On Sunday, television’s longest-running animated series, “The Simpsons,” made history by featuring the show’s first deaf voice actor, as well as the first use of American Sign Language on the show.
“The Sound of Bleeding Gums” follows Lisa Simpson as she tries to help the deaf son of her favorite saxophonist, Bleeding Gums Murphy, get a cochlear implant.
ASL is used throughout the episode, and the character, Monk, is voiced by John Autry II, marking the first time a deaf actor has voiced a character on the show in its 722-episode run, Variety reported.
“It’s so incredible,” Autry told Variety. “It’s life-changing equality and participation. This can impact change for all of us. It’s about hard of hearing and hearing characters coming together. It’s a part of history.”
The episode hit close to home for the writer, Loni Steele Sosthand, who grew up listening to jazz with a deaf brother.
“I’m mixed-race; my father’s Black and jazz was big in our house,” Sosthand told Variety. “We grew up in the suburbs, and it was a way for my dad to bring in that aspect of our culture. But when I think about music, I also think about my brother, who was born deaf. When we were talking about this Bleeding Gums character in our initial brainstorms, we thought, wouldn’t it be cool if Lisa discovers this whole other side of his life. That led to him having a son, and then we based that character at least somewhat on my brother. And the story grew from there.”
The soulful episode comes after the film “CODA” won Best Picture at the Academy Awards last week.
“I was an early viewer of ‘CODA’ and really admire the movie,” Sosthand said. “There are themes in it that are somewhat echoed here, coming out of a sibling relationship. And also CODA has the tension between music and the deaf experience. I think it’s great because the Deaf experience isn’t just one story, there are so many stories to be told.”
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