'The Simpsons' Original "Steamed Hams" Draft Script Shared Online

With nearly 30 years and a feature film under its belt, The Simpsons has no shortage of quotable [...]

With nearly 30 years and a feature film under its belt, The Simpsons has no shortage of quotable moments that fans will happily commit to memory to interject into their daily conversations. One of the series' writers, Bill Oakley, recently took to Twitter to show fans the first draft of a script from one of the most hilarious interchanges the show has ever seen between Principal Skinner and Superintendent Chalmers.

The Season Seven episode "22 Short Films About Springfield" featured a shift away from the Simpson family as the lead characters, allowing many of the supporting and background characters to get brief vignettes. One of these vignettes featured Skinner and Chalmers getting together for a "luncheon" at Skinner's house, with the two not often shown outside the context of the school and their reactions to the students.

Unfortunately for Skinner, he accidentally burns his roast, with Chalmers inquiring if there was an emergency. Skinner deflects and claims it's steam from "steamed clams," only to run across the street to get hamburgers from a nearby Krusty Burger. When Skinner returns with the burgers, he tells Chalmers he misheard what they were eating, declaring they would be eating "steamed hams," despite them being clearly grilled.

Oakley shared the script which, as you'll see in the tweet above, remained quite similar to the finished product. After posting that original draft, users began inquiring about how the concept developed, with Oakley shedding insight into the endlessly quotable vignette.

After one user asked about how the scene evolved, the writer claimed that "it was more that I wanted to do a long string of their usual interactions a la did that boy say what's a battle, no he said what's that rattle, etc."

Skinner and Chalmers have a long and complicated history, with Skinner acting authoritarian towards the children, yet whenever Chalmers was around, he was as apprehensive around his superior as any one of his students. If any students got out of line, Skinner would quickly try to cover for what Chalmers thought he heard or saw as not to disrupt the status quo.

Decades later, the scene still remains as entertaining as when it debuted, with the original draft showing not only the strength of the writing and concept, but of the well-defined characters that could have been the only ones to pull off this encounter.

The Simpsons airs Sundays at 8:00 PM ET on FOX.

(h/t Twitter)

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