Just got back from tonight's symposium in Toronto on The Simpsons, featuring OFF co-executive producer Tim Long and and co-producer Joel Cohen, and moderated by _This Hour Has 22 Minutes_/_Whose Line Is It Anyway?_ actor Colin Mochrie, For the most part, an entertaining and informative evening behind the phenomenon which is OFF.
They started by showing "Behind The Laughter" on the screen at the Isabel Bader Theatre. This was actually pretty neat seeing OFF on a theatre screen and with a stereo soundtrack in a darkened theatre, and there was quite a bit of uproarious laughter at this classic, it was almost as if most of the audience hadn't seen this episode!
Colin, Joel and Tim then sat onstage and talked about what it was like for Canadians to work in the US, about working with such a well-established show, and behind the scenes stuff regarding the writing. Colin, known for his rapid-fire zanyness on the shows he works on, was remarkably subdued tonight, he seemed very much in awe about talking about OFF (he revealed that at _This Hour Has 22 Minutes_ they have a large poster of OFF in the writing room, and it is not uncommon for the cast and writers to suddenly go off into a Simpsons routine). Joel and Tim, in between chugging bottles of water, gave insight and witty asides about their careers and writing for OFF.
Among the revelations:
- Tim revealed that yes, Nestle was very cheesed off about the "Butterfingers Being Burned" scene in "Sweets And Sour Marge", and that the blackboard gag at the beginning of "Half-Decent Proposal" was the writers' way of making penance for that joke.
- the writers actually make a game of putting things in the scripts to see what the Fox censor takes out, and what the censor misses. Among the ones that got past that surprised them - the "glory hole" reference in "Night Of The Dolphin" (THOH XI), and Grampa's "Oval Office" remark to Amber in "Brawl In The Family". (Tim said that when they got the script back for "Brawl", that the censor had put the words "nice one!" next to that joke)
- alt.tv.simpsons was mentioned! Regarding the Internet, Joel said that they are aware that they do have fans critical of the show online, but that doesn't bother the writers too much, because for every "Worst Episode Ever!" there's a "No Way, That Episode Rocked!" Joel also said that he had found out that day that someone in New Zealand had put together a web site personally attacking him for the show's supposed "downfall", which he found funny and a little sad.
They then broke a bit by showing a test reel from the first act of "Behind The Laughter" in which rough pencil animation was superimposed over the soundtrack for the animators to follow - and yes, Julie Kavner actually does say the word that's bleeped (it's only partially bleeped in the test reel, but it's still obvious).
After a half hour of this, the microphones were brought out and the questions were asked by the audience. Among them:
- "is the recent improvement on the Simpsons the result of the cutting humour of _Family Guy_?" (this brought groans from the audience). Joel: "you mean the recently cancelled _Family Guy_?" (cheers from audience). Later, Joel would say that _Family Guy_, though a nice try, didn't quite work because it was all rapid-fire gags and was missing something that made the Simpsons tick - heart.
- one guy had the balls to try to hand a fanscript to Joel. Joel quickly grabbed it, peeked at the first page and dropped it at his feet. He then said "that's a nice try - and it's only going to work once tonight!" He would then re-iterate that any scripts, even spec scripts, really should be done through proper channels with an agent.
- What sort of control does Matt Groening have with the show? Tim said that though Matt "doesn't have as much control over the Simpsons as you might think", he does still come to the writers and gives suggestions and plot ideas from time to time.
- Are there any rules you have to follow with characters? Tim said that they do have two rules regarding Homer: one, Homer can't be dumber than a dog, and two, Homer can't forget his own name. He then said that, "over the years, we've had to modify the first rule a bit by changing the breed of dog - when we started, Homer couldn't be dumber than a German Shephard, and about now he can't be dumber than a Dalmatian".
- there was a question regarding the impact of September 11th and how it has impacted the writers, and if there were any gags that they regretted doing prior to the tragedy. "New Kids On The Blecch's" missile attack on Mad Magazine was mentioned by the questioner. Joel said that that gag really did affect him after the attacks happened, and he also revealed that there had been talk about actually releasing that episode as a special promotional DVD in America due to the N*SYNC appearance, which were promptly quashed because of September 11th. One revelation of a gag that was pulled before airing from a recent episode: in "She Of Little Faith", there was a bit regarding Homer's rocket destroying the church, in which Chief Wiggum found the initials "HJS" on the rocket, and was immediately placing under arrest his prime suspect, one Hassan Jafar Salaam. The gag was written before Sept. 11th, and was quickly excised.
- "Any ideas you haven't used?" - Joel mentions that ideas are often scribbled down and tacked to a corkboard in the writers' room, and they stay there until they're either used or turn yellow and fall off. He mentions that the oldest idea still on the board is one about Homer visiting Expo '86 - "and when we produce that, that will be our last episode - and Colin will be in it."
- "How long will the show go on? And what about a movie?" Joel said that as long as the ratings are up there and people like what they do, there will still be episodes produced, He forsees a movie eventually being done, but what with the rigours of doing the show there's just not enogh time right now to do a movie, and when they do the movie they want to give it their undivided attention.
-"Any characters you especially like writing for?" - Tim said that he especially likes writing lines for Ralph (huge cheer from audience!), because it's "a fine balance between Zen and stupid."
- "Are Lenny and Carl gay?" Joel: "although you may have seen something last Sunday that gave you that impression, Lenny and Carl are just really good friends."
One especial treat for the audience - if they looked under their seat, certain seats would have a paper with a coloured dot taped underneath. Ten lucky audience members would walk away with a DVD boxed set of Season One, and yours truly won the second prize, a copy of "A Complete Guide To Our Favorite Family". Third prize was the most recent Simpsons Comics softcover collection.
All in all, a great and informative evening out......