113-400: " King-Size Homer " is the seventh episode of the seventh season of the American animated television series The Simpsons . It originally aired on Fox in the United States on November 5, 1995. In the episode, Homer despises the nuclear plant 's new exercise program and decides to attain a weight of 300 pounds (136 kg) so he can claim a disability and work from home . The episode
226-452: A CBS dramedy entitled 22 Birthdays , Business Class , a comedy for NBC about two traveling salesmen, The Funkhousers , an off-the-wall comedy for ABC about a close-knit family which was directed by Frank Oz and The Ruling Class for Fox , about a high school class who all got along, regardless of their social group. They have written two feature film screenplays: The Optimist for New Line Cinema , in which Seann William Scott
339-569: A Nielsen rating of 10.0. The episode was the third-highest-rated show on the Fox network that week. Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from fans and television critics, making many top episode lists. In 2008, Empire placed The Simpsons at the top of their list of "The 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time", and noted "King-Size Homer" as the show's best episode, calling it "An unimprovable mix of sharp dialogue, hilarious sight gags and heart." Kimberly Potts of AOL Television named
452-467: A muumuu . The writers were also discussing about how they were going to treat Homer's obesity. They did not want Homer to come off as a "hog", so they decided that the viewer should barely see him eating after he reaches his 300 pounds goal. As the writers were trying to figure out a way to get Homer back to his old weight by the end of the episode, it was suggested that Homer should feel bad about his obesity, and therefore become thin for Marge, but that idea
565-421: A nuclear meltdown is imminent unless the system is manually shut down. Unable to call the plant because his fingers are too fat to dial a telephone keypad, and too heavy to drive or skateboard, Homer resorts to hitchhiking . Drivers refuse to pick him up because his bright muumuu and frantic jabbering make him seem like a lunatic. After carjacking an ice cream truck , Homer arrives at the power plant during
678-416: A Marge-shaped box and also a standard rectangular-shaped box in which the theme is a movie premiere. The season was the first season executively produced by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein , who had written episodes for previous seasons. They were chosen partly because they had been with the show since the third season and understood many of its dynamics. When they took over the series they wanted many of
791-430: A confession written by town founder Jebediah Springfield revealing that he was a murderous pirate named Hans Sprungfeld who tried to attack George Washington and never cared about the people of Springfield. Homer decides to help Lisa get the message out, but they are arrested by the town council. Lisa claims Sprungfeld had a silver tongue so the council decides to exhume Jebediah to prove Lisa wrong. It turns out that there
904-545: A dedication to her. After that, Lunchlady Doris had speaking parts in the season nine episode " Lisa's Sax ", which Grau had recorded before her death. From season nine until season eighteen , she appeared only as a background character but had a speaking role in " The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and Her Homer " where she was voiced by Tress MacNeille . The season started off with the heavily publicized "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)", which
1017-426: A fall 1999 debut. They pitched the show in 1998 "as an animated series for young adults with a sophisticated, ' Simpsons '-style sensibility." They aimed to make the show about realistic issues affecting young adults, which were too mature for The Simpsons . The network was impressed and initially ordered 13 episodes; they ordered five more once the first was completed. Oakley explained: "The audience we're going for
1130-480: A fan favourite. On Rotten Tomatoes, the seventh season of The Simpsons has a 100% approval rating based on 6 critical reviews. In 1996, " Treehouse of Horror VI " was submitted for the Primetime Emmy Award in the " Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming less than One Hour) " category. They had submitted it because it had a 3D animation sequence, which the producers felt gave them an edge. However,
1243-533: A game show on Ha! , before writing for a variety show on the network featuring Denis Leary . The two also wrote for the National Lampoon and Spy . An editor of Spy was hired by NBC to run the variety show Sunday Best , and took Oakley and Weinstein to Los Angeles with him in 1991. When the show was canceled after three episodes, they were unemployed for a lengthy period, and Oakley lived on unemployment benefits . He later considered applying to join
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#17328920742921356-549: A great interest. They also wrote " Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy ", and " Bart vs. Australia ". The writing staff wanted to do an episode in which the Simpsons family traveled to a foreign country; they selected Australia because they thought that everyone in Australia had a good sense of humor and "would get the jokes", with the episode being intentionally inaccurate. The episode proved somewhat controversial; some Australian fans said
1469-408: A guest spot on the show and in retaliation, the writers opted to put her in a goofy movie which was way below her calibre of work. Homer's "fat guy hat" strongly resembles Chef Paul Prudhomme 's and actor Dom DeLuise 's signature white caps. In its original broadcast, "King-Size Homer" finished 45th (tied with Grace Under Fire ) in the ratings for the week of October 30 to November 3, 1995, with
1582-552: A job on a major comedy series, as previous Harvard graduates who wrote for the Lampoon had done, despite writing numerous spec scripts for shows such as Saturday Night Live and Late Night with David Letterman ; he thus moved back home. There, he worked in publicity, doing promotion for America's Most Wanted . In their free time, Oakley and Weinstein wrote for local comedy groups, such as Gross National Product. In 1989, they moved to New York City after being hired to write for
1695-538: A joke that we'd done before." They felt the showrunner should not stay for more than two seasons. Due to the pressures of having to work on two seasons at once (writing season eight, while doing post-production of season seven), Oakley said that at least two episodes from season eight would ideally have been rewritten, had there been sufficient time, and that towards the end, they were "treading water". As they were working on post-production of season eight, they were credited as consulting producers for season nine , which
1808-437: A list of lines and words that should be substituted, causing limited problems, as often the offending lines are removed or changed for comedic purposes after animation. The episode " Homer's Phobia " drew the censor's objections. Its script came back with two pages of notes about almost every single line. The censors stated that they did not like the use of the word " gay ", or the discussion of homosexuality at all, and closed with
1921-624: A more emotionally driven plot, such as " Mother Simpson ". In 1996, during season seven, the show received a Peabody Award . Oakley shared the awards for " Lisa's Wedding " and " Trash of the Titans " in 1995 and 1998 respectively. Oakley and Weinstein themselves were nominated, along with the show's composer Alf Clausen , for the Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music and Lyrics for writing "Señor Burns" from "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)". Many of
2034-408: A muumuu and a 'fat guy hat.' The climax is a little forced and cartoon-y...but Homer's weight gain works so well visually that the episode gets away with a lot more than it might." Dave Foster of DVD Times said: "The glee to which [Homer] takes to the challenge and the enthusiasm which Bart brings to the project show these two really do connect when the situation is oh so wrong, and the method in which
2147-428: A natural talent for golf and is challenged to a game by Mr. Burns. Meanwhile, Marge accidentally destroys her Chanel suit on the night of a gala ball where she will become a member of the club and buys a new one for thousands of dollars. She demands that her family behave themselves, but realizes that she is becoming too snobby and decides she doesn't want to join the club. While doing research for an essay, Lisa finds
2260-421: A nuclear reactor, the gas destroys crops of corn. A farmer says, "Oh no, the corn! Paul Newman 's gonna have ma' legs broke!". This is in reference to the legend of Newman's Own popcorn products, in which Newman threatened anyone who might attempt to steal his popcorn. At the cinema, Homer tries to watch the film Honk If You're Horny , starring actor Pauly Shore and actress Faye Dunaway . Dunaway turned down
2373-594: A paragraph which stated that "the topic and substance of this episode are unacceptable for broadcast ". The censor problems ultimately came to nothing; when the episode came back from animation in South Korea, the then-Fox president had just been fired and replaced, with the censors being replaced as well. The new censors sent back merely one line: "acceptable for broadcast". Oakley and Weinstein stood down as showrunners after season eight because they "didn't want to break [the show]." Oakley said: "We always said we'd never do
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#17328920742922486-559: A permanent basis in 1992. After they wrote episodes such as " $ pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling) ", " Bart vs. Australia " and " Who Shot Mr. Burns? ", the two were appointed executive producers and showrunners for the seventh and eighth seasons of the show. They attempted to include several emotional episodes focusing on the Simpson family , as well as several high-concept episodes such as " Homer's Enemy ", " Two Bad Neighbors " and " The Principal and
2599-476: A reference to the show's feud with the Bushes in the early 1990s. Weinstein said that the episode is often misunderstood. Many audiences expected a political satire, while the writers made special effort to keep the parody apolitical. Oakley stresses that "it's not a political attack, it's a personal attack!", and instead of criticizing Bush for his policies, the episode pokes fun at his "crotchetiness". Oakley described
2712-404: A safety inspector and resorts to simply typing "yes" every time the system prompts him. Looking for shortcuts, he leaves his terminal with a drinking bird to press the Y key to indicate "yes" on the keyboard and goes to the cinema. After being denied admission due to his weight and getting teased by people outside the theater, Homer returns to his station to find that his bird has fallen over and
2825-472: A scene from the 1993 film What's Eating Gilbert Grape . Homer thinks that he can order the soft drink Tab by pressing the tab key on the keyboard, and becomes anxious when he can't find the " any key ". The latter joke was inspired by the writers reading that 1/3 of complaint calls to a computer help line from new users were from people who could not find the "Any" key, which has never been part of any computer keyboard at any time. When Homer vents gas from
2938-403: A start-up company. He said that this episode "saved" him from doing so. Greaney pitched some ideas to the writing staff, but none of them were satisfactory, so then-show runner Bill Oakley gave him the idea for this episode. Oakley had Greaney come to Hollywood to write it, and when Greaney showed the first draft to the staff, they liked it, so Oakley hired him. The writers wanted the title of
3051-451: A story about a background character that was not tied into the Simpson family at all. The idea never came to anything, as Groening realized that the staff did not have the manpower to produce another show as well as The Simpsons . The season saw the introduction of two new recurring characters: Disco Stu , and Brandine Spuckler . The seventh season was acclaimed by critics, and remains
3164-427: A surefire way to get former Beatle Paul McCartney to guest star as he was the only living member of the group who had not done so. McCartney agreed, but only on the condition that Lisa stay a vegetarian and not revert. "22 Short Films About Springfield" has twelve credited writers, the most of any episode of the series. The episode features multiple stories about different characters. To decide who would write each of
3277-474: A workout program and reaches the shutdown switch, which is situated over a tank of radioactive gas that is about to explode. He falls onto the hatch just as it bursts open and becomes stuck in it from the waist down, blocking the gas from escaping. In recognition of Homer's bravery and action to minimize the environmental damage caused by the gas release, Burns gives him a medal and offers him any reward he chooses. Homer asks Burns to help him lose weight, having seen
3390-491: Is dismayed and embittered by Homer's success and comfort in spite of his inherent laziness and ignorance. "Homer's Enemy" explores the comic possibilities of a realistic character with a strong work ethic placed alongside Homer in a work environment. In the episode, Homer is portrayed as an everyman and the embodiment of the American spirit; in some scenes, his negative characteristics and silliness are prominently highlighted. By
3503-420: Is endangering his health. With Bart and Dr Nick 's help, Homer eventually increases his weight to 315 pounds (143 kg) and Mr. Burns installs a stay-at-home work terminal in the Simpson house. Marge admits that she finds herself less attracted to Homer physically because of his weight gain, but he vows to prove he can be a better worker because of it. Homer soon tires of his monotonous responsibilities as
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3616-582: Is married to fellow writer Rachel Pulido. William Lloyd Oakley was born on February 27, 1966, in Westminster, Maryland , and raised on a farm in Union Bridge, Maryland . He was a fan of Mad magazine from an early age, which helped shape his comic sensibility. He attended St. Albans School in Washington, D.C. , where he met and became best friends with Josh Weinstein in the eighth grade. The two created
3729-515: Is no silver tongue but Lisa later discovers that it had been stolen from the grave by Hollis Hurlbut, the local historian. The two rush to reveal the truth about Jebediah, but Lisa realizes that the myth had inspired the entire town and decides to keep it a secret. Guest star: Donald Sutherland Note: Channel 4 in the United Kingdom has removed this episode from its syndication in July 2024, in
3842-409: Is one that's sophisticated, that likes high and low humor, that's very savvy in animation. [But] this show is definitely a case where a lot of people don't get it. It's not setup, setup, setup, punch line. It's observational humor. It's jokes told in a weird way, in the background or with a bizarre sound effect." The show was plagued by "public relations" difficulties, which meant it was "tarnished" from
3955-399: Is seen "commandeering an ice cream truck in a frantic dash to the nuclear plant to avoid an impending meltdown". Emily VanDerWerff of Slant Magazine named the episode the show's fifth best, stating "while there are a lot of funny jokes in this episode (including Homer's fingers that are too fat to dial), the best thing about it is the sight of Homer, weighing well over 300 pounds, dressed in
4068-427: Is that we pretty much were able to get away with everything, so there weren't any episodes we really wanted to do that we couldn't do. Even the crazy high-concept ones like 'Two Bad Neighbors' and 'Homer's Enemy' we managed to put on the air because honestly there were no network execs there to stop us." Such was the network's limited input that, when an executive suggested the staff introduce a new character to live with
4181-460: The Principal Skinner and Superintendent Chalmers scene, the latter being his favorite character. Oakley wrote the scene in one afternoon and the finished product resembles almost exactly its first draft. The scene is frequently cited as one of the show's greatest moments and decades later would become a pervasive Internet meme . Writing for Forbes in 2021, Dani Di Placido stated that
4294-502: The United States Foreign Service . Well, we were pretty freaking dedicated, I guess. We were Simpsons nerds of the first order and were huge fans before we even got hired. It was basically the equivalent of getting hired on SNL in 1978. The entire original staff was there. The only "new guys" were Conan and us. We lived and breathed that show from 1992–1997. — Oakley on his and Weinstein's dedication to
4407-444: The seventh and eighth seasons. They were chosen partly because they had been with the show since the third season and understood many of its dynamics. The showrunner is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the show's production. Each episode takes ten months to produce, so the showrunner must "oversee many different episodes in different stages of production all at the same time", with roles including head writer, making notes on
4520-414: The storyboards and working with the voice actors, animators, editors and composers. Oakley and Weinstein often set two script-rewriting rooms in motion at the same time, delegating leadership in the rooms to writers such as Steve Tompkins and David Cohen . Mirkin, who had suggested that the two take over, remained on the show in an advisory capacity, helping Oakley and Weinstein with technical aspects of
4633-453: The "Terror at 5½ Feet" segment of " Treehouse of Horror IV ", " $ pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling) ", " Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy ", the show's 100th episode " Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song " and " Lady Bouvier's Lover ". For season six they wrote " Sideshow Bob Roberts ", basing much of the episode on the Watergate scandal , in which they had
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4746-555: The American father – drawn with real emotions, though admittedly amplified. This was exemplified in " Mother Simpson ", " Lisa the Iconoclast ", " Diddly-Dum-Doodly ", and a couple others. In some of the less reality-based episodes, i.e. the Beer Baron one – usually Swartzwelder 's, we'd treat this stricture with a certain amount of latitude." One of their most notable episodes was " Homer's Enemy ", an episode designed to "push
4859-490: The DVD commentary, Weinstein considers this episode one of the most controversial of the seasons he ran, as it involves sharp observational humor which many fans "didn't get." Weinstein talks about a "generation gap"—the episode was originally panned by viewers, but has since become a favorite among fans who grew up with the show. Other episodes included " Two Bad Neighbors ", which sees Homer meet former President George H. W. Bush ,
4972-480: The Emmy, the "Homer³" segment was awarded the Ottawa International Animation Festival grand prize. In 1996, The Simpsons became the first animated series to win a Peabody Award , and won it "for providing exceptional animation and stinging social satire, both commodities which are in extremely short supply in television today." At the 12th annual Television Critics Association Awards,
5085-488: The Pauper ", winning three Primetime Emmy Awards for their work. After they left The Simpsons , Oakley and Weinstein created Mission Hill . The show was plagued by promotional issues and was swiftly canceled. They worked as consulting producers on Futurama , then created The Mullets in 2003. The two wrote several unsuccessful TV pilots, and were due to serve as showrunners on Sit Down, Shut Up in 2009. Oakley left
5198-405: The Simpsons so as to "liven up the show", the staff rejected the idea and instead created the episode " The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show ", inserting the one-time character Roy, with no explanation as to who he was, or why he was living with the family, as a reference to the executive's proposal. The episode, which marked the point at which The Simpsons surpassed The Flintstones for
5311-474: The annual Steamie Awards to credit what he felt were the best items he reviewed each year in various categories. In 2022, Audible released Oakley's original sci-fi comedy Space: 1969 , starring Natasha Lyonne and a full cast. Oakley and his wife Rachel Pulido have two daughters Mary and Bitsy, and a son named James. He and his family live in Portland, Oregon . Pulido graduated from Harvard, where she
5424-448: The attention Bush had been receiving, is outraged and launches a prank war. Bush eventually decides to leave Springfield and is replaced with Gerald Ford . Marge finds a fancy Chanel suit at a discount outlet store, and is invited to start spending time at the local country club. Marge immediately fits in but is forced to alter her suit every day so it appears that she is always wearing a new outfit. Meanwhile, Homer discovers that he has
5537-408: The attention of Diane English , and they were offered a job on a sitcom. Before they accepted this job, they were told that Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky were leaving The Simpsons , and then joined the writing staff on a permanent basis in 1992, in the third season of that show. They began as story editors . They were initially quiet and felt "intimidated", being in the same room as "10 of
5650-583: The best classic Simpsons episodes to watch on the service. Later that same year, Consequence ranked it number nine on its list of top 30 Simpsons episodes. The Simpsons season 7 The seventh season of the American animated television series The Simpsons originally aired on the Fox network between September 17, 1995, and May 19, 1996. The show runners for the seventh production season were Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein who would executive produce 21 episodes this season. David Mirkin executive produced
5763-580: The best episode of the series. It acquired a Nielsen rating of 10.0 and was the third highest-rated show on the Fox network that week. Mr. Burns organizes a compulsory morning calisthenics program at the nuclear power plant, to Homer 's dismay. After learning that an employee who is disabled can work from home through worker's compensation , Homer unsuccessfully tries to injure himself. Upon learning that employees who weigh 300 pounds (140 kg) or more qualify as disabled, he begins eating excessively, despite Marge and Lisa 's repeated warnings that he
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#17328920742925876-493: The best episodes. Homer's at his most irritating and childish here—you really want Marge to beat him up." They added that Homer's antics with the computer, such as the scene in which he tries to find the any key , and Mr. Burns running exercise classes are the highlights of the episode. Screen Rant called it the best episode of the seventh season. When The Simpsons began streaming on Disney+ in 2019, former Simpsons writer and executive producer Bill Oakley named this one of
5989-737: The characters are all robots, which would be made by the same people who produce the children's show Yo Gabba Gabba! . Oakley began writing for the sketch comedy show Portlandia in its second season. He became a co-executive producer from the show's third season, co-writing every episode with Fred Armisen , Carrie Brownstein and Jonathan Krisel. He and his fellow writers shared the Writers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Achievement in Writing Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) – Series in 2013. Oakley and Weinstein teamed up again to co-write and co-executive produce 22 Birthdays ,
6102-625: The close of the episode, Grimes, a hard working and persevering "real American hero," is relegated to the role of antagonist; the viewer is intended to be pleased that Homer has emerged victorious. Oakley says the episode was "hyper- meta " and focused on "parodying to some degree the Homer we don't like. That's one of the things that episode is supposed to illustrate – 'Homer gone wrong'. Although, I would argue that in 'Homer's Enemy' he's not even really even all that excessively stupid or immature, actually." Weinstein said: "We wanted to do an episode where
6215-452: The complete terms of the Writers Guild of America . Weinstein continued working on the show. His two subsequent projects have been without Weinstein. In late 2009, NBC commissioned a pilot for Oakley's sitcom about "the youngest judge in a circuit courthouse." He wrote the 2010 episode of The Cleveland Show " Gone with the Wind ". Amongst other projects, Oakley planned a live-action show where
6328-456: The criticism of the Season 6 set only being sold in a plastic packaging molded to look like Homer's head, which did not match the plain rectangular cardboard packagings of the first five seasons, Season 7 was offered in two packagings: A plastic packaging molded to look like Marge's head, and a standard rectangular cardboard box featuring Marge posing for a photo at a movie premiere. The menus continue
6441-420: The dynamic of the show. Mirkin suggested Maggie because he felt it was funnier and wanted the culprit to be a family member. Oakley and Weinstein were initially unsure about having Maggie as the culprit, and it was decided that the episode would end with Maggie shifting her eyes and making it look like it was not a complete accident. Oakley and Weinstein were appointed executive producers and showrunners of
6554-443: The effect his obesity has had on his family. After Homer demonstrates his inability to do any exercise, Burns gives up and decides to simply pay for him to get liposuction , much to Homer's delight. "King-Size Homer" was written by Dan Greaney , and directed by Jim Reardon . It was the first episode Greaney wrote for The Simpsons . Prior to this episode he was working as a lawyer and was contemplating moving to Ukraine to work for
6667-440: The ending of the episode as an attempt to reset the continuity and allow fans to consider the episode on its own. "Lisa the Simpson" was their final involvement with the show. The duo wanted to end on a good note—Weinstein stated that the episode "was meant to embody the humor, depth, and emotions of The Simpsons ,"—and they were pleased with the result. Oakley won three Emmys for his work on The Simpsons , and shared them with
6780-426: The envelope conceptually." The idea for "Homer's Enemy" was first conceived by Oakley, who thought that Homer should have an enemy. This evolved into the concept of a "real world" co-worker who would either love or hate Homer. The writers chose the latter as they thought it would have funnier results. The result was the character of Frank Grimes, a man who has had to work hard all his life with nothing to show for it and
6893-572: The envelope', [and] expanded the definition of what an episode could be." This was a style they employed for both seasons they produced. Season eight featured several episodes in which focus was given to secondary characters and in which new issues were explored, such as divorce. Their preferred choice of guest stars were those with unique and interesting voices, and several of their guest stars were "old grizzled men with distinctive voices" such as R. Lee Ermey , Donald Sutherland , Kirk Douglas and Lawrence Tierney . Oakley considered season three to be
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#17328920742927006-431: The episode as a companion piece to "Homer's Enemy", in that a character is juxtaposed alongside Homer and does not get along with him. Oakley considered working on the show to be similar to working in a bubble due to the lack of interference from the Fox network's executives, as is commonplace on other shows. This allowed them to produce any episodes they wanted, as Weinstein commented: "The great thing about The Simpsons
7119-513: The episode lost to Pinky and the Brain that year, and Bill Oakley later regretted submitting the episode because he felt that a more emotional episode like " Mother Simpson ", " Lisa the Vegetarian " or " Bart Sells His Soul " would have had a better chance of winning. Alf Clausen , Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein were also nominated for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music and Lyrics" for
7232-422: The episode the seventh best episode of the series. Michael Moran of The Times ranked it as the tenth best. "King-Size Homer" appeared on The Star-Ledger 's list of the ten best episodes on The Simpsons that represent the comic and emotional scope of the show. The Herald Sun put the episode at ninth place on their list of the top twenty episodes of The Simpsons , and highlighted the scene in which Homer
7345-428: The episode to make Homer sound proud about his weight, so they decided to name it "King-Size Homer". Greaney really enjoyed working on the episode because Homer is constantly happy and goal-oriented in it, instead of being a slob who is "eating all the time". Animator David Silverman designed the obese Homer for the episode. There was a discussion about what Homer would wear when he became fat, and they decided to go with
7458-502: The episode was a mockery of their country. Shortly after it had aired, the Simpsons staff received over a hundred letters from Australians who were insulted by the episode. The pair wrote the two-part episode " Who Shot Mr. Burns? ", which was initially proposed by series creator Matt Groening . While deciding who the culprit was, Oakley and Weinstein pitched Barney Gumble because he was a character that could go to jail and it could change
7571-439: The episodes by Oakley and Weinstein are considered amongst the show's best. For example, in 2003, Entertainment Weekly included six episodes they produced ("Homer's Phobia", " A Fish Called Selma ", "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson", "22 Short Films About Springfield", " The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase " and "The Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie Show") and one episode they wrote ("Who Shot Mr. Burns?") as part of their list of
7684-662: The episodes to be realistic ones that focused more on the five members of the Simpson family , exploring their feelings and emotions towards each other. They also wanted to produce a Treehouse of Horror episode, episodes about Sideshow Bob , Itchy & Scratchy and several "format-bending" episodes such as " 22 Short Films About Springfield ". Their preferred choice of guest stars were those with unique and interesting voices, and several of their guest stars were "old grizzled men with distinctive voices" such as R. Lee Ermey , Donald Sutherland , Kirk Douglas and Lawrence Tierney . David Mirkin , who had been executive producer for
7797-627: The failed pilot they originally produced for CBS, as a pilot for Bravo . It was slated to air in 2013. Oakley subsequently worked on as a co-executive producer on the Matt Groening-created series Disenchantment . Since 2018, Oakley has regularly produced short reviews of various fast food items from restaurants across the US, uploading them to his Instagram channel. This led The Wrap to christen him "the Gordon Ramsay of fast food". He created
7910-439: The final version of the episode, in which many realistic elements were replaced. After season four, most of the original staff left the show. Before David Mirkin arrived to take over as showrunner for season five , Oakley, Weinstein, O'Brien and Dan McGrath were the only writers working on the show and spent a month mapping out most of the season's episodes. Oakley and Weinstein wrote several episodes for season five, penning
8023-407: The following season . The episode "22 Short Films About Springfield" was originally written for being the pilot episode of a potential spin-off series entitled Springfield Stories or simply Springfield . The proposed show was planned to be focused on the town in general, rather than the Simpson family. Every week would be a different scenario: three short stories, an adventure with young Homer or
8136-461: The greatest minds in comedy", but eventually started pitching jokes with confidence. They wrote their scripts together, working side by side at a computer. Their first episode as staff writers was " Marge in Chains ", an existing idea that they were assigned. The first draft of the script was based on research about women in prison conducted by Oakley and Weinstein, making it "slightly more realistic" than
8249-412: The laughs". He continued by saying, "It's amusing to see Homer's pursuit of obesity, and it exploits his idiocy well. It lacks the expected mushiness about the plight of fat folks, though it does make a point about sensitivity in an understated way." The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide , Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, wrote: "this isn't one of
8362-418: The lesson of 'sometimes, you just can't win'—the whole Frank Grimes episode is a study in frustration and hence Homer has the last laugh and (3) we wanted to show that in real life, being Homer Simpson could be really dangerous and life threatening, as Frank Grimes sadly learned." When the episode was first broadcast, many fans felt it was too dark, unfunny and that Homer was portrayed as overly bad-mannered. On
8475-424: The look of the show, left following this season. Dominic Polcino and Mike B. Anderson , who had previously worked on the show as part of the animation staff, both directed their first episodes. Doris Grau , script supervisor for the show and voice of Lunchlady Doris died on December 30, 1995. The episode "Team Homer", which aired eight days later, was one of the last episodes to feature her voice and featured
8588-403: The majority of the writing staff stayed on for the next season, both Greg Daniels and Brent Forrester received their last writing credits during season seven. Jon Vitti , who had left following the fourth season , returned to write " Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily " as well as " The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular ". Wes Archer , a long-time director for The Simpsons who helped define
8701-470: The number of episodes produced for an animated series , was named by the BBC as one of the ten most memorable episodes of the show. They noted "the writers used the opportunity to pay tribute to the art of animation and rail against network interference in their show." The intrusion of the network censors was limited: the normal procedure is for an episode's script to be sent to the censor and then faxed back with
8814-520: The only impression people had of the show was based on a two-minute tape that looked terrible. Six major publications panned it before they even saw it." The pilot garnered largely negative reviews from publications such as The Deseret News ; and earned a positive write-up in Variety . Furthermore, the show was forced to change from its originally planned title of The Downtowners due to its closeness to an MTV show. All of these factors combined to ensure
8927-464: The other producers. When Oakley was the showrunner and executive producer, "Homer's Phobia" won the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or Less) in 1997. The previous year, " Treehouse of Horror VI " was submitted for the award. The staff felt the 3D animation sequence "Homer³" would have given it the edge. The episode eventually lost to Pinky and the Brain . Oakley later expressed regret about not submitting an episode with
9040-458: The pair had been "very naive" with regard to producing the show, and that it "would've been better on cable anyway because it would never have appealed to a broad enough audience due to the subject matter." The 13 completed episodes were later aired on Cartoon Network 's Adult Swim block and the show garnered a worldwide cult following. After lobbying from Oakley and Weinstein, the WB eventually released
9153-448: The pig in Homer's dream sequence, but he died nine years before the episode was made, so they used cast member Hank Azaria for the voice. Joan Kenley guest starred in the episode as the telephone lady. The staff flew her down from Northern California to record her part for the episode. While Homer is in the clothes store, two mannequins wearing similar outfits and riding on bikes are shown. These are based on Billy and Benny McCrary ,
9266-430: The previous two seasons, was credited as a consulting producer for the seventh season but also executive produced the episodes " Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two) ", " Radioactive Man ", " Lisa the Vegetarian " and " Team Homer ". Steve Tompkins , Dan Greaney , Richard Appel and Rachel Pulido received their first writing credits while Spike Feresten and Jack Barth received their only writing credits this season. Although
9379-411: The project over a contract dispute. He has since written for The Cleveland Show and Portlandia , without Weinstein. He also served as co-executive producer and writer on Portlandia , sharing a Writers Guild of America Award with his fellow writers in 2013. In 2018, Oakley reunited with Weinstein as co-executive producer on Disenchantment , Matt Groening 's animated series for Netflix . Oakley
9492-406: The publicity of the episode too far. Several critics said the special tainted Walsh's credibility and was described as gimmicky, tacky and "blatant groveling for viewers". The episode "Lisa the Vegetarian" features one of the few permanent character changes in the series when Lisa officially becomes a vegetarian. The episode had been pitched by David S. Cohen and the producers felt it would be
9605-479: The remaining four, including two hold overs that were produced for the previous season . The season was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards , including Outstanding Animated Program and won an Annie Award for Best Animated Television Program. The DVD box set was released in Region 1 on December 13, 2005, Region 2 on January 30, 2006, and Region 4 on March 22, 2006. The set was released in two different forms:
9718-463: The same format from the fifth and sixth seasons, and the menus use a Hollywood theme that show various characters at a movie premiere. Bill Oakley William Lloyd Oakley (born February 27, 1966) is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series The Simpsons . Oakley and Josh Weinstein became best friends and writing partners at St. Albans School ; Oakley then attended Harvard University and
9831-438: The scene "serves as a nostalgic reminder of the show’s best years, when a single scene between two side-characters proved so memorable that fans were still quoting it, decades later, and so malleable that it can mutate into one of the internet’s most enduring memes." Oakley stated in 2021 he believed it was the most famous thing he had written and one of his favorites. They aimed for "at least two episodes per season that 'pushed
9944-457: The school humor magazine The Alban Antic in 1983. Such would be the length of their partnership; the two often finish each other's sentences. Oakley later attended Harvard University , where he wrote for and served as Vice President of the Harvard Lampoon , working on the famous 1986 USA Today parody issue. He graduated in 1988 after studying American history. Oakley did not land
10057-438: The segments, all of the writers chose their top three favorite characters and put them into a hat, the names were drawn out and the writers were assigned their parts and Greg Daniels put all of the segments together and ordered them. Two more episodes, " You Only Move Twice " and " El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer) " were produced as part of the season seven (3Fxx) production run, but both aired
10170-437: The series on DVD. From 2001 to 2002, the two served as consulting producers on Futurama . They worked for two-and-a-half days a week, contributing jokes and helping with stories. They worked most substantially on the episodes " That's Lobstertainment! " and " Roswell That Ends Well ". They produced The Mullets for UPN in 2003. Oakley and Weinstein have written and produced several television pilots . These include
10283-499: The seventh season of the show was nominated for 'Outstanding Achievement in Comedy,' but lost to "Frasier." A Halloween special which is divided into three short stories: Homer assembles a bowling team consisting of Apu, Moe and Otto so he can play on league nights. He gets the team funding from Mr. Burns during one of his ether-induced hallucinations. The team does well until Mr. Burns discovers that he paid for them and decides to join
10396-457: The show received little attention, and the WB ran only a few commercials for it. Weinstein stated: "I don't know exactly why America doesn't know about this show. It's like Teen People came out with its fall preview, and we're not even in it." Mission Hill came at a time when the TV schedules were already saturated with animated shows; some of the response could be chalked up to its genre. The show
10509-471: The show such as editing and sound mixing. When they took over the series, they wanted many of the episodes to be realistic ones that focused more on the five members of the Simpson family and explored their feelings and emotions towards each other. They wanted to produce Treehouse of Horror episodes, episodes about Sideshow Bob , Itchy & Scratchy and several "format-bending" episodes such as " 22 Short Films About Springfield ", for which Oakley wrote
10622-475: The show's 25 best episodes. Robert Canning of IGN said the episode " You Only Move Twice " from season eight "may well be the greatest Simpsons episode of all time. In my book, it's at least tied," with " Marge vs. the Monorail ". A. O. Scott described their era as "reach[ing] a pinnacle of zany self-reference with "22 Short Films About Springfield" and "Simpsons Spin-off Showcase"." The two are popular amongst
10735-509: The show's fans, and in the early days of the Internet, Oakley read and participated in fan discussion of the show on newsgroups such as alt.tv.simpsons . In 2005 and 2006, they participated in two question-and-answer sessions on the fan message board NoHomers.net. After Oakley and Weinstein left The Simpsons , they created Mission Hill in 1997, a show about a hip, lazy, 24-year-old cartoonist named Andy French, and sold it to The WB for
10848-476: The show. After changing their agent , they wrote a spec script for Seinfeld , which was well received. Amongst those who liked it were Al Jean and Mike Reiss , showrunners of The Simpsons . There were no openings on the staff at the time, but Oakley and Weinstein were hired to write the episode " Marge Gets a Job ", based on an idea by Conan O'Brien . The episode aired as part of season four . Their Seinfeld script and The Simpsons episode caught
10961-454: The single greatest comedic season of television ever produced and so attempted to recreate the feel of that season for the two he ran, focusing on stories with real emotions and situations, as well as some off-the-wall episodes. Season three was their basis for Homer : "We liked Homer the way he was in the second and third seasons. That was what we consciously used as our model. Dimwitted, loving, hyper-enthusiastic, creatively goofy, parody of
11074-418: The song "Señor Burns" from " Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two) ". The series won several other awards for this season, including an Annie Award for "Best Animated Television Program". " Lisa the Vegetarian " won both an Environmental Media Award for "Best Television Episodic Comedy" and a Genesis Award for "Best Television Comedy Series, Ongoing Commitment". Although "Treehouse of Horror VI" failed to win
11187-512: The start. A badly edited two-minute promotional video for the show, sent to advertisers in April 1999 for the annual upfronts , was poorly received. Oakley and Weinstein had been informed that the upfronts did not matter. Similarly, because no episodes were finished in time, journalists were not able to see anything of the show at the network's schedule presentation in July. Subsequently, as Weinstein commented to The Washington Post , "for seven months,
11300-651: The team. The team starts losing games but still manage to make it to the league championship where they manage to win. The team is overjoyed but Mr. Burns has a change of heart and takes the trophy for himself. Meanwhile, the students of Springfield Elementary School are forced to wear uniforms after Bart comes to school wearing a T-shirt with a shocking message on it. Former president George Bush moves to Springfield and Bart starts to annoy him. One day Bush loses control and spanks Bart after Bart accidentally destroys Bush's newly-typed memoirs and Bush becoming fed up with Bart bothering him too much. Homer, who had been jealous of
11413-400: The thinking was 'What if a real life, normal person had to enter Homer's universe and deal with him?' I know this episode is controversial and divisive, but I just love it. It really feels like what would happen if a real, somewhat humorless human had to deal with Homer. There was some talk [on NoHomers.net] about the ending—we just did that because (a) it’s really funny and shocking, (2) we like
11526-554: The wake of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania . The DVD boxset for season seven was released by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment in the United States and Canada on December 13, 2005, nine years after it had completed broadcast on television. As well as every episode from the season, the DVD release features bonus material including deleted scenes , Animatics , and commentaries for every episode. After
11639-462: The weakest episodes in Simpsons history". As such, Oakley considers it the most controversial episode from his tenure as executive producer. He and Weinstein advise viewers to treat "The Principal and the Pauper" as an "experiment". They surmise that the negative reception was partly due to the fact that it was not immediately apparent to viewers that this was such an episode (as opposed to, for example, " The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase "). They describe
11752-517: The world's heaviest twins who weighed over 700 pounds (318 kg) each. They received fame after appearing in The Guinness Book of World Records in a picture that depicts the twins riding their Honda motorcycles . They would appear again in the same season in the episode " The Day the Violence Died ". The scene in which Bart and his friends observe the obese Homer through a window is based on
11865-505: The writers tackle the not-always-so-obvious downsides to such a disability are both adult and astutely amusing." Jennifer Malkowski of DVD Verdict considered the best part of the episode to be during Homer's shopping trip to The Vast Waistband. The website concluded its review by giving the episode a grade of A. DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson enjoyed the episode and called it "one of the series' more cynical episodes", and said that it "pours on
11978-455: Was Vice President of the Harvard Lampoon . He worked on several short-term media projects, including writing for the variety show Sunday Best , but was then unemployed for a long period. Oakley and Weinstein eventually penned a spec script for Seinfeld , after which they wrote " Marge Gets a Job ", an episode of The Simpsons . Subsequently, the two were hired to write for the show on
12091-401: Was in its initial writing stages. Oakley stated that they contributed "somewhere between 0 and .0001%" of the season, only attending the table readings of the scripts. They produced three episodes held over from season eight, which aired as part of season nine: " The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson ", " The Principal and the Pauper " and " Lisa the Simpson ". "The Principal and the Pauper"
12204-403: Was negatively received due to the sudden revelation that long-time character Seymour Skinner was actually an imposter. For example, in his book Planet Simpson , Chris Turner describes "The Principal and the Pauper" as the "broadcast that marked [the] abrupt plunge" from The Simpsons ' "Golden Age", which he says began in the middle of the show's third season . He calls the episode "[one of]
12317-403: Was put out on a Friday, a night on which the WB had never broadcast before, at 8:00 pm, a time Oakley felt was inappropriate, and aired in front of The Wayans Bros. , The Jamie Foxx Show and The Steve Harvey Show , all shows with which Oakley felt it was "incompatible". The show's poor reviews and ratings of an average of 1.8 million led to its swift cancellation. Oakley concluded that
12430-617: Was scrapped in early production. Action figurines based on obese Homer were made for the World of Springfield in December 2001. Homer has a dream in which he is standing at the foot of a mountain with 300 pounds as the goal at the top. A pig wearing a tuxedo appears next to him in the dream, and motivates Homer to reach the top of the mountain. This scene was inspired by the cover of the "Sweetness and Light" issue of National Lampoon magazine. The staff thought that Cary Grant would have been ideal for
12543-413: Was slated to star as a man born with no unhappiness gene, and Ruprecht , a Santa Claus -related comedy for Disney . Along with Weinstein, Oakley was to serve as an executive producer on the Fox television series Sit Down, Shut Up in 2009. Oakley ended his involvement with the show due to a contract dispute between the staff and Sony Pictures . Sony refused to offer a contract which operated under
12656-414: Was the resolution to the first part , which had been a cliffhanger. It was preceded by "Springfield's Most Wanted", a TV special hosted by John Walsh , host of America's Most Wanted and was parody of Walsh's television series, this special was designed to help people find out who shot Mr. Burns, by laying out the potential clues and identifying the possible suspects. The special was criticized for taking
12769-438: Was written by Dan Greaney and directed by Jim Reardon . Joan Kenley makes her second of three guest appearances on The Simpsons in the episode as the voice of the telephone lady. It features cultural references to the world's heaviest twins , the 1993 film What's Eating Gilbert Grape , and the soft drink Tab . Since airing, the episode has received positive reviews from fans and television critics, and Empire named it
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