“The Simpsons’” producers recently heard that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange wanted to guest star on their long-running series. So they did what any ratings-hungry Hollywood executives would do: they sought him out.
“We asked our casting director Bonnie Pietila — who had been able to unearth Thomas Pynchon and got Tony Blair to do the show — to find Mr. Assange. And she did,” executive producer Al Jean told Entertainment Weekly, which reports Assange recorded some dialogue for the show’s upcoming 500th episode. The plot involves the Simpsons going “off the grid” after the rest of Springfield votes to give them the boot (again?!), forcing the family to venture off into the wilderness.
“The Simpsons go off the grid to this very rugged place where they meet [Assange], who’s sort of their new Flanders,” Jean told the magazine. Of course Flanders and Assange are nothing alike, and when the latter shows a home movie, it’s an Afghan wedding being bombed, Jean says. How very topical.
I’m torn about this news.
As a longtime “Simpsons” fan, I was hoping the writers would get back to their roots for the 500th, focusing on the family instead of guest stars, which has been their go-to as of late. This season has truly failed to live up to the series’ past. Yes, so many of the previous few seasons have, but this go-round has been especially off-mark, with the only notable laughs coming from ‘Sandman’ creator Neil Gaiman’s cameo and the “Homer-as-Glenn-Beck” episode’s faux Fox News headlines. Having the 500th episode revolve around the core five, rather than a guest star, would have been preferable, in my opinion. I suppose, however, the use of a big-name guest star was inevitable for such a monumental episode, but was Assange truly the best choice? Jean admits there was some trepidation over including an accused sexual assaulter often maligned as a fame-seeker.
“He’s a controversial figure, and there’s a good reason he’s controversial,” the producer said. “There was discussion internally whether or not to have him on the show, but ultimately we went ahead and did it… There’s nothing we did that has anything to do with the legal situation that he’s in…We wanted to make sure it was satirical, and he was willing to do that.”
Ah, yes, that legal situation. Assange remains under house arrest in England, which obviously created a hurdle for recording his dialogue. According to Jean, he and the other producers were simply given a phone number to call and remotely directed Assange, who was recording in an undisclosed location.
