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The Simpsons is known for predicting the future by reflecting the present.
So when someone who was the head writer of a legendary animated series raises the alarm among his industry, it’s best to probably concentrate.
“The TV business is down,” Bill Oakley said as he walked the National Restaurant Show floor, iced coffee in hand, moving between branded booths looking for more food samples and interesting stories.
“Television will always be there, just as there will always be newspapers,” he predicts; it just won’t matter as much as it once did.
This is a great truth, spoken by a renowned writer who has made a profitable and long-term living in the television industry.
Oakley was showrunner and executive producer The Simpsons with writing partner Josh Weinstein. After the eighth season, he moved on to recent things.
Oakley and Weinstein reunited to create a short-lived animated comedy series Mission Hillwhich has since turn into a cult classic, drawing crowds to live shows across the country.
The writing partners have also entered the streaming era as executive producers DisenchantmentNetflix’s original mind-made animated adventure comedy series The Simpsons creator Matt Groening.
Oakley has seen firsthand how the industry is changing seismically. “Companies have realized that no one wants 2,000 new programs a year,” he says. “They spent a billion dollars creating 2,000 new TV shows over the last 10 years that no one watched.”
He’s right. Fewer people than before are interested in television and other traditional media. According to Statista researchbetween 2017 and 2023, the variety of viewers of traditional television dropped by half, while the popularity of streaming increased. Television promoting has also been declining for years.
Less eyes, less money, less work for people like Oakley.
This brings us to how the writer ended up at a conference at a restaurant with a VIP badge.
Become a culinary influencer
Now, Oakley has expanded his career with one other prestigious title: culinary influencer. Oakley boasts 42,000 Instagram followers and 60,000 followers on X. It is sponsored by every kind of food brands, including many local ones in Portland, Oregon.
Despite having no experience with food (apart from eating a lot of it), Oakley used social media to launch a recent career as a food personality.
“I’ve always wanted to be the first guy to try the new McDonald’s burger all the way to McDLT, and I want to be the first to tell everyone about it,” he says.
His sincerity – and honesty – on the topics he discusses is becoming increasingly popular with audiences.
“I’ve never worked in a restaurant. I have no idea about cooking. I don’t know anything about restaurant sales,” Oakley says. “I only know what I like to eat and what I am interested in. I think a lot of my audience is the same way.”
From his childhood craving McDonald’s when his family made a long trip to the nearest restaurant, to stuffing fast food into his pockets The Simpsons writer’s room during long workdays, Oakley has at all times loved to eat.
Cut to May 7, 2018, when McDonald’s returned to using fresh beef in its Quarter Pounders. Oakley drove to the nearest McD’s to try it out and document the experience.
The burger wasn’t as memorable as what happened when he finished eating it in the automobile.
When he got home from filming, it took him three hours to work out learn how to edit three easy shots together. That’s why he didn’t expect much when he posted his first video review on Instagram to his 65 followers.
But similar to that, Oakley began getting a lot more attention. One account that quickly got noticed was @McDonald’s.
“I tagged McDonald’s, and social media said, ‘Congratulations on your new career as a fast food reviewer,’” he says. “And I assumed: Hoh, that is a good idea!“
WITH The Simpsons for steamed hams
Oakley and Weinstein, his friend since highschool, helped create some of the most heartwarming and imaginative episodes The Simpsons first decade.
If you watched TV in the mid-Nineteen Nineties, you most likely remember the “Who Shot Mr. Burns?” a two-part 1995 crime story – written by Oakley and Weinstein.
Similarly, “Bart vs. Australia” left some grumpy Australians wanting to give something back The Simpsons staff writing “shoe”. Now Oakley says Australians are welcoming his satirical episode Down Under.
Then there’s the legendary “22 Short Films About Springfield,” which introduced the world to something called steamed hams.
Principal Skinner panics and serves a steamed ham to the superintendent when his kitchen is on fire after several mishaps. The most vital meal was presupposed to be steamed clams, but the plate of low-cost hamburgers was unexpectedly renamed steamed hams.
Since it aired in 1996, this strange sketch in the episode has turn into an extremely popular meme. It seems like it was written for social media, though it was written before it was even talked about.
“It’s a joke that’s been going on for twenty years,” Oakley says. “It’s definitely the most famous thing I’ve ever written. So, in an effort to money in on my past, I still use the term “steamed hams” every time possible.
The name of Oakley’s popular Discord community for fellow food lovers is The Steamed Hams Society & Food Discovery Club.
On Discord, club members pay $5 a month to interact in passionate food discussions with each other and Oakley, from recent potato chip flavors to favorite recipes and reviews of local restaurants.
“I discovered that there are a lot of people who are like me and want to be among the first to try new dishes,” Oakley said as he tested the dessert at the National Restaurant Show.
The dessert was tasty, but irrespective of how good the sweet snack is, the creator of steamed hams is still a hamburger man.
With a specific variety of calories per day, Oakley knows learn how to save your appetite for what matters most. “I would always rather use those calories on another hamburger.”
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