John Ortved, author of The Simpsons: The Text Of Young America

Posted by Maximum Fun on 5th December 2009

John Ortved is a Toronto born, New York based writer. His work has appeared in New York, Interview, Vice, The New York Observer and Vanity Fair, where he was the youngest published feature writer in the magazine’s history. Ortved is also the author of The Simpsons, an unauthorized and uncensored behind-the-scene’s look into America’s favorite family. Anyone who’s ever been a Simpsons fan will find the book a funny, controversial, and fascinating read, especially if you loved the early (read: best) years. Ortved managed to speak to more than a few key players in the show’s history, including Conan O’Brien and Hank Azaria, despite strong efforts by James L. Brooks to keep everyone involved in the show quiet.

Chris Bowman: There are so many twists and turns in The Simpsons that were difficult if not impossible to anticipate. Who knew there was so much drama behind America’s most loved family? Sometimes the characters behind the scenes fall into an unfavorable light. How did you get the ball rolling on an unauthorized, uncensored biography?

John Ortved: The book developed from a piece I did for Vanity Fair; I pitched the idea of an oral history of The Simpsons back in 2006, when I was a 26-year old editorial associate there. I’ve always loved the oral history format – one of the most memorable pieces of Journalism for me is an oral history of The Beastie Boys that I read when I was a 17 (ironically, I forget in which magazine, though I’m fairly certain it was SPIN…maybe Q….I smoked a lot of weed as a teenager); I also love George Plimpton’s Edie, American Girl and Legs McNeil’s Please Kill me – and I thought including all those very singular voices that were involved in The Simpsons (Conan O’Brien, James L. Brooks, Rupert Murdoch) would be the best way to tell that story. Additionally, I was a pretty young journalist and VF regularly features some fairly seasoned writers – I thought that if it was an oral history, there was a better chance of them letting me write it. Still, I got super lucky; it was only through the kindness of a couple editors that I got the assignment.

The Simpsons people wavered on cooperating for a couple months, and then, once I started working on the piece, and it got back to James L. Brooks that I was asking questions about Sam Simon (The Simpsons “other” creator, who was exiled from the show after Season 4), they pulled their cooperation completely. After the piece came out, and I started expanding it into a book, Brooks actually sent a letter to everyone who works or had worked on the show, telling them not to speak to me. I have the letter (obviously not everyone obeyed – his own people thought it was incredibly douchey). I also have some letters from their lawyers. Additionally, I have some letters that kids sent to Santa Claus – but I stole those from a mailbag. Kids are idiots.

For further insight from John Ortved click Read More.

CB: The interesting thing about James L. Brooks is that he is known for creating heartwarming, very human, movies and TV shows (ie: Broadcast News, Terms of Endearment, Mary Tyler Moore, Taxi). He clearly has a softer side, but often in the book he comes across as a tyrant. It seems as though there was a lot of animosity, even early on, amongst the creative forces behind the show. What did you learn that surprised you the most?

JO: I don’t think James L. Brooks comes across as tyrannical in the book, per se – other people paint a portrait of a really complicated, mercurial guy, someone whose illuminations are balanced by a certain darkness. He actively tried to inhibit my Simpsons History project. In the book former friends accuse him of bilking them out of money, and people I interviewed certainly alluded to his capacity for vengeance and viciousness.

I will say this; in his 40 year career in Hollywood, the worst thing that’s ever been written about him is that he is intense to work with, and parsimonious. To have a career as successful as Brooks’ and to have almost only flattering things written about you speaks to his power, and his genius. And straight up: this guy is a genius.

Maybe at the end of the day his behavior and morality is apart from his craft. I don’t buy that argument, but there’s certainly a legitimate strain of criticism that looks at an author’s work totally apart from the man.

CB: Maybe tyrant was a little harsh. And to paraphrase the book, more than anything, Brooks is a businessman. Brooks was responsible for picking Sam Simon, who was responsible for putting together the original writing team. In that legendary group of writers was John Swartzwelder, a man who is credited with having written more episodes than any other, by far. He is notoriously elusive. Did you attempt to track him down? What happened?

JO: I reached out to John Swartzwelder’s agent, who, if I remember correctly, said he wasn’t even going to bother passing my request along. A bunch of the Simpsons writers are represented by a couple of agents at the agency that was Endeavor, run by Ari Emanuel. After a certain amount of requests, they basically told me to stop calling. One agent said, “James L. Brooks is against this, and there’s no way I’m not going to advise my client to participate.” Eventually, I had a mutual associate of mine and Ari’s call him up. Emanuel said he couldn’t even begin to talk about it – Brooks was so pissed and the situation was such a mess – it was a complete non-starter.

Swartzwelder left the show a few years ago. He now focuses full time on these hilarious little novellas he writes and self-publishes, like “The Time Machine Did It,” and “The Exploding Detective.” He sounds amazingly singular and funny. Brent Forrester, another writer, once asked him what he would do if he had all the money he could spend, and, without missing a beat, Swartzwelder answered “I’d buy the Empire State building and a battleship.” He continued, ‘With the Empire State Building, I would let it fall into complete disrepair, and people would say “you can’t do that – that’s the Empire State Building’,” and I would say, ‘yes I can, I own it’. As for the battleship, I think people would just speak to me very differently if they knew I owned a battleship.”

I’m sorry; that’s just awesome.

CB: The original writers room was together for three or four years before new blood was introduced. Although unknown to the general public, Conan O’Brien was already famous among comedy writers. While show runners like Sam Simon, Mike Reiss, and Al Jean are credited with either creating or changing the overall direction of the show, O’Brien is credited with changing the direction of the writing (citing the monorail episode). The chapter on O’Brien almost reads like a love letter to the man and his talent.

JO: Conan seems to have been a genuinely funny presence in the room. It was described to me as “the 10-hour Conan O’Brien Show.” He was also described to me as a shoe-in to be named showrunner if he hadn’t gone off to do his tv show. He was one of the few people at the time he was hired who was famous just for being a writer; he was that funny. He described himself to me as the “monkey in the room” because he would do these bits that the other writers would call for. Like “The Nervous Writer,” where he would fill his mouth with Diet Coke and then pretend to have some hideous fit, all the while attempting to pitch a joke. Stuff like that. Interviewing Conan was a joy. The man speaks in perfect paragraphs – and everything he says is funny.

One reason he has such a prominent place in the book is that he was one of the few Simpsons pillars who agreed to speak on the record. Another reason is that no one involved in the series has become as prominent as Conan O’Brien. As one of the writers said to me: “To become as famous as Conan, you’d have to shoot a president.”

CB: You also talk a bit about the varying degree of quality in the show since around season 9 or 10. What kind of comments were being made by the early contributors about the show’s gradual slide in to it’s current mediocre state?

JO: The older writers and producers were fairly generous about the show’s current status. They would comment on how they’re “amazed” that the show keeps going after so long, or say things like “it’s gotten a little simpler.” Yet everyone from fans to current writers pretty much agree that the show now sucks. But that suckiness is a relative one. The Simpsons has been somewhat devoured by its own prodigy: the likes of Family Guy, South Park, and the other shows it’s influenced, like The Office, and The Daily Show. These shows are so fast and funny and on point, The Simpsons looks old and rusty in comparison. But compared to the normal network fare–Two and A Half Men, Ugly Betty–The Simpsons still looks pretty good.

John Ortved will be appearing at The Cinema Arts Centre in Long Island on 12/13 and the Brooklyn Public Library on 12/17.