The lawyers for ousted The Simpsons composer, Alf Clausen, have hit back hard over the initial response from Fox/Disney to the lawsuit filed by Clausen over his dismissal from the series after being the show's main composer for 27 years.
Fox's response to Clausen's age discrimination lawsuit was that the composer was not fired because of his age or his 2017 Parkinson's diagnosis, but because the show's producers felt that the quality of his work had diminished and that he couldn't adequately match the wide variety of musical styles that the show was looking for, with the producers specificlaly pointing at Clausen's hip hop composition as lacking. In addition, producer Richard Sakai stated that the show took issue with Clausen farming out some of his work to his son, "[I] learned that Clausen had been delegating some of the work of composing music for The Simpsons to others, including his son Scott Clausen. I believed his unauthorized delegation was unacceptable. I called showrunner [Al] Jean and told him that Clausen had been delegating his composing work; he conveyed to me that he was surprised and disturbed as well." The producers then "decided that we could improve the music on the show by replacing him."
Clausen's lawyers wholly rejected all of those claims.
His lawyers released the statement, "Through Defendants’ own documents and subterfuge of lies, Mr. Clausen can demonstrate that the decision to terminate his lengthy employment was not only unrelated to the furtherance of free speech, but motivated by discriminatory animus, in an effort to avoid having to accommodate an old, ailing employee."
Their main defense is that, if the show's producers had a problem with Clausen's work, it was never mentioned until he revealed his Parkinson's diagnosis, upon which he was fired a month later.
Clausen's legal team further argued, "Surely, if Mr. Clausen was having so much trouble meeting expectations, as Defendants now shamelessly and disingenuously contend, there would have been one email, text message, instant message, or internal memo mentioning it during his 27 years with the show. Like the rest of their arguments, there is likewise no merit to the proposition that Mr. Clausen was incapable of composing modern music including electronic, rap and/or hip hop. During his time as the composer of The Simpsons, Mr. Clausen scored nearly all of the music for each episode, spanning a wide spectrum of styles and genres, from rock, R&B, rap/hip hop, electronic, disco, country, big-band, choral, contemporary, etc.”
The lawsuit will continue in a remote hearing in front of a judge on August 5th.
Via Deadline