Moe Szyslak (lost unaired original Christopher Collins dialogue of The Simpsons character; 1989)

Moe in "Some Enchanted Evening"

Status: Lost

Moe Syzlak is a long-running character on the long-running animated sitcome The Simpsons. He is the owner of Moe's Tavern, a bar which is frequently attended by Homer Simpson and his friends. He is also well known for being on the recieving end of many of Bart Simpson's prank calls to his Tavern often ending in Syzlak threatning Bart with physical violence. A lesser known aspect of Moe is that he was not originally voiced by Hank Azaria but G.I. Joe voice actor Christopher Collins. Collins recorded lines for Syzlak for 2 episodes in Season 1 until Moe's dialouge was later dubbed over by Hank Azaria before the series aired with Collins's dialouge never ariring. Collins died in 1994.

Background

Christopher Collins was born on August 30, 1949 in New Jersey. He was best known for voicing Cobra Commander in the G.I. Joe animated series. He also voiced Starscream in the original Transformers animated series and had appeared in a variety of roles on such shows as Star Trek, The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Collins died due to complications of a cerebral hemorrhage on June 12, 1994. He was 44 years old.

Dialouge

Collins originally voiced Mr. Burns in the Season 1 episodes: "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire," "Homer's Odyssey," "There's No Disgrace Like Home," and "The Telltale Head", before being replaced by Harry Shearer. Christopher Collins also originally voiced Moe Syzlak for the Season 1 episodes "The Telltale Head" and "Some Enchanted Evening". According to his replacement, Hank Azaria, he wasn't aware he wasn't the original voice of Moe until years after. Series creator Matt Groening later said regarding Collins: "that guy's" acting was fine but other staff and actors found him "a dick". Allegedly, Sam Simon the series co-creator also had trouble working with Collins. Azaria later commented in an invterview with GQ in 2018: "Think about how awful—that guy could have been on The Simpsons his whole life. Lesson to you kids: Always be nice!"

Availability

None of Collins's recordings of Moe Syzlak have ever been made public. Factoring in the crew's dislike of working with him and his death, it is most likely the dialouge will never be made public. There is a possibility it could be featured in an Anniversery episode or a documentry about The Simpsons but such a documentry is yet to be announced. The recordings most likely reside in Disney's archives as Disney bought Fox in 2017 with the deal being finalised on March 20, 2019.