For the first time in the 33 year long history of the show, "The Simpsons" will feature a deaf actor on Sunday.
What's Happening:
- For the first time, "The Simpsons" will feature a deaf actor in the episode "The Sound of Bleeding Gums."
- Although characters in the show only have four fingers, they will be using American sign language.
- "It’s very hard to do a ‘first’ after 722 episodes. But I couldn’t be more excited about this one," executive producer Al Jean said.
- The episode will center on Lisa Simpson, who finds out that her role model and favorite musician, the late saxophonist Bleeding Gums Murphy, has a deaf son who is deaf and needs a cochlear implant.
- Lisa gets carried away trying to help the son, who is named Monk Murphy.
- The episode's story line is slightly based on the life of Loni Steele Sosthand, who is the main writer.
- "Loni pitched making the son of Bleeding Gums Murphy, a man who was born deaf and could never hear his father’s music," Jean said.
- The show's producers consulted two ASL specialists to help make sure the signs were correct in this episode.
- Sign language specialists reviewed animatics to make sure everything was correct, even with missing fingers. They wanted to make sure that all the words were conveyed correctly.
- "Having a brother, who is just a year older, who was born deaf, really shaped who I am as a person. So it is a story not just close to my heart, but to my identity," Sosthand said.
- "There are many autobiographical themes in the episode regarding the tension between a love of music and loved ones who are deaf – themes also present in "CODA," but very much from my own life," she added.
- In this episode, it will also feature three kids named Ian Mayorga, Kaylee Arellano, and Hazel Lopez. They are from No Limits, a nonprofit devoted to deaf children.
- This information is brought to us by CNN.