A Fish Called Selma - Production

Production

Show runners Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein were fans of actor Phil Hartman, who had been a recurring guest star since the second season. They decided to produce an episode entirely about his character Troy McClure to give Hartman as much to do as possible. Oakley wanted to explore Troy's character because he had never interacted with the show's other characters before, only appearing on television. The writers chose the plot idea of Troy's marriage to Selma Bouvier because she was "always marrying people". The episode's first draft was written by freelance writer Jack Barth, although the rest of the writing staff rewrote it. One aspect of the rewrite was the song "Dr. Zaius" from the Planet of the Apes musical, which the staff consider to be one of the greatest musical numbers ever written for The Simpsons. Weinstein pitched it in the writer's room as "Rock Me Dr. Zaius", before it expanded into a full song, primarily concocted by George Meyer, who included "corny" aspects of vaudeville. The line "From chimpan-A to chimpan-Z" in the final song of the musical was written by David Cohen. Oakley commented that he has heard the line "all over the world". Director Mark Kirkland was pleased that Troy was the star of the episode; he enjoyed interpreting Hartman's voice performance because it allowed him and the other animators to "open up visually as a character". Due to the slow talking speed of Troy and Selma, the episode's audio track was 28 minutes long which meant that multiple scenes had to be cut, including Troy's bachelor party. After the cast had completed their original recording, guest star Jeff Goldblum rerecorded his dialogue as MacArthur Parker at a faster speed to further shorten it. His character's design was loosely modeled on him, as well as a real-life "sleazy Hollywood agent". The animators watched several of Goldblum's films, including The Tall Guy, in order to get a better representation of his performance.

Throughout "A Fish Called Selma" it is hinted that Troy engages in strange sexual activity. The writers initially did not know what the "unsavory" sexual preference would be, but eventually decided on a fish fetish, a suggestion from executive producer James L. Brooks, since it was "so perverted and strange, that it was over the top". At the episode's table reading, a female staff member demanded the line, "From now on she's smoking for two", be removed from the script; however, her request was denied. On the walls of the Pimento Grove restaurant, the animators placed caricatures of every single guest star who had appeared on the show up to that point, as well as pictures of the fictional celebrities of the show.