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The Simpsons will feature a deaf actor for the first time in its 33-year history on Sunday.
Although the characters in the show only have four fingers, they use American Sign Language in the groundbreaking episode. And no, the episode wasn’t written after “CODA,” the film about the hearing daughter of two deaf parents, won Best Picture at the Oscars last month.
“It’s very hard to do a ‘first’ after 722 episodes. But I couldn’t be more excited about this,” executive producer Al Jean said.
The episode is titled “The Sound of Bleeding Gums”. It revolves around Lisa Simpson, who finds out that her role model and favorite musician, the late saxophonist Bleeding Gums Murphy, has a son who is deaf and needs a cochlear implant. Lisa gets a little too carried away in her attempt to help the son, Monk Murphy.
Bleeding gums Murphy died in season 6.
The storyline of the episode is loosely based on the life of Loni Steele Sosthand, the main writer.
“Loni pitched to make Bleeding Gums Murphy’s son a man who was born deaf and could never hear his father’s music,” Jean told DailyExpertNews.
Sosthand told DailyExpertNews that the show’s producers consulted two ASL specialists about the characters characters create in the episode. The sign language specialists reviewed animations — rough versions of the show’s visuals — to make sure that, despite the characters’ missing fingers, the meaning of the words was conveyed correctly.
Sosthand said the episode was personal to her and a labor of love. Her brother, Eli, is hard of hearing in a family that loves jazz music.
“Having a brother, who is just a year older, who was born deaf, has really shaped who I am as a person. So it’s a story that’s not only close to my heart, but also to my identity,” she said.
“There are many autobiographical themes in the episode regarding the tension between a love of music and loved ones who are deaf — themes that are also present in “CODA,” but very much from my own life,” she added.
Deaf actor John Autry II, whose credits include “Glee” and “No Ordinary Family,” plays Monk. In a statement, he called the role “life-changing” for him.
“It’s about hearing-impaired and hearing characters coming together,” he said. “It’s part of history.”
The episode also features three children—Ian Mayorga, Kaylee Arellano, and Hazel Lopez—from No Limits, a non-profit organization dedicated to deaf children. It was emotional for Sosthand to watch them record “Happy Talk”, a song from the musical “South Pacific” which was featured at the end of the episode.
“The song says, ‘If you don’t have a dream, how are you going to make a dream come true.’ While I was watching them I had tears in my eyes the whole time when I realized this is a dream come true for all of us,” she said.
The landmark episode comes two weeks after “CODA”’s big moment at the Academy Awards. CODA stands for Child of Deaf Adults and the film is about the struggle of a hearing daughter who wants to become a musician instead of joining her deaf parents’ fishing business.
The idea for the show was in the works long before the movie, said “Simpsons” showrunner Jean.
“Some of it is based on events that happened many years ago,” he said. “Of course we are very happy with CODA’s success.”
Jean is looking forward to sharing Sunday’s episode with viewers and says he smiles every time he thinks about it.
“I’m a sucker for a happy ending,” he said, “although it’s not quite what you expect.”
