Lisa's First Word - Production

Production

"Lisa's First Word" was written by Jeff Martin, and directed by Mark Kirkland. The Simpsons writers Mike Reiss and Al Jean were discussing about having an episode where Maggie would say her first word, and Reiss thought it would be cute to have her say "daddy" when no one could hear her. Jeff Martin was assigned to write the episode because he had done another flashback episode in the past, "I Married Marge". Martin was excited to do another flashback episode because he thought it was fun to check out old newspapers and go back and see what was in the news back in 1983 and 1984. Martin felt it was a good way of finding a new set of things to make jokes about.

In the episode, Homer builds a scary clown shaped bed for Bart. The scene was inspired by Mike Reiss, whose dad had built him a clown shaped bed when he was younger, and just like Bart, Reiss was scared of sleeping in it. As the flashback begins in 1983, a young Homer strolls down the street, singing Cyndi Lauper's song "Girls Just Want To Have Fun", which was released the same year. The idea for this sequence came from animation director Chuck Sheetz, who suggested it because the length of the final version of the episode was too short. The Fox censors wrote a note concerning Homer's line, "Bart can kiss my hairy, yellow butt!" after Marge tells Homer that Bart might be jealous of baby Lisa, citing that the line is considered "coarse," due to the fact that Bart was two during the flashback.

Maggie's first word was provided by the Academy Award-winning actress Elizabeth Taylor, who would also voice herself in the season four finale, "Krusty Gets Kancelled". While promoting the episode, the producers initially did not reveal who the voice of Maggie would be, prompting speculation as to the identity of the actress. Although it was only one word, the voice came out too sexy and Taylor had to record the part numerous times before the producers were satisfied and thought it sounded like a baby. Several sources, including John Ortved's The Simpsons history article "Simpsons Family Values" in Vanity Fair, have reported that after Taylor had been made to repeatedly record the line, she said "fuck you" to series creator Matt Groening and stormed out of the studio. Groening recounted this event on a 1994 appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and was also quoted by the New York Daily News in 2007 as saying "We did 24 takes, but they were always too sexual. Finally Liz said, 'F— you,' and walked out." However, Groening later denied the story in the DVD commentary for the episode "Gump Roast", while Jean stated in a piece after Taylor's death in 2011 that Taylor had said "fuck you" in jest and in Maggie's voice and did not storm out.