Watching Simpsons

If Nancy Cartwright were to walk into a crowded deli and order a sandwhich, she’d likely not be noticed by the staff or the hungry patrons. Cartwright is a voice-over actor, and the nature of the work usually keeps the audience from seeing her face. When she’s in character, she’s also likely talking in a voice that doesn’t sound like her own. After all, Nancy Cartwrights longest running job has her giving life to a cartoon character, one that’s widely known to many. She is the voice and the soul of Bart Simpson.

However, Cartwright has not been type-casted. Bart is just one of the stellar high points in her long career. To say that she’s only “Bart Simpson” would be grossly unfair, as even though she, and her cast mates, have had a lengthy run, she’s far from typecasted herself. In fact, Cartwright has many other projects to attend to when she’s involved with The Simpsons. She produces for two companies: SportsBlast and Cartwright entertainment. SportsBlast produces sports related content, much like the The Kellys, an online animated feature, which is produced in association with Turner Sports Interactive and NASCAR. Cartwright Entertainment covers most of everything else. In addition to all of that, Cartwright also frequently writes for Animation World Magazine. It’s in that capacity that she recently interviewed Al Jean, one of the creative forces behind The Simpsons.

The interview, though specialized for the business of animation and voice-over acting, is general enough that any admirer could understand and comprehend. In the interview, Jean has some interesting things to say about his experience:

I never dreamed The Simpsons would became an international hit lasting more than 19 years, but I always thought it would be a high-quality show, thanks to the involvement of Matt Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon. I was one of the first staff writers hired for The Simpsons, and the show then basically worked the same as today, with a writer’s first draft being constantly rewritten by the whole staff — except today the staff is about twice as large (20 writers).

As for recent success, Jean rates the Simpsons Movie pretty high:

My proudest career accomplishment was releasing The Simpsons Movie this year, two months after we aired our 400th episode. My proudest accomplishments in general are my daughters Monica and Violet.