Writing A Simpsons Episode Was Too Hard For Ricky Gervais

In the “Simpsons” episode “Homer Simpson, This is Your Wife” (March 26, 2006), Homer (Dan Castellaneta) becomes obsessed with the crisp images on an HDTV and decides he has to purchase one. To get the money, he enlists his family into a reality TV series called “Mother Flippers,” wherein the matriarchs of two families swap places. Marge (Julie Kavner) is sent to live with the dandyish Charles Heathbar (Ricky Gervais), while Homer welcomes Charles’ stern wife Verity (Tress MacNeille). Over the course of the episode, Charles develops a crush on Marge, while Verity will begin developing a romance with Marge’s sister, Patty (Kavner). “This is Your Wife” aired during the 17th season of “The Simpsons,” so the series was already enormous and influential. Indeed, “This is Your Wife” only came into being because the makers of “The Simpsons” were fans of the British TV series “The Office” and wanted to meet its creator and star, Ricky Gervais . In 2006, Gervais was gaining more and more traction as a major comedy actor, having made “The Office” from 2001 to 2003 and then launched his series “Extras” in 2005. That same year saw the premiere of the American reboot of “The Office,” which would also become an enormous hit, after Gervais had just won an Emmy. “The Simpsons” creator Matt Groening was a fan of Gervais’ comedy, so he wanted to have a lunch with Gervais to congratulate and chat with him. According to the history book “Springfield Confidential” by Miek Reiss and Mathew Klickstein, that meeting was also meant to be an invitation for Gervais to appear on “The Simpsons.” It also spun out into an ambitious plan for Gervais to write an episode himself. However, it seems that Gervais’ writing ambitions stalled out. Homer Simpson, This is Your Wife 20th Television Reiss admitted in “Springfield Confidential” that many of the writers on “The Simpsons” had allowed their pop influence to go to their heads and started to write characters and scripts with the express purpose of meeting their comedy heroes. Gervais, he explained, was just on their hit […]

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