About the Author

Mike Reiss has won four Emmys and a Peabody Award during his twenty-eight years writing for The Simpsons. He ran the show in Season 4, which Entertainment Weekly called “the greatest season of the greatest show in history.” In 2006, Reiss received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Animation Writers Caucus. Reiss has written jokes for such comedy legends as Johnny Carson, Joan Rivers, Garry Shandling…and Pope Francis! For his comedic contributions to the charitable group Joke with the Pope, in 2015 Pope Francis declared Reiss “A Missionary of Joy.”

 

Mathew Klickstein's writing has appeared in such publications as Wired, New York Daily News, and Splitsider. He is the author of SLIMED! An Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age, the screenwriter of Sony Pictures' Against the Dark, and director/producer of the Marc Summers documentary, On Your Marc. He currently hosts the podcast NERTZ (based on his book Nerding Out), is developing a new television series, and -- with lifetime series writer Mike Reiss -- co-authored Springfield Confidential: Jokes, Secrets, and Outright Lies from a Lifetime Writing for The Simpsons. He aspires to get some sleep someday soon.

In addition to writing, producing, and directing Funny People, Judd Apatow performed the same duties on the film Knocked Up, and co-wrote (with Steve Carell) and directed The 40-Year-Old Virgin. He has also produced Pineapple Express, Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall,Year One, Drillbit Taylor, Stepbrothers,Talladega Nights, and Anchorman.

Reviews

“The good is always rare. A truly great comic is rare. Mike Reiss, by definition, is a rarity.” — Conan O’Brien

“Besides providing a hilarious look at what is perhaps the greatest TV show of all time, Mike Reiss has also created a staggering literary work that is almost completely devoid of typos and grammatical errors. It’s well worth the price of this book for the proofreading skills alone.” — “Weird Al” Yankovic

“Reiss has done a masterful job of compiling this laugh-filled account of his long years as a writer on this beloved show. It’s the sort of book that makes you wish your dinner guests would go the hell home so you can get back to reading it.”           — Dick Cavett

“Mike Reiss is a great example of somebody who writes for a living and does it so well in so many different ways. And, of course, he helped write this thing called The Simpsons.” — Dan Castellaneta, longtime voice of Homer Simpson

“Mike Reiss always brings his own unique, quirky, eccentric genius with him.” — Nancy Cartwright, longtime voice of Bart Simpson

“Extremely funny and fascinating.” — Vanity Fair

“Always honest, playful, and engaging, the book will provide fans with deep insight into the show’s history but also into its daily production and future...A charming look at a cherished American show.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Founding Simpsons writer Reiss offers a funny and factoid-filled glimpse behind the curtain — or, brown couch — of the beloved sitcom...a surprising view of Springfield you’ve never heard before.” — Entertainment Weekly

“In Springfield Confidential, Reiss offers a breezy history of the show from his insider’s perspective, from its dismal early prospects to its astonishing success, with insights aimed squarely at the Comic Book Guy variety of Simpsons fans.” — The A.V. Club

“Always entertaining and frequently laugh-out-loud-hilarious. There have been a lot of books written about The Simpsons, some of them good but most not so much, and this is hands down one of the very best.” — Booklist (starred review)

“Not until Springfield Confidential has one really nailed what it’s like to work in the mystical promised land of The Simpsons’ offices. Reiss shares the pride, joy, frustration, gratitude, grueling labor, and sense of luck that are a part of bringing Springfield to life.” — Vulture

“Springfield Confidential offers a wealth of great anecdotes, all peppered with punchlines that make Reiss’s memoir as hilarious as whichever season of The Simpsons you recall most fondly.” — Washington Post

“Springfield Confidential spills all of the juicy secrets from behind the scenes of your dad’s favorite cartoon, and after reading it, he may never be able to look at Homer the same way again.” — Bustle

“The Simpsons is one of America’s greatest cultural products of last few decades, and Mike Reiss was and remains one of its key creators. So if you like The Simpsons, why wouldn’t you read this entertaining, charming and informative insider’s chronicle? I did, and I’m better for it.” — Kurt Andersen, novelist and SPY magazine founder