History Main / AlanSmithee

** Or '''awesome''', as hearing NorioWakamoto voice Edwyn Black makes '''perfect sense'''.

* Averted by DavidFincher on ''Film/{{Alien 3}}''. He was brought in late on an already TroubledProduction and faced ExecutiveMeddling from the start, and wound up seeing the film edited without his participation, but since it was his first film, he informally disowned it instead.

* The Bette Midler vehicle ''Jinxed!'' was a TroubledProduction, with among other problems Midler and co-star Ken Wahl hating each other's guts and the Divine Miss M also intensely disliking director Don Siegel - and vice versa (Siegel suffered a heart attack during production and Creator/SamPeckinpah, not the first name that comes to mind when thinking of comedy directors (then again, neither is Siegel) finished the film uncredited; although he recovered, this proved to be his last film) - all of which led to primary screenwriter Frank Gilroy billing himself as "Bert Blessing."

* The first film to use the alias was the 1969 film ''Death Of A Gunfighter'', when actor Richard Widmark decided he was unhappy with director Robert Totten and [[WagTheDirector arranged to have him replaced]] by Don Siegel. Sadly, when the film was completed, neither Totten nor Siegel wanted to have it attributed to his name. The first suggestion for the name of the fictitious director was Al Smith, but the DGA said that there was already a director going by that name, and suggested Alan Smithee instead.

* The Bette Midler vehicle ''Jinxed!'' was a TroubledProduction, with among other problems Midler and co-star Ken Wahl hating each other's guts and the Divine Miss M also intensely disliking director Don Siegel - and vice versa (Siegel suffered a heart attack during production [[note]] Creator/SamPeckinpah, not the first name that comes to mind when thinking of comedy directors (then again, neither is Siegel) finished the film uncredited [[/note]]; this proved to be his last film) - all of which led to primary screenwriter Frank Gilroy billing himself as "Bert Blessing."

** Creator/TerranceDicks, unhappy with Creator/RobertHolmes's rewrites of "The Brain of Morbius", asked for it to go out under "some bland pseudonym". So Holmes credited the story to [[MeaningfulName Robin]] [[Pun Bland]].

* Walter Hill used the name Thomas Lee on the 2000 flop ''{{Supernova}}'' after MGM constantly interfered with the production and editing process (even bringing in Francis Ford Coppola to reshoot some scenes).

* Russell Mulcahy was threatened with a lawsuit if he attempted to petition the DGA to remove his credit from the ''HighlanderIITheQuickening''.

* Alec Baldwin used the name Harry Kirkpatrick when a recut version of his only directorial effort, a remake of ''TheDevilAndDanielWebster'', was distributed under the name ''Shortcut to Happiness'' in 2007 (six years after the film was made, due to legal issues over the production).

* AlanMoore is [[DisownedAdaptation completely disgusted by all the movie adaptations of his work]], and has requested that he simply be referred to as AlanSmithee for anything based on his work.

* The first film to use the alias was the 1969 film ''Death Of A Gunfighter'', when actor Richard Widmark decided he was unhappy with the director and [[WagTheDirector arranged to have him replaced.]] Sadly, when the film was completed, neither the new nor the old director wanted to have it attributed to his name. The first suggestion for the name of the fictitious director was Al Smith, but the DGA said that there was already a director going by that name, and suggested Alan Smithee instead.

* A special feature on the DVD for the ''Series/DoctorWho'' story "The Invasion of Time" was a documentary about the story's writer called ''The Elusive David Agnew'' was credited as being directed by Alan Smithee, the documentary itself was a {{mockumentary}} since David Agnew was also a pseudonym used by the BBC. Agnew was also credited as writing "City of Death", not because it was a bad episode (it ''really'' wasn't) but because it would have looked inappropriate for [[DouglasAdams the script editor]] and producer to be credited as writers.
** TerranceDicks, unhappy with RobertHolmes's rewrites of "The Brain of Morbius", asked for it to go out under "some bland pseudonym". So Holmes credited the story to [[MeaningfulName Robin]] [[Pun Bland]].

** TerranceDicks, unhappy with RobertHolmes's rewrites of "The Brain of Morbius", asked for it to go out under "some bland pseudonym". So Holmes credited the story to Robin Bland.

* This is a common practice for [[UnionsInHollywood union voice actors to use a pseudonym when doing non-union voice work]], not just dealing with hentai or fanservice series. This is the main reason why Creator/SteveBlum used the "David Lucas" pseudonym. Another practice common in video games is ''[[NowWhichOneWasThatVoice not even listing the English dub credits at all]].''

* HarlanEllison uses the alias "Cordwainer Bird" under the same sorts of circumstances when a film director might use "Alan Smithee."
** He has also loaned the name out to writer acquaintances who need an alias for various reasons.

* Over the years, ''Magazine/{{Mad}}'' has used several pseudonymous bylines for varying reasons. Names known to be psuedonyms for others include John Prete (or J. Prete), Jack Syracuse, Debbee Ovitz, and Josh Gordon.)

* The movie ''City Heat'' was originally going to be directed by Blake Edwards, who wrote the original script - but he was fired (Richard Benjamin took over) and the script rewritten by Joseph C. Stinson; Edwards still has story and co-screenplay credit under the pseudonym "Sam O. Brown" (think about the initials).
* The Bette Midler vehicle ''Jinxed!'' was a TroubledProduction, with among other problems Midler and co-star Ken Wahl hating each other's guts and the Divine Miss M also intensely disliking director Don Siegel - and vice versa (Siegel suffered a heart attack during production[[hottip:*: Sam Peckinpah, not the first name that comes to mind when thinking of comedy directors (then again, neither is Siegel) finished the film uncredited]]; this proved to be his last film) - all of which led to primary screenwriter Frank Gilroy billing himself as "Bert Blessing."

* This is a common practice for [[UnionsInHollywood union voice actors to use a pseudonym when doing non-union voice work]], not just dealing with hentai or fanservice series. This is the main reason why SteveBlum used the "David Lucas" pseudonym. Another practice common in video games is ''[[NowWhichOneWasThatVoice not even listing the English dub credits at all]].''

* The director of ''HellraiserBloodline'' wasn't happy how the studio cut chunks from the film and chose to be credited as Alan Smithee.
* Attempted by Tony Kaye for ''AmericanHistoryX'', which was [[WagTheDirector allegedly re-edited]] by Edward Norton so he had more screen time. Kaye, outraged, wanted to be credited as Humpty Dumpty instead of Alan Smithee, which was flatly rejected. This lead to a war of words culminating in a $200 million plus lawsuit between Kaye and New Line, and probably costing Edward Norton an Oscar.

* The Bette Midler vehicle ''Jinxed!'' was a TroubledProduction, with among other problems Midler and co-star Ken Wahl hating each other's guts and the Divine Miss M also intensely disliking director Don Siegel - and vice versa (Siegel suffered a heart attack during production of what proved to be his last film) - all of which led to primary screenwriter Frank Gilroy billing himself as "Bert Blessing."

* Roy Huggins used several pseudonyms when providing storylines and scripts for the shows he worked on in the '60s and '70s (and even on ''{{Hunter}}'' in the 1980s), with "John Thomas James" the most frequent.

* The ''Series/MissionImpossible'' episode "Live Bait" credits Michael Adams with the story and (with James D. Buchanan and Ronald Austin) teleplay; this was a pen-name for Meyer Dolinsky (who like Miss Roberts also suffered from meddling on ''The Outer Limits'' with "ZZZZZ", although he kept his name on the episode). "Michael Adams" also has a writing credit on ''Series/HawaiiFiveO'''s "Flash of Color, Flash of Death", which was the last episode he did for the show.

In the movie industry of the past, if a director's movie became the victim of ExecutiveMeddling and bad acting to the point where he was no longer proud of it, he could request it to be credited to Alan Smithee.

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* In ''StreetFighterXTekken'', [[VideoGame/FinalFight Role]][[VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha nto]]'s voice actor is credited as Alan Smithee. It's actually DameonClarke.

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* {{Seiyuu}} are discouraged to talk about any work they used a pseudonym for, which makes the HeyItsThatVoice moments a lot more surprising.

* Referenced in the "CHAIR RACE" teaser trailer for ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'' - when we see the back of the Director's chair, Alan Smithee's name is written on it, which eventually drops off to reveal the name of Shuyo Murata. This references how HideoKojima had initially planned to disown the fourth game (which he was only producing at all due to ExecutiveMeddling) and hand it over to his team, with Shuyo Murata appointed director. (It didn't last, as the rest of the trailer shows.)

* ''TheSimpsons'': Mr. Burns' recruitment film for the power plant, which had script problems from Day One (i.e., nobody read the script), and which ends with Mr. Burns physically accosting Homer for getting his lines wrong, is credited to Alan Smithee.
** David Silverman used the psuedonym "Pound Foolish" while directing the clip episodes. In addition, Matt Groening had his credits removed from the episode "A Star is Burns" due to viewing the episode as a half-hour commerical for ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic'', leading to a well-publicized spat with producer James L. Brooks (who had fought to bring The Critic to Fox).
* One episode of ''TinyToonAdventures'' had a couple of cartoons with inferior animation directed by "Allen Smithee." The episode's CreditsGag was: "Number of Retakes: Don't Ask."
* ''ThePebbleAndThePenguin'' was the one movie that Creator/DonBluth didn't take credit for.
* JohnKricfalusi was so embarassed about having directed the episode "Nurse Stimpy" of ''TheRenAndStimpyShow'' (all he could see when he watched the final product were drawing mistakes and timing errors), he credited himself as "Raymond Spum" on the title card.

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* While ''{{Terrahawks}}'' is ill-thought of enough that many wouldn't blame the crew for playing this trope straight here, this time it was done stylistically; while all but four of the series' 39 episodes were written or co-written by Gerry Anderson regular Tony Barwick, the scripts were usually credited to a variety of pseudonyms ending with "-stein," often feline-connected due to a major character being called Dr. Tiger Ninestein (example: "The Ugliest Monster Of All" was written by P.U. Mastein). The show [[{{Lampshade}} lampshaded]] this on several occasions, most blatantly with "Child's Play" being credited to Sue Donymstein. Only three episodes eschewed fake names - "The Midas Touch," by Trevor Lansdowne and Barwick (credited ''as'' Barwick for once), and the two-part opener "Expect The Unexpected" by Anderson himself; the only other non-Barwick episodes in the series are "From Here to Infinity" and "The Sporilla," written by Katz Stein and Leo Pardstein respectively (both pseudonyms for Donald James).

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* Referenced in the ''{{Batman}}'' miniseries ''Harley and Ivy''; when Harley hijacks [[WhoWouldWantToWatchUs the film being made about the pair]], the director's name is listed as ''Alice'' Smithee.