Mary Tyler Moore and taxi Jim hired man to do short Simpsons shorts for his Tracey Ullman Show. They originally were going to do the life and health characters. But Matt didn't want to give up his copyright. So he basically the story goes in the waiting room for the pitch. He just sketched his family in his style. So it was Homer and this is this dad's and the Haman Meyers his mother's name with the big hair and show them that and then Jim said that looks funny. So he did about 50 of those david silverman when the director said you got to make it into a series. It's got so much potential. So they have Sam Simon, who worked with Jim to develop it with Matt and turn it into a series. Sam, we knew from your channeling, when his first choice wasn't available. He hired us, Mike recently to be the first staff writers on The Simpsons, which was the luckiest break anyone ever got in showbiz? That was the end of that love that to be there at the beginning. So we worked on the first full episode, the Christmas episode and the second full episode like the genius, we wrote three episodes out of the first 13 and then added in season three and four when they asked us to run it, and back then, it was always like, well, you you you run somebody else's show, then you got to create your own show. You got to create your own show. So we created the critic and we created a show for Disney teen Angel the elephant Disney I was like I just would rather be back at the Simpsons. You know, it's just you don't have to explain why it's funny. You can you can you know get the money you need for what you want. The writers are great. The pajama man The atmosphere is great. So when I got banned for the Simpsons in season 10,

Jeff Dwoskin 24:24

I haven't left since you mentioned the critic. So that was very funny show that was with Jon Lovitz, and

Al Jean 24:30

we did everything backwards. We were doing this show with Jim he managed to develop our own show about backstage at dam news show Mike had suggested that there be a funny critic like Jean shallot Jim came in at a screening of League of Their Own, which love it stole the show. And he said, What are you think of Jon Lovitz? And we said, we love love it so you can be the Craig and then we brought him in, we didn't have a script, and he was like, I can't do it until I read a script and he couldn't make a deal is like too hard. And I said, Well, wait, what if we need a lot of career steps at the time A lot of movies he was doing so I said, What if we made an animated then we could do movie parodies. He could do it within a schedule wouldn't be as expensive to get him, you know? Well, but not, you know, like live action star with it all clicked except it didn't quite hit one flaw which I admit to it was on ABC after home improvement and it just didn't match wasn't our show was a little depressing. And at least the first season a little like downbeat and the audience just dropped off from home improvement when the network's you know, we just don't know where we would put it on our schedule. They were right. Then we went to Fox and we actually get we're getting good ratings after the symptoms. But there was backstage stuff with the head of the network that he didn't want anything that he hadn't his predecessor, I bought it. That's a long story. It was a great thing to work on. And we were you know, hugely tell people Maurice Lumiere, she was one to me, Gary Graham, the late Christine Kavanaugh, who is the voice of lead the pig was wonderful. That was really fun.

Jeff Dwoskin 25:53

So then from there you went, you went back to the Simpsons, you've been there in season 10, to now 32. Right. And I 32 and two more coming, right. And you just had your 700 episodes, which is exciting. That's pretty cool.

Al Jean 26:06

Yeah. And you know, these numbers are pretty simple. You're going to do 1000. And I said, you know, 300, more is a lot. Like it's 12 years, most shows don't get 300. So, you know, maybe I love the Simpsons, so I'd be happy. But you know, again, these things happen where you I just can't even take it in, we're adding 700 that's a crazy number.

Jeff Dwoskin 26:24

I feel like you'll get to 1000 I watched an interview with you. And you just said that you had the same exact reaction when they were saying, Hey, we just had Episode 500

Al Jean 26:32

Yeah, the biggest thing is we just underwent a major change, which was we were a fax show owned by the fax studio, which man made money for the network and for the studio. So it was pretty likely we keep going now we're owned by Disney. And I think their main interest is Disney plus, which has been an unbelievable success as 100 million subscribers and we're on it so that's like so the way people see us the most now is on Disney plus. So at some point they might go no we'd rather you'd be like a Disney plus series and do six episodes annually or you know the way like one division was and I don't know how that'll work if the TV business is changing so dramatically like a fax now you get like a less than a one rating and you stay on the air so I you know they still they still sell commercials they're still making money but it's it's hard to see exactly if this model is going to continue the same way for very long.

Jeff Dwoskin 27:24

You know, it's funny I remember when when the Simpsons debuted on Disney plus it was a whole controversy because they changed some of the ratios which then

Al Jean 27:32

oh yeah, block some of the visual jokes and yeah, they changed the four by three and but there is a little toggle you can do to get to four by three if that's what you want to watch. They put that in they listen to what people want. If you had asked me to pick a streaming service to go out I couldn't get any better choice than Disney plus it you know, smashed all the expectations of its success. Its first two original series are both smashed. And you know, I love being sort of a team with Star Wars and Marvel

Jeff Dwoskin 28:00

I mean, you know the air you're in good company with the Mandalorian and one engine and all Marvel and all that kind of stuff. So do you find like people are just now are discovering everything and just kind of binge watching it, you get the numbers of people just kind of start at the beginning.

Al Jean 28:13

Yes, there's two things, the pandemic which of course is terrible, did lead to a lot more binge watching people can actually go like friends of my daughter's ago, okay, I watched the first 20 seasons and things that they couldn't have time for a year earlier. It's great to just bring a new generation of kids in the US and overseas because to them, it's all fresh. Although Disney plus is fantastic. There's no other series is anywhere near the library of The Simpsons. So something you can really get into plus, let's say it really in the show, we've done Disney parodies there was wonderful there, you know, I mean, we really fit the product.

Jeff Dwoskin 28:47

Let me ask the question in terms of like Disney plus, so not just your show, but other shows have had this criticism as well, where they'll say, these are the glory years and then you know, it's never as good as this and all that kind of stuff. For me. I remember like with Seinfeld, for example, I was like the later episodes, you know, but now you watch him. And it's like, I don't know what season it's from and I love them all. Do you feel like as people are starting to watch them the route you can just binge it, people can just binge it. That mentality is kind of was really kind of driven more by Oh, we have to wait three months. Now the expectations and there's always like these expectations. And once you remove those, it's like I'm just watching The Simpsons.

Al Jean 29:29

That's my hope. I mean, yeah, I've we've certainly gotten a criticism as much as anybody because you've been around as much as anybody as long as anybody but you can only sanely work as hard as we ever did. We care about the show as much as we ever did. The hardest thing really is always to think of something that's fresh for us. And another thing that bothers people is Bernie has a cell phone, but I know well people do. You can't You can't have them just like old Belen candle phones that would look you know, they have to live in the world that the TV viewer is living in now with the exception that we do. We only had one scene where they had COVID masks and stuff that was like, voting easy. Other than that, I think that's going to look weird. In five years. You know, I showed us that

Jeff Dwoskin 30:09

I was watching Episode 21 of season 30. And the reason I specifically picked that episode out just before we talked is because you make fun of the Detroit Lions in it. There's more than one, which we have to start with is that here is Doh. doh, doh Canada. Yeah. Right so the joke is Detroit Lions fans all tickets still available. Well, it was that they were

Al Jean 30:31

trying to get back into the US from Canada and everything else was sealed at the border except line sticking

Jeff Dwoskin 30:38

with file. Right. Exactly. It was so like, putting my point is I was watching and I'm like, this is it was hilarious. It was a great episode. And I was kind of going back for that. rewatch the first episodes I just wanted to kind of refresh it. I did have a question. I don't know if this is just something I don't know where in my head but it's the is the episode Marge versus the monorail? Are you making fun of Detroit in that episode with the people mover? I'd always heard that but I couldn't find anything to substantiate.

Al Jean 31:04

I don't think so. Because the episode was definitely conceived of by Conan O'Brien. And I bet that the town should get a monorail. That's like, uh, you know, Music Man guy, the guy selling him this chintzy man, a real he's from Boston. So I don't know where his his monorail experience would have come from. But I don't think it was Detroit

Jeff Dwoskin 31:22

that it was for some reason. I had always thought that. That made sense. Like, Oh, well, I was from Michigan. So that would make sense that they would make fun of that.

Al Jean 31:29

There's a few things that come from Detroit. Definitely all the Lyons jokes which never go out. It's

Jeff Dwoskin 31:36

never, never met. And then I did rewatch the first rehouse of four, which is the great kind of themes episode that you watch. And then I was watching and one of the gravestones had Paul McCartney on it, which I thought was funny.

Al Jean 31:50

Oh, well, you know, it's funny because like people forget that was a huge rumor then that Paul died and been replaced by a look like, now I go, Oh, God. Okay, isn't that very soon. lose a lot of these guys.

Jeff Dwoskin 32:02

I was used to love those because I love when you just kind of pull from like The Twilight Zone. Oh, yeah.

Al Jean 32:06

The great thing like we're doing the movie parasite next year, is you take something that's terrifically plotted, and you just can use that plot and use the Simpsons as the character. So yeah, it's it's really fun.

Jeff Dwoskin 32:17

I read that you have two world records. One is the longest running primetime animated television show, but

Al Jean 32:24

probably television show period, I would imagine, right? And then in the in the US, we have the longest the scripted show. SNL has more episodes that you kind of have this primetime and, like 60 minutes is a longer run. Oh, sure, sure. But but there's only more it's just the same characters. It used to be done smoke, but they did 635. So yeah, now we're two years ahead of them.

Jeff Dwoskin 32:46

It blew them away. And then most guest stars featured in a Television Series,

Al Jean 32:50

probably. I mean, that is an average of one a show. So it was probably 700 more

Jeff Dwoskin 32:55

do you have like a handful and I say favorite. I mean, like the ones where you like you get giddy when you think they were on your show?

Al Jean 33:01

Well, you know, we had Tony Blair when he was Prime Minister. I got to direct them in 10 Downing Street. That was insane. All three Beatles that we could possibly have. That was amazing. There are people I just love like Lovitz or les Phil Harmon Kelsey Grammer, Anne Hathaway, who won an Emmy for our show was really nice and super talented. It's another one. I mean, you know, as I said, it shows these crazy, great dividends that I've gotten to me and you work a little bit, these incredible people from all phases of showbusiness. And you know, Paul Newman, I didn't meet him, but he did the show. I mean, it's crazy. That's awesome. Do

Jeff Dwoskin 33:33

you have any? Do you have any guest stars at ages? i? Why did we have them on the show?

Al Jean 33:38

There were two there were big pains in the neck. One was Jose Canseco. And one was that I actually had a kind of a reconciliation. I met him and another thing he was a pain because we had been doing a boulder imparity in a bathtub with Mrs. curb Apple, but his wife was mad because he was fooling around. And so he had to keep rewriting it based on her not wanting him his cartoon character to be doing that.

Jeff Dwoskin 34:02

Got it. Alright, I won't push you on that the Simpsons is renowned for predicting many events, including the Trump presidency. Is there any other ones? You think our comments?

Al Jean 34:13

I love that reputation. And the Trump thing is is a pretty amazing thing, even though he was kind of a fringe candidate in 2000. And the original animatic had Johnny Depp so changed to Trump, so that's good. There were a couple that were pretty crazy, which was predicted the US has been a gold medal and curling ended Sweden would be second. We were looking for the looking at the World Cup in Brazil, and we thought it'd be funny if Brazil lost because then they're really sad and seeing ole Oh, and so he said, okay, Germany would win and southern Germany did deep Brazil in the World Cup, and people thought that was something but the really most insane one not funny but crazy in our New York episode in the 90s bar had a pamphlet that said New York I $9 a day and the nine was raped by the train towers. So it looked like 911 and if you See that still it's not made up. It actually aired in, like 90 now and now it's just

Jeff Dwoskin 35:04

bizarre. Then Disney buying 20th Century Fox, they credit you guys for that. And we didn't make that. But that's an easy one the Washington Redskins winning smartwatches Lady Gaga Super Bowl.

Al Jean 35:17

We had Lady Gaga on the show. So we copied her act, and then she did her act to the Super Bowl copying our copy. That's our prediction.

Jeff Dwoskin 35:27

I think now they're getting to the point where they're faking these predictions like I think when the Capitol got stormed, I think they

Al Jean 35:32

Oh, yeah, no, they didn't have anything like that. Although we did have an episode where there was a respiratory virus that came from Asia, and there was no vaccine and they look for the vaccine in the truck and it was instead of vaccine It was like killer bees or like murder Hornets. That was an insane like three things happening and what

Jeff Dwoskin 35:53

we need to stop you guys yeah, pretty something good. halftime show was good. You mentioned Phil hired man he was it's it's I looked, you know, as I was kind of just prepping. I realized, like that was decades ago that he would take it from us. And I was like, I can't believe how long it's been like the impact that he's made. I can still hear his Troy McClure

Al Jean 36:12

voice I think he was 50 it was in the 90s past year. Very sad.

Jeff Dwoskin 36:17

Very sad. Kelsey Grammer these people do you consider them guests? They're almost like

Al Jean 36:22

more than Kelsey more than against me. He's like a Recurring cast member. I mean, every time there is he's always said yes, and he's stupid, but like that Lovitz has been out about a dozen times. In 10 years, San Antonio, I would say it's got to be over 100 appearances, you know, I mean, and the again, just he's great. He's really nice. He thought he holds the money first day he goes, there guy ever comes back and burps I want to do it.

Jeff Dwoskin 36:43

And then Elizabeth Taylor spoke Maggie's are first word she did. She

Al Jean 36:47

was a delight, Billy, you know, glamorous, huge ring. Altru.

Jeff Dwoskin 36:52

me but you the core cast. I mean, you guys You are so blessed with like, like the greatest. I mean, it's it's it's incredible. Like, perfect. Yeah, it's and it's funny, like, Dan was Homer when Robin Williams didn't do Aladdin to like they grabbed him.

Al Jean 37:07

Oh, he's just a brilliant improv comedian does many voices one for voice acting? I mean, yeah, no, I mean, no. Other than that. They're all great. Nancy does all those voices like eight year old boy. He's just fantastic. And I think his area is a great actor, that astronomically incredibly versatile voice actor, right. And Harry share.

Jeff Dwoskin 37:26

I mean, they just, it's just incredible.

Al Jean 37:29

And Yardley, yeah, no, they're all Mr. Dooley. They're all great.

Jeff Dwoskin 37:31

And most of them were part of those original shorts, right. I mean, they were they were with Tracy Ullman,

Al Jean 37:36

the foreword, Nancy or Lee Julian and Dan, Julian dn were cast members and Tracy Ullman. And they wanted Tracy to play Marge, and she was too busy. So luckily, they got Julie who was just perfect. I can't imagine marriage without that voice. So and they had Dan, you know, just because he was that in the case of that show. And then Nancy nearly were hired by casting director specifically to play Barton Lisa. And then here he was hired for the show. Hank was hired a little into the show, but he went back and moved everything. So it was consistent.

Jeff Dwoskin 38:05

When you when you think of The Simpsons in the very beginning, like what what were the elements you think that kind of made it the perfect kind of show? I mean, when you had Matt Groening, Sam Simon and James L. Brooks, you Reise,

Al Jean 38:16

all before you get to me, I was gonna say all geniuses in every way. They're both creative geniuses, Jim, Matt and Sam. And business geniuses, you know, like with a real eye for commerciality and making a hit massive visual genius. Sam had great visual skills. You know, nobody knows how to put a show together or write better than Jim, you know, so you really had like three of the best writer producers of all time doing one show, you know, might have seen I think they hired great writers at the start. It had a real camaraderie the directors like David Silverman and rich more riches won an Oscar David's been nominated brandberg One two, he was on the show them it just all came together. I mean, cash was great. There wasn't anything that I thought at the beginning of the show, there wasn't a weakness, except the first episode looked really bad because it was a director who's no longer with us, and then nearly killed everything. And it was absolutely it was gonna be our first and September but they didn't like it. So they moved the premiere to Christmas and use the Christmas show directed by Silverman and it was an enormous debt, like the first airing was the highest rated show in history of Fox.

Jeff Dwoskin 39:18

Wow. Yeah, it's a great opening and it kind of shows the warmth of the family and Homer.

Al Jean 39:22

Yeah, I worked I worked a lot on that one. Like there's a line where he's considering whether to adopt the dog and home goes, Oh, he's pathetic. He's useless. He's a Simpson. Exactly. And you just you know, those moments were great. So many and then

Jeff Dwoskin 39:35

how much Simpson stuff do you have? How much swag Do you personally have? Like, will you go out with Simpson's shirt? Yeah, like all that kind of stuff.

Al Jean 39:42

No weird. I have it all. I have like the jacket and then we get nice gifts from your priorities. I have a lot of T shirts and nice nice. Like here is spider pig from the movie. That was nice. So I love that merge I love I particularly love when they do like die. Dr. Hibbert play set or they have a homer Buddha doll. You know, like those things are really

Jeff Dwoskin 40:04

imaginative. I have like a whole basement full of when you guys put out that line of Simpson toys.

Al Jean 40:09

Yeah, they're great. I love them. We have like, even a hockey action figure, but there's approval. It's great. It's awesome.

Jeff Dwoskin 40:15

Yeah. So when you guys you guys launched it was huge. And then he did have some there was some blowback, right? I mean, like the president even came out and he laughed

Al Jean 40:25

at it first. I don't think he had seen it at that point. When he said that America should be more like The Waltons than the Simpsons. I think there was a line somebody, there was a lot of controversy because there's a T shirt that said Bart Simpson underachiever and proud of it, there was fundraising because Barack talked back to his parents, because he was vulgar. But what's funny about his class the 32 years later, and we're kind of regarded as an institution or, you know, we've been lauded by the Pope, people watching now and damnation has, you know, I've

Jeff Dwoskin 40:54

gotten so I'm the president, and you know, some of it so cutting edge that it is funny to realize that we were really like, pushing the envelope when we started. When you when you started in you, you decide, Alright, we're gonna have these three running jokes. And in the opening, maybe it was, like purposeful, like you wanted each kind of opening to be unique in its own way with the couch. And

Al Jean 41:17

yeah, as Matt, what you don't believe because it certainly resemble the opening of the Flintstones, which was the previous like, biggest animated hit, but unlike the Flintstones changed a little bit, like once from year to year, but now I wanted to have things where people would even, you know, bounce back from shows they have a lot of openings, so that you would look seeing to see what the change was in the opening each week. But now we've really cut it down. You know, we're all sick of the main title. So you'll just see like the couch gag,

Jeff Dwoskin 41:43

it's always fun to watch. And it's one of those things that keeps you from not using that skip intro button on the on the on the screen streaming platforms. How do you feel about family guy? And like, like, do you guys do you see it as like a fun rivalry? I mean, if you were to see Seth, and kinda like, would you guys have a beer together? Or do like really like kind of doing those?

Al Jean 42:03

Oh, yeah, no, I have friends there. And I met Seth. At the beginning, there was stuff where they were really kind of copying the Simpsons, but jokes we'd done and a critic, and I wish that the wouldn't be a little more original. But they don't do that anymore. I'm generally very happy for animation and for my friends working and they did a show, which is a crossover that they rode with us, which is really funny. A little bit of as a man Koba and I, you know, I thought that's great. They they did it they said that they you know, are and I was happy to be part of it.

Jeff Dwoskin 42:35

Yeah, it's fun. It's funny you guys kind of subtly throw shade at each other every every now and then. A little bit, but it's not it's not personal. No, no, no, I I like it even better than it's not personal. It just kind of shows that you're kind of in on it. And you're just having fun with that. And it's like you can both exist the same world so that's pretty cool. Yeah, I just wanted to ask that is it Do you have like a kind of a favorite joke that you've done? Like, you know, like, when in the sense of like, we're just like you came believe you thought about it was just such a, you know, one of those. It just kind of comes to you and like not even that you wrote it's just been on the show.

Al Jean 43:10

There's a couple when Stephen Hawking was talking to the people of Springfield, Homer stood up and yelled, Larry Flynt is right and that was a good joke people like that. You know, I came up with the name standards little helper and that line and the Christmas show to get the flaming mo the Valentine the names for like Quimby and bleeding gums Murphy in that movie there was language changes hands and that's why you get the devils curly hair.

Jeff Dwoskin 43:38

I was a if there was one line that always stuck with me that always stuck with me sometimes you just hear something you just repeat it you don't even know why you just it's like I think it's from the first day it's it's not quite breakfast. It's not quite lunch it cut but it comes with a slice of cantaloupe at the end.

Al Jean 43:54

I think that it's either Brooks or probably Albert II or Jim Brooks or Albert Brooks think it's Albert

Jeff Dwoskin 43:58

is the guy there was some guy who's kind of seducing Marge and they were bowling or is and like it was it was it was like a line to kind of just stuck with me. I was like, I'll always kind of like it's not quite breakfast. It's funny how like things like stick with you like that. Like Yeah, and then your your wife is a writer on the show as

Al Jean 44:15

well. Your 11 episodes Yeah, one of them run the Writers Guild Award and she's very funny.

Jeff Dwoskin 44:21

How did you meet your wife

Al Jean 44:22

we met I it's true. We're both in a breakout of different people and one of the mutual friends a writer on the show introduces and that was a good the greatest setup was really really you know, we've been married 20 years now

Jeff Dwoskin 44:36

that's awesome and so it's it's cool you guys are into the same things and like she writes for the show and how many Emmys if you want I read eight nine okay tonight, every every plays you read it's like a different numbers. I'm afraid the number I don't know if the Wikipedia is updated or not. Nine MH that's cool. Where do you keep your Emmys? Oh,

Al Jean 44:56

my wife put him high on a shelf which are preferred. It's like You don't I mean your face, although if there's an earthquake, they'll fall and kill us all. They're very heavy appointing Okay, so

Jeff Dwoskin 45:06

when you came back as showrunner for season 13 solo, did you make any changes or like your reminder?

Al Jean 45:12

Every showrunner when they think overall he says we're going to get back to basics so I'm just gonna get back to basics and do family oriented stories or anything on the family that necessarily, you know, just peachy but there was a writer that we had that I've worked with who was talented but he's not, you know friendly to the other writers I said did you have to if you want to continue you have to just encourage other people's work and he came in he said, I can't do that. Also, you know, sometimes when I when I came back, more than half of the hires I've had have been diversity headers. I heard the first African American writer, the first black writer, the first the first one of the many women writers and that I'm glad first regular African American cast member, Kevin Michael Richardson.

Jeff Dwoskin 45:51

Okay, cool. So what do you think is the legacy of The Simpsons like Woody wood? When people think of The Simpsons? What do you hope that kind of comes to their mind?

Al Jean 45:58

Well, it's like man, tell them more was for me both show that you could watch your kid and enjoy it. And I show that when you're feeling a little down, you've got it there. It's like a non addictive way to cheer yourself up. hope it'll always be there for people in that way.

Jeff Dwoskin 46:13

If you were to look at the full TV kind of landscape, where do you think the Simpsons is impacted other shows and other people the most like well, you can

Al Jean 46:21

look at like third rack admits like that. They're fast cutting and like they'll say, you remember when they cut to something that happened that Simpsons style things are quicker, you know, if you look at the ad shows, even though it's Garry Shandling show, they move so slowly, post Simpsons people are much more used to quick cutting Cultural references, very obscure thing, you know, I won't say it's all due to us and I, you know, we rest on the shoulders and things that preceded us, like, CTV, Bullwinkle, he definitely was, you know, a fork science Seinfeld was transformative in that way to us and Seinfeld, you know, really shows that came after that were just totally different pieces and structures and the ones that came before, if you were told you had to end the show after these two renewal seasons, like how in your head, would you end it? I

Jeff Dwoskin 47:05

don't mean specifically. But like, would you see it as kind of like an open ended thing like a finite thing, like,

Al Jean 47:10

I have one in which I don't know, we won't be up to me. But the idea I had was that you end with him going to the Christmas Pageant. That's the beginning of the first show, so that the series is not an end. It's a full loop. And the cartoons don't really end or age, they just, you know, exists in continuous time. So that that would be my ending.

Jeff Dwoskin 47:28

I love that. And maybe we'll do it. You should totally do it. You helped construct the universal right. I worked out a year

Al Jean 47:35

Yeah. Which was a cool thing. It was it was having trouble wasn't coming together. So like, I called it in the middle. And for something that was trouble, it turned out so well, it was really pleased. And those things are tricky, because you not only have to be funny, you have to kill people like their safety inspections. And

Jeff Dwoskin 47:51

there's the issue of nausea. You know, it's tricky. It's I've been the universal twice. So the first time we would do the ride, we'd love it. I just asked my kid just before the Simpsons rides of fate, my favorite ride. Admittedly, I need to take breaks in between it because my body needs to readjust. It's a little tough. The second time we went back though, you had the whole Springfield, like there was a whole little mini

Al Jean 48:13

that was wonderful designing. Yeah. I mean, my favorite thing is just to sit in malls and have a beer ago. I can't believe I'm actually doing this. You know, I mean, Moe's just crazy.

Jeff Dwoskin 48:23

Yeah, there must be quite a thrill for you. Yeah. I mean, to like to be part of like, having created this worldwide cultural phenomenon. And and imagine and it's still going, it's so cool. Thank you so much for hanging with me.

Al Jean 48:37

My pleasure, Jeff. Thank you. Everything goes well and stay steady and healthy. And maybe we'll have a winning team in Detroit.

Jeff Dwoskin 48:44

perhaps we shall.How can people keep up with you on the socials? Oh, I'm on twitter @aljean. Awesome. Oh, thank you very much. I can't thank you enough. I really appreciate it.

Al Jean 48:54

My pleasure. Thank you. Great to meet you.

Jeff Dwoskin 48:57

All right. How amazing was that? algae ladies and gentlemen. It was a pleasure having animation royalty. Visit live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show. I do want to do a quick shout out to Karen Bell Brege and Darrin Brege. Karen was Marge and Darren was Homer earlier they are voice over artist improv comics, school and association presenters authors illustrator 14 children books, Michigan reading Association winner, Grand prosodic Award winner and they enjoy spending time at Moe's tavern. You can find them at KarenandDarrin.com. I'll put their information in the show notes. I'm honored that they've been friends of mine for many, many, many years. And it was a joy having them on the show.

But here we are nearing the end of the one year anniversary show. Can you believe it? We're almost through another episode finishing up one year of live from Detroit the Jeff Dwoskin show. I can't believe it. You're so happy. You're all here with me. I'm so happy Have you were able to share all these moments together by being at the end of the show? You know, that means that means it's time for another hashtag from the family of hashtag games ads hashtag round up, follow hashtag round up on twitter at hashtag round up and download the free hashtag roundup app on Google Play or iTunes Apple for your iOS phones. Play hashtag games with hashtag ground up all day every day. And one day one of your tweets may show up on an episode of the live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show. How exciting is that?

Today's hashtag in honor of Al Jean in The Simpsons comes to us from hashtag you're it/ McMahon's weekly game on hashtag roundup. #SimpsonsPresidentialSlogans. That's right, they predicted Donald Trump would be president. And now we're going to dive into some fun #SimpsonsPresidentialSlogans. Spider pig for president does whatever a spider pig does. It takes two to lie one to lie and one to listen. Homer Simpson for President jigglin for justice, please choo choo choos me home ever president he's SMRT I mean as ma RT have the last laugh for another four or 30 years don't have a cow man just vote go. haha okay Lido Calais as the Riyadh fish in every part. These are some amazing hashtag Simson presidential slogans. And let's wrap it up with forget the orange guy. Vote for a yellow guy. Oh, those are some great #SimpsonsPresidentialSlogans. Well, that brings us to the end of yet another episode. Can you believe it? We're at the end. the very end. I think we have one special message from a couple of friends. And then we'll see you next week.

Announcer 52:11

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Jeff Dwoskin show with your host Jeff Dwoskin. Now Go repeat everything you've heard it sound like a genius catches online at the Jeff Dwoskin show.com or follow us on Twitter at Jeff Dwoskin show and we'll see you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai