Billy West voicing Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz?

[on:]

I was wondering whether or not the idea of Billy West voicing Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz has been brought forward at all as he would be able to do that voice very accurately.

What do you all think?

[Reply #1 on:]

The Simpsons staff could have easily found a replacement voice actor, but they decided to remove those 2 characters from the show out of respect to Phil Hartman.

[Reply #2 on:]

Yeah, Troy especially wouldn't have been that hard a voice to mimick, but they where Phil's characters, and the staff wanted to keep it that way.

[Reply #3 on:]

What were the last Simpsons episodes that Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz appeared in?

Wasn't Troy's final episode appearence the one where Bart kills a bird and looks after the remaining eggs and when he goes to the library to learn about looking after eggs he watches a doco narrated by Troy McClure?

I can't remember what the final episode with Lionel Hutz was...?

[Reply #4 on:]

I believe it was Realty Bites.

Troy Maclure was also set to star in Treehouse Of Horror IX as the host of the execution show, but they replaced him with someone else before it went to air since they thought it would be bad taste to have his last appearance about death.

[Reply #5 on:]

 

Originally posted by Beamer:
I believe it was Realty Bites.

Troy Maclure was also set to star in Treehouse Of Horror IX as the host of the execution show, but they replaced him with someone else before it went to air since they thought it would be bad taste to have his last appearance about death.

Perhaps when Season 10 comes out on DVD that will be included as a 'Deleted Scene'.

[Reply #6 on:]

What happened to Phil Hartman? (I'm guessing he died.)
And what's wrong with having a replacement? I'm sorry for his death(?), but the show should go on.
How long ago did he die(?)

[Reply #7 on:]

 

Originally posted by Eyedol7513:
What happened to Phil Hartman? (I'm guessing he died.)
And what's wrong with having a replacement? I'm sorry for his death(?), but the show should go on.
How long ago did he die(?)

His wife killed him then herself if my memory serves me correctly.

That happened in 1998 I believe.

It's very unfortunate but I reckon Billy West would be good doing his characters.

[Reply #8 on:]

Damn, that sucks. But if I was him, I'd want the shows to go on. Those two characters were great.

[Reply #9 on:]

I dont know, I think it would just be a bit weird with them coming back after such a long time.

[Reply #10 on:]

Well, it has happened before, hasn't it?

[Reply #11 on:]

Thing is, West didn't even intend to mimmick Hartman anyway.  The story goes that they originally wrote Zapp's part with Hartman in mind, and told him he would get the part unconditionally.  But Hartman apparently insisted on doing an audition, so they did do auditions, and when West came in for his audition (and got the part for Fry and others) he auditioned for Zapp as well, not knowing that Hartman was going to get the part unconditionally.  I think they said they told him to do a mix between the captains of the ships on the first two "Star Trek" shows (an actual Trekker might need to correct me), and he just came up with that voice independently without intending to make it sound like Hartman.  Of course Hartman auditioned too, and "got" the part he was going to get anyway.....but unfortunately was killed shortly thereafter.  West was the next runner up, so he got it.

And anyway, no, its not going to happen.  Talented as West is, the Simpsons staff (and probably West himself) all have too much respect for him.  I don't know how many of you've read Nancy Cartwright's (voice of Bart Simpson) book, but she has a chapter in there about the day Hartman died.  Apprently everyone was so crushed that they stopped work for that day.  Out of respect, and because no one (even West, great as he is) could really imitate him well enough, his characters were retired forever.  They didn't think they could even write for the characters with the same spark without Hartman doing them.  And at this point they've been gone so long that it would be jarring for them to come back even if they could find a truly indistinguishable imitation (and the public would rightfully be mad about Hartman's legacy being essentially spit on).

The only (non-guest) voice they've ever "replaced", to my knowledge, was some of Maggie Roswell's characters, during her absence for a few years.  Lunch Lady Doris was also retired (maybe someone already mentioned this) after the death of Doris Grau in 1995.

[Reply #12 on:]

Phil is irreplaceable as those two characters. It would be like trying to do Fry without Billy West - just wouldn't work.

[Reply #13 on:]

 

Originally posted by DotheBartman:
I think they said they told him to do a mix between the captains of the ships on the first two "Star Trek" shows (an actual Trekker might need to correct me),

They told him to do the character as if William Shatner (the actor who played captain Kirk) was the captain of the Enterprise. I'd say the final voice is 2/3 Shatner and 1/3 Kirk.