John Swartzwelder

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John Swartzwelder

Swartzwelder in 1992
Born November 16, 1950 (1950-11-16) (age 57)
United States
Occupation Television writer

John Swartzwelder (born on November 16, 1950) is an American writer, best known for his work on the animated television series The Simpsons, as well as a number of novels. He is credited with writing the largest number of The Simpsons episodes (55 full episodes, with contributions to four others)[1] by a large margin. Swartzwelder was one of several writers recruited to The Simpsons from the pages of George Meyer's Army Man magazine.

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[edit] Career

Before working on The Simpsons, Swartzwelder had a long career in advertising,[citation needed] after which he began writing for Saturday Night Live, where he met George Meyer.[2] After Meyer quit, he created Army Man and recruited Swartzwelder to help him write the magazine.[3] Along with Meyer, he was recruited to write for The Simpsons because one of their readers was Sam Simon, one of the show's original executive producers.

In 1994, with the show's sixth season, Swartzwelder was granted a special dispensation and allowed to no longer attend rewrite sessions with the rest of the staff, instead just sending his drafts in from home so other writers could revise them. This was a direct result of Swartzwelder's avid smoking coming into conflict with a newly implemented policy banning smoking in the writers' room.[4]

According to his longtime collaborators on The Simpsons, Al Jean and Mike Reiss, Swartzwelder is a huge fan of Preston Sturges films and loves "anything old timey American." This vaguely defined aesthetic presents itself in many of the episodes he has written in the form of wandering hobos, Prohibition-era speakeasies, carnies, 19th-century baseball players, aging Western movie stars, and Sicilian gangsters.

According to DVD commentaries, he used to write episodes while sitting in a booth at a coffee shop "drinking copious amounts of coffee and smoking endless cigarettes". When California passed an anti-smoking law, Swartzwelder bought the diner booth and installed it in his house, allowing him to continue to smoke and write in peace.[4]

At one point his identity was heavily debated amongst The Simpsons fans on the internet. Because he is such a prolific writer of The Simpsons episodes, yet did not appear on any commentaries up to and including season eight it had been theorized that "John Swartzwelder" was an pseudonym for writers either not taking credit for episodes written for one reason or another or episodes written by a number of writers.[5]

He is also a staunch libertarian as well as a gun rights advocate, and despite having written many of the environmentally driven episodes, he has been described as an "anti-environmentalist".[6] David X. Cohen once related a story of Swartzwelder going on an extended diatribe about how there is more rain forest on Earth now than there was a hundred years ago.[7]

Swartzwelder has been absent from writing episodes of The Simpsons since the fifteenth season (2003-04), with his last episode airing (The Regina Monologues) actually being a "holdover" from the fourteenth (2002-2003) season. Since he's stopped writing scripts he has begun writing novels, beginning with the 2004 publication of The Time Machine Did It starring Private investigator Frank Burly. The next year he published Double Wonderful before returning to the Burly character for How I Conquered Your Planet and The Exploding Detective.[8] He did, however, return to The Simpsons in 2007 for The Simpsons Movie.[9]

[edit] Reclusiveness

Swartzwelder is a notorious recluse and rarely, if ever, makes public appearances in connection with The Simpsons. He did not participate in any of the audio commentaries on the first ten Simpsons DVD sets. During the commentary for the ninth-season episode "The Cartridge Family", Mike Scully called Swartzwelder on the phone. After speaking for a few minutes Swartzwelder ended the call by saying, "Too bad this is not really John Swartzwelder".[10]

[edit] References on The Simpsons

Swartzwelder's animated likeness, from the episode "Hurricane Neddy"
Swartzwelder's animated likeness, from the episode "Hurricane Neddy"
Free John Swartzwelder.
Free John Swartzwelder.

Swartzwelder has been animated in the background of several episodes of The Simpsons. His animated likeness closely resembles musician David Crosby; prompting Matt Groening to state that anytime that David Crosby appears in a scene for no apparent reason, it is really John Swartzwelder.[11] Some of the episodes in which Swartzwelder has appeared include:

  • In "The Day the Violence Died", Swartzwelder is one of the "surprise witnesses" called by Lionel Hutz.
  • In "Bart the Fink", he is one of the attendees at Krusty's fake funeral with Kermit The Frog on his arm.
  • In "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily", his likeness appears as a statue (on a horse) outside a courthouse.
  • In "Bart After Dark", he can be seen as one of the clients watching the show in the burlesque house.
  • In "The Front", the Itchy and Scratchy writers are all caricatures of the The Simpsons writing team at the time, one of whom is Swartzwelder. In addition, Bart and Lisa are seen referencing a book titled "How to Get Rich Writing Cartoons" that was written by John Schwartzwelder.
  • In "Hurricane Neddy", he can be seen pacing in a padded cell inside a mental hospital. Later in the episode a sign reading "Free John Swartzwelder" can be seen briefly (behind Barney Gumble) during the fanfare of Ned Flanders' release from the same hospital.
  • In the episode Thank God It's Doomsday he can be seen on the blimp behind Krusty before it crashes

In addition to his likeness being animated into the show, various other references to him have been slipped in, with his name being used to name various things in "freeze frame" jokes.

  • The episode "Burns, Baby Burns" features a "Mt. Swartzwelder".
  • In "Dog of Death", Santa's Little Helper is shown wandering through Swartzwelder County.
  • In "The Front", Lisa and Bart read a book entitled How to Get Rich Writing Cartoons, which is written by John Swartzwelder.

[edit] The Simpsons episodes by Swartzwelder

  1. ^  - with George Meyer, Sam Simon and Jon Vitti
  2. ^  - "Bad Dream House" segment
  3. ^  - with Sam Simon
  4. ^  - contributor
  5. ^  - "Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores" segment
  6. ^  - teleplay, story by Bob Kushell

[edit] Books by Swartzwelder

[edit] References

  1. ^ Episodes by writer. Simpsons Archive. Retrieved on 2007-07-01.
  2. ^ Rabin, Nathan. Robert Smigel interview. The A.V. Club. Retrieved on 2007-08-11. “I actually shared a room with this guy John Swartzwelder, a legendary Simpsons writer.”
  3. ^ Finley, Adam (2006-03-03). In the Limelight: John Swartzwelder. TV Squad. Retrieved on 2007-05-03.
  4. ^ a b Groening, Matt. (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Grade School Confidential" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  5. ^ Groening, Matt; Jean, Al; Reiss, Mike; Lapidus, Adam; Moore, Rich. (2004). The Simpsons The Complete Fourth Season DVD commentary for the episode "The Front" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  6. ^ Cohen, David X.. (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode "The Old Man and the Lisa" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  7. ^ Cohen, David X.. (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode "The Old Man and the Lisa" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  8. ^ HUMOR NOVELS BY JOHN SWARTZWELDER. Kenny Dale Books. Retrieved on 2007-05-03.
  9. ^ John Swartzwelder. New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-05-03.
  10. ^ Scully, Mike; Swartzwelder, John. (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Ninth Season DVD commentary for the episode "The Cartridge Family" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  11. ^ Groening, Matt. (2005). The Simpsons The Complete Seventh Season DVD commentary for the episode "Bart the Fink" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.

[edit] External links

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