Skinner & Chalmers’ Best The Simpsons Moment Was Secretly Improvised

While The Simpsons had some of the best writing in TV history, one beloved sequence was inspired by two actors improvising. The Simpsons enjoyed a huge amount of critical acclaim and mainstream popularity during the show’s peak. Running from around seasons 3 to 10, the so-called “Golden Age” of The Simpsons was lauded at the time and is now looked back on as one of the most influential eras in television comedy history. The show’s success was largely down to a culture of constant rewriting, with scripts often going through dozens of different drafts before they were completed and animated.

Although The Simpsons season 36 might keep this process alive, the general critical consensus is that the show lost some of this magic as it aged. However, endless rewrites weren’t all that made the Golden Age so special, as evidenced by some behind-the-scenes anecdotes from the show’s creators. Even though The Simpsons was meticulously planned during this era, there was still some room for improvisation when it came to the show’s scripts. In fact, one of the most memorable, meme-inspiring scenes in the show’s history came out of an inspired ad-lib shared by two actors in an episode two years earlier.

Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer Set Up Skinner and Chalmers’ Best Dynamic

The Simpsons season 4, episode 20, “Whacking Day,” features the first appearance of Superintendent Chalmers, Principal Skinner’s disapproving superior. In the episode’s original script, Skinner’s lies to Chalmers are limited and pretty pedestrian. However, actors Harry Shearer and Hank Azaria improvised Skinner’s bizarre claim that he has a cold which he claimed made him hear R’s as B’s, setting up an inspired running gag wherein Skinner would tell increasingly ridiculous lies to a stern, but somehow always credulous, Chalmers. According to a DVD commentary, this dynamic inspired writer Bill Oakley’s contribution to season 7, episode 21, “22 Short Films About Springfield.”

Chalmers never questioning Skinner’s obvious lies is one of the great mysteries of The Simpsons, and this absurd relationship fueled Oakley’s legendary “Steamed Hams” from “22 Short Films About Springfield” two seasons after the pair first interacted. What began with Skinner telling a lie to cover up Ralph’s non-sequitur in “Whacking Day” became this iconic scene, wherein a string of lies results in Skinner impressing Chalmers with a lunch bought at KrustyBurger, but burning down his house in the process. This skit took the setup of Skinner lying and Chalmers going along with his claims to its logical extreme.

Skinner and Chalmers’ Relationship Paid Off 2 Seasons Later

With the “Steamed Hams” segment, Principal Skinner’s penchant for increasingly elaborate lies reached ludicrous, legendary heights. However, this tendency began as an unscripted riff between Azaria and Shearer when the duo added in Skinner’s claim that he misheard B’s as R’s due to a cold. While Skinner’s lies didn’t pay off in “Whacking Day” thanks to Bart accidentally crashing a tractor into Chalmers during the inspection, they did at least succeed at impressing the Superintendent in “22 Short Films About Springfield.” Ever since, the two supporting stars have kept their inane dynamic alive throughout another thirty seasons of The Simspons.