Yeardley Smith Looks Back On 30 Years of 'The Simpsons'
*By Conor White*
Yeardley Smith has voiced the iconic Lisa Simpson for three decades, and she's still amazed that the show has remained such a massive success for so long.
"I remember reading once that the average life of a sitcom is five years, and that's if you're doing really, really well," "The Simpsons" star told Cheddar in an interview on Monday.
"The Simpsons" premiered on Fox in 1989, after originating as a sketch on "The Tracey Ullman Show". After 651 episodes, it's still going strong.
"I like to say we're halfway through," Smith said, perhaps only half-kidding.
Aside from giving birth to a countless number of memorable characters, the show has become something of a pop culture prognosticator ー predicting everything from the U.S. upsetting Sweden in Men's Olympic Curling, to the discovery of the Higgs Boson particle, to yes, Donald Trump being elected president.
"Well, there's a crystal ball in the middle of the writers' table," she joked. "And they just gaze into it and things come to them."
"It is kind of uncanny," she agreed.
With the production of "The Simpsons" now a "well-oiled machine," as she described it, Smith is now lending her unique voice talents to a new medium ー podcasting.
Alongside longtime friend and fellow actress Zibby Allen (of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."), Smith hosts "Small Town Dicks," a true-crime podcast that looks at the most harrowing crimes in America's small towns, featuring the real detectives who solved the cases.
"People think that in small towns, that it's small-time crime ー like you're rescuing a cat out of a tree or something," she said. But that's not the case.
"These big-time crimes are happening in small town USA with the same level of depravity and reckless and disregard for human life, but with less frequency."
As for "The Simpsons," all good things must come to an end ー even the longest-running series in primetime history.
"We're probably closer to the end than we were, say, 10 years ago," Smith said.
Not that she wants it to end anytime soon.
"I could do this forever," she said.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/yeardley-smith-iconic-voice-of-lisa-simpson-talks-30-years-of-the-simpsons).
Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay is displaying his world-renowned collection of historic memorabilia to the public for the first time in the Big Apple. Irsay joined Cheddar News to talk about why he's bringing artifacts from the Beatles to Jerry Garcia to light now. "I borrow all this stuff, you know, and I just feel kind of an obligation to share it with the public and make it come alive if you will," he said.
Catching you up on the entertainment headlines of the day with Justin Timberlake selling his entire musical catalog to IP management firm Hipgnosis, Ellen DeGeneres airing the final episode of her show, Alanis Morissette making a guest appearance on Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Sour’ tour, and more.
Cheddar recently teamed up with Amazon Bestseller Jamie Hopkins to explore the term 'Rewirement' while highlighting those who didn't let retirement be the end of their journey... Instead, they used it as a new beginning.
Today, Jamie is speaking with Linda Lombri, a former home economist and marketing executive, and Virginia Cornue, a former cultural anthropologist. For them, retirement didn't mean stopping work--it meant re-inventing themselves and living out their dreams of becoming mystery authors, even though neither had written fiction before. Together, Linda and Virginia began an e-book series, the Sandra Troux Mysteries.
Brightseed Co-Founder Sofia Elizondo breaks down what plant bioactives are, and how they're using the latest technology to study human's biological connections with plants.
On this episode of Cheddar Innovates: Brightseed Co-Founder breaks down what plant bioactives are, and how they're using the latest technology to study human's biological connections with plants; Esper Bionics CEO breaks down how they re creating a mind-controlled bionic hand that guest smarter the more you use it; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Capturing A Black Hole In Our Milky Way.'
The number of births in the U.S. increased last year for the first time in seven years. According to a new federal report, about 3.6 million babies were born in 2021, only about a 1% increase from 2020. Ted Rossman, a senior industry analyst for creditcards.com, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss why the pandemic baby boom was more like a baby bust, and how to raise kids while on a tight budget.
Following the mass shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two adults dead, the debate over gun control has been reignited. While studies have shows most Americans agree on some additional regulations, there hasn't been much legislative traction even as gun violence worsens in the country. Brian Lemek, the executive director of Defend The Vote and the former executive director at Brady PAC for gun control, joined Cheddar to discuss reform efforts. "The lawmakers that we have aren't passing these at the federal level," he said. "That's the problem. We have the wrong people in charge."
