Posted in: Fox, TV | Tagged: dan castellaneta, fox, Itchy & Scratchy, nancy cartwright, Poochie, simpsons, yeardley smith

The Simpsons Talk "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" 25 Years Later

To say FOX's The Simpsons continuously acts as the television version of Nostradamus would be beating the proverbial dead horse, but its content creators' messages still ring true to this day in season eight, episode 14 "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" tackling a variety of subjects including mocking industry executives' meddling in the creative process and calling out obnoxious fan discourse. Stars Yeardley Smith, Nancy Cartwright, Hank Azaria,, writer David X. Cohen, and others spoke recently about the episode.

The story follows Homer (Dan Castellaneta), who lands a voicing gig as the surfer dog Poochie as the third character in the already popular "Itchy & Scratchy" on the children's program "Krusty the Clown". Right away, fans scoff at the new character as network executives tried to instill new life into the cartoon-within-the-cartoon. At the end of the episode, despite Homer's inspirational speech, it's shoddily edited and given a cheap off-screen death in the form of a title card.

Josh Weinstein, former co-showrunner, staff writer: One of the origins was that Fox was not allowed to interfere with the show, but as a courtesy, Bill [Oakley] and I would meet yearly with the president and top executives. And at one point, someone suggested that we add another family member to the show, a teenager.

Bill Oakley, former co-showrunner, staff writer: That's correct. I am not going to say who it was.
Weinstein: And we were like, "That smacks of desperation." We were polite. They wanted to help. But we just ignored them.

Steven Dean Moore, episode director: Anyone who is associated with the entertainment industry and has gainful employment is a very fortunate person. But at some point, everybody feels ridiculous, whether they're made to or it is something they did to themselves.

Hank Azaria, Jeff Albertson, aka Comic Book Guy: I began working on The Simpsons when I was 23 and by season eight, I had certainly experienced that in the industry; you get a character forced on you, a storyline forced on you or a joke forced or cut. I found that kind of meddling a drag and annoying. So, it was a real catharsis release to do this episode.

David X. Cohen, episode writer: The stuff that really zings it to the executives, like, "Excuse me, but 'proactive' and 'paradigm?' Aren't these just buzzwords that dumb people use to sound important?" came for more experienced writers who had to put up with that longer. [Writer] George Meyer was instrumental in contributing those lines.
Weinstein: At the time, it did feel ballsy. We weren't thinking, "Oh, we're making fun of executives, we're never going to work in this town again." It was more, "Goddamn, this can be frustrating. Let's make fun of it."

Yeardley Smith, Lisa Simpson: I remember when we were table-reading this episode, I wouldn't say smug, but there was this chortling from the writers, as they realized it was a taboo subject, which is essentially taking on your employers.

Nancy Cartwright, Bart Simpson: It was so flipping clever how they did it. They just threw it right back into the executives' faces with a middle finger.

Oakley: In terms of "You can't bite the hand that feeds you," The Simpsons has been doing that since day one. Fox did not give us notes on anything because they were not allowed to see the material, not allowed to come to the table reading. They were not allowed to do anything but broadcast the show when we delivered it on videotape.

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