John Swartzwelder, Revered ‘Simpsons’ Writer, Shares Tips In First Major Interview

Reflecting on the success of The Simpsons, Swartzwelder points to the creative freedom the team enjoyed from the start: “This is a very dangerous way to run a television show, leaving the artists in charge of the art, but it worked out all right in the end. It rained money on the Fox lot for thirty years. There’s a lesson in there somewhere.”

When asked how the team wrote episodes that appealed to all ages, he replies: “We just tried to make ourselves, and each other, laugh. Comedy writers. That was the audience.” He later says, “The Simpsons did something I didn’t think possible: it got viewers to look at writers’ credits on tv shows.” And indeed it made a star of him, worthy of a New Yorker interview.

The article is worth reading for its observations on the show’s history and the craft of comedy writing — and as a very funny bit of writing in its own right.