The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase

"**The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase**"
"The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase"
The Simpsons episode
	The new "Lisa" and the regular family members in their variety hour, the episode's third segment.
Episode no.	Season 8; Episode 24
Directed by	Neil Affleck
Story by	Ken Keeler
Teleplay by	David X. Cohen; Dan Greaney; Steve Tompkins
Production code	4F20
Original air date	May 11, 1997
Guest appearances
	Tim Conway as himself; Gailard Sartain as Charles "Big" Daddy; Phil Hartman as Troy McClure;
Episode features
Commentary	Matt Groening; Josh Weinstein; David X. Cohen; Dan Greaney; Yeardley Smith; Ken Keeler
Episode chronology
← Previous; "Homer's Enemy"	Next →; "The Secret War of Lisa Simpson"
	The Simpsons season 8
	List of episodes

"The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase" is the twenty-fourth and penultimate episode of the eighth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on May 11, 1997.^[1] The episode centers on fictional pilot episodes of non-existent television series derived from The Simpsons, and is a parody of the tendency of networks to spin off characters from a hit series. As such it includes references to many different TV series. The first fictional spin-off is Chief Wiggum P.I., a cop-dramedy featuring Chief Wiggum and Seymour Skinner. The second is The Love-matic Grampa, a sitcom featuring Moe Szyslak who receives dating advice from Abraham Simpson, whose ghost is possessing a love testing machine. The final segment is The Simpson Family Smile-Time Variety Hour, a variety show featuring the Simpson family except for Lisa, who has been replaced.

The episode was written by David X. Cohen, Dan Greaney and Steve Tompkins, with Ken Keeler coming up with the story and the general idea of intentionally bad writing. It was directed by Neil Affleck,^[1] and Tim Conway, Gailard Sartain and Phil Hartman guest-starred.^[1]^[2]

The producers were initially uneasy about the episode, as they feared that the purposely bad writing would be mistaken for actual bad writing. The episode, however, now appears on several lists of the most popular Simpsons episodes.

^ ^a ^b ^c Richmond & Coffman 1997, p. 228.
^ Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase". BBC. Archived from the original on December 5, 2011. Retrieved February 15, 2007.

[FOOTNOTERichmond_&_Coffman1997228-1] Richmond & Coffman 1997, p. 228.

[BBC-2] Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase". BBC. Archived from the original on December 5, 2011. Retrieved February 15, 2007.

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