ESPN Creative Studio’s sights and sounds wizards revel in working on Simpsons Funday Football project

Long before he began working on the upcoming Simpsons Funday Football (Monday, Dec. 9, 8 p.m. ET, streaming on ESPN+, Disney+) alt-cast, Creative Studio Lead Sound Designer Jason Finberg cherished a previous instance of the ESPN and The Simpsons’ universes intersecting.

In “The Longest Marge” episode of the television classic (Season 33, Episode 11), ESPN Senior NFL Insider Adam Schefter lends his voice to his animated equivalent. In the segment, “Schefter” reports that the star quarterback of the Springfield Atoms is recovering from a bad game while living as a guest of Atoms fans Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie Simpson.

“I mainly remember being excited to hear Adam’s voice because it was recognizable,” Finberg said. “There were parts that I thought were funny, and I chuckled about them, but I wouldn’t call them work-appropriate.”

A few years after that episode originally aired, Finberg and his Creative Studio mates will help merge the ESPN and Springfield worlds in new ways.

Simpsons Funday Football is an alt-cast will be an animated presentation of that night’s actual Dallas Cowboys at Cincinnati Bengals Monday Night Football game on ESPN, but transformed in real-time into the iconic Simpsons world using Sony’s Beyond Sports Technology.

Finberg, Supervising Sound Designer Ray Palagy – who shares his work station with a Bart Simpson figure – and Supervising Effects Artist Jason Fiedler shared their thoughts on working on the project and their Simpsons fandom with Front Row.

Please explain what you do at ESPN and how that job specifically applied to Simpsons Funday Football.
PALAGY: I’m a sound designer, and we enhance or create audio for many properties on ESPN. In the Simpsons Funday Football project, we had a wide variety of tasks. We got voice takes directly from the actors and, with a script, created voice edits for them to animate to. Then, when the animation returned, we added sound effects and mixed them against the final video.  We also created sounds for many of the graphic elements that were used, such as logos, front ends, replay wipes, etc.
FINBERG: I am a lead sound designer, and I worked with my supervisor, Ray Palagy, on adding sounds/mixing the audio for all of the pre-produced content on the show. Also, due to my experience as an A1 at the company for over a decade, I have been tasked with providing an audio sub-mix for the live broadcast, which will mix live sound effects and natural ambiance for the live production.
FIEDLER: I’m a supervising effects artist in the Creative Studio Animation team. I was tasked with animating [Simpsons character] Professor [John I.Q. Nerdelbaum] Frink Jr.’s explainers to help football fans learn some terminology specific to the game of football.  

What was the most rewarding aspect of your job on this project?  
PALAGY: I’ve been a big Simpsons fan since I was a kid, so this was such a treat to hear the actors I idolized so many years ago coming to me to work on.
FINBERG: As a huge Simpsons fan growing up, the coolest aspect of this project was when I was first hearing the raw audio takes of the VO [voice-over] artists who voiced the Simpsons characters. It felt like a dream come true.
FIEDLER: When I started at ESPN 30 years ago, I enjoyed watching The Simpsons a lot, and now it’s come full circle where I’m working on a project directly tied to the show’s characters.  

What do you hope viewers enjoy most about Simpsons Funday Football?
PALAGY: I hope the viewers get as much a kick out of the interaction between ESPN and team players with Simpsons characters as I did!
FINBERG: I hope we can keep people smiling the whole time by providing hilarious and fun content for the duration of the event.
FIEDLER: I hope viewers enjoy seeing their favorite characters bringing a new aspect to viewing an NFL game – especially fans of Dallas and Cincinnati, who can see their favorite NFL players in the Simpsons animation world.

NOTE: The Simpsons Funday Football alternate viewing presentation will stream on Disney+ and ESPN+, and, on mobile, with NFL+. The traditional Monday Night Football telecast will be available on ESPN, ABC and ESPN Deportes with Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli on ESPN2. Both the traditional telecast and Peyton and Eli will also be on ESPN+, making each distinct presentation available in the ESPN App. All telecasts will begin at 8 p.m. ET. For more, visit ESPN Press Room