One Classic Episode Of The Simpsons Cut A Catherine O'Hara Cameo

Before she was making a new generation laugh as melodramatic "Schitt's Creek" starlet Moira Rose or leaving audiences in stitches as Christopher Guest's go-to zany muse for his mockumentaries, comedic actor Catherine O'Hara almost had a key part in a golden age episode of "The Simpsons."

In the show's third season, the provocatively titled episode "Flaming Moe's" gave bartender Moe Szyslak (Hank Azaria) a rare win when a drink idea he stole from Homer took the local scene by storm. The drink in question, a Flaming Moe (initially a Flaming Homer, of course), was originally made up of all the leftover bits of alcohol in the Simpson liquor cabinet, with an added dose of child's cough syrup and a fiery garnish –- thanks to Selma and Patty's cigarette cinders. That's right: Homer Simpson got Springfield hooked on lean in 1991.

Part of the episode's charm comes from the "Cheers" parody that makes up a surprising amount of its runtime. The bar-set TV show was still on the air when "Flaming Moe's" aired, and though original star Shelley Long had already left the cast, her character Diane's caustic banter and sexual tension with bartender Sam Malone (Ted Danson) was still a major part of the zeitgeist. Thus, when Moe's tavern blew up, it drew the attention of a haughty, beautiful young woman who shared more than a passing resemblance to Long. By episode's end, the waitress would have consummated her will-they-won't-they relationship with Moe and left town to act in movies. The episode even has a hilariously dark "Cheers" parody song.

The waitress in "Flaming Moe's" was voiced by Jo Ann Harris, who's appeared in 11 episodes of the show to date beginning with the very first one. According to a DVD commentary track featuring star Dan Castellaneta, then co-showrunners Mike Reis and Al Jean, creator Matt Groening and others, O'Hara was actually the original choice to play the Diane Chambers-esque role. Castellaneta revealed as much in the episode commentary, while Reis attempted to explain exactly why the actor –- who actually recorded all the lines for the part –- didn't end up in the final cut.

"Catherine O'Hara, who is certainly a great comedienne, really funny," Reis said, "She's one of just a handful of celebrities where something about them just didn't animate correctly. The voice didn't work for our purposes." Their purposes, apparently, were to create a pretty distinctive Shelley Long impression, and it sounds like O'Hara's read was a bit less "Cheers." As Jean explained, Harris had already "done some voices for the show at various points," and had recorded a temp track for the animation before O'Hara came on board. "She did the temporary voice, which is obviously based on Shelley Long, it's a 'Cheers' parody," Jean recalled. "And then we recorded Catherine O'Hara, who is very funny and very nice, but we just thought it was better with Jo Ann."

It's worth noting that O'Hara was already a major star at the time, having led the casts of movies like "Home Alone" and "Beetlejuice." She was also an original cast member of the well-known Canadian "Saturday Night Live" alternative "SCTV" in the '80s, and she was popular enough to host "SNL" for the first time the same year "Flaming Moe's" aired. It's a testament to the massive place "The Simpsons" held in the zeitgeist at the time that the show's team was able to go with the voice actor who they felt worked best for the bit, even if it meant cutting a starry cameo. In the end, Jean said it came down to whose voice sounded more like Shelley Long's. "That was it!" he insisted on the commentary track.

Even without O'Hara, this is an especially star-studded episode of "The Simpsons," as the entire band Aerosmith makes an appearance, singing two songs to a packed house at the newly popular Moe's. Still, it's worth wondering how the actor who's now so famous for her creative vocal inflections would've sounded as the waitress. (Moira Rose and Diane Chambers are both cut from the same hilariously pretentious cloth, after all.) As far as we can tell, O'Hara has never told her side of the cut cameo story, but it's worth noting that she still hasn't appeared on "The Simpsons" 33 years later.