Gallery: Greatest Simpsons Cameos From First 500 Episodes
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Julian Assange will pop up on The Simpsons this Sunday, landing the embattled WikiLeaks leader in the historic 500th episode of an animated show known for its quirky cameos. "We specialize in finding people who can't be found, so we thought it would be unique for the 500th episode," said *The Simpsons* producer [Al Jean](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Jean) in a conference call with reporters. "We had to record him over the phone. It was a cloak-and-dagger kind of thing." Assange's unlikely cameo is just the latest celebrity "get" for the show's bookers, who have long specialized in lining up surprising special guests. (See the cameos we've selected as our favorite Simpsons guest stars from the *first* 500 episodes in the video gallery above.) How did the [controversial cartoon](http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/06/iran-simpsons-ban-idUSL5E8D61X320120206) land the controversial WikiLeaks chief? Jean said he found out from Simpsons' creator [Matt Groening](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Groening) that Assange, whose lines were recorded months before Sunday night's benchmark episode, wanted to be on the show. The task of coordinating the cameo was left to intrepid casting director [Bonita Pietila](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonita_Pietila), who previously located mysterious cultural heroes like [Banksy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksy) and [Thomas Pynchon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Pynchon). *(__Spoiler alert:__ Details about the 500th episode follow.)* The *[Simpsons](http://www.thesimpsons.com/)* milestone is celebrated early in "At Long Last Leave," the 500th episode that airs Sunday at 8 p.m./7 p.m. Central on Fox. The show starts with a fast-forward glimpse at [every couch gag The Simpsons has ever run](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Simpsons_couch_gags). Then Springfield's most notorious family is banned for its hijinks, only to settle in with a ragged bunch of off-the-grid outlanders living adjacent to a sleek WikiLeaks compound inhabited by Assange, whose password is, hilariously, "1234." Only time will tell if Assange's topical appearance as The Simpsons' "[new Flanders](http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/30/wikileaks-founder-to-guest-on-the-simpsons)" beats out three-fourths of [The Beatles](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_beatles) or any of the other essential Simpsons guest stars that have graced the series since its birth on The Tracy Ullman Show 25 years ago this April. The sheer number of [*Simpsons* cameos over the years](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Simpsons_guest_stars) is astounding. How much more can we expect? "I don’t know where the end is," Jean said when asked about the show's future. "I’ve jokingly said, 'Why not 1,000? Why not 2,000?' But that sounds as preposterous to me now as 500 did \[when the show started\], so I really don’t know."
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Leonard Nimoy ------------- *Star Trek* actor Leonard Nimoy's cameo in "[Marge vs. the Monorail](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marge_vs._the_Monorail)" is particularly impressive considering the *Simpsons* team originally wanted George Takei. (They couldn't get him because Takei sat on public transit boards and didn't want to appear anti-monorail.) But Nimoy not only saves Krusty the Clown, he also transports away at the end of the episode. *—Tim Carmody* No contest! "Marge vs. the Monorail," with a cameo from Leonard Nimoy. It rocks, especially when the passenger sitting next to Nimoy asks if anyone wants to switch seats after Nimoy says this line: "And so, the cosmic ballet goes on." *—Shannon Perkins*
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Stephen Hawking --------------- Earth's coolest cosmologist has slipped through The Simpsons' space portal four times, most recently in last year's excellent episode "[Elementary School Musical](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_School_Musical_%28The_Simpsons%29)," when the legendary physicist broke out the wheels of steel and schooled everyone on the brief history of rhyme *and* time. Hawking also showed up in "[They Saved Lisa's Brain](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Saved_Lisa%27s_Brain)," "[Stop or My Dog Will Shoot](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_or_My_Dog_Will_Shoot)" and "[Don't Fear the Roofer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Fear_the_Roofer)" in sublime fashion. Hawking typed his lines into his computer to achieve the correct digital dialect, but it still had trouble with the word *fruitopia*. That's better than being confused with an actual Simpsons character, a misconception that nagged Hawking after his first appearance in "They Saved Lisa's Brain." *—Scott Thill*
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Alan Moore, Daniel Clowes and Art Spiegelman -------------------------------------------- What show other than The Simpsons could collect three of Earth's greatest living graphic novelists in one episode?  Daniel Clowes (Ghost World), Art Spiegelman (Maus) and Alan Moore (c'mon, dude) play themselves in "[Husbands and Knives](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Husbands_and_Knives)," coming to the aid of hipster Milo (voiced by Jack Black), who opens the Coolsville Comics & Toys store in direct competition with Comic Book Guy's shop. The comics legends even break out the supermuscles (at right) when it comes time to administer a beatdown to the scheming Comic Book Guy. Try as it might, a flabby side plot about Marge and Homer trying to lose weight couldn't sidetrack this episode's geek cred. *—Scott Thill*
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Thomas Pynchon -------------- Perhaps the world's most inscrutable novelist, [Thomas Pynchon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Pynchon)'s labyrinthine tomes like V, Gravity's Rainbow and Mason & Dixon are as notorious as their author's resolute avoidance of the spotlight. So it was only a matter of time before The Simpsons scored a cameo coup by booking him. In "[Diatribe of a Mad Housewife](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatribe_of_a_Mad_Housewife)," the mysterious Pynchon appeared as himself, but with a bag over his head — a suitable disguise for a revered author who has gone decades without being captured on camera. Details on the episode's production remain light, but could have been lightened more if the coincident appearance of pop-cult lessers like Tom Clancy and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were left on the cutting-room floor. *—Scott Thill*
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Patrick McGoohan ---------------- Fans of influential '60s spy-fi series [The Prisoner](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/underwire/2009/11/the-prisoner-an-all-star-appreciation/), and its late, great televisionary [Patrick McGoohan](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/underwire/2009/01/rip-patrick-mcg), spent decades ironically wishing that [Number Six](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_Six_%28The_Prisoner%29) would return to The Village's panopticon. They finally got their wish with "[The Computer Wore Menace Shoes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Computer_Wore_Menace_Shoes)," which skewered internet and technology with mixed results for those not schooled in The Prisoner's surrealism and surveillance. Not that McGoohan disciples cared what critics thought, as ecstatic as they were to finally see him on television in a piped blazer after years of hermitage. Plus, McGoohan was as proud of his cameo as anything he had ever done, which is good enough for us. *—Scott Thill*
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Buzz Aldrin and James Taylor ---------------------------- I love it when cameos pile up in surprising ways, like when Buzz Aldrin tells James Taylor, "This isn't the best time for your unique brand of bittersweet folk rock." I also love the Ron Howard cameos, and how casually abusive he and Homer are to each other. *—Chris Baker*
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Neil Gaiman ----------- Bow down to British Fonzi! Playing himself, writer [Neil Gaiman](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Gaiman) busts open "[The Book Job](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_Job)" caper. Although he's only brought on board to fetch food for Homer, Bart, Principal Skinner, Patty, Moe and Professor Frink -- who are trying to scam the tween-lit ghostwriting market -- Gaiman gets even in the end. *—Scott Thill* P.S. (Serious Gaiman geeks should also check out the author's guest appearance on oft-weird kids toon Arthur. In the "[Falafelsophy](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/geekdad/2010/09/neil-gaiman-gets-animated-on-arthur)" episode, he shows up inside a falafel.)
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John Waters ----------- "You're gaaaay," Homer cackles at director [John Waters](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Waters_%28filmmaker%29) in "[Homer's Phobia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer%27s_Phobia)" -- thinking it's an insult rather than a statement of the utterly obvious -- in an episode that brilliantly explores the puzzling contours of masculinity. Watching Homer trying to "straighten" out his son after getting a sexual clue about the infamous director of Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble is equal parts hilarity and heartbreak, which is probably why the episode won an Emmy, an Annie and a GLAAD Media Award. There is probably no qualitative way to crown a best-ever Simpsons episode, but even if there were, "Homer's Phobia" would reign like a rainbow. *—Scott Thill*
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The Beatles ----------- Few shows have geeked [The Beatles](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_beatles) as well as The Simpsons, which has featured three of the Fab Four, and probably would have scored the peerless wit of [John Lennon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_lennon) as well, if it weren't for that execrable hater Mark David Chapman. "[Homer's Barbershop Quartet](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer%27s_Barbershop_Quartet)" patterned its entire episode on the rise and fall of the band, and featured Beatles guitarist George Harrison excellently dissing Homer, Skinner, Barney and Apu's rooftop concert on Moe's Tavern. ("It's been done," he wisecracks, before bailing in a limo.) Drummer Ringo Starr's character and music was central to "[Brush With Greatness](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brush_with_Greatness)," wherein Marge dusts off her Fab Four fan art and nearly becomes a star in her own right. Meanwhile, herbivores Paul and Linda McCartney guest-starred in "[Lisa the Vegetarian](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_the_Vegetarian)" as friends of Apu, another vegetarian, who evidently lets them live on top of his Kwik-E-Mart. Like all post-'50s pop-cult routes, The Simpsons' long and winding road goes straight through Liverpool. *—Scott Thill* <script src="http://admin.brightcove.com/js/BrightcoveExperiences.js" type="text/javascript"></script><object class="BrightcoveExperience" id="myExperience1453116217001"><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"></param><param name="width" value="660"></param><param name="height" value="423"></param><param name="playerID" value="3698508001"></param><param name="publisherID" value="1564549380"></param><param name="isVid" value="true"></param><param name="dynamicStreaming" value="true"></param><param name="@videoPlayer" value="1453116217001"></param></object><script type="text/javascript"> runMobileCompatibilityScript('myExperience1453116217001', 'anId'); </script><script type="text/javascript">brightcove.createExperiences();</script>
