Simpsons Channel

“I do something most people would do for free,” said Mike Reiss, co-creator of “The Simpsons.” Reiss, who writes and creates episodes for the show, was the keynote speaker for the University of Redlands’ Homecoming convocation Friday night, to a sparse audience in Memorial Chapel. Those who were there were treated to rarely seen footage of “The Simpsons,” as well as “Queer Duck,” a cartoon Reiss created that never got air time. Reiss said that his first job after graduating college and leaving behind The Harvard Lampoon was writing jokes for the movie “Airplane II” and later for “The Late Show With Johnny Carson.” “When it’s your job to write 60 jokes a night, you can’t just get writer’s block,” he joked. “A plumber can’t go to your house and decide, I’m sorry, I can’t plumb for you, because I have plumber’s block. An accountant can’t tell you they can’t do your taxes because they have H&R Block.”

SOURCE: Redlands