Some of you have read about this. Some of you have written to ask for my views on it…
The Simpsons will no longer use White actors to voice non-White characters, according to the show's producers. "Moving forward, The Simpsons will no longer have white actors voice non-white characters," Fox spokesman Les Eisner said in a statement Friday.
My view? That's fine. I think it's a small step but small steps are better than no steps, assuming they're in the right direction. What is the possible objection to this? Is someone saying they prefer to have cartoon black guys voiced by white guys?
What I would hope is that it doesn't lead to fewer non-white characters on cartoon shows for budgetary reasons. I'm talking here about minor characters, not major ones. Back in the early Hanna-Barbera days, when Bill Hanna went around the studio turning off lights to save money, the non-primetime shows had almost no female characters in them. The Yogi Bear cartoons had Daws Butler doing the voice of Yogi, Don Messick doing Boo Boo and the Ranger, and both of those Caucasian gentlemen taking turns doing all the incidental roles.
Cindy Bear and other female characters rarely turned up in those cartoons because Mr. Hanna didn't like the idea of paying three voice actors. Once in a while, they would spring for it but for the most part, the writers were told to avoid writing female characters. (And once in a while, when a lady had a line or two, they would have Messick do it.)
The Simpsons, of course, can afford anything, it being the most profitable entertainment franchise in the history of mankind. I just hope shows with shallower pockets don't skimp on minor non-white characters because someone says, "That character only has two lines. I don't want to pay an additional actor to come in for two lines. Make that character white so one of our white actors can do the part." I've known animation producers who were cheap enough to think that way.
Of course, ideally most shows would have a multi-racial cast and there'd be folks of all colors among the regulars. I also wouldn't mind seeing them hire older actors more. On The Garfield Show, I hired many actors who were in their seventies and eighties, and even a few in their nineties. We had Stan Freberg, June Foray, Marvin Kaplan, Rose Marie, Jack Riley and a number of others on the program.
But I think the new policy on The Simpsons is fine. I just hope they don't feel they have to take Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, et al, and spray-paint them yellow.