The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase

"The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase"
The Simpsons episode
"Lisa" and the real family members doing a skit for their variety hour, the plot of the third segment, in the episode's promotional image.
Episode no.	177
Directed by	Neil Affleck
Written by	David S. Cohen Dan Greaney Steve Tompkins Story by: Ken Keeler
Showrunner(s)	Bill Oakley Josh Weinstein
Production code	4F20
Original air date	May 11, 1997
Commentary	Matt Groening Josh Weinstein David X. Cohen Dan Greaney Yeardley Smith Ken Keeler
Guest appearance(s)
Tim Conway as himself Gailard Sartain as Charles "Big" Daddy Phil Hartman as Troy McClure
Season 8 episodes October 27, 1996 – May 18, 1997 "Treehouse of Horror VII" "You Only Move Twice" "The Homer They Fall" "Burns, Baby Burns" "Bart After Dark" "A Milhouse Divided" "Lisa's Date with Density" "Hurricane Neddy" "El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer)" "The Springfield Files" "The Twisted World of Marge Simpson" "Mountain of Madness" "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious" "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" "Homer's Phobia" "Brother from Another Series" "My Sister, My Sitter" "Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment" "Grade School Confidential" "The Canine Mutiny" "The Old Man and the Lisa" "In Marge We Trust" "Homer's Enemy" "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase" "The Secret War of Lisa Simpson"
Seasons
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Tim Conway as himself
Gailard Sartain as Charles "Big" Daddy
Phil Hartman as Troy McClure

"The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase" is the twenty-fourth episode of the eighth season of The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on May 11, 1997. The episode centers on fictional pilot episodes of non-existent television series derived from The Simpsons, and is a parody of the tendency of networks to spin off characters from a hit series. As such it includes references to many different TV series. The first fictional spin-off is Chief Wiggum P.I., a cop-drama featuring Chief Wiggum and Seymour Skinner. The second is The Love-matic Grampa, a sitcom featuring Moe Szyslak who receives dating advice from Abraham Simpson, whose ghost is possessing a love testing machine. The final segment is The Simpson Family Smile-Time Variety Hour, a variety show featuring the Simpson family except for Lisa, who has been replaced.

The episode was written by David S. Cohen, Dan Greaney and Steve Tompkins, with Ken Keeler coming up with the story and the general idea of intentionally bad writing. It was directed by Neil Affleck, and Tim Conway, Gailard Sartain and Phil Hartman guest-starred. The producers were initially uneasy about the episode, as they feared that the purposely bad writing would be mistaken for actual bad writing. The episode, however, now appears on several lists of the most popular Simpsons episodes.