SFist Interviews: John Ortved, Author of The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History

The distinctive coloration of the characters came from Gyorgyi Peluce, an artist who had escaped from communist Hungary and found work as a colorist for the Klasky Csupo animation company -- led by her fellow ex-pat, Gabor Csupo -- which got the contract to animate the shorts on Ullman, and then the series. Peluce thought Matt's drawings were interesting, but incredibly primitive, and thought the colors needed to stand-out. Hence the bright yellow skin and Marge's blue hair. There's a philosophy there too: Peluce believes that white people shouldn't necessarily be portrayed as white, or black people as black. Her view: "What does it matter what color you are? We are universal."

Why do you think the history of the show has become so contentious that you had to write an unauthorized one?
They say success has many parents while failure is an orphan -- well there has never been a TV show as successful as The Simpsons, so you can expect some bickering in terms of who did what. I think the most controversial element has been how the early staff have removed some of the authorship from Matt Groening. Sure, he "created" The Simpsons; he came up with the original drawings, but real authorship is so much more than this. So much of what we love from The Simpsons is in the writing, and the early staff don't credit Groening with being an influential part of that process; they credit Sam Simon and his writing room. The view seems to be that Groening -- who is very much the show's ambassador -- has either been given, or taken, far more credit than is deserved.

Who then is the most influential voice responsible for the wit that we associate with the show?
I think in terms of establishing the show's tone, it was Sam Simon, the third, less-credited creator who left the series after the 4th season. But as a work, if you look at it over the past 20 years, or even the first 10 years, when the show was still considered "great," I think the voice that emerges as most defining for the series is George Meyer. Meyer has been profiled by The New Yorker, and I dedicate the better part of an entire chapter to him in the book. People describe him in nearly mythic terms; he's the Michael Jordan of comedy writers. One writer described him to me by saying that he doesn't just think outside of the box, he's in an entirely different box store. That's a really weird way of asserting that Meyer is essentially a genius. I encourage your readers to Google him and read not only about his influence on The Simpsons, but other things he's written. At one point, Meyer actually figured out the ideal ratio of working to goofing off (I think it was 2:3). There's a great story about him sitting on a couch with another writer named Bob, pretending to come up with jokes, but really making a list of everybody else in the room and having Bob number them based on their level of insanity -- like actually ranking them based on who they thought was clinically the most insane.

Are Mr. Burns and Smithers modeled after anyone in particular?
I don't think so. I've been told that Sam Simon actually was the one who drew Burns. While some have said Burns was supposed to be an amalgam of Barry Diller and James L. Brooks and certain things Burns and Smithers did were certainly based on the real-life actions of James L. Brooks and his devoted executive, Richard Sakai, I don't think there was ever a conscious decision to base the look or the feel of those characters on any one person. Burns has come to be a tremendously malleable character; he can embody everything from capitalism, to old age, to the Republican Party. I think Burns works best when he's just the owner of the power plant, the robber baron caught in the wrong time period. It allows him to do unspeakably evil things, but with this antiquated comic edge:
"Loafers, former gophers..." How brilliant is that?

Find The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History on Amazon or at your favorite local bookstore.