The Simpsons Movie Interviews - Matt Groening, Al Jean, Mike Scully, James L. Brooks, and director David Silverman

"But can the yellow-tinged universe of The Simpsons do justice to political issues on the big screen?"

With so many blockbusters on the docket this summer, The Simpsons have what very few other movies possess: a 19 year head start. Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie have a loyal following more devout than some religions, and that means huge box-office potential. Before Fox can claim to be richer than Mr. Burns, The Simpsons Movie has to pass the toughest critics yet: the public.

There may be hundreds of smaller characters in The Simpsons Movie, but five men in particular were forced to bear the brunt of the recent Los Angeles press onslaught. Producer Al Jean, showrunner Mike Scully, TV series director Jim Brooks, movie director David Silverman, and the almighty Simpsons creator, Matt Groening. Together, the boys are the creative force behind America's most-beloved family.

PG-13 Rating:

When it comes to TV shows on the big screen, there's an expectation that the characters should be more foul-mouthed than your college roommate. So what did Jim Brooks tuck into the movie that we couldn't see on TV? As Brooks revealed, it wasn't far from what they were used to on the small screen. "Well, strangely, nothing that we weren't able to do in the early days of the show but lately it's become very repressive and we're so happy with the PG-13 because of 'irreverent humor throughout'. I mean, we won't get a better review than that."

Producer Al Jean agreed. "In television what happened is in the light of the Janet Jackson thing, all networks got constricted by the FCC. So the movie takes a little more liberties and we wanted to do a story that was more of a movie story and had a more emotional nature. It wasn't like 'South Park' where we were going, 'OK, we're going to now show things we couldn't show on TV.’ We wanted to make a movie."

Guest stars:

The Simpsons have played host to more familiar faces than a Hollywood madame. When it came to the movie, one rock band was able to talk their way into being colored in yellow. But how did Green Day land that honor? As Al Jean explained, it was a matter of coincidence. "We were writing a scene where we wanted to have a rock band talk about the environment and then get attacked by the town. A letter came in saying Green Day would like to be on The Simpsons on that day that we were writing the scene. Then, of course, it took 18 months to negotiate the deal."

The politics of The Simpsons Movie:

Almost everyone has an opinion on world events. As it turns out, so do animated characters. But can the yellow-tinged universe of The Simpsons do justice to political issues on the big screen? Creator Matt Groening certainly thinks so. "The fact is this has been a collaborative effort from the very beginning; from the very beginning of the series. It's amazing. That's the nature of animation. It's great writers at its best when animation works. It's great writers; great actors and great musicians working together to make something even better. On The Simpsons I would say that we definitely like to comment on what's going on in the world. As Jim said, we try to be funny. If we can figure out a way to be funny about it, then we've come part of the way in accomplishing our task."

The Simpsons Movie isn't the only vehicle where politics and Hollywood collide. Just look at "The Governator." While Rainier Wolfcastle did a perfect job as "McBain", the movie is much too big for an Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonator. Instead, they got the real thing. Al Jean explains, "When we're doing a film, we had to have a President character in the movie. You know, a lot of movies there's President Johnson or some phony guy who's just a fill in for..."

That's when Matt Groening piped in with "Lyndon Johnson was not a phony," while Jim Brooks added, "Nor Andrew Jackson."

In relation to Arnie, it all just made sense, as Jean revealed, "Jim suggested that we use Arnold Schwarzenegger. So over the course of the movie, as (Schwarzenegger's) fortunes would ebb and flow, we were just praying that he would get reelected, and I even voted for him."

It wasn't long before director David Silverman shared his thoughts on the use of the California Governor. "Initially, we first did more of a caricature of Arnold Schwarzenegger. I think we led by that. The final conclusion was why instead of using Rainier Wolfcastle caricature, instead of suggesting Schwarzenegger, why not make his eyes a little more wrinkled and change his hairstyle? And that's what we ended up doing."

Who had final say?

Since The Simpsons has always been a group project, who had final say on the project? Was it director David Silverman or creator Matt Groening? Someone had to come out on top, right? As Jim Brooks explained, it wasn't so cut and dry in terms of the overall collaboration. "You know, it's an amazing thing when something is what we call 'table written'. The group changes - it was very large at the beginning, it got smaller, it shifted a few times. But it's as democratic an enterprise as you can possibly imagine. I mean somebody can be passionate about something and unless it gets a laugh at the table it probably won't happen. You know, the long discussions that ended up-- the discussions themselves produce a result. So this is very much a team project."

Favorite episode:

As the panel cane to a close, each one was more than happy to share their memories of the series, especially their favorite episodes over the last two decades. How many can you remember?

JIM BROOKS: "Bart the Genius" comes to mind quickly. I just think that we did things with animation when that happened that just opened doors for us. And "Lisa and the Substitute Teacher" is always meaningful to me on another level.

DAVID SILVERSTEIN: I think of all the ones I've had the good fortune to direct and I've always enjoyed "Homey the Clown" because it was so much fun to do and it came out very funny. One that jumps to mind is a second season one called "Three Men and a Comic Book" because I just love the whole notion of it. It was great format and the references to "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" at the end always tickled me.

MATT GROENING: I like when Homer ate the Guatemalan insanity pepper and then had a hallucination of a coyote spirit voiced by Johnny Cash. That was pretty great. I also like the Frank Grimes episode, and there was an episode from the last couple seasons where Homer was in the garage trying to kill spiders and the tables were turned on him. Do you remember what that episode was? Raymond Percy directed it. It was fantastic.

AL JEAN: Tim Long wrote it. It was where Homer bought an RV and lived in the RV while Marge was in the house.

MIKE SCULLY: I would say the episode where Bart sells his soul. There's one that's up for an Emmy this year that Al just submitted called "The Ha Ha Couple". I think it's a really terrific episode. It holds up against any of the classics.

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