Making The Simpsons Movie must have been a daunting task. How do you honor nearly 20 years of iconic material in one 90-minute feature? Most recurring Simpsons characters got at least one moment to shine in the movie — from Krusty the Clown, to Hans Moleman, to Kent Brockman. And the movie even found ways to include brief cameos from more obscure characters like Itchy & Scratchy creator Chester J. Lampwick, and foul-mouthed puppet Gabbo.
Which makes it all the more strange that one of the show’s most well-known characters was absolutely nowhere to be found in The Simpsons Movie: Bart’s mortal enemy Dr. Demento Sideshow Bob.
Bob Terwilliger is obviously one of the keystones of the show’s mythology, but didn’t make the cut for the movie? This wasn’t always the plan, it turns out. Some story elements shifted around during production; the original villain of The Simpsons Movie was going to be Hank Scorpio from “You Only Move Twice,” Lisa was going to fall in love with Milhouse and the whole thing nearly ended with Kang and Kodos being jerks while the credits rolled.
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But what about Bob?
When The Simpsons Movie came out, Movies Online questioned the crew about why Bob (not to mention Disco Stu) weren’t included. “Sideshow Bob we had a lot of talk about and kept on trying to work it into the story,” producer James L. Brooks admitted. And Kelsey Grammer allegedly recorded lines that ended up on the cutting room floor. Some news outlets at the time even included Grammer’s name in the film’s credits, along with other celebrities who didn’t make the final cut, such as Minnie Driver and Erin Brokovich-Ellis.
In the film’s DVD commentary, the writers did acknowledge that Sideshow Bob once “briefly” popped up during the scene in which an angry mob chases Homer. An alternate version of the scene, featuring what appears to be test animation of Sideshow Bob featuring a substitute voice actor, has since surfaced on YouTube. While we can’t say for certain that it’s genuine (the footage wasn’t included on the DVD with other deleted scenes), it finds Sideshow Bob chanting “Kill Bart! Kill Bart!” until Moe informs him that they’re “just killing Homer.”
As for why any and all references to Sideshow Bob were omitted from the movie, no official explanation has been given, but we have a few guesses. For one thing, the movie’s script was extensively rewritten and streamlined to exclude any unnecessary material. As fun as it would be to see Sideshow Bob on the big screen, there was certainly no narrative reason for him to be there.
Plus, The Simpsons Movie was trying to reach a wider audience beyond the show’s devoted fans, which is why Rainier Wolfcastle was suddenly referred to as “Arnold Schwarzenegger.” Random Sideshow Bob references may have been scrapped for fear of alienating non-fans.
Also, The Simpsons still had to continue as a TV series beyond the movie, and, whether intentional or not, Sideshow Bob became a way to entice viewers with a character who wasn’t in the movie. At the time of The Simpsons Movie’s release, it was reported that Fox was “beefing up” the subsequent season of the show with more celebrity cameos and the return of Sideshow Bob (Season 19’s “Funeral for a Friend”).
Maybe if they do get around to making a sequel, it will simply be a two-hour My Dinner with Andre-esque conversation between Sideshow Bob and Disco Stu.