Last year, British Actor Ricky Gervais voiced a guest character in an episode he wrote for FOX’s The Simpsons. Following his successful role on the long-running animated series, Gervais became the first guest star to receive a writing credit. In addition, because Gervais did such an impressive job, creator Matt Groening is hoping to get him back on the show.
“We loved having him on the show. Whatever he wants to do – we’d love to have his character return. Or he could do something completely new,” Groening said. “It was such a thrill for us to have him – the main reason we have guests on is because we’re fans.”
Being an avid follower of the UK’s The Office, Groening approached Ricky Gervais in 2004 and asked him to write an episode of The Simpsons. As it turned out, the 46-year-old actor was a big fan of the animated series, and described his first meeting with the show’s writers as “a lovefest of mutual back-slapping.”
The end result of their collaboration, “Homer Simpson, This is Your Wife,” featured Ricky Gervais as Charles Heathbar, a henpecked husband whose spouse moves into the Simpson household as part of a reality series similar to that of Wife Swap. Gervais told GQ magazine that the idea for the wife-swapping episode actually came from his girlfriend, Jane.
Gervais’ character on the animated series is based on David Brent, Wernham Hogg’s eager-to-please regional manager in The Office.
‘[Charles’] wife is this Harvard socialite who married beneath herself and insults him at every point,” Gervais said of his character on The Simpsons. “They’ve got this kid who’s a child prodigy. The wife goes to the Simpson family and thinks she’s landed in caveman times, and I fall in love with Marge because she’s the first woman who’s been nice to me.”
Describing The Simpsons as “the greatest achievement of humankind since putting a man on the moon,” Ricky Gervais regarded his involvement with the animated series as a “dream come true.”
Groening was also very pleased with Gervais’ contributions, saying “He caught our tone exactly, and then added his own Ricky Gervais/David Brent patheticness.”
-Lisa Claustro, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: digitalspy.co.uk, rickygervais.com
(Image Courtesy of FOX)
Staff Columnist, BuddyTV
