Original ‘Simpsons’ Writer Says She Was Shut Out of Writers Room Because She’s a Woman
“Sam Simon, who was the showrunner, didn’t want any women around because he was going through a divorce,” Mimi Pond says
Reid Nakamura | August 11, 2017 @ 3:58 PM
Last Updated: August 11, 2017 @ 4:02 PM
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Mimi Pond, the writer of the first-broadcast episode of “The Simpsons,” says she was shut out of the Fox cartoon’s writers’ room because then-showrunner Sam Simon only wanted men writers.
Pond, the cartoonist who wrote the show’s premiere episode “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire,” was never hired as a full-time writer on the show because Simon refused to have women on his staff, she said in a Jezebel interview earlier this week.
“I was never invited to be on staff, and I never knew why for the longest time,” she said. “No one ever called me or explained to me or apologized or anything. And it wasn’t until years later that I found out that Sam Simon, who was the showrunner, didn’t want any women around because he was going through a divorce. It had remained a boys’ club for a good long time.”
Pond said in the interview she was introduced to Goening by a mutual friend and was asked to write an episode before the series launched in 1989. Scheduling dictated that her episode happened to serve as the series premiere, but after that Pond was never asked to write another. “The Simpsons” is heading into Season 29 this fall.
“I feel like I was just as qualified as anyone else who came along and got hired on the show, and it was just because I was a woman that I was, you know, not allowed entry into that club,” she continued. “I always wind up being the turd in the punchbowl because the show is so beloved and everything, and I’m sorry to burst bubbles but [laughs]. It wasn’t a pleasant experience for me.”
Simon co-developed the series in 1989 with James L. Brooks and Matt Groening, and served as executive producer until leaving the show in 1993. He went on to co-create “The George Carlin Show,” and serve as a director on a number of other sitcoms including “The Drew Carey Show” and “Friends.” He died in 2015.
Pond went on to publish the graphic novel “Over Easy” in 2014, with the follow-up “The Customer is Always Wrong” set for release later this month.
15 Times 'The Simpsons' Predicted the Future (Photos)
"The Simpsons" has an eerie knack for predicting the future, from Donald Trump's presidency to U.S. beating Sweden for an Olympic gold medal in curling. Here are 14 times the long-running comedy series got it right.
Lady Gaga
On the episode "Lisa Goes Gaga," Lady Gaga is shown suspended by cables flying over the audience at a concert. Well surprise, surprise because at the Super Bowl LI's halftime show, Gaga descended from the stadium's roof with suspension cables wearing pretty much the same outfit on her episode.
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2016 Nobel Prize Winner
In a 2010 episode, Milhouse predicted that Bengt R. Holmstrom would win the Nobel Prize in Economics and, sure enough, in 2016 Holmstrom and Oliver Hart were announced as joint winners of the prize.
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Donald Trump Presidency
In an episode from 2000 titled "Bart to the Future" that flashes forward to the future, Lisa becomes president and takes over after Donald Trump, apparently, ruined the economy.
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Siegfried and Roy Tiger Attack
In 1993, an episode titled "$pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)," magicians in a Siegfried and Roy-like show got attacked by their trustworthy tiger.
In 2003, Roy was attacked by one of their white tigers during a live performance. He sustained injuries, but lived.
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Arnold Palmer
On the 28th season premiere, the satirical series made an Arnold Palmer joke... on the day that golfer Arnold Palmer died.
Homer Simpson tells his wife Marge that he plans to “Arnold Palmer” his pal Lenny.
“Arnold Palmer Lenny?” Marge responds. “You’re going to Arnold Palmer Lenny?”
He was of course referring to the lemonade and iced tea drink mixture -- which was named after the golfer.
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Faulty Voting Machine
During the 2012 elections, a voting machine proved faulty when votes cast for Barack Obama went to Mitt Romney instead.
In a 2008 episode, Homer Simpson went to the voting booths to cast a vote for Obama, but... his vote went to McCain instead.
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Higgs Boson
In a 1998 episode, "The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace," Homer writes out an equation on a chalkboard which, if solved, “you get the mass of a Higgs boson that’s only a bit larger than the nano-mass of a Higgs boson actually is," says Simon Singh, science author.
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Horse Meat Scandal
In 1994, an episode titled "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song," the lunch lady was seen reaching into a barrel labeled "assorted horse parts" and putting the meat into the school's lunch pot.
In 2013, it was reported that traces of horse DNA was found in beef products across the UK.
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Guitar Hero
The now basically extinct but once popular video game Guitar Hero was first released in 2005.
But in a 2002 "The Simpsons" episode, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards give Homer a jacket that has "guitar hero" printed on the back of it.
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Farmville
The virtual reality game, Farmville, was all the craze in 2009 with people rushing home from work or school to tend to their farm.
In a 1998 episode, "The Simpsons" shows a scene were kids are excited to play in a yard work simulator.
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Old Beatles Letters
In Season 2's episode 18, "Brush With Greatness," Ringo Starr from the Beatles is shown responding to fan letters while saying: "They took the time to write me, and I don’t care if it takes me another 20 years. I’m going to answer every one of them."
Well, two women in England received a reply to their fan mail form Sir Paul McCartney 50 years later.
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Smart Watches
Sorry Apple, but "The Simpsons" had smart watches first.
In a 1995 episode in which the show is set in the future, Lisa's husband is shown speaking to a phone on his wrist.
The first smartwatch wasn't created until 2013.
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Disney Owns Fox
Back in 1998, a quick scene in "The Simpsons" showed 20th Century Fox as "a Division of Walt Disney Co." And in March 2019, Disney completed its $71.3 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox’s film and TV assets.
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U.S. Wins an Olympic Gold Medal in Curling
In 2010, Homer and Marge beat Sweden and took home an Olympic gold medal for Team U.S.A. in Mixed Match Curling. As the animated sportscaster said, "Open your history books, tear out the pages and put this indelible Olympic moment in."
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Murder Hornets and Coronavirus
In a 1993 episode, a Japanese factory worker accidentally spreads the contagious "Osaka Flu" to Springfield, and in the town peoples' rush to find a cure, they accidentally knock over a van with killer bees inside. The spread of "murder hornets" in America has coincided with the coronavirus in 2020. The coincidence was first noticed by former "Simpsons" writer Bill Oakley.
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From Donald Trump’s presidency to Disney buying Fox to the spread of “murder hornets”
"The Simpsons" has an eerie knack for predicting the future, from Donald Trump's presidency to U.S. beating Sweden for an Olympic gold medal in curling. Here are 14 times the long-running comedy series got it right.
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