Few television shows have left a cultural footprint in the global consciousness quite like The Simpsons. Mike Reiss is the four-time Emmy Award-winning television writer and producer, best known for his extensive work on the series. Although best known for helping shape the world of Springfield, Reiss has also written for blockbuster animated films including Ice Age, Horton Hears a Who!, Despicable Me, Minions and Kung Fu Panda 3.
On a bright summer’s evening at Highgate’s famous Upstairs at the Gatehouse venue, Reiss strolls onto stage with a presence that instantly demonstrates why he is held in such high regard in the world of comedy writing. In casual attire, with a bright Simpsons-yellow tie, he is both unassuming and engaging. His delivery style is akin to a raconteur trading stories over drinks, rather than a comedian working a room – he blends factual information about The Simpsons world, with behind-the-scenes anecdotes, in the seamless sort of fashion that allows us to find ourselves enjoyably lost in his world for the two-hour run time.
Reiss describes how the show’s originator, Matt Groening, was a struggling cartoonist before a make-or-break meeting with television executives – where, just five minutes beforehand, he realised he hadn’t even named the family at the heart of his new idea. In a flash of inspiration, he borrowed the names of his own parents and sisters – Homer, Marge, Lisa and Maggie – while Bart was simply an anagram of the word ‘brat.’ From that fateful commission meeting onwards, there has been no stopping the juggernaut. Nearly four decades later, The Simpsons has grown into a $14 billion cultural institution, becoming the longest-running scripted primetime series in American television history and one of the most influential shows ever created.
To give an idea of creative scale, there are twenty-two episodes a year, a 23-strong writers’ room, and it takes nine months to a year in the making for every single episode, with roughly 300 artists involved at any one time. There are just six voice actors, conjuring some 200 characters between them – Reiss let us in on the detail that those six performers each earn around $400,000 a week – or roughly $40 a second! In Reiss’ own words, the eye-watering figures are simply proof of the consensus – ‘they simply create magic.’
It is the behind-the-scenes anecdotes that truly make the evening come alive. Everybody knows that some of the world’s biggest stars have had guest spots on The Simpsons – Reiss tells us an account of Elon Musk himself, asking the production team to delay the episode for two weeks after deciding he was unhappy with his performance. After being granted the request, Musk allegedly underwent intensive acting lessons, before coming back into the studio to re-record his guest lines… only to actually sound worse on the second attempt. Another anecdote that had the house in fits of laughter, was the tale about Bill Clinton’s response when asked if he would honour a cameo on The Simpsons: he refused, on the grounds that he’d ‘never do anything to bring disgrace to office.’
Act Two shifts gears, tackling the show’s reputation as a modern-day oracle of sorts. A longstanding zeitgeist surrounds The Simpsons, that says the writers possess an almost prophetic ability to predict major global and cultural events. Reiss is far too sharp a writer to let the audience walk away thinking the show has genuine clairvoyant powers… allegedly, it all began after the Season 11 episode ‘Bart to the Future,’ where Lisa Simpson becomes President of the United States. Whilst she’s in The White House, she delivers the line ‘we’ve inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump.’ Reiss explains that as far back as the year 1999, Donald Trump was always known for talking about running for President – so it just happened to be a lucky guess, that The Simpsons got right.
However, from there on, the idea snowballed in the minds of fans. Another seemingly prophetic moment involved Homer descending to the ocean floor in a submersible. Reiss explains that the storyline stemmed from his own experience of travelling aboard the real Titan years before its tragic implosion, rather than any uncanny ability to foresee the future. Reiss concludes this segment by sharing that there’s a joke among a few in the writer’s office, that if they could truly predict the future, they would have married their second wives first.
The show then segues naturally into a thoughtful segment about the science of writing jokes: Reiss argues that satire works, because good jokes need two things to work – logical sense, and the element of surprise. It’s a simple description, but it’s the kind of insight that reframes everything that came before it.
Funny, insightful and consistently entertaining, this is a show that rewards Simpsons obsessives and inquisitive theatregoers in equal measure. As the evening drew to a close, we spilled into the historic pub downstairs still laughing, dissecting our favourite stories, and with a deeper appreciation for the extraordinary team of writers ‘behind the yellow curtain,’ whose wit, imagination and relentless creativity have turned The Simpsons into one of television’s most enduring cultural achievements.
Review by Louise Czupich
Comedy producer Mike Reiss won four Emmys during his thirty-six years writing movie scripts, American TV shows and countless episodes of The Simpsons. ‘Entertainment Weekly’ called Season 4 of The Simpsons “the greatest season of the greatest show in history”.
Mike Reiss lectures regularly throughout the USA and onboard cruise ships including Cunard’s QM2. This Summer Mike makes his UK debut visiting London, Stockport, Birmingham and Brighton. His talk also features ‘The Science of Jokes’ and a Q&A when Mike answers the fans favourite question “Just how do The Simpsons always manage to predict the future?”
SECRETS OF THE SIMPSONS
Stories and Scandals from Springfield
Upstairs at the Gatehouse, 26 July, 2 and 3 August 2026
