Woah, bit of a shock from the world of The Simpsons tonight as two-time Emmy winning composer Alf Clausen has been, for lack of a better word, fired!
Clausen has been working on the show for 27 years (almost 600 episodes) and now he’s gone, although there’s no official work from Fox on the issue.
According to Clausen himself he was told via phone call from producer Richard Sakai that they were letting him go as they wanted “a different kind of music”.
Ouch.
Speculation is that, despite The Simpsons making an extraordinary amount of money, Clausen’s use of a 35-piece orchestra every week was an unnessecary expense, despite it being something that creator Matt Groening insisted on since day one on the show.
Could this be an extension of the cost-cutting that almost lost the show Harry Shearer not so long ago (here)?
Either way, he’s gone…what does this mean for the show’s future? Unknown. We just hope Fox isn’t stupid enough to get rid of Danny Elfman’s iconic theme.
They wouldn’t.
Would they?
UPDATE:
The show’s producers have now issued a statement about Clausen’s future on the show, which they say he still has:
“We tremendously value Alf Clausen’s contributions to the Simpsons and he will continue to have an ongoing role in the show,” producers said in a statement provided to Deadline. “We remain committed to the finest in music for the Simpsons, absolutely including orchestral. This is the part where we would make a joke but neither Alf’s work nor the music of the Simpsons is treated as anything but seriously by us.”
What exactly this means is unclear, but it looks like he won’t be entirely gone from the show.
Source: Variety & Deadline
Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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