Phil Hartman Dedication Month: Troy McClure

Hi there, I'm the ghost of Troy McClure, you may remember me from such hauntings as; The Marilyn Monroe Story and This is It. Today I'm here to help this guy KK do this tribute to my character as clearly I was the coolest guy from the 90's.

Okay, okay, time to be serious. Now as you all know, I'm doing a tribute to Phil Hartman's work on The Simpsons, and I decided to start with his most famous character; Troy McClure. Even though Phil wasn't brought onto the show initially to do Troy McClure, that's the character I've seen most people associate to him first. So with that, let's begin.

A little backstory to begin, Troy McClure's name is based off the actors Doug McClure and Troy Donahue. Troy's first appearance was in Homer vs Lisa and the 8th Commandment as he was doing an infomercial Troy's basic character is that he used to be a big name actor who descended into B-movie obscurity and hosted infomercials and TV specials. Probably my favorite part of his character (Besides all the funny dialogue) had to be the movies and educational films he'd star in, it was a better time when the writers were very creative and they proved to be a good idea whether they were just mentioned or we could actually see him star in them. I've also loved how Troy was nothing more than a washed-up has been but would have an IMDB profile longer than most major movie stars. Troy McClure was one of those characters that can be imitated but never duplicated.

Troy started off his educational videos with Bart the Murderer where he was giving a lecture to the kids about the history of chocolate (Which I believe isn't true, but that was part of the character that I loved). There are quite a bit of his videos that I love and I could make a list of my favorites, but I'd feel that one or two would get snubbed and I can't narrow it down to just 10 or so. I think though the videos I enjoyed the most would be the ones with Billy where Troy would be condescending to him even though the kid had a more active imagination than he did (Lisa the Simpson). In short, his educational films was a great bit and Phil could add a new element to every video he did.

Of course Troy McClure seemed like he was basically a one scene character that you'd want to see him get his own episode but you'd assume that his bit would get old fast. That is where the comedic genius of Phil Hartman would prove you wrong. In his own episode (A Fish Named Selma) we got some further back story into Troy's character and Phil does a great job conveying how Troy has a fish fetish and is not just a washed-up actor (Although I personally never liked the fish thing, the episode was still a great one). I've always appreciated what Phil was able to give to this character and I wish that he could have gotten more screen time, maybe the movie that was thought out. Yes there was talks about Phil Hartman making a live action Troy McClure movie and the Simpsons staff was behind it, a shame it never came to pass, I would have gone to see it.

As this comes to an end, I though about listing all his works but it is a lot. I knew it was a running gag with him in a lot of work but I didn't realize it was THIS much. So I hope you enjoyed this and be sure to check out one of these great titles at your local Beta-Barn:

• The Boatjacking of Supership '79
• Calling All Quakers (with Dolores Montenegro)
• Christmas Ape
• Christmas Ape Goes To Summer Camp
• The Contrabulous Fabtraption of Professor Horatio Hufnagel
• Cry Yuma 
• David versus Super Goliath
• Dial M for Murderousness 
• The Electric Gigolo 
• The Erotic Adventures of Hercules 
• Give My Remains to Broadway
• Gladys the Groovy Mule 
• Good-Time Slim, Uncle Doobie, and the Great 'Frisco Freak-Out'
• The Greatest Story Ever Hulaed
• Here Comes the Coast Guard
• Hitler Doesn't Live Here Anymore
• Hydro, the Man With the Hydraulic Arms
• Leper in the Backfield
• Make-Out King of Montana
• Meet Joe Blow 
• The Muppets Go Medieval
• "P" is for Psycho
• Preacher With a Shovel (with Dolores Montenegro) KNOBBB
• The President's Neck is Missing
• The Revenge of Abe Lincoln
• The Seven-Year Old Bitch
• Sorry, Wrong Closet
• Suddenly Last Supper
• They Came to Burgle Carnegie Hall
• Today We Kill, Tomorrow We Die 
• The Verdict Was Mail Fraud
• The Wackiest Covered Wagon in the West
• Jagged Attraction
• Look Who's Still Oinking

And you can find the rest here