Production
One of the writers for The Simpsons suggested that they should create an episode that focuses on Homer in a barbershop quartet and "a big parody of The Beatles". The episode was written by Jeff Martin, who was an "obsessive" Beatles fan, making him "a natural to write ". Mark Kirkland, a "huge" Beatles fan, directed the episode, and ensured that The Beatles' references were accurate. Kirkland enjoyed directing the episode because unlike other episodes he directed, he did not experience any trouble animating "Homer's Barbershop Quartet". The animators liked creating The Beatles' gags and enjoyed the barbershop music. After the animators synchronized the audio track, music, and animation, they "just fell in love" with it. They also enjoyed working on the choreography of The Be Sharps and trying to match the characters' movements with the music. They were inspired by The Beatles' film Let It Be, including the shots of the band in the recording studio where they decide to break up. Kirkland did not think there was anything "spectacular" in the episode's animation, but he and his animation team "just loved" working on it.
In a scene in the episode, Lisa sees a man selling an original Malibu Stacy doll from 1958 that has big, pointed breasts. The man, nicknamed "Wiseguy" by the show's staff, tells Lisa that "they took off the market after some kid put both his eyes out." The joke received a censor note from the Fox network's censors because they did not want such jokes on the show, but the producers ignored the note and the joke appeared in the episode when it aired.
The Be Sharps's singing voices were provided by the four members of The Dapper Dans, a barbershop quartet that performs at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Before working on the episode, Martin had seen one of the quartet's performances and enjoyed it. When the episode's production began, he contacted the quartet, and they agreed to make a guest appearance in the episode. The Dapper Dans's singing was intermixed with the normal voice actor's voices, often with a regular voice actor singing the melody and The Dapper Dans providing backup.
George Harrison guest stars in the episode as himself. He was the second Beatles' member after Ringo Starr (in "Brush with Greatness") to appear on The Simpsons. When Harrison arrived at the recording studio in West Los Angeles to record his lines, the casting director told the episode's show runners, Al Jean and Mike Reiss, that Harrison was coming and that they were not allowed to tell anybody about it because it was intended to be a secret to the staff. Jean, Reiss, and the show's creator Matt Groening went to see Harrison in the studio, and when they returned to the writer's room, Groening said, "Guess who I just met? George Harrison!", not knowing that it was supposed to be a secret. Harrison arrived at the studio by himself without any entourage or bodyguards. Groening recalls that Harrison was "pretty glum", and he was unenthusiastic when the staff asked him questions about The Beatles. However, when Groening asked Harrison about the Wonderwall Music album, he suddenly "perked up" because it was one of his solo albums that he was rarely questioned on. Harrison's guest appearance was one of Groening's favorites because he was "super nice" and "very sweet" to the staff. Jean said it was a "huge thrill" to have him appear. David Crosby also makes a guest appearance in the episode as himself, and appears in the scene in which he presents a Grammy award to The Be Sharps.
"Homer's Barbershop Quartet" was a hold-over episode from the season four production line. It was chosen to air as the fifth season's premiere episode because it guest starred Harrison. The Fox network executives wanted to premiere with Conan O'Brien's episode "Homer Goes to College" because of its parody of the 1978 comedy film National Lampoon's Animal House, but the writers felt "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" would be a better choice because of Harrison's involvement. The episode originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on September 30, 1993. It was included in a 2002 video collection of selected musical-themed episodes titled The Simpsons: Backstage Pass. The episode was also included in The Simpsons season five DVD set, which was released on December 21, 2004.
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—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“An art whose limits depend on a moving image, mass audience, and industrial production is bound to differ from an art whose limits depend on language, a limited audience, and individual creation. In short, the filmed novel, in spite of certain resemblances, will inevitably become a different artistic entity from the novel on which it is based.”
—George Bluestone, U.S. educator, critic. “The Limits of the Novel and the Limits of the Film,” Novels Into Film, Johns Hopkins Press (1957)
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