The Simpsons

In the episode “Lisa’s First Word,” the Simpsons travel back in time to reminisce about Bart’s initial jealousy when baby Lisa first arrived. The siblings have a rapprochement, at least temporarily, when Lisa utters her first word—her brother’s name. Back in the present day, the two are arguing, and Homer carries his youngest daughter, Maggie, up to bed.

“You know, Maggie, the sooner kids talk, the sooner they talk back,” Homer tells his baby daughter. He tucks her into her crib and, before switching off the light and closing the door behind him, says, “I hope you never say a word.” Maggie removes her ubiquitous pacifier and says, “Daddy”—her first word, voiced by none other than Elizabeth Taylor—before drifting off to sleep.

Simpsons writer and producer Mike Reiss recalled that Elizabeth’s appearance “created the biggest stir of any guest we’ve had on the show. Three hundred people packed our tiny studio to hear her record her one-word part: ‘Daddy.’ She had to do six takes because, as you can imagine, it kept coming out too sexy. We had to remind her she was a baby talking to her father, not hitting on him.”

“There was nobody more famous or glamorous,” said Al Jean, the show’s executive producer. “Usually, for the records, the room was almost empty — we’d have the cast and then a couple writers. That day, the recording stage was completely filled. She came in, she had a little dog, and she wore her ring, which was huge. It cost more than my house. We had her do the one line where she said ‘Daddy’ as Maggie. I’m looking at the ‘Most Beautiful Woman in the World’, trying to think, ‘What does that sound like coming out of a cute little baby?’”

“I asked her for a lot of takes because it’s very hard to know what you want on one word, but she was really funny about it. After I said, ‘Okay, we got it!’ she said, ‘Fuck you!’ in the Maggie voice. She was kidding. Everybody laughed. She lived up to everything you would expect Elizabeth Taylor to be. She was very smart and funny.”

Elizabeth would make another guest appearance on the show later that season when “Krusty Gets Kancelled”.

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