Let’s speculate. The show’s producers managed to get all three surviving Beatles onto the show. I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to imagine (hah!) that Lennon, if alive, would have done the show, too. And from there it’s only a short leap to ponder the possibility that a show as popular and irreverent as The Simpsons may have been just the thing to get the Fab Four back in the same studio once again. Although I picture them doing it anonymously, ala Michael Jackson. Agree? Disagree?
We can also imagine what the plot might have been like. I figure it would’ve been something like Homer managing some no-name garage band, but then through a combination of dumb luck, coincidence and whatnot he would gradually replace each member with one of the Beatles. Then he would’ve had a bona fide Beatles reunion on his hands but of course he would likely be the only one to see them perform because of his ineptitude at marketing the show. And it probably would’ve been at Moe’s Tavern. Maybe Barney and possibly Flanders (HUGE Beatles fan) would’ve been in attendance.
The mind boggles at what kind of song the Beatles would’ve done.
Anyway. That’s my little, ahem, ‘mind game’ for the day. Your thoughts?
They surely would have come up with a better song than “Free as a Bird,” for one thing.
I think John, if alive, would have been up for it. Remember, on the day that Paul visited him in New York in 1975, Lorne Michaels went on SNL with a tongue-in-cheek offer of $3000 if the Beatles would reunite on the show, and John suggested to Paul that the two of them show up and surprise the audience. The only reason they didn’t go, according to Lennon, was that they were “too tired.”
John also would have been a fan of the Simpsons’ sharp satire in the earliest seasons, and if he could have stayed in New York to record his lines, I don’t doubt he would have been a willing participant. If the Simpsons’ producers could reunite Randy Bachman and Fred Turner, they surely could have gotten all four of the Beatles at once.
For some reason, I see them more on Family Guy. I think Seth has done a better job with his guests (and attracted more) than Groenig has. Of course, that’s looking at the two current cartoons, both of which have changed quite a bit from their beginnings. And if John was still with us, I like to think he’d be up for South Park!
