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Harry Shearer Returns To the Simpsons
jones_supa writes: Fans of The Simpsons will find this turn of events nothing short of excellent: seven weeks after saying he was done with Fox's endless animated comedy, Harry Shearer has agreed to rejoin the show. Shearer has now signed the same four-season contract as the other five primary voice actors. He previously tweeted, "I wanted what we've always had: the freedom to do other work." Executive producer Al Jean found that tweet confusing, saying, "Everybody on the show does lots of outside projects. He actually gets to record on the phone and do the [table] reads on the phone. So we've never kept him from doing that stuff."
The OT VIII voice of Bart Simpson couldn't stand him exercising his free speech on his weekly radio "Le Show". Scientology often appears in his "Apologies of the week" segment whenever they're caught violating human rights.
Oh no, he'll only be able to buy five Ferraris this year instead of six.
Don't you mean an ivory backscratcher?
They're not forcing you to watch it.
It it's not watchable, don't watch it.
Excellent.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
YouTube is filled with talented impressionists who can do these voices. I'm sure that if Shearer hadn't been persuaded (with $$$) to stay that Fox could easily have hired replacements whose voices were indistinguishable. It might have resulted in a fan backlash or rancour from the other actors but the voices would be the least of their troubles.
I was really looking forward to the first new episode where all of his voiced characters were caught in a nuclear/chemical smog that changed their voices. That might have been funny as hell.
Actually, the truth isn't that.
His contract with Fox and the Simpsons states he's to get 5 weeks off guaranteed. He's always been allowed to pursue other projects on his on and off time, and he's actually fairly rich as it is (and old - so more money just means more inheritances).
What happened was last season, Shearer was on his contract-given break when Al Jean wanted him to do some quick voice work, and that was what broke the camel's back.
His wanting more time to pursue other things was probably a veiled attempt at explaining this - while he was free to do it during his contracted time, the Simpsons would always be first priority (so he would have to drop everything, do whatever The Simpsons wanted, then return back). So his options were limited and he really only 5 weeks where he could go and do other things where the Simpsons were not his priority.
So Al Jean wanting to impinge on that time (which to be honest, probably Jean thought it was a minor thing, like a one-liner or something and he'd be in and out in an hour) sent him over the edge to tell Fox to screw it.
And that's how it is - he's free to moonlight and provide talent all year, but when he's "on Simpsons time" he's required to put that first ahead of his other work he's pursuing. When he's off, he can do what the f*ck he wants, even the Simpsons can't stop him.
The layman version is - he gets 5 weeks of vacation a year. He got screwed because his boss wanted him to come in to do a quick something or other. He blew his top.