There's One Type Of Guest Star The Simpsons Has Never Quite Been Able To Land

No sitcom is complete without an occasional guest star popping in to shake things up. When it comes to "The Simpsons," they've booked almost everyone in Hollywood at some point, whether it be Meryl Streep, Phil Hartman, Johnny Cash, Neil Gaiman, Billie Eilish, or Tom Hiddleston. Throw a rock in Los Angeles and you'll likely hit someone who has done a guest spot on the animated sitcom.

These spots usually fluctuate between a celebrity playing a character that impacts the family in some way, such as Dustin Hoffman's Mr. Bergstrom, or an uninspired one-and-done playing themselves like Elon Musk. This does not, nor will it ever, apply to Mark Hamill.

When asked by IGN if the show had any guest stars they had been pulling for, executive producer Al Jean revealed that they had tried to arrange a U.S. President to no avail:

"We've tried pretty hard –– we got a nice rejection letter from Reagan when he was alive, and Bill Clinton considered it. But we finally gave up and used an actual recording of Theodore Roosevelt. He was a good president, so that was our default. (laughs)"

The closest the series has come to booking an actual politician is when they were able to nab Tony Blair during his tenure as Prime Minister, according to Jean.

The creative team behind "The Simpsons" may not have been able to secure guest spots for an American President, but that didn't stop them from making entire episodes with their likeness in them. Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, and Jimmy Carter have all made brief appearances, but little more than background gags. There are only two instances that I can recall in which the commander in chief has had their own episodes.

At the top of the show's eighth season, "The Simpsons" used the upcoming 1996 election to take a jab at Bill Clinton (Phil Hartman) and Bob Dole (Harry Shearer), with aliens Kang (Harry Shearer) and Kodos (Dan Castellaneta) murdering the pair before taking their place back on Earth. It's still so funny how it doesn't even matter in the end that people find out they've been replaced.

But the most memorable presidential appearance easily goes to the season 7 episode "Two Bad Neighbors," in which George H.W. Bush (Harry Shearer), along with his wife Barbara (Tress MacNaille), moved to Springfield. The kicker is that they live directly across the street from the Simpsons. The episode becomes a "Dennis the Menace" parody of sorts with Bart (Nancy Cartwright) playing innocent as he upends the former President's life. When Bush spanks Bart for misbehaving, it prompts Homer (Dan Castellaneta) to declare war, leading to glued-on clown wigs, lawn damage, and a sewer fight.

It's probably best if no President ever does a guest spot, so as to not create a conflict of interest in actually making fun of them.

Seasons 1-32 of "The Simpsons" are currently streaming on Disney+.