Jeff Goldblum Guest-Starred In One Of The Simpsons' Most Ambitious Episodes
Years after Jeff Goldblum made his television debut as an extra in "Columbo," he starred in a classic episode of "The Simpsons." In Season 7's "A Fish Called Selma," the Phil Hartman-voiced Troy McClure seduces and marries Selma (Julie Kavner) to cover up the rumors of his sexual attraction to fish, and in the process he wins back the support of his agent MacArthur Parker. Parker previously abandoned McClure, but after the actor's well-publicized marriage, he decides to help him out again.
Parker, voiced by Goldblum, was inspired by a real-life agent that the writers knew and disliked. "I'm not gonna give him the glory of saying who it was," said Bill Oakley, co-showrunner of Seasons 7 and 8, in the episode's behind-the-scenes DVD commentary. "This was inspired by a real, sleazy Hollywood agent, but we changed the design enough that you couldn't recognize him."
Goldblum, in the DVD commentary, joked that Parker would later provide the inspiration for Jeremy Piven's Hollywood agent character in "Entourage." On working on the animated sitcom, Goldblum said, "I love the show, and I love this episode, and I loved doing it," although he noted that there was an unexpected production hiccup involving his character.
Goldblum had to return to re-record his lines
The original version of "A Fish Called Selma" had a 28-minute runtime, which was too long for a sitcom on broadcast TV. One of the writers' tricks to shorten the episode's length was to ask Jeff Goldblum to change up his line delivery. Instead of playing Parker as calm and slow-talking, they asked him to play him more energetically.
"I thought, 'Gee, did I do something wrong? Did I do it badly?'" Goldblum recalled in the DVD commentary, although the writers assured him he was never the problem. The issue had more to do with how Patty and Troy were both pre-established as relaxed and slow-talking characters, so an episode based around them was always going to be a little longer than the script length implied.
"We had to cut so much stuff," recalled showrunner Josh Weinstein. "We were like, 'Maybe we could get Jeff to come in and record it with a different, high-energy thing.'"
Goldblum recorded his lines separately from the rest of the cast
"I was sad to not see any of the other characters," Jeff Goldblum noted. "We didn't even do a table read-through or anything. I love those other guys who do the show ... But I was just with [Weinstein and Oakley], who are wonderful too, but in a sound booth by myself." The showrunners noted in the DVD commentary that this is a common practice for the show due to how easy it is for the cast to record their lines separately and how difficult it is to get everyone in the same place.
Still, Goldblum recalled having a great time on the show, especially for an episode as memorable as this one. "A Fish Called Selma" is beloved by fans for being the only spotlight episode on Troy McClure, one of the best "Simpsons" characters. It's also one of the show's most ambitious episodes for its bizarre "Planet of the Apes"-style musical number, a sequence so impressive that Vulture did a whole oral history on it decades later.
The true appeal of the episode, for Josh Weinstein at least, is how it reveals "a lot of real heart and emotion with these two characters [McClure and Selma]." Weinstein explained, "It gets to why 'The Simpsons' works ... there's an essential humanity underlying all these characters." The show may be one of the funniest on TV, but "The Simpsons" also has its fair share of truly heartfelt episodes.