The five releases that led to the musical Planet of the Apes

The seventh season of “The Simpsons” is one of the best seasons of television ever aired. Not only was the show still in its “golden age” and offering one classic gag after another at the time, but season 7 is also notable for containing some of the best Milhouse episodes in the show’s history, including the brilliant “Summer of 4ft.” 2,” in which the level of sheer emotional abuse Milhouse endures remains one of the most hilariously dark jokes the show has ever attempted.

What’s more, season 7 introduced us to “A Fish Named Selma,” in which actor Troy McClure marries Marge’s sister as part of his comeback attempt. On his way back to stardom, McClure stars in the ridiculous musical “Stop the Planet of the Apes, I Want to Get Off!” which features a big musical number named after the character Dr. Zaius from the original film. On its own, this scene could arguably make “A Fish Called Selma” one of the best episodes of “The Simpsons.” Even now, the show continues to reference what remains his greatest musical moment, perhaps with the exception of the song Monorail.

With “Stop the Planet of the Apes,” the show managed in two minutes to parody the 1968 film “Planet of the Apes,” Austrian artist Falco’s pop hit “Rock Me Amadeus,” the 1961 musical “Stop the Apes.” World, I want to get off!” and the idea of ​​musicals in general, with the unctuous performances of the musical’s cast generating the worst impulses of musical theater. There’s even a section where an ape breakdances, which, coincidentally, was one of several outlandish releases released after showrunners Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein decided to lean on their writers’ craziest ideas.

The first draft of the script for “Fish Named Selma” did not even include the musical “Planet of the Apes.” The show’s writers simply knew they needed Troy McClure to make a big comeback, but once the musical idea came up, it set off a chain reaction in the writers’ room in which five “crazy” releases coalesced into this moment of genius. satirical.

Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein had been with “The Simpsons” since season three, but became showrunners for season seven, bringing with them a considerable amount of writing experience and wisdom. As Weinstein explained in a thread on Twitter/XOne of the best writing pieces of advice he received was to always lean on outlandish ideas, or as he put it, “Never throw out an idea, no matter how crazy or stupid it may seem. Stick with it. It may be nothing.” Or it becomes the Dr. Zaius scene.”

As the former showrunner explained, every writer on the show contributed to the finished musical, and each pitch inspired the next. Weinstein went on to reveal that the “Stop the Planet of the Apes” scene was actually the “combination of five separate ‘crazy’ ‘stupid’ pitches,” which he and Oakley entertained to see where they led.

According to Josh Weinstein, the whole idea for “Stop the Planet of the Apes” started when writer Steve Tompkins proposed, “What if we made a ‘Planet of the Apes’ musical?'” and Weinstein commented, “This is it.” “Crazy or a stupid idea or both, but we all loved it and we could all feel the potential, so I say let’s at least explore this and see if it goes anywhere.” Of course, it went somewhere, and Tompkins’ idea led his fellow writers to see how ridiculous they could make this particular parody.

Since Weinstein had never seen the original 1968 “Planet of the Apes,” a film that needed more makeup artists than Hollywood could provide, he asked the writers’ room to verify some key facts about the film before pitching his own idea: “So you know that Falco song?” This was the genesis of “Rock Me Amadeus”. This is how the song “Dr. Zaius” was born. But that was just the beginning.

The third pitch came from veteran “Simpsons” writer George Meyer, who suggested “interspersing (the) song with corny/stupid vaudeville-style jokes, like the piano joke.” The piano joke refers to Troy McClure asking mid-song if he can still play the piano, to which Dr. Zaius replies, “Of course you can,” only for McClure to sing, “Well, I couldn’t before.” “. A stanchion is then brought up onto the stage and the actor performs a brief interlude before the song resumes. That all came from Meyer.

With the main idea solidified and with some fun additions from George Meyer and Josh Weinstein, “Stop the Planet of the Apes” was starting to take shape. But at that point the pitching machine was in motion and other writers started pitching equally ridiculous but hilarious ideas. The fourth of them arrived when Dr. Zauis was accompanied by a nurse. “Someone proposes, since he’s a doctor, that his nurse start the song with ‘Oo, help me, Dr. Zaius,'” Weinstein wrote in his Twitter/X thread. “I have no idea if there’s even a nurse in the movie, but sure, it’s a great way to start.”

Finally, the former showrunner recalled another writer, whose name he has since forgotten, who proposed the idea of ​​having the big musical number “Dr. Zaius” include “a lot of breakdancing moves.” Because? Because, as Weinstein said, “At the time, that seemed like a trend in a lot of flashy Broadway musicals.” This was the fifth and final keynote speech that formed the “Stop the Planet of the Apes” parody. But there were still some honorable mentions that Weinstein included in his thread.

In “A Fish Called Selma”, we move from the performance of “Dr. Zaius” to the climax of the musical itself, during which Troy McClure sings “I hate every ape I see, from Chimpan-A to Chimpanzee”, which follows being one of the best lines in the musical history of “The Simpsons”, perhaps in the history of the show in general. Josh Weinstein recalled how that particular addition really took things to another level in the writers’ room. “At some point in the middle of this whole process,” Weinstein wrote, “(‘Futurama’ writer and showrunner) David Cohen launched the ‘Chimpan-A to Chimpanzee’ line, which was one of the rare/only times in which that we knew instantly that a His line would become a classic. Its release elevated everyone’s releases to a new higher level.” According to Weinstein, Cohen’s contribution was the point at which everyone in the room knew they had to move forward with the “crazy” and “stupid” ideas they had been putting forward.

While the releases at the time may have been “stupid,” the enduring appeal of “Stop the Planet of the Apes” speaks to how seemingly absurd ideas can actually mean much more than they seem. The “A Fish Called Selma” musical remains one of the best parodies in “The Simpsons” history, and one look at the comments on Weinstein’s thread should be enough to convince you that this ridiculous idea for a musical was much more than a “stupid idea.” It remains one of the fan-favorite moments in a series that is filled with some of the best moments in television history.

For Weinstein, all of this simply validated his idea of ​​embracing seemingly ridiculous ideas. The writer ended his thread by saying: “If you have an idea and right after it occurs to you, you have the feeling that ‘there’s something special there,’ stick with it. The worst that can happen is that you waste a few minutes or hours. “The best thing? Something that speaks to a lot of people and makes them happy.”