Talking Simpsons - The Jon Vitti Interview!
Added 2020-04-17 04:00:00 +0000 UTCThe fantastic Jon Vitti is one of the most accomplished writers in comedy history, having written for The Simpsons' golden years, as well as King of the Hill, The Larry Sanders Show, The Office (US), Saturday Night Live, The Critic, and so much more! We finally got a chance to chat with him about the early days of The Simpsons, episodes like Crepes of Wrath, Lisa's Substitute, Mr. Plow, as well as some untold stories from King of the Hill's writing staff, and even some secrets of SNL! Listen now!
Comments
This was a fascinating interview, particularly because it alights on something that isn't really hit upon all that often when discussing the nitty-gritty of constructing a season of television - the idea that an episode could have 'failed' because it didn't hit the bullet points required when a season is being planned out as a whole. "Brother from the Same Planet" is a rich, funny episode that I would never have imagined anyone could consider a failure, and so to hear that James L. Brooks described it as a bad example of a Simpsons script because it didn't match the narrative structure for what he wanted that kind of episode to be - and Vitti agreeing - is so interesting. It's like they were designing a car and Vitti turned up with an incredible exhaust system... problem was he was told to go away and design the wheel. The expertise with which he designed the final product will never be examined by that team, because it wasn't the component of the Simpsons machine he was expected to deliver and was - at least intellectually - scrapped by his bosses as a result.
Taskbaarchitect
2020-05-01 21:45:50 +0000 UTCHmm. So I learned Vitti believes that Keynesian economics which were the basis for the greatest economic period of the US, creating the middle class, & lifting the majority out of poverty has been discredited by the University of Chicago who are devotees of Milton Friedman. I'm pretty sure that Vitti got along quite well with John Schwartzwelder for more than just admiration of his writing. For pete's sake, Vitti must have been in the writer's room for the pro-union episode "Last Exit to Springfield!" Good interview & he seems like a nice guy but that tidbit was a wee bit disappointing to learn about him.
James Babbo
2020-04-25 03:29:21 +0000 UTCGreat interview, always love hearing new stuff pulled out from people around from the very early days of the show (and the stuff about King of the Hill and other Hollywood tales are good too)
Dylan (batmanboy11) Freitag
2020-04-19 23:20:08 +0000 UTCGreat interview, guys. So many cool stories. ^_^
To Boldy Joe... Moore
2020-04-18 11:05:43 +0000 UTCAs always, great work, and I appreciate Vitti's graciousness answering questions about other people - not a commonality.
Thad Komorowski
2020-04-17 16:21:23 +0000 UTC
