Alf Clausen, the man responsible for providing music on animated TV show The Simpsons for the past 27 years, has been abruptly fired, reports Variety.
Clausen told the industry publication that he was called by longtime Simpsons producer Richard Sakai, and was told that Fox was looking for “a different kind of music.”
The TV veteran, who also scored other big hits like ALF, Moonlighting and movies Splash and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, won two Emmys for his work on The Simpsons. He’s also been nominated for an Emmy a staggering 21 times (for The Simpsons) in addition to those two victories, and is believed to be the most-nominated musician in Emmy history, with 30 nominations in total.
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Clausen, who used a 35-piece orchestra every week, had no idea this was coming. His last work for the animated series was featured in the Season 28 finale, which aired in May. It’s not known at this time who will be replacing him in time for the Season 29 premiere on Oct. 1.
There are countless memorable Simpsons songs that were created in the mind of Clausen, including Can I Borrow a Feeling? and The Land of Chocolate. (There isn’t enough room in this article to include them all.)
Rumours of cost-cutting have plagued the show for the last few years, despite it still being a profit generator for Fox. The Simpsons theme song, by Danny Elfman, is expected to stay the same.
Fox has declined to comment on Clausen’s firing.
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