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Alf Clausen, Emmy-Winning Composer for ‘The Simpsons,' Dies at 84
Alf Clausen, the veteran composer with two Emmy wins and 30 nominations whose whimsical scores brightened such television series as The Simpsons, Moonlighting and, purely coincidentally, ALF, has died. He was 84.
Clausen died Thursday at his Valley Village home in Los Angeles, his daughter, Kaarin Clausen, told The Hollywood Reporter. He was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy about eight years ago, she said.
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From The Simpsons' second season in 1990 until its 28th in 2017, Clausen crafted many of the spirited melodies that contributed to the cutting-edge lunacy of the Fox animated show. From 23 Emmy nominations, he — along with lyricist Ken Keeler — won in 1997 and '98 for the songs 'We Put the Spring in Springfield' and 'You're Checkin' In (A Musical Tribute to the Betty Ford Center).'
His harmonious relationship with the show would not last, however, with Clausen filing a lawsuit against Disney and Fox in August 2019 after he was dismissed from The Simpsons.
Clausen's breakthrough as a TV composer came in 1985 on the ABC series Moonlighting. Back then, he had spent years doing a little bit of everything, from music directing and orchestrating to creating additional music for film and television projects.
Lee Holdridge, who wrote the music for the Moonlighting theme song performed by Al Jarreau, asked series creator Glenn Gordon Caron to employ Clausen. Caron did so, but to hedge his bets, he hired another composer to alternate episodes with Clausen. By the fourth show, the other composer was let go and Clausen ended up scoring the series throughout its five-season run.
Moonlighting's innovative structure provided a range of challenges for Clausen. The 1985 episode 'The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice' offered film noir flashbacks (filmed in black and white) set in a 1940s nightclub, with Cybill Shepherd, backed by a big band, singing a sultry torch song as co-star Bruce Willis played trumpet. The next year's 'Atomic Shakespeare' served up a music-filled parody of The Taming of the Shrew in medieval times. Clausen received Emmy noms for those episodes, then landed two more in 1988 and '89.
Meanwhile, Clausen also took on composing duties for ALF. He provided the theme song and scored the 100-plus episodes of the quirky 1986-90 NBC sitcom about a joke-cracking, alien life form (ALF) portrayed as a shaggy puppet. (Asked if ALF was named after him, Clausen's standard reply was, 'No, but I granted them the rights to use my face as a likeness!)
Clausen originally resisted The Simpsons' gig when it was first offered in 1990. The show, which had just concluded its first season (its opening theme was written by Danny Elfman), seemed too light-heartedly compared to what he had done the past five years.
'I was posed the question, 'Would you like to score an animated show?' and I said, 'No,'' Clausen recalled during a 2015 conversation for the Television Academy Foundation website The Interviews. 'I said, 'I just got off of four years of Moonlighting, and I really want to be a drama composer. I'm more interested in doing longform feature films.''
But series creator Matt Groening convinced Clausen that The Simpsons was just what he was looking for.
'We look on our show as being, not a cartoon, we look upon it as a drama where the characters are drawn,' Groening told Clausen. 'And we would like it scored that way. Could you do that?' And I said, 'Yeah, I could do that.''
Groening wanted the music to always reflect the emotion of the characters, not the action on the screen. 'He said he didn't want it scored like a typical Warner Bros. cartoon. He didn't want it scored like a typical Disney cartoon,' Clausen said. 'He wanted something different.'
Clausen's first assignment was the 1990 episode 'Treehouse of Horror.' He said he was delighted that it presented the opportunity for 42 musical cues and that the producers didn't flinch when he requested a double recording session to generate them.
He kept The Simpsons humming for 550-plus episodes and scored using a live, full orchestra. Among the many memorable ditties he wrote along the way were 'Vote for a Winner,' 'See My Vest,' 'Always My Dad,' 'Ode to Branson' and 'Union Strike Folk Song (Parts 1 and 2).'
'The Garbage Man,' a parody of 'The Candy Man' that he wrote for a 1998 episode, was performed by none other than U2.
In a 2012 interview, Clausen remembered that with all the legal, production and publicity people from the show, the studio and the band, there must have been about 50 folks in the booth during the recording session.
'We did the first take of the song and Bono did a really good job of it, but there were a couple things I knew could be better,' Clausen said. 'He and I got along really well, we bonded from the moment we met. So when he finished the first take, I got on the talkback to him out in the studio and said, 'Boy, that was really good. But, you know, I think you can do a better one.'
'And I hear 50 people behind me collectively gasp! They couldn't believe I was telling Bono that he could record a better take. But he and I were used to being in the recording studio and accustomed to the process involved in doing recordings. We understood we were there to get the best take, and he was fine with it.'
Alf Heiberg Clausen was born in Minneapolis on March 28, 1941. His mother, Magdalene, was on a weekend break from her master's studies at Iowa State University and shopping in a department store when she went into labor.
He lived in Ames, Iowa, until his mom earned her degree, at which point the family relocated to Jamestown, North Dakota. His dad, also named Alf, was an occupational therapist for the city's mental hospital. His mom worked for Stutsman County helping residents deal with laws governing homeownership.
Clausen grew up loving toy trains, cars and music. He took piano lessons at an early age, and two of his favorite activities were listening to his parents' orchestral record collection on their Victrola and watching American Bandstand on the family's new TV set.
In the seventh grade, he was assigned the French horn, which became his instrument of choice through high school.
At North Dakota State University, Clausen pursued a mechanical engineering degree but changed his major to music after he spent a summer with a musician cousin in New York and experienced My Fair Lady, West Side Story and The Music Man on Broadway and concerts featuring the likes of Miles Davis.
While working toward his master's at the University of Wisconsin, Clausen enrolled in a correspondence course at Boston's Berklee College of Music to study arranging and composition. He found he enjoyed creating music more than playing it and moved to Boston to study full-time at Berklee. Eventually, he also taught there.
Clausen headed to Los Angeles in 1967, played professionally around town and supplemented his income as a music copyist on Planet of the Apes (1968), M*A*S*H (1970), The Carol Burnett Show and The Partridge Family.
In 1976, a colleague helped him get his foot in the door as an arranger for ABC's Donny & Marie, and he was promoted to musical director for the show's third season. He then became the musical director for another variety show, 1979's The Mary Tyler Moore Hour.
As his reputation grew, Clausen spent the next several years orchestrating and composing for features including Airplane II: The Sequel (1982), Splash (1984), Weird Science (1985), Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) and Dragnet (1987) and scored episodes of Fame, Wizards and Warriors and Partners in Crime.
Clausen's long association with The Simpsons ended on a sour note when it was announced in 2017 that he was being let go. Bleeding Fingers Music, a composer collective co-owned by Hans Zimmer, replaced him; the move cut the show's music budget by 40 percent as live orchestrations were supplanted by synthesized music.
The five-time Annie Award winner sued Disney and its Fox divisions, claiming age discrimination while attacking Zimmer's company for creating Simpsons music 'inferior in quality, depth, range and sound, yet stylistically similar in substance.' He amended his suit in April 2020 to assert he also was fired because of a perceived disability, PSP.
Fox and Simpsons executives countered, saying they were disappointed with Clausen's work on a 2017 hip-hop-themed episode, 'The Great Phatsby,' citing his unfamiliarity with newer forms of music and a concern that the show could lose its relevance.
A judge dismissed the age discrimination claim but allowed Clausen to pursue other portions of the suit, including wrongful discharge, retaliation and unfair business practices. However, he settled in February 2022.
In addition to his daughter, survivors also include his wife, Sally, whom he married in 1993; former wife Judy; two sons, Kyle and Scott; stepchildren Joshua and Emily; his sister, Faye; 11 grandchildren; and a niece and nephew.
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