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).
VR/AR collaboration platform Spatial is diving head first into the Metaverse. The company is switching up its image--now branding itself as 'the metaverse for cultural events,' aiming to become the new virtual hub for NFT galleries, brand experiences, and large-scale conferences. Jacob Loewenstein, Head of Business, Spatial, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss the company's pivot.
e.l.f Beauty is celebrating a significant milestone in its sustainable journey. Since launching its Project Unicorn initiative in 2019, the company has eliminated more than one million pounds of packaging materials. Ashley Rosebrook, e.l.f. Beauty's chief creative officer, who spearheaded this effort and has continued to work to reduce the brand's carbon footprint, joined Cheddar to discuss this initiative and what the company aims to do next.
The Omicron variant is raising concerns about how safe it is to travel, just as millions of Americans were getting ready to jet set away for the holidays. Scientists are still trying to understand how much protection vaccines offer against the new variant, and many questions remain unanswered. Sara Nelson, President of the Association of Flight Attendants, gives tips on how to travel safely and comments on the aviation industry's ongoing recovery from the pandemic.
Carlo and Baker cover the latest data showing the Omicron wave has likely started, Pfizer's Covid pill, Jan. 6 and a box office rescue attempt courtesy of Spider-Man.
As 2021 is approaching its end, the meme stock mania that surrounded companies like Gamestop and AMC this year doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Stocks for both companies plunged to their lowest levels in months on Monday, but on Tuesday, traders seemed to come to the rescue, as the stocks for both companies saw rebounds. Great Hill Capital Chariman Thomas Hayes joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Upward Farms is an indoor vertical farming company on a mission to heal our broken food system and reconnect consumers with organic locally-grown food. The Brooklyn-based company uses its controlled environment farms to grow organic leafy greens, which are sold at whole foods markets in New York City. Upward Farms co-founder and CEO Jason Green joined Cheddar Climate to discuss.
Cheddar is looking back at the 12 biggest buzzwords of the year leading up to Christmas. Today's word of the day is "Infrastructure." Definition: (noun) the basic physical and organizational systems that uphold the structure of the economy.
The U.S. cannabis industry is on track to hit almost $25 billion in sales, according to New Frontier Data. Vivien Azer, managing director and senior research analyst at Cowen, and Russell Stanley, managing director and equity research at Beacon Securities Limited, join Cheddar News to give their predictions for the budding industry in 2022.
As more states begin to legalize recreational marijuana, there's a growing interest in legalizing cannabis cultivation. As the rise in cannabis farms expands across the U.S., more research is being done to examine its impact on the planet. Michael Katz, executive director at Mendocino Cannabis Alliance, joins Cheddar News to talk about the carbon footprint of cannabis farms.
