A Former ‘Simpsons’ Writer Broke Down The Origin Of The Brilliant ‘Planet Of The Apes’ Musical

If you were forced at Waylon Smithers gunpoint to pick one scene from The Simpsons to prove that it’s the funny TV comedy of all-time, “Dr. Zaius” would have to be in consideration.

In season 7’s “A Fish Called Selma,” Troy McClure (voiced by the GOAT Phil Hartman) is cast in a Planet of the Apes-inspired musical called Stop the Planet of the Apes, I Want to Get Off! (“I love legitimate theater”). He plays the human who hates every ape he sees, from chimpan-a to chimpan-z, until he realizes it was Earth all along. Yes, they finally made a monkey out of him.

The whole sequence is brilliant (“Dr. Zaius! Dr. Zaius!”), but it started with a very “stupid” pitch. Five of them, in fact.

Former Simpsons writer Josh Weinstein, who was the co-showrunner for season 7 with Bill Oakley, shared how the Planet of the Apes sequence came to be. “Perfect opportunity to repeat this writing tip I learned at The Simpsons: Never shoot down an idea, no matter how crazy or stupid it may sound. Lean into it. It may be nothing OR it becomes the Dr Zaius scene, which is, in fact, the combo of 5 separate ‘crazy’ ‘stupid’ pitches,” he wrote on X.

Pitch 1:

It began with Steve Tompkins pitching “What if we did a musical of Planet of the Apes?” This is either a crazy or a stupid idea or both but we all loved it and we could all feel the potential so I say at least let’s explore this and see if it goes anywhere…

Pitch 2:

I was running room but had never scene movie. But I knew a few key things like statue of liberty “it was earth all along” end, “get your hands off me” line and that there was character named Dr. Zaius. I asked room to verify this than pitched “So you know that Falco song?”

Pitch 3:

I don’t remember order of following pitches but George Meyer said “Now hear me out on this…” and then pitched since Zaius is a doctor, why don’t we intersperse song with corny/stupid old vaudeville style joke breaks, like the piano gag. We agree to give that a go.

Pitch 4:

Someone pitches since he’s a doctor, have his nurse begin the song with “Oo, help me, Dr. Zaius”. I have no idea if there is even a nurse in the movie but sure, that’s a great way to kick it off.

Pitch 5:

Someone else (sorry I’m not remembering everyone) pitches that this musical number should have a lot of breakdancing moves in it because at the time, that seemed like a trend in a lot of splashy broadway musicals

And that’s how comedy history is made. You can read the full thread below.