The Simpsons wrapped up its landmark 37th season this past Sunday (February 15), with the long-running animated series having aired over 800 episodes to date. What’s especially interesting about that is, out of all the many episodes that have aired in the nearly 40 years that the show has been around, only one of them is missing the name of series creator Matt Groening. What’s more, it has nothing to do with any controversy that it caused or censorship or anything like that. Nope, Groening asked to have his name removed from the episode in question because he felt that it was nothing more than promotion for another short-lived cartoon series.
On March 5, 1995, the Season 6 episode “A Star Is Burns” debuted on Fox. In it, film critic Jay Sherman from The Critic (voiced by Jon Lovitz) is invited to Springfield to attend a local film festival. Rather than just appearing in a brief cameo, the character is featured heavily throughout the episode, and is even complimented by Bart at one point, who tells him, “I really love your show. I think all kids should watch it.” Groening wasn’t happy about The Simpsons being used for promotional purposes and decided to go public with his views.
“The two reasons I am opposed to this crossover is that I don’t want any credit or blame for The Critic and I feel this [encroachment of another cartoon character] violates the Simpsons’ universe,” Groening told the Los Angeles Times two days before the episode aired. “The Critic has nothing to do with the Simpsons’ world,” he continued. Simpsons co-creator James L. Brooks was also the executive producer of The Critic and was accused of shoving the failed series down the throats of Simpsons fans in order to keep it on the air.
In response, Brooks said he was “furious” with Groening and thought that airing things out publicly was “going too far.” Simpsons writer and Critic co-creator Al Jean similarly expressed his frustration with Groening’s actions, saying, “What bothers me about all of this is that now people may get the impression that this Simpsons episode is less than good. It stands on its own even if The Critic never existed.”
At the end of the day, Groening still worried that people would think he was shamelessly helping to promote someone else’s show. In addition to that, he said, “Articles began to appear in several newspapers around the country saying that I created The Critic. And that simply is not true.” He concluded by clarifying that he wasn’t “criticizing The Critic. But cartoons have their own style and I really have nothing to say about The Critic. Through all the years of The Simpsons we have been careful about maintaining their uniqueness. Sure, there have been other cartoons who visit, but it’s usually just one scene, often for a sight gag.”
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