Nancy Cartwright stood in a room with Jim Brooks, the producer behind “The Simpsons,” and waited for Michael Jackson to come out. She’d brought something from home. She kept it behind her back.
Cartwright is the voice of Bart Simpson. She told this story to the Television Academy Foundation, which filmed a long interview with her in Northridge, California, on March 17, 2011. Jenni Matz asked the questions. The clip about Michael runs just over two minutes.
She knew going in that Michael wasn’t a casual viewer. “He was a huge Bart Simpson fan, not just Simpsons but Bart,” she said. “He loved Bart.”
The clip’s title says the same thing: “Nancy Cartwright on what a huge Bart Simpson fan Michael Jackson was.”
There was a music connection too. Nancy says Michael produced “Do the Bartman,” the Bart record Geffen released on November 20, 1990. It went to No. 1 in Britain and stayed there for three weeks.
So when the chance came to meet him in person, she didn’t show up empty-handed. She also didn’t hand it over right away.
The introduction was quick. Someone told Michael, “this is Nancy Cartwright, she’s the voice of Bart.” He answered straight away. “I’m such a fan of Bart,” he told her. “So nice to meet you.”
That was her cue. “I brought you a little something,” she said.
So what was she holding?
A talking Bart Simpson doll, and she’d signed it for him. The doll had a story of its own. Cartwright had heard that Toys R Us “is having a sale of these Bart dolls.” They were early talking versions that worked with a short string. She didn’t buy just one. “They were on sale for like 10 bucks each, so I bought a bunch, like it filled up my garage, these talking Bart dolls,” she said.
From that pile, one went to Michael. “So I signed it and I brought it with me,” she said. “Jim Brooks was there, and then Michael came out, and I had this doll behind my back.”
“He loved it,” she said. “He just thought it was the sweetest thing, and I had signed it.”
In the clip, listen for how she sets up the moment Michael came out, with the doll still behind her back.
Nancy Cartwright tells the story of the Bart doll she gave Michael
This is the official upload from the Television Academy Foundation’s interview archive. She talks about Michael loving Bart at about 0:29, gets to the Toys R Us sale at about 0:48 and reaches the moment Michael walks out at about 1:13.
The gift wasn’t the end of the day. Once the hellos were done, they went to work, and Michael was the one giving the notes. “We went in the studio and he directed me, and that was really, really fun,” she said.
Bart Simpson’s voice, taking direction from Michael Jackson in a recording studio. What she remembered about him wasn’t the fame. It was his manner. “He’s so low-key and so easygoing,” she said.