Johnny Carson

NEWS ROUNDUP

Astro Bot, Harris Katleman, Johnny Carson, George Meyer, Conan O'Brien, Josuke Higashikata, and Joesph Joestar in front of San Diego Comic-Con.

Here’s another roundup of small Simpsons and Simpsons-adjacent news from around the web.

  • There wasn’t any big Simpsons news out of Comic-Con this year. Maybe they’re saving it all for Disney’s D23 Expo on August 14, like whether the upcoming movie will be in Infinity Vision or not. I need to see Homer’s pupils in at least 14 footlamberts!
  • Former Fox Television president Harris Katleman, who was instrumental in getting The Simpsons on the air, died at 97 last month. In his memoir, he tells a story about convincing Oscar-winning director James L. Brooks to jump back to television, which lead to The Tracey Ullman Show and the original Simpsons shorts (though I think the money did most of the convincing). As they were pitching The Simpsons as its own series, Katleman believed Fox network executive Barry Diller would pass, so he secretly screened a presentation for ABC president Bob Iger, who offered to buy the series if Diller passed. Diller was skeptical of greenlighting the show but relented when he heard Iger had made an offer. Sometimes studio executives are good! [Deadline via Talking Simpsons]
  • This official Disney article says Bart’s middle name is JoJo, which was just something voice actress Nancy Cartwright ad-libbed once, but was never actually used in the show. Does this mean it’s canon now???
  • Back in 2024, Disney outsourced its home entertainment business to Sony. In 2025, Sony announced it would cease Blu-ray production, and more recently announced PlayStation will go digital-only. I don’t know what’s going on over there, but it’s not looking great for Simpsons fans who have been waiting patiently for Season 21 on Blu-ray. [PlayStation.Blog]
  • Social Media Watch: Over on Twitter, the reclusive John Swartzwelder has been posting photos from his time on the show, including group shots with guest stars Dr. Joyce Brothers and Johnny Carson standing mere inches from future Tonight Show host Conan O’Brien. Producer and Marvel nerd Al Jean showed off a Spider-Man book autographed by Stan Lee, and the first and last pages of a draft of The Simpsons Movie.
MEANINGLESS MILESTONES, SCULLY DUGGERY

scullyThe Hollywood Reporter did a big cover story about The Simpsons in honor its meaningless milestone of having churned out a certain number of product. Former showrunner Mike Scully used the occasion to share his death wish with the nation:

“I think the show will outlive all of us,” says former producer Mike Scully. “Nothing would make me happier than some episode in the future to end with a title card that reads, ‘In memory of Mike Scully.'”

Yup, Mike Scully wants to die. Nothing would make him happier. There is no other way to interpret that quote. After years of death threats from Simpsons nerds, it seems Scully has decided to embrace the icy hand of death.

The rest of the article is mostly just a rehash of the same stories they’ve been telling for years in interviews and audio commentaries (did you know Michael Jackson didn’t do his own singing???), but nonetheless there’s a few interesting tidbits I haven’t heard elsewhere, if you use a charitable interpretation of “interesting.”

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