‘The Simpsons’ Fires Composer Alf Clausen

Posted: August 30, 2017 by filmmusicreporter in TV Scoring Assignments
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Variety is reporting that Alf Clausen has been fired from the Fox animated series The Simpsons. The composer who is also known for his music for ALF and Moonlighting has been scoring over 560 episodes of the show since the second season in 1990. Clausen received two Emmy Awards for his work on the series and another 21 Emmy nominations between 1992 and 2011. He also won five Annie Awards, as well as numerous ASCAP Film & Television Music Awards for his Simpsons music. No word yet on who will be taking over Clausen’s job for the show’s twenty-ninth season, which is set to premiere on October 1, 2017 on Fox.

  1. Justin Boggan says:

    An utterly stupid move. I hope Seth MacFarlane swoops in and gets him; he’s been very good to Ron Jones, Walter Murphy, Joel McNeely, and now with “The Orvile” John Debney, Bruce Broughton and Andrew Cottee.

    Like I said another a score forum, I suspect they wanted cheaper music and more modern stuff and that I wouldn’t be shocked it some Zimmer RC composer gets it.

    • Josivaldo says:

      I know that you’re joking, but considering that James L. Brooks and Zimmer are great friends, I think that it is really likely that they’ll get someone from RC anyway. Zimmer scored almost all of Brooks movies, and it was their friendship that made Zimmer (and a lot of other people) scored The Simpsons Movie 10 years ago, much to Clausen’s dismay.

      So, they’ll probably just hire Balfe, or any other RC composer Zimmer says. But I really can’t imagine the show without Clausen’s signature music, specially with something more “modern”, “electronic” or “edgy”.

  2. Justin Boggan says:

    To quote “The Critic” — a show Richard Sakai was a producer on: it STINKS!

    But “The Simpsons” lost it’s way almost two decades ago, so screw them. We’ll just add this to the list of bad moves such as cancelling “Firefly”.

  3. brian says:

    Balfe would be excellent. His Giddy Up from the film was AMAZING