‘The Simpsons’: Uncovering the 2 Krusty the Clown Spinoffs That Were Almost Made
The Simpsons has been on for over 30 years and continues to add to its canon of episodes. In all that time, it’s surprising they’ve never tried a spinoff, although they made fun of spinoffs in the classic episode “The Simpsons Spin Off Showcase.” There were plans for a Krusty the Clown spinoff, but two versions of it fizzled out.
Simpsons writer Mike Reiss was a guest on the Hollywood & Levine podcast on June 2, 2021. Reiss revealed the plans for two Krusty the Clown spinoffs, and where some of those ideas ended up instead.
‘The Simpsons’ creator Matt Groening pitched a Krusty the Clown spinoff
Reiss has been a producer on The Simpsons since the beginning and wrote many episodes in the ‘90s. Al Jean was showrunner for most of that time, so it was on the two of them to fulfill Groening’s wishes.
“While we were running The Simpsons, Matt Groening came to us and said, ‘I want to do a spinoff, animated show about Krusty the Clown,’” Reiss said on Hollywood & Levine. “Al and I worked out this whole spinoff show where Krusty the Clown moves to New York and he’s a divorced Dad and he works for a Ted Turner type. We had this whole animated sitcom worked out and pitched it to Matt.”
Matt Groening changed his mind about a ‘Simpsons’ spinoff
Groening’s second idea was even more outrageous, because it wasn’t animated at all.
Reiss recalled, “Matt said, ‘No, I’ve changed my mind. I want to do a live-action Krusty the Clown reality show. We’ll dress Dan Castellaneta up like Krusty the Clown and we’ll send him to work on a tuna boat, and we’ll send him to bartending school.’”
The Krusty the Clown ideas became ‘The Critic’
The Critic was not as long-lasting as The Simpsons but it had two good seasons from 1994 – 1995. Jon Lovitz voiced film critic Jay Sherman, who worked for a Ted Turner type and has a son and ex-wife.
“Neither of those ideas came off but then a couple of years later, we took all the ideas we had for the Krusty the Clown show and made it The Critic,” Reiss said. “We created The Critic. We didn’t really create it. We just took our old ideas and turned it into something else.”
The Critic was even conceived as a live-action vehicle for Lovitz. However, by the mid-’90s, Lovitz was too busy to star in a network TV show. He would later join the cast of Newsradio after Phil Hartman’s murder.
We wrote the whole thing as a live-action show for Jon Lovitz. Jon Lovitz had been on The Simpsons a couple of times, we thought he was hilarious. During the time we were writing the pilot, A League of Their Own came out. Jon Lovitz was suddenly the hottest star in town. So we said, ‘Jon, here’s the show you were going to do for us’ and he said, ‘I’m not going to do that, I’m a movie star.’ He’s walking out of the meeting with us and Jim Brooks, and I just said, ‘What if it’s a cartoon?’ That’s how The Critic became an animated show. It was just this desperation move to keep Jon Lovitz in the room. We explained it’s a cartoon, you can do it around your busy movie schedule. That’s how it became animated.
Mike Reiss, 6/2/21
