Why Dustin Hoffman Wasn't Credited For His Simpsons Cameo
One of the all-time great episodes of "The Simpsons," at least as far as Lisa fans are concerned, is "Lisa's Substitute" from season 2. It's an episode that finally gives Lisa a teacher that she connects to on a real personal level, and then cruelly rips him away from her. Mr. Bergstrom is an amazing one-off character, a mature and thoughtful teacher that we could totally believe would make Lisa cry when she learns he's leaving. But despite how beloved Bergstrom is by the fans, the episode's closing credits don't properly credit the actor who played him. Instead of listing Dustin Hoffman, the credits read Sam Etic.
The reason for this? It was Hoffman's joke about Bergstrom's Jewish features. "The Simpsons" writer Mike Reiss explained in his tell-all book "Springfield Confidential" how this all came to be:
"Sam Simon designed the character, modeling Bergstrom's Semitic good looks (meaning bad looks) on mine. Hoffman asked that we not use his name in the credits, so we called him Sam Etic, a terrible pun on Semitic. To recap: Mr. Bergstrom has Dustin's voice and my face, but Sam Etic gets all the credit."
In a later interview, Hoffman clarified that "Sam Etic" was his idea specifically. He described it as "my attempt at humor."
Why didn't Hoffman want his real name in the credits?
Hoffman has never really elaborated on why he used a pseudonym for the episode. It's often speculated by fans that the serious, acclaimed actor was hesitant about being associated with a silly cartoon, but actual commentary from Lisa's voice actress, Yeardley Smith, implies a different story. Telling her experience of acting alongside Hoffman for the episode, she said:
"I think people sometimes think of voice-over as being a lesser form of acting because nobody sees your face, but I've never felt that way. I would say certainly on that day with Dustin Hoffman, it didn't seem like he felt that way either."
Hoffman wasn't the only celebrity to avoid being credited. In season 3, Michael Jackson voiced a character who was pretending to be Michael Jackson, but when that character started singing, Jackson had another soundalike actor sing on his behalf. It was an absurdly weird and complicated guest star situation, although one that fits on a meta level; just as there's a lot of confusion among the Simpson family about who this character really is, there was also plenty of confusion from the audience over whether they were actually hearing Michael Jackson.
The Simpsons soon changed its approach to celebrity guests
Either way, the era of uncredited guest actors on "The Simpsons" quickly ended. "A decision was soon made that no one could appear under a pseudonym," reported the New York Times in 1993. They quoted showrunner Matt Groening as having declared, "If you're willing to do 'The Simpsons,' you can't be ashamed of it.'" Nowadays, celebrity cameos on the show are far more blatant, with the celebrity often playing themselves and being namechecked by the Simpson family.
Still, it doesn't seem like there's been any resentment between the showrunners and those early celebrities who refused an official credit for their part in the series. Season 4's episode "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie" features a meta joke in the middle of Lisa's raving about how much she loved the new "Itch & Scratchy" movie. She tells Bart, "You wouldn't believe the celebrities who did cameos! Dustin Hoffman, Michael Jackson! Of course, they didn't use their real names, but you could tell it was them." The line only rubs more salt in the wound for Bart, who's been forbidden from watching the film.
It helps that Hoffman's voice is so recognizable that, even with the joke credit, there was no ambiguity over who audiences were really listening to. Hoffman's long been remembered as one the best guest actors in "The Simpsons," and Bergstrom's considered one of the show' best one-off characters, even after 35 seasons of them. It's all due to the strength of Hoffman's performance, and the sheer emotional resonance of Mr. Bergstrom's storyline.