The animated image of Rivers is included among a group of people in 'Jewish Heaven' in the closing musical number.
- Sep 30, 2014
AceShowbiz - While mourning the loss of a character, Rabbi Hyman Krustofski, in the season 26 premiere, "The Simpsons" honored Joan Rivers with a brief tribute at the same time. An animated version of the late comedian was featured briefly among a group of people in "Jewish Heaven" based on the imagination of Krusty who just lost his father.
During the closing musical number, after the dance scene featuring famous people in pairs (Albert Einstein and Golda Meir, Chico and Harpo, Groucho and economist/philosopher Karl Marx), Rivers can be seen sitting in the front row of the VIP section before the camera shows Jesus and Rodney Dangerfield in the Super VIP section.
The New York Times reporter Dave Itzkoff noticed the brief scene and shared a screenshot of the blink-and-you-missed-it moment on Twitter.
Rivers provided the voice of Krusty the Clown's agent and former lover, Annie Dubinsky, in a 2011 episode. The tribute was a last minute addition to the episode, which had been in production for months.
"About a week after she passed away, I thought that it wouldn't be hard for us to just put her in, because she had done the show and we had the design" for the character, showrunner/executive producer Al Jean tells USA Today. "I'm sure she'd like to be there, in Jewish Heaven. I'm sure she'd like it, because there's no Johnny Carson."
Jean remembers Rivers, who passed away on September 4, "She did the show three years ago and it was really sweet. I had met her and told her how when my parents went to Vegas in the '70s, all they could talk about was seeing her act and how funny she was."
The season opener was emotional as Krusty bid farewell to his father, Rabbi Hyman Krustofski. "I just thought it would be a good story about someone who's had a tough relationship with his father - having Krusty's father die without him ever getting that warmth or connection he really wanted, then finally finding it in a surprising way," Jean explained the death, which had been teased for months.
As for the bizzare couch gag created by Oscar-nominated animator-filmmaker Don Hertzfeldt, Jean says, "It's his creation and he did some of the voices. It's his window that he photographed so all the credit goes to him. It's a great commentary - and it wasn't intended this way after the marathon - on the longevity of the show and it comes at a perfect time."
The couch gag envisioned the show far into the future, on Septembar 36.4, 10,535 to be exact.
If I'm not mistaken, that's Joan Rivers in the VIP section of Jewish heaven on @TheSimpsons. pic.twitter.com/vuT2j7IduA
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) September 29, 2014
