Casting Dan Castellaneta, relatively unknown at the time, was asked to audition for the show after Ullman spotted him at Chicago's The Second City. His portrayal of a blind man who wants to be a comedian reportedly brought her to tears instead of making her laugh. Ullman went so far as to tell producers she would not do the show unless Castellaneta was hired. To star in
The Tracey Ullman Show, Castellaneta turned down the opportunity to appear in the short-lived
sitcom version of the film
Nothing in Common—a film in which he had also appeared. "Tracey always says, 'You're so lucky, Dan. You can always go back to
Nothing in Common,'" Castellaneta joked in a 1988 interview. Describing the show's philosophy, Castellaneta stated, "Essentially, what dictates it is that there are no parodies; even if it's an unusual situation, Tracey and [executive producer] Jim Brooks try to keep things as believable and real. You've got to be honest." He remained true to his Second City training when approaching comedy: "Don't ever do what's expected. Always try to find a different way of doing something... Always play to the top of your intelligence. A character should be as smart as you are. And if the character isn't as smart as you are, you can't make a comment about it; you can't make fun of the character." Castellaneta felt that audiences could see right through a character that wasn't portrayed honestly and believed the show's viewers were both demanding and intelligent. "They're people who like something different... they're certainly an intelligent audience. And they're an audience that isn't as easily offended as other people might be." Actress Julie Kavner had previously co-starred in
Rhoda, Brooks's spin-off of
The Mary Tyler Moore Show starring
Valerie Harper. Kavner played Harper’s younger, socially awkward sister, Brenda—a role that earned her an
Emmy Award. Kavner was at the top of the list of people Brooks wanted for the new show. Brooks said of her: "When somebody's intrinsically funny—you know, in-their-bones funny—they never have to work at [being funny], so they're free to work on other things. We were all nuts about her work. She was the person we most wanted to work with Tracey." Actor
Sam McMurray originally auditioned for a guest spot playing William, the partner of the father of 13-year-old "Valley Girl" Francesca (Ullman). McMurray recalled his casting: "The first Francesca sketch, they said, 'Play the guy not so gay.' And I said, 'I disagree.' I had a big mouth then—still do. I said, 'I think he's more the woman. I think he's more out there.' So I read it big, and they cast me. It was just a one-off, and then we were on hiatus. I had a friend who used to write, a guy named
Marc Flanagan, who was on the show as a staffer. He called me up and said, 'Did they call your agent?' I said, 'No, why?' He said, 'They want to make you a regular.'" McMurray did not become a full-fledged cast member until the sixth episode and initially felt uncomfortable with the show's atmosphere. He noted, "The social dynamic of the show is an odd one. I spoke with [executive producer] Jim Brooks about this later and I said, 'You know, it's like we're all square pegs, aren't we?' And he said, 'Yeah,' and that the same thing occurred on
The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Everybody was from a different discipline—somebody had been from sitcoms, somebody came from the stage, and somebody had been a stand-up comic—and yet whatever dynamic was forged from it, it's singular and it works." The last addition to the cast was dancer Joseph Malone. He was originally hired for a guest spot, playing a police officer who dances with a potential
jumper on a ledge; however, his performance was so well-received that he was cast as a series regular. Malone had previously worked with
Michael Jackson,
Lily Tomlin, and
Barbara Mandrell.
Writing James L. Brooks knew the importance of good writers and quickly assembled a team for the show, most notably Heide Perlman and Ken Estin of
Cheers fame. Perlman and Estin would also serve as executive producers. Joining them was comedy writer Jerry Belson, who had an extensive career writing for television comedies such as
The Dick Van Dyke Show and
The Odd Couple (the latter of which he co-developed with his writing partner,
Garry Marshall). Belson was the writer Ullman warmed to immediately; in an interview with
The Nerdist Podcast, she recalled him saying, "Leave her alone, Jim, she's tired." She noted, "He was one of those funny writers [who], if you said that you didn't like a joke in the room, he'd say, 'What is this, Nazi Russia?'" When they won an Emmy, Belson's response was, "This is my first Emmy in color. Sam Simon, like Estin, had written for
Taxi (co-created by Brooks) and also served as an executive producer for the show. Brooks discovered writer Marc Flanagan after watching a piece that he wrote performed by
Meryl Streep and
Kevin Kline at a benefit. Brooks asked to speak to Flanagan and kept him in mind as he began assembling the staff.
SCTV writers Dick Blasucci and Paul Flaherty were hired to write and co-produce as well. For each show, a table read would take place on Monday mornings in the presence of the writers and producers. It wasn't unusual for rewrites to go on past midnight; what worked in the writers' room would sometimes fall flat once in the hands of the actors. The best readings were the result of numerous rewrites. "I love cracking a run-through," said Ullman in 1989. "It's like a drug. If I can get them looking at me and respecting me, and thinking, 'She's done it!'—it's the best feeling." But she knew that the only performance that truly mattered was the one recorded in front of a live studio audience. "You just gotta pray you hit that happy, energetic mood on Friday." The cast would usually rehearse under the guidance of director Ted Bessell. Around 3:30 pm each day, writers and producers, led by Brooks and Belson, would arrive for a run-through. They would observe, shout out suggestions, make additions and subtractions, and work out any kinks in the production. The show would then be ready to tape by Friday at 7:00 pm. One writer frequently credited on the show, Bonita Carlisle, was in actuality a
nom de plume chosen by the writers' room, indicating that the writing had been a group effort. Guest stars such as
Steve Martin and
Mel Brooks got heavily involved in the writing of their sketches. While the Fox network was quite permissive regarding the material it allowed on the air, by 1989, following controversy over an episode of
Married... with Children, the network's
Standards and Practices department began closely monitoring the show's scripts. One sketch, featuring a nun (played by Ullman) and a priest performing
last rites, was pulled mid-production. Producers were given the option to either water down the skit or scrap it entirely. Ullman had no problem with the piece, and Brooks responded: "They're smart enough to know that they can't have a bland network that responds to every pressure and be successful... If we really believe a piece should be broadcast, then we will take a stand. We do care about doing characters accurately and having them take a comic view of life, but when censorship interferes with that, we've got to scream."
Format won an
Emmy Award for her work choreographing the show's dance numbers A typical episode of
The Tracey Ullman Show consists of two or three sketches (or
playlets) featuring Ullman playing an array of characters, along with her supporting cast: Julie Kavner, Dan Castellaneta, Sam McMurray, Joseph Malone, and in season three, Anna Levine. The final sketch of each episode usually includes a musical or dance number performed solely by Ullman or with the rest of the cast.
Paula Abdul was responsible for choreographing all of the show's dance routines. Interstitial cartoon shorts, or "bumpers" ("Dr. N!Godatu" and "The Simpsons"), were featured before and after each commercial break. The show's producers toyed with the format during the show's first season. A variety act was added and then scrapped by the third episode. Ullman began opening the show as herself by episode five; this was dropped altogether by season three in favor of an elaborate opening title sequence. The final segment of all four seasons has Ullman, clad in a pink terrycloth bathrobe, delivering a closing monologue to the studio audience before shouting her signature catchphrase, "Go home!"
Opening title sequence , wrote and performed the show's theme song
George Clinton was hired to write and perform the show's
funk-infused theme song, "You're Thinking Right." Brooks also hired the animation and graphic-design company
Klasky Csupo to design the show's title sequence; it would become the studio's big break. In addition to handling the show's opening, they produced the show's animated bumpers. In seasons one and two, the opening title sequence followed a brief introduction by Ullman to the studio audience. For season three, however, the opening was scrapped and replaced with a live-action farce: Ullman pulls up to the 20th Century Fox studio lot in her car and hits a pedestrian. She attempts
CPR in front of onlookers and revives the victim before rushing into the studio. There, she meets George Clinton; a staffer tries to get her opinion on a costume, and
Paula Abdul attempts to go over choreography with her. Next, she visits the makeup room and greets her fellow castmates—including
the Simpson family. She then looks at a pushpin board featuring stills of the week's sketches (presented as
Polaroid photos) along with their titles. Season four returned to a title sequence similar to those of the first two seasons.
Ending After four seasons, Ullman decided to end the show, stating that she was "constantly challenged and happily tortured by a unique group of people." She also thanked Fox "for letting somebody no one ever heard of do a show on a network that didn't exist." Brooks stated that
The Tracey Ullman Show was "the hardest work any of us ever did, and we would have continued forever if she had wanted us to... I'm just glad I appreciated it as it was happening and not just in retrospect... Tracey is one of the most talented people alive." The show, which earned Fox its first
Emmy Award, received a total of 33 nominations, winning 10. Brooks didn't mince words when it was announced that Fox chairman
Barry Diller was stepping down in 1992: "I thought
The Tracey Ullman Show should have stayed on as long as she wanted to do it." Diller had been dragging his feet in renewing the show; tired of waiting, Ullman decided to pull the plug herself. When Ullman and the show won at the
1990 Primetime Emmy Awards,
The Los Angeles Times wrote, "Tracey Ullman gets last laugh." Later, Ullman admitted that she would have liked an additional year to try out all the characters she wanted to play. She was proud, though, of what they achieved: "no compromises, no giving up, always wanting the best." ==Recurring characters==