The Simpsons isn’t any underachiever on the subject of Emmy Awards, having notched 37 wins over its run that spans 35 seasons and counting.
Two of its victories got here within the excellent authentic music and lyrics class — and in back-to-back years. The Fox animated collection, certainly one of few weekly reveals to be scored with a full orchestra, topped the class in 1997 with the tune “We Put the Spring in Springfield” from the season eight episode “Bart After Darkish.”
The track — through which the workers of a burlesque home pitches the city on why it deserves to exist, a lot to Marge’s chagrin — featured music by collection composer Alf Clausen and lyrics by then-producer Ken Keeler. The next 12 months, Clausen and Keeler received once more for “You’re Checkin’ In (A Musical Tribute to the Betty Ford Heart),” a fake Broadway tune feting the celebrity-favored rehab facility for the present’s season 9 premiere, “The Metropolis of New York vs. Homer Simpson.”
In 1998, Clausen — who joined The Simpsons in its second season — informed THR that music had turn out to be extra pivotal for the present than within the early years. “Songs can advance the tales faster than the written phrase, and the castmembers have gotten higher and higher at singing as time goes on,” he stated.
Clausen, who exited his position as full-time composer in 2017, was honored in 2003 throughout a recording session for the three hundredth episode. Hal Espinosa, president of the American Federation of Musicians Native 47, introduced Clausen with a plaque to commemorate his achievement, and collection creator Matt Groening informed THR, “From the start of this present, music has been so necessary. We’ve bought the loopy animation, the loopy writing and the loopy voices — it’s the music that actually provides the present its emotional core.”
Whereas the music class has currently been dominated by streaming collection (Ted Lasso received most lately, with a track from its season three finale), The Simpsons continues to really feel the Emmy love, having prevailed as finest animated program on the January 2024 ceremony.
This story first appeared in a Might standalone situation of The Hollywood Reporter journal. Click on right here to subscribe.