David Mirkin

Skinner.

You know, if David Mirkin, I guess he was still a producer around this time, he was still writing on the show, I'm surprised this was not a Star Trek reference.

Right.

He should be-

Y- you have to understand, in, in 1996, when I joined the staff, I think it was '96, y- your whole goal as a staff writer was to, was to pitch a story and have them choose you to write that story.

Then you would get to leave the writers' room for a few weeks and write your episode, so there was enormous pressure on us to come up with an episode that would get chosen by the showrunner.

And what I had figured out was all of the stories on The Simpsons were combinations of characters in conflict.

So, you know, this week it's Homer versus Marge in the A story, and Bart versus Lisa in the B story.

At least most of them.

I've heard that there are, um, I don't wanna say the name of the show.

There's a multi-cam show that a friend of mine worked on, and he called me and he goes, "Oh, the showrunner's like, 'They did that on the old Newhart Show.

Let's do it.'" He couldn't believe it.