Originally published August 31, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
Alf Clausen, the award winning composer behind The Simpsons, has been fired after 27 years.
Clausen, an Emmy Award winner, has been scoring the lives of Homer, Lisa, and Bart for 27 years. However, the composer has told Variety that he received a call from producer of The Simpsons, Richard Sakai, informing him that the company was looking for “a different kind of music” and that his services would no longer be required.
Alf Clausen has been a staple of the long running Fox animated series over the years and a certain amount of speculation is circulating as to why he was fired. This includes cost-cutting measures that have been taking place on The Simpsons for some time, even though Fox still receives massive profits from the show.
The last complete score of Clausen’s Simpsons career was for the season finale of season 28 which aired back in May. Danny Elfman’s Simpsons theme is expected to stay in place.
UPDATE: The producers of The Simpsons have released a statement to Deadline, which reads: “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.”
