It’s a move that some “Simpsons” fans may find off-key: The long-running Fox animated series has fired composer Alf Clausen after 27 seasons.
Variety is reporting that the 76-year-old Clausen was told by show producer Richard Sakai that the show wanted “a different kind of music” and his services were no longer needed.
Clausen first started working for the series in 1990, the show’s second season.
“They were looking for somebody who could score all those different types of music in small clip-form. That’s what’s been fun for me,” he told Consequence Of Sound in April. “I think that anyone else who would have been hired for this job and stayed for this long would have gone to the nuthouse.”
Clausen scored the season finale episode in May. It is unknown whether his work will be heard on the upcoming season that begins Oct. 1.
Although Danny Elfman composed the show’s theme, Clausen has scored 560 “Simpsons” episodes after being hired in 1990, and was nominated for 30 Emmys.
His two Emmys for the show came from the songs, “We Put The Spring In Springfield,” and “You’re Checking In.”
However, his most acclaimed work for the show may be “Stop The Planet Of The Apes, I Want To Get Off,” which was the subject of an oral history by Vulture last month.
UPDATE ― Aug. 31: HuffPost reached out to the Fox Network, which declined comment, but the producers of “The Simpsons” released this statement:
We tremendously value Alf Clausen’s contributions to the Simpsons and he will continue to have an ongoing role in the show. We remain committed to the finest in music for the Simpsons, absolutely including orchestral. This is the part where we would make a joke but neither Alf’s work nor the music of the Simpsons is treated as anything but seriously by us.
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