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From "The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History", by John Ortved, p. 161, chapter: Conan

Conan: "And when I showed up, Jeff Martin was away doing something and they temporarily gave me his office. I was very nervous about this new job. I knew a bunch of the people on the show, but just by reputation. I had never really worked with many of them. I was self-conscious and worried. Could I do it? Am I going to embarrass myself in front of all these people? Because I had never worked with Mike Reiss and Al Jean, I had never worked with George Meyer, Vitti, Swartzwelder. It's an intimidating collection of people if you're a comedy writer.

I was very nervous when I started. They showed meinto this office and told me to start writing down some ideas. They left me alone in that office. I left after five minutes to go get a cup of coffee. I heard a crash. I walked back to the office, and there was a hole in the window and a dead bird on the floor. Literally, in my first ten minutes at The Simpsons, a bird had flown through the glass of my window, hit the far wall, broken its neck, and fallen dead on the floor. George Meyer came in and looked at it, and said, "Man, this is some kind of weird omen."

Mr. Kogen is quoted extensively in this oral history of The Simpsons, and I recommend it to anyone that's a fan of the show as well as anyone that is a fan of the Tom Shales-style "let them speak for themselves" biography. Finally, I'd like to thank Mr. Kogen for doing this, and for making me laugh for so many years.

Have you and Stephanie Izard, the first lady Top Chef, ever talked about doing a Thelma & Louise style travel/cooking show?

The hundreds of others, the crew below the line, have already been paid by the time the movie makes it to theaters. They don't get residuals and generally don't profit from the success or failure of a feature.

Where do you and your team gather feedback from, other than the official forums? Do you trust that some places represent the wants of the community more than others, or do you separate the opinions from the context of where it came from?

How much support did you get from Hulu, in terms of man power and creative control? The special is clearly not a run-and-gun 2 man operation- did you approach them with a team and the resources to make it happen, or was Hulu involved at all stages of the process?