The new season of The Simpsons continues, and this Sunday, May 15th, 2016, Fox will air âSimprovisedâ, the 21st episode of Season 27, and the 595th episode to date. This Episode Fact File will recap the episode with pictures, video clips and more. Get the scoop right after the jump!
After butchering a speech in front of all of his friends at work, Homer turns to improv comedy to gain back his confidence in his public speaking skills. Meanwhile, Marge decides to rebuild Bartâs lackluster treehouse, but tensions rise when Bart questions her building skills. Also, in the episodeâs last three minutes, Homer appears LIVE for the first time on television (both for East and West Coast broadcasts) to answer fan questions.
Episode Details: âSimprovisedâ is the 21st episode of Season 27 as well as the 595th episode of The Simpsons. The episode will air on FOX on May 15th, 2016 and is written by John Frink.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Al Jean, executive producer of the shows, talks about the realization of the live segment and how hard itâs going to be. âWell, itâs certainly us making it a lot harder on ourselves than we have to, but the interest in it has been so enormous, itâs definitely worth it. When you have a show like this that has so many things going for it, you gotta use that capital and do interesting things because you can.â
Al Jean continues saying that the live segment animation will be different than what we normally see in Springfield. âThere is less of a variety of motion, and after awhile, it might start to look a little repetitive. âThatâs why weâre not doing any more than three minutes. You have a limited number of lip assignments and motions that Homer can make, and you see him run through those in the course of the three minutes. The reason I donât think theyâre going to be doing half-hour motion capture shows in the near future is because although it is much cheaper and you can just film it live, you canât do the complicated set pieces that people want from animation. We do everything we can in the three minutes thatâs possible.â
In the follow up of the previous interview, EW asks Al Jean how long has he been working on the live idea for this episode. Al Jean answered: âItâs funny. We talked about doing a Homer-going-live thing on The Tonight Show for a promotion for The Simpsons Movie with motion capture. We discussed it as long ago as that [in 2007], but it didnât seem like the technology was up to what we wanted. And then John Frink, who wrote the episode, said, âHey why donât we try to have Homer improv for real at the end of the show?â So we looked back at the motion capture [technology], which had advanced. Fox Sports had worked out a program from Adobe, and I thought it was much more convincing â at least for about three minutes, which is what weâre using it for at the end of the episode. The other thing thatâs terrific is Dan Castellaneta does improv all the time. Heâs one of the best improvvers there is. We couldnât have somebody better to be doing it.â
Wondering why the segment is so short, EW asked if they thought of a longer segment or an entire episode revolving live. Al answered â[Motion capture technology] used to have electrodes wired into the person. Now they donât. The actor just speaks into a mic, and the camera records his motions, and transfers it to the character onscreen. However, you can only do that with one or at most two characters. The backgrounds donât change and the character canât really interact with somebody in the background. We have background jokes that are pre-set. For three minutes, thatâs fine. For 30 minutes, I think people would get pretty tired of it. (Laughs) Anythingâs possible in the future, but at the moment, three seemed like the perfect amount.â
About the idea of using two characters, EW asks why Al Jean didnât use that idea, to which Al Jean answered âWe thought about it, but then it was like, âWho would the other person be? Would we get a celebrity?â And we thought the better thing would be for Homer to interact with the fans.â About the possibility for Homer to answer the questions with the rest of the family, Al Jean answered âTheoretically. Maybe we would do that someday. But for this, when you see the story of the episode, itâs all about Homer improvising, so the thematic part of the show is Homer conquering his fear of public speaking.â
EW asked whatever other characters will make cameos during the episode to which Al Jean answered âThey appear in the background doing some stuff, but they donât speak.â To EW wondering if the crew had any problems or glitches with this live segment, Al Jean said âWe havenât had any glitches yet. I always feel â and this is the whole SNL philosophy: If thereâs a little glitch, thatâs fun, too. Thatâs the excitement of live television. And to my knowledge, no animated show has done this before⊠I think this is going to be really incredible â or incredibly terrible.â
EW next wonders what questions will Homer answer, expecially with the fact that Al Jean is quite recitent about breaking the fourth wall, and he commented âA question like, âWhat actor does what?â, that wonât get by. It would have to be a question to Homer, not a question breaking the fourth wall. I assume everyone is going to want to make it into this episode, so theyâre going to try to think of questions that we would use, rather than get rejected. Thereâs still a wide variety of questions you can ask him.â
EW asked where Homer will be and he answered âHeâll be in a Fox secret bunker in an undisclosed location. Thatâs the background weâve drawn.â The location was revealed in the last interview. EW asks if that breaks the fourth wall and he answeres âNo, because weâve always said that there is a connection with Fox and The Simpsons, but he doesnât think he is an actor or a character.â Next question is about how they got Homer in the bunker. âThe family is on the couch and Lisa says, âNow weâre going to do something that was first done on TV 50 years ago, and weâve finally gotten around to it, and our dad will answer questions.â And Bart says, âTake it, Homer.ââ How will Homer react to random people asking questions to him in the bunker is the next question. âYeah⊠He just thinks: Heâs been an astronaut. Heâs done a lot of things. Why wonât people want to ask him questions?â
Next is Dan Castellanetaâs reaction to the idea: âHeâs game for everything. Heâs a very brave man and very funny and didnât blink. Heâs up for the challenge.â And how will the writers will help Dan out to answer the questions. âWeâll be there to screen questions and maybe think about [jokes] if thereâs a big event that day. But the truth is, you want to have somebody funny who doesnât feel like heâs got eight things to try to decide between, where heâs just going with his gut. So it really will be him. God only knows, if Donald Trump says something stupid, we might make a joke to lead off. But in general, itâs just going to be Dan. Thatâs what makes it live. Thatâs what makes it exciting.â
Of course, a question would be how to make it feel live, and not recorded. âWeâll do the equivalent of holding up todayâs newspaper, where we talk about something thatâs going on right then. It will be live, I guarantee it, and the way we set it up, itâs to make it very clear that this is really happening. Itâs not a trick.â What appealed to Al and if itâs the unknown of whatâs going to happen is next. âYeah â and I wanted to do it before any other animated shows did it. (Laughs)â
The difficulty of having to animate it in motion capture and how it will appear to the viewers is an interesting question, due to it being the first time it has ever been done in the show, to which Al answers âIt shouldnât look any different. The difference is, there is less of a variety of motion, and after awhile, it might start to look a little repetitive. Thatâs why weâre not doing any more than three minutes. You have a limited number of lip assignments and motions that Homer can make, and you see him run through those in the course of the three minutes. The reason I donât think theyâre going to be doing half-hour motion capture shows in the near future is because although it is much cheaper and you can just film it live, you canât do the complicated set pieces that people want from animation. We do everything we can in the three minutes thatâs possible. But there would be no way we would be doing a full show like this anytime in the near future.â Problems may arise with trying something new. âThere could be a snafu where we donât get the question to Homer, that thereâs a little bit of a glitch. But as I say, that proves itâs live. Weâll have a seven-second delay, so itâs not going to be any Janet Jackson sort of thing. Homerâs not going to take off his clothes.â EW wonders if this would be more difficult than Grease Live and Al Jean promptly answers âA lot less danger to the performers.â
Something new and interesting is asked by EW next: how will the viewers interact, expecially how will the phone system work, a new tidbit of information revealed just now, and how will Homer interact with Facebook and Twitter. âThe phone number will be released to the public in plenty of time. My guess is because youâre going to get on an episode of The Simpsons, weâll fill up quickly and then weâll just have people waiting⊠Weâre going to have one tweet that heâll answer and also a couple of writers will be tweeting and answer questions as Homer, one on Facebook and one on Twitter simultaneously. Weâre trying to answer as many questions as we can.â
EW concludes asking Al what he would ask Homer. âHmm, thatâs a good question⊠âWhat does Marge possibly see in him?ââ and advices for the viewers that are calling, to make their questions go through. âJust ask an interesting question about Homer, and his life and if itâs funny, weâll try to get it in. Weâre not looking for people to ask trivia questions about season 23.â
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, showrunner Al Jean says âIn terms of the anxiousness, I think this oneâs very high. Admittedly, we always have a million safety nets. Now, we have far fewer.â Al Jean and his team revealed that theyâll be using a software by Adobe called Adobe Character Animator that will capture the voice of Dan Castellaneta and create Homerâs mouth movement syncing it. Using the software, the team of animators will be able to control Homerâs movements.
David Silverman, producer and animator, adds âItâs not a computer drawing; itâs animation weâve put in there that will be activated by these buttons, these triggers.â Al Jean confirms that âItâs not something youâd want to watch for the whole show.â and will last only three minutes. Tests on how itâll go on both east coast and west coast airing has been done by the crew of the show and Al Jean, and also talked about future possibilities to expand on this âItâs an incredibly fluid mediumâ.
Al Jean also remembers that the number to call on Sunday night is 1-888-726-6660 and remembers the viewers to bring something sharp in the conversation with Homer âHomerâs popularity is in no small way [related] to how funny Dan [Castellaneta] is. He improvised âDâohâ â it had just said âannoyed gruntâ in the script.â
BLACKBOARD TEXT!: I wonât show my boobs on live tv (written by Homer)
The episode title is a play on the word âimprovised.â
Homer references Websterâs Dictionary.
In the last three minutes of the episode, Homer will be âLive-voicedâ (by Dan Castellaneta) and will answer questions fans will have already asked before the episode.
In the season 8 episode âThe Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Showâ, June Bellamy says âvery few cartoons are broadcast liveâ. Ironically, 19 seasons later, part of âSimprovisedâ will be broadcast live.
During the segment, Homer will answer questions from fans asked by three ways:
The showâs Facebook page.
The number to call during the live segment is 1-888-726-6660.
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Previous Episode: To Courier with Love
Next Episode: Orange Is the New Yellow (Season Finale)
That is all from this weekâs Episode Fact File and I would like to thank WikiSimpsons for the information for this post and Nathan for the base design of it.
WikiSimpsons: Season 27 Page, Simprovised
TSTOTopix: Episode Fact File: Season 27 and 28: What We Know So Far!
(Part 1: 2015) (Part 2: 2016 #1)Â (Part 3: 2016 #2)
Till next time, Happy Tapping everyone!
This pictures and videos are from the âSimprovisedâ episode of FOX show The Simpsons. Their use is believed to qualify as fair use under United States copyright law.
Episode Fact File:Â Simprovised The new season of The Simpsons continues, and this Sunday, May 15th, 2016, Fox will air "Simprovised", the 21st episode of Season 27, and the 595th episode to date.
