Just a heads up for the Simpsons fans. The cast will be on “Inside the Actor’s studio,” at 8PM with a repeat at midnight. A few details here .
I’m sure there will be a thread discussing this show, I’m curious to see how James Lipton will manage to fawn over six actors simultaneously.
Hey, if anyone can manage it, he can… 
Thanks for the heads up. I probably would have missed it because I was watching something else Sunday at 8… Like the Simpsons! Good scheduling, Bravo network!
Eric
Our good friends at The Simpsons Archive (snpp.com) give other showtimes coming up (all times Eastern and Pacific):
Midnight tonight
1 am Feb. 15
11 am Feb. 16
11 pm Feb. 16
It should be interesting, as Lipton will not only interview the actors, but their characters as well.
This was hilarious. I haven’t even laughed at a Simpsons episode that much in a while.
What happened to Julie Kavner (Marge, et al) about halfway through?
It was very funny, but poorly edited. I don’t understand why they gave two hours to Mike Myers but just one hour to the cast of the Simpsons. I felt robbed.
I liked it a lot, but it was weird to see Simpson voices coming out of real people.
Was James Lipton himself really a guest voice on the Simpsons (the McBain joke they showed)? Maybe that was part of the deal for getting this broadcast in the first place?
Yep, Lipton was a guest voice last year.
I just finished watching it. It was great, but too short. With six people, they couldn’t spend much time with anyone. They should have made it longer.
Eric
Great show, although Lipton is annoying as hell. I’ve always wanted to see the faces behind the voices. I wonder why Yeardley Smith only does one voice, while the rest of them do multiple characters.
Kavner does not like doing the Simpsons voices in public. It was good that she was able to do a couple. I read she was really annoyed and wanted to leave.
I don’t blame Kavner for being annoyed. I thought some of Lipton’s questions were really inane. Like asking Azaria’s “Apu” character what the prices are for several different items in the Quicky Mart. Yeah, we get it - he overcharges for stuff; you only need to do the bit once. I felt uncomfortable watching them all being put on the spot like that. They have writers for The Simpsons - it’s not improv. To expect them to come up with funny stuff in character off-the-cuff like that was a little unfair, although they all did an admirable job of it.
The other thing that bugged me was that they played clips while the guests were talking, so most of the time you didn’t get to see them doing the voices. Not only that, but they didn’t turn the sound off all the way, so you had this annoying background noise while the guests were doing their thing. WTF?
That was so painful to watch. You could see the look of “Dude give me something to work with!” on Azaria’s face. Lipton has zero sense of humor. BTW the reason I think they played the clips when they were doing the bulk of their voices is probably due to contract. Most voice actors can’t say a single word in their respective character in public - I was surprised to see them even say a few words.
I enjoyed the show, but it was oddly edited (as blowero pointed out) and it should have been extended to two hours. I mean if they can give a full hour to Will Smith, you would think six talented people would merit at least two.
Yeardly Smith came across as somewhat humorless to me (probably due to the editing).
Shearer is one of my favorite comedic actors, he deserves an hour by himself. BTW, you can hear his weekly radio show, Le Show, here.
P.S. Sorry 'bout uglifying the board with that sloppy subject line, I forgot that you can only italic and bold in the post body:smack:
Do you (or does anybody) happen to have a cite for where you read that? I also noticed that she had disappeared, and I’ve been trying to find out why on Google with no luck. I notice she stuck around for the part where they highlighted some of her earlier work…
I wouldn’t have returned, either.
Thanks for the link Tars Tarkas.
Well, that would do it. I’m no professional interviewer, but I don’t think ordering your guest to do anything would be a good idea.
A few years ago when Julie Kavner was on Letterman he asked her to do Marge and she said she didn’t really want to because she didn’t want to shatter the illusion for the fans of having such a famous character’s voice come out of her face.
To which, in classic Letterman style, Dave replied, “Ah that’s a load of crap - Do the voice”.
This got a huge laugh so Kavner turned away from the camera and did a few lines. She didn’t seem annoyed.
I agree Lipton is the most humorless person on Earth, but I didn’t think the ‘improv’ Q&A was all that bad. Some were so good I thought they might have been scripted ahead of time (Yeardly Smith’s poem bit obviously was). I thought Dan C. and Harry Shearer were pretty quick on their feet. I loved Shearer telling the audience member to find his seat when he did Principal Skinner. And when asked what his favorite swear word was having Krusty say, “Aw f*** it!”
My biggest disappointment, besides the show not being 2 hours or at least 90 minutes, was Lipton not having a question for Groundskeeper Willie. I can only imagine how Willie would react to one of his inane inquiries!
You guys do know that the questions and answers about prices came verbatim from an episode, right?
I did notice some similarities but, no, I didn’t know that. Nonetheless, it was awkward in the context.
This show emphasized once again why I quit watching it in the first place, because Lipton seems more interested in interviewing characters that actors play than the actors themselves. And it gets painful to watch. His interview with Michael Myers left me squirming because it ignored a genuine, funny man and focused on characters that man had created. An utter waste.
The same was true for this episode. I want inside the ACTOR’S studio, not inside the characters studio. I can now go back to ignoring it. Shame really.