Springfield Confidential:
Jokes, Secrets, and Outright Lies from a Lifetime Writing for The Simpsons
by Mike Reiss, with Mathew Klickstein
foreword by Judd Apatow
(Harper Collins, 2018)
UPDATED EDITIONS ... Paperback released in late April 2019 followed by foreign editions in Germany, Russia, Czech Republic and Spain
About the Book
In celebration of The Simpsons thirtieth anniversary, the show’s longest-serving writer and producer offers a humorous look at the writing and making of the legendary Fox series that has become one of the most revered artistic achievements in television history.
Four-time Emmy winner Mike Reiss—who has worked on The Simpsons continuously since episode one in 1989—shares stories, scandals, and gossip about working with America’s most iconic cartoon family ever. Reiss explains how the episodes are created, and provides an inside look at the show’s writers, animators, actors and celebrity guests. He answers a range of questions from Simpsons fans and die-hards, and reminisces about the making of perennially favorite episodes.
In his freewheeling, irreverent comic style, Reiss reflects on his lifetime inside The Simpsons—a personal highlights reel of his achievements, observations, and favorite stories. Springfield Confidential exposes why Matt Groening decided to make all of the characters yellow; dishes on what it’s like to be crammed in a room full of funny writers sixty hours a week; and tells what Reiss learned after traveling to seventy-one countries where The Simpsons is watched (ironic note: there’s no electricity in many of these places); and even reveals where Springfield is located! He features unique interviews with Judd Apatow, who also provided the foreword, and Conan O'Brien, as well as with Simpsons legends Al Jean, Nancy Cartwright, Dan Castellaneta, and more.
Like Cary Elwes’ As You Wish, Jennifer Keishin Armstrong’s Seinfeldia, and Chris Smith’s The Daily Show: An Oral History, Springfield Confidential is a funny, informational, and exclusive look at one of the most beloved programs in all of television land.
Amazon #1 Best Seller (TV Shows)
Amazon #1 Best Seller (Comedy Television: Kindle Edition)
Amazon "Best of the Month" Pick
Entertainment Weekly "20 Books to Read in June"; #5 on "Must List"
Parade Magazine's "Parade Pick"
USA Today "New and Noteworthy" Selection
NY Post's "Most Unforgettable Books" of 2018
Vulture's "Top Ten Comedy Books" of 2018
AV Club "Five Books to Read in June"
Semifinalist for Goodreads' "Best Humor Book of 2018"
Semifinalist for 2019 Thurber Prize
Booklist (American Library Association) "Best New Books of the Week"
Press
and editorial reviews
Cracked.com
As founding Simpsons writer and producer Mike Reiss wrote in his 2018 book Springfield Confidential: Jokes, Secrets and Outright Lies from a Lifetime Writing for The Simpsons, which he co-authored with Mathew Klickstein, the original idea for The Itchy & Scratchy Show came from the 1940s-1950s series of animated shorts called Herman and Katnip, which Reiss calls “a cheap, ultra-violent knockoff” of Tom & Jerry. Leave it to the Harvard nerds to make a simple Simpsons joke needlessly inaccessible.
Call of The Simpsons
Das Buch trägt den Untertitel "30 Jahre Simpsons - Das inoffizielle Fanbuch" und ist seit dem 09. September 2019 auch auf Deutsch, erschienen im Heyne Verlag, erhältlich. In dem Buch werden bekannte und eher unbekanntere Fakten und Geschichten aus der Welt hinter den Kulissen der Simpsons gelüftet ...
Booklist (American Library Association)
Reiss has been writing for The Simpsons since before the show went to air ... he got the job because someone else didn’t want it (“Nobody wanted to work on The Simpsons,” he tells us, as hard as that is to believe nowadays); the show, of course, was an instant smash hit, and Reiss’ career path was set ...
Vanity Fair
The book, Springfield Confidential: Jokes, Secrets and Outright Lies from a Lifetime Writing for the Simpsons, by Mike Reiss—an original Simpsons writer still at the show—and Mathew Klickstein, author of a Nickelodeon oral history, contains scads of extremely funny and fascinating background material ...
Kurt Andersen
“The Simpsons is one of America’s greatest cultural products of last few decades, and Mike Reiss was and remains one of its key creators. So if you like The Simpsons, why wouldn’t you read this entertaining, charming and informative insider’s chronicle? I did, and I’m better for it.”
Nancy Cartwright
“Mike Reiss always brings his own unique, quirky, eccentric genius with him.”
Conan O'Brien
“The good is always rare. A truly great comic is rare. Mike Reiss, by definition, is a rarity.”
“Weird Al” Yankovic
“Besides providing a hilarious look at what is perhaps the greatest TV show of all time, Mike Reiss has also created a staggering literary work that is almost completely devoid of typos and grammatical errors. It’s well worth the price of this book for the proofreading skills alone.”
Dick Cavett
“Reiss has done a masterful job of compiling this laugh-filled account of his long years as a writer on this beloved show. It’s the sort of book that makes you wish your dinner guests would go the hell home so you can get back to reading it.”
Dan Castellaneta
“Mike Reiss is a great example of somebody who writes for a living and does it so well in so many different ways. And, of course, he helped write this thing called The Simpsons.”