I actually did search for this, but didn’t find anything…
Why wasn’t Tracey Ullman one of the voices on The Simpsons? Julie Kavner and Dan Castellaneta were both cast members on the Tracey Ullman show, and the IMDb lists Nancy Cartwright and Yeardley Smith as “additional cast members” - although only as voices for Lisa and Bart, and I don’t remember either of them from skits on the show. So why didn’t Tracey, master of voices, voice Lisa or Bart? I remember watching that show, and I seem to recall that we all thought the Simpsons shorts were the best thing about it - was she just short-sighted, or did she have some conflict with Matt Groening?
I know there was a law suit resulting in the Simpsons Shorts not getting into syndication nor on DVD, but that had to have been after she decided not to become one of the voices…
Whatever past history they may have had, by season two Tracey and Matt had buried the hatchet enough that Ullman was a guest voice in Bart’s Dog Gets an F
Everything I’ve seen indicated that Ullman was too busy. Also, she had no way of guessing it would be so successful (and may not have been interested in any case).
Remember, the Simpsons was the second animated short shown on her show – the first was “Dr. Janice N!Godatu” by MK Brown, which alternated with the Simpsons a half dozen times before they dropped it. Brown’s surrealism didn’t catch on, since it was more wierd than funny,
Tracey Ullman did a lot on her variety show on Fox. She was in every sketch and almost always in a lot of makeup and costumes. I doubt she would have had the time.