The 800th Episode of The Simpsons

The longest-running animated show in U.S. history is still going strong. Bret and Veronica talked to one of the former writers on The Simpsons.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
It is breaking records all over the place, and it
continues to break records. We're talking about the longest running
series on television. The eight hundred episode of The Simpsons.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Aired last night, and we have the honor of talking
to one of the former writers from The Simpsons.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
That's Bill Oakley. Good morning, Bill. Hello, So we have
to say, you know, we love the show.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
I interviewed you before, and I let you know that
my son told me everything in life he ever learned
was from The Simpsons, not from his mother.

Speaker 4 (00:31):
I'm so sorry.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Tell us a little bit about how amazing it was
to be able to write for such a great show.

Speaker 4 (00:40):
The Simpsons is unique, was unique, and remains unique in
intelligent history, and that it's free from any interference. Because
when the show was first put on the air, Fox
Network was new right, and they were desperate to get
something on the air from James L. Brooks, one of
Hollywood's most celebrated directors. So the deal was they couldn't
give any notes on it, they couldn't come to the readings.
They just had to broad cast the tape that we delivered.

(01:01):
If you've worked in any form of media, you know
how rare that is. And I think to a great
extent that is responsible for the show success. That's why
they're able to continue up to this day. You know,
bending the format, not really worrying about whether the audience
gets it or not, and keep the show fresh and original.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
So that's at the beginning as the show started, because
you needed to break some rules. As you got into
the season two, season three, did they still proceed with
that hands off approach?

Speaker 4 (01:26):
Yes, I would say I wasn't there for season two,
but Susan's three through nine when I was there, yes,
it was great. We did whatever we wanted and the
network just had to broadcast the tape we delivered. That's
what we're able to do on usual episodes like twenty
two short films about Springfield or the Frank Crime's episode,
things like that.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
You know, you guys put some places on the map.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
A lot of people didn't even know about Springfield before
before then. And you also, you know, as you said,
you broke a lot of rules. And maybe that's you know,
the attraction to this is because it's not like anything
else on TV.

Speaker 4 (01:55):
That combined with the fact that I think that people
have forgotten this because it's so about forty years ago,
but the Simpsions brought a late night sensibility to prime time.
If you're old enough to remember what was on primetime TV,
a lot of the shows were like Family Matters, The
Cosby Show, Perfect Strangers, that were all pretty middle of
the road, right. The Simpsons, the writers all came from
David Letterman, Saturday Night Live, things like that, and they

(02:17):
brought a late night sensibility to primetime TV that simply
wasn't on there. Now it seems it's almost old half
because every show had that sensibility after thirty Rock and
Soft Park and things like that, But at the time
it was extremely fresh.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
We're speaking with Bill Oakley, a longtime rider for The Simpsons,
as we observe the eight hundredth episode of The Simpsons
on Fox, and I'm curious if you have a longing
to return to that or was it a grind for you?

Speaker 4 (02:43):
It was a grind for sure. I mean, we're putting
up those episodes is it was hard? And twenty two
episodes a year of The Simpsons required everybody to work
fifty weeks a year, twelve hours a day, and honestly,
when it was time to go, we were like, okay,
we've done our time here, and I say a partner
by Jeff Weinstein and I who ran the show together.
But we did our time and we thought it was
time to move on to other things. Obviously, what I

(03:05):
still like to have the money, yes, But on the
other hand, I think we did a pretty good job
and we left before we ran out of ideas.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
And Brett doesn't know this, but what you do now
is kind of fun. You're a foodie, so tell us
a little bit about your life now.

Speaker 4 (03:17):
It started out as a hobby and now it's become
a second career. I produce and host entertaining, funny food
events all over the country and I love it. I
have this one at the Portland Airport, Portland, Oregon, which
is going to be next weekend, which is called the
Greatest Airline Meals of the twentieth Century, and it's a
seven course meal composed of one hundred years of incredible
airline meals that I researched extensively, and it's going to

(03:39):
be a great throwback to the golden age of the
jet set. And I do another one called the American
Culinary Curiosity Dinner, which is all unusual regional food served
and I do a funny talk about that. So something
that's pretty unique in the food world, and I'm glad
that it's a niche. I've been able to carve out what.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
A great concept is it televised No.

Speaker 4 (03:57):
No, it's a ticket to dinner and it's a live events.
The dot to the Internet.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
We love it. Where can people find more information about that?

Speaker 4 (04:06):
Bill Oakley dot com has all my stuff. They go
to the events page. You can book tickets for my
future events, find out about other stuff that I'm up
to in that universe.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
Bill, thank you so much once again for joining us.

Speaker 4 (04:16):
Thanks Bill, God my pleasure. All right.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Bill Oakley, longtime writer for The Simpsons and now moving
onto the foodie world.