Trivia / The Simpsons S4 E22 "Krusty Gets Kancelled"

• Creator Backlash: Due to their discontent with "Homer at the Bat" (a previous celebrity-heavy episode), Julie Kavner declined to appear (thus, Marge has no lines at all in the episode) and Harry Shearer only appears in about 45-50 seconds' worth of the episode (as Kent Brockman and Rainier Wolfcastle in The Hollywood Squares; Mr. Burns and Smithers looking at a billboard for Gabbo; Reverend Lovejoy and Jasper Beardley at church; Gabbo imitating Vin Scully; and Dr. Hibbert snickering at Moe's).
• Deleted Scene:
  • Krusty's show was originally supposed to be canceled after Krusty offers kids a coffee table book of him in sexually explicit positions and situations (similar to the Madonna Sex book that was popular at the time), only to be arrested by the FBI for peddling pornography to minors. Naturally, the scene was cut because it was too risque and replaced with Krusty's show getting canceled after he airs a bizarre Soviet version of Itchy and Scratchy ("Worker and Parasite") and everyone in the studio audience leaves.
  • There was also a scene after the "Krusty Sex Book" sequence where Krusty's producers tell him his show's been canceled and will be replaced by a hemorrhoid infomerical, with Krusty begging to be cast as either a hemorrhoid sufferer ("Ooh, oh, that hurts! Ah, oh! Is there no relief?") or one of the "After" guys ("Aah, oh, that's better. I can ride a bike again!"). They turn him down on both suggestions.
• Stunt Casting: More guest voices than usual turn up; aside from those mentioned above, Barry White is in the opening scene as a guest on Springfield Squares. Elizabeth Taylor gets only two lines, but that's still more than she got back in "Lisa's First Word". (Taylor recorded both appearances in the same voice-over session.)
• Throw It In!: When the Red Hot Chili Peppers return to Moe's for drinks in their underwear Flea's audio quality sounds noticeably worse than the others. Allegedly, this is because Flea wasn't even in the booth while recording their lines and screamed his line from outside; he was loud enough that they could use the take.
• Troubled Production: The episode was conceived as a way to slim a "celebrities list" the crew had, featuring several stars who wanted to appear in the show. However, most of them had issues with the script and declined to appear, and the episode was almost not produced because of this.
• Wag the Director: The original role pitched for Johnny Carson was one where he visited the Simpson family's house and mooched off them. Carson felt this role was too degrading, so instead the writers took the opposite route and portrayed him as extremely versatile and multi-talented. Bette Midler's condition for guest starring was that the show promoted her anti-littering campaign.
• What Could Have Been:
  • All the then-living ex-Presidents of the United States were offered roles in the episode. Only Ronald Reagan bothered to actually respond (he declined, obviously).
  • The Rolling Stones and Wynonna Judd declined to appear in the episode.

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