Saturday Night Live Initial run under Lorne Michaels In August 1979, Shearer was hired as a writer and cast member on
Saturday Night Live, one of the first additions to the show's
original 1975 cast. the acquisition of Shearer was seen as an unofficial replacement for
John Belushi and
Dan Aykroyd, who were both leaving the show. Shearer describes his experience on the show as a "living hell" and "not a real pleasant place to work." Michaels left
Saturday Night Live at the end of the fifth season, taking the entire cast with him. Shearer told new executive producer
Jean Doumanian that he was "not a fan of Lorne's" and offered to stay with the show if he was given the chance to overhaul the program and bring in experienced comedians, like Christopher Guest. However, Doumanian turned him down, so he decided to leave with the rest of the cast.
Return in 1984 under Dick Ebersol In 1984, while promoting the film
This Is Spinal Tap, Shearer, Christopher Guest and Michael McKean performed on
Saturday Night Live. All three members were offered the chance to join the show in the
1984–1985 season. Shearer accepted because he was treated well by the producers and he thought the backstage environment had improved Guest also accepted the offer while McKean rejected it, although he would join the cast in 1994.
Dick Ebersol, who replaced Lorne Michaels as the show's producer, said that Shearer was "a gifted performer but a pain in the butt. He's just so demanding on the preciseness of things and he's very, very hard on the working people. He's just a nightmare-to-deal-with person." In January 1985, Shearer left the show for good,
Martin Short said Shearer "wanted to be creative and Dick [Ebersol] wanted something else. ... I think he felt his voice wasn't getting represented on the show. When he wouldn't get that chance, it made him very upset."
Spinal Tap Shearer co-created, co-wrote and co-starred in
Rob Reiner's film
This Is Spinal Tap (1984). It was filmed in 25 days. and it was selected for preservation in the United States
National Film Registry by the
Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". " (2019) Shearer, Guest and McKean have since worked on several projects as their Spinal Tap characters. They released three albums:
This Is Spinal Tap (1984),
Break Like the Wind (1992) and
Back from the Dead (2009). In 1992, Spinal Tap appeared in an episode of
The Simpsons called "
The Otto Show". The band has played several concerts, including at
Live Earth in London on July 7, 2007. In anticipation of the show, Rob Reiner directed a short film entitled
Spinal Tap. In 2009, the band released
Back from the Dead to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the release of the film. The album features re-recorded versions of songs featured in
This Is Spinal Tap and its soundtrack, and five new songs. The band performed a one-date "world tour" at London's
Wembley Arena on June 30, 2009.
The Folksmen, a mock band featured in the film
A Mighty Wind that is also made up of characters played by Shearer, McKean and Guest, was the opening act for the show.
The Simpsons Shearer is known for his work as a voice actor on
The Simpsons.
Matt Groening, the creator of the show, was a fan of Shearer's work, while Shearer was a fan of a column Groening used to write. When approached by Groening to be in the series, Shearer was initially reluctant because he thought the recording sessions would be too much trouble. Shearer's first impression of
The Simpsons was that it was funny. He thought it was a "pretty cool" way to work but found it peculiar that his fellow cast members were adamant about not being known to the public as the people behind the voices. Shearer says that Burns is the most difficult character for him to voice because it is rough on his vocal cords and he often needs to drink tea and honey to soothe his voice. He describes Burns as his favorite character, saying he "like[s] Mr. Burns because he is pure evil. A lot of evil people make the mistake of diluting it. Never adulterate your evil." Shearer is also the voice of Burns' assistant Smithers, and is able to perform dialogue between the two characters in one take. In the episode "
Bart's Inner Child", Shearer said "wow" in the voice of Otto, which was then used when Otto was seen jumping on a trampoline. Ned Flanders had been meant to be just a neighbor that
Homer Simpson was jealous of, but because Shearer used "such a sweet voice" for him, Flanders was broadened to become a
Christian and a sweet guy that someone would prefer to live next to over Homer. Dr. Marvin Monroe's voice was based on psychiatrist
David Viscott. Monroe has been largely retired since the
seventh season barring a few cameo appearances because voicing the character strained Shearer's throat. In 2004, Shearer criticized what he perceived as
the show's declining quality: "I rate the last three seasons as among the worst, so
season four looks very good to me now." Shearer has also been vocal about "
The Principal and the Pauper" (
season nine, episode two, 1997), one of the most controversial episodes of
The Simpsons. Many fans and critics reacted negatively to the revelation that
Principal Seymour Skinner, a recurring character since the first season, was an impostor. The episode has been criticized by both Shearer and Groening. In a 2001 interview, Shearer recalled that after reading the script, he told the writers, "That's
so wrong. You're taking something that an audience has built eight years or nine years of investment in and just tossed it in the trash can for no good reason, for a story we've done before with other characters. It's so arbitrary and gratuitous, and it's disrespectful to the audience." In a December 2006 interview, Shearer added, "Now, [the writers] refuse to talk about it. They realize it was a horrible mistake. They never mention it. It's like they're punishing [the audience] for paying attention." Due to scheduling and availability conflicts, Shearer decided not to participate in
The Simpsons Ride, which opened in 2008, so none of his characters have vocal parts and many do not appear in the ride at all. In a 2010 interview on
The Howard Stern Show, Shearer alluded that the reason he was not part of the ride was because he would not be getting paid for it. Similarly, Shearer was unable to appear in the
Family Guy crossover episode "
The Simpsons Guy" due to further scheduling conflicts. Therefore, his characters are again mute. When asked about how he felt about the crossover, Shearer replied, "Matter and anti-matter." Until 1998, Shearer was paid $30,000 per episode. During a pay dispute in 1998, Fox threatened to replace the six main voice actors with new actors, going as far as preparing for casting of new voices. The dispute was resolved a month later, and Shearer's pay rose to $250,000 per episode. After salary re-negotiations in 2008, the voice actors received $400,000 per episode. Three years later, with Fox threatening to cancel the series unless production costs were cut, Shearer and the other cast members accepted a 30% pay cut, down to just over $300,000 per episode. On May 14, 2015, Shearer announced he was leaving the show. After the other voice actors signed a contract for the same pay, Shearer refused, stating it was not enough.
Al Jean made a statement from the producers saying "the show must go on," but did not elaborate on what might happen to the characters Shearer voiced. On July 7, 2015, Shearer agreed to continue with the show, on the same terms as the other voice actors.
Le Show and radio work {{quote box |width=30em |bgcolor=transparent |align=right |halign=left |quote=Because I don't do stand-up, radio has always been my equivalent, a place to stay in connection with the public and force myself to write every week and come up with new characters. Plus it's a medium that – having grown up with it and putting myself to sleep with a radio under my pillow [as a kid] – I love. No matter what picture you want to create in the listener's mind, a few minutes of work gets it done. Since 1983, Shearer has been the host of the
public radio comedy/music program
Le Show. The program is a sequence of themed satirical news commentary
segments, interspersed with music and sketch comedy, that takes aim at the "mega morons of the mighty media". It is carried on many
National Public Radio and other public and community radio stations throughout the United States. Since the merger of the
Sirius and
XM satellite radio services the program became unavailable on the service of the merged company,
SiriusXM. The show has also been made available as a
podcast on
iTunes and on his website. In 2008, he assembled video clips of newsmakers from this collection into an art installation titled "The Silent Echo Chamber" which was exhibited at
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in
Ridgefield, Connecticut. and in 2010 at the New Orleans
Contemporary Arts Center. In 2006 Shearer appeared with
Brian Hayes in four episodes of the
BBC Radio 4 sitcom
Not Today, Thank You, playing Nostrils, a man so ugly he cannot stand to be in his own presence. He was originally scheduled to appear in all six episodes but had to withdraw from recording two due to a problem with his work permit. On June 19, 2008, it was announced that Shearer would receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the radio category.
Further career Shearer's first feature film as director, ''
Teddy Bears' Picnic, which he also wrote, was released in 2002. The plot is based on Bohemian Grove, which hosts a three-week encampment of some of the most powerful men in the world. The film was not well received by critics. It garnered a 0% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with all 19 reviews being determined as negative and received a rating of 32 out of 100 (signifying "generally negative reviews") on Metacritic from 10 reviews. In 2003, he co-wrote J. Edgar! The Musical'' with
Tom Leopold, which spoofed
J. Edgar Hoover's relationship with
Clyde Tolson. It premiered at the
U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in
Aspen, Colorado and starred
Kelsey Grammer and
John Goodman. Shearer, Guest and McKean starred in the
folk music mockumentary A Mighty Wind (2003), portraying a band called The Folksmen. The film was written by Guest and
Eugene Levy, and directed by Guest. He also appeared as a news anchor in
Godzilla (1998) with fellow
The Simpsons cast members
Hank Azaria and
Nancy Cartwright. His other film appearances include
The Right Stuff (1983),
The Fisher King (1991),
The Truman Show (1998),
Small Soldiers (also 1998), and
EDtv (1999). He also directed and appeared in the television program
Portrait of a White Marriage (1988), a sequel to
The History of White People in America. Since May 2005 he has been a contributing blogger at
The Huffington Post. Shearer has written three books.
Man Bites Town, published in 1993, is a collection of columns that he wrote for
The Los Angeles Times between 1989 and 1992. Shearer believes that Clinton became disliked because he had an affair with "the least powerful, least credentialed woman cleared into his official compound." His most recent CD,
Greed and Fear is mainly about
Wall Street economic issues, rather than politics like his previous albums. Shearer decided to make the album when he"started getting amused by the language of the economic meltdown – when 'toxic assets' suddenly became 'troubled assets,' going from something poisoning the system to just a bunch of delinquent youth with dirty faces that needed not removal from the system but just ... understanding." In May 2006, Shearer received an honorary doctorate from
Goucher College.
The Big Uneasy Shearer is the director of
The Big Uneasy (2010), a documentary film about the impacts of
Hurricane Katrina on
New Orleans. Narrated by actor
John Goodman, the film describes
levee failures and
catastrophic flooding in the
New Orleans metropolitan area, and includes extended interviews with former
LSU professor
Ivor Van Heerden, Robert Bea, an engineering professor at the
University of California at Berkeley, and Maria Garzino, an engineer and contract specialist for the Los Angeles district of the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The film is critical of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and its management of
flood protection projects in Southern
Louisiana. Shearer draws on numerous technical experts to maintain that Hurricane Katrina's "... tragic floods creating widespread damage were caused by manmade errors in engineering and judgment." On
review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 71% based on 24 reviews, with an average rating of 6.85/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "
The Big Uneasy offers an admittedly uneven – yet still worthy and well-intentioned – look at a horrific disaster's aftermath." ==Personal life==