Non­fic­tion

Spring­field Con­fi­den­tial: Jokes, Secrets, and Out­right Lies from a Life­time Writ­ing for The Simpsons

  • From the Publisher
March 29, 2018

In cel­e­bra­tion of The Simp­sons’ thir­ti­eth anniver­sary, the show’s longest-serv­ing writer and pro­duc­er offers a humor­ous look at the writ­ing and mak­ing of the leg­endary Fox series that has become one of the most revered artis­tic achieve­ments in tele­vi­sion history.

Four-time Emmy win­ner Mike Reiss, who has worked on The Simp­sons con­tin­u­ous­ly since episode one in 1989, shares sto­ries, scan­dals, and gos­sip about work­ing with Amer­i­ca’s most icon­ic car­toon fam­i­ly ever. Reiss explains how the episodes are cre­at­ed, and pro­vides an inside look at the show’s writ­ers, ani­ma­tors, actors and celebri­ty guests. He answers a range of ques­tions from Simp­sons fans and die-hards, and rem­i­nisces about the mak­ing of peren­ni­al­ly favorite episodes.

In his free­wheel­ing, irrev­er­ent com­ic style, Reiss reflects on his life­time inside The Simp­sons – a per­son­al high­lights reel of his achieve­ments, obser­va­tions, and favorite sto­ries. Spring­field Con­fi­den­tial expos­es why Matt Groen­ing decid­ed to make all of the char­ac­ters yel­low; dish­es on what it’s like to be crammed in a room full of fun­ny writ­ers six­ty hours a week; and tells what Reiss learned after trav­el­ing to sev­en­ty-one coun­tries where The Simp­sons is watched (iron­ic note: there’s no elec­tric­i­ty in many of these places); and even reveals where Spring­field is locat­ed! He fea­tures unique inter­views with Judd Apa­tow, who also pro­vid­ed the fore­word, and Conan O’Brien, as well as with Simp­sons leg­ends Al Jean, Nan­cy Cartwright, Dan Castel­lan­e­ta, and more.

Like Cary Elwes’s As You Wish, Jen­nifer Keishin Arm­strong’s Sein­fel­dia, and Chris Smith’s The Dai­ly Show: An Oral His­to­ry, Spring­field Con­fi­den­tial is a fun­ny, infor­ma­tion­al, and exclu­sive look at one of the most beloved pro­grams in all of tele­vi­sion land.

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