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ENTERTAINMENT
February 21, 2007
My New Thomas Edison
I've been watching The Simpsons season 8 (or is it 9?) with commentaries and the writers all talk about John Swartzwelder a lot. Swartzwelder is a legend among the Simpsons writers for various reasons, among them being that at 59+ and counting, he's written more episodes than anyone else. Matt Groening plugged that he also wrote comedic novels about a stupid detective named Frank Burly that I want to read. (And have read.) Swartzwelder is great.
John: Check out the List of Writers for The Simpsons .
Jeff: Oy vey!
Jeff: As expected, everything David Cohen wrote was good.
John: David Cohen is gold but he's no John Swartzwelder .
John: "According to the DVD commentaries, he used to write episodes while sitting at a booth in his favorite restaurant "drinking copious amounts of coffee and smoking endless cigarettes" (Matt Groening). When California passed an anti-smoking law, Swartzwelder bought the diner booth and installed it in his house, allowing him to smoke and write in peace."
Jeff: What a strange dude.
John: "He is also a staunch libertarian as well as a gun rights advocate, and despite having written many of the environmentally driven episodes, he is described as an "anti-environmentalist." During the commentary of " The Old Man and the Lisa " David X. Cohen related a story of Swartzwelder going on an extended diatribe about how there is more rainforest on Earth now than there was a hundred years ago."
John: Wow, Schwartzwelder has written some classics, including " Whacking Day ", " Krusty Gets Kanceled ", " Bart's Comet ", " Homer the Vigilante " among numerous others.
Jeff: I got stuck in the car after I left Izzy's place. When I got back, there was construction equipment beside and behind the car and they were working on a manhole. The guy said "no more than 10 minutes" and it took 25. Tom Petty's "The Waiting is the Hardest Part" played while I was there.
John: Swartzwelder wrote that episode too.
Jeff: " Five days?! But I'm mad now!"
John: And Swartzwelder wrote the Buck McCoy episode, the Frank Grimes episode and the Hank Scorpio episode.
John: He's my new Thomas Edison .
John: Also, he wrote the episode where Homer gets infatuated with Thomas Edison .
Jeff: John Vitti wrote some great ones, too.
John: That's boring. Quit boring everyone.
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