Cartoonist Extraordinaire David Silverman Explains Why Jay’s Writing The Simpsons Wasn’t What Made It Good.

Don't Be Alone with Jay Kogen

David Silverman explores the history of The Simpsons from before it existed until now. He talks about animating the hard stuff and making it look easy as well as his love of Burning Man & the tuba.
Bio: After graduating from UCLA in 1983, David Silverman worked as a freelance illustrator and animator until, in 1987, he landed a job animating on The Tracey Ullman Show — where The Simpsons began. Animating on all 48 shorts led to David directing the first shows of The Simpsons. Starting with the Christmas Special in December 1989, and then the premiere episode the following month, David soon became Supervising Animation Director and a producer on The Simpsons. All told, he has directed 24 episodes and has won 4 Emmys along the way. When no one was looking, David snuck away from The Simpsons to work at DreamWorks (The Road to El Dorado – co-director), Pixar (Monsters, Inc. – co-director), and Blue Sky (Ice Age, Robots – writing and boarding). But, he came back to the show full-time at the end of 2003 and directed The Simpsons Movie. In 2012, David directed and co-wrote the short film The Longest Daycare about Maggie Simpson, which earned him an Academy Award nomination.And since the Disney acquisition of The Simpsons (via the purchase of Fox), David has directed 10 Simpsons shorts especially for Disney+, as well as several promotional pieces.