Forget Santa Claus. Mike Reiss, the producer of the hit television series “The Simpsons” is coming to town.
Reiss will be featured in Blackman Auditorium beginning at 7 p.m. Friday, and will be talking about his experiences creating and working on the show, along with answering questions from the crowd and showing new footage of Springfield’s favorite dysfunctional family, said Council for University Programs President Allyson Savin.
“As far as I know, [Reiss] is bringing a host of never-before-seen footage of ‘The Simpsons,'” Savin said.
CUP began advertising Reiss’ upcoming visit to Northeastern by placing flyers around campus as soon as they firmed up plans with Reiss, Savin said.
“It wasn’t until about a week before Thanksgiving Break [that we found out he was coming], which is why advertising has been so tricky,” Savin said. “We’re going to be selling Krispy Kremes in the quad, and we’re going to have Homer [Simpson] cardboard cut-outs in the quad as well to start making students aware he’s coming.”
Tickets for the event are $2, and Savin said the fee is not to try and cover the cost of bringing Reiss here, but to make sure students who receive tickets will show up.
“We’ll guarantee that students who have tickets definitely are going to come,” Savin said. “It gives us an idea about ticket numbers.”
One NU student ID can buy up to two tickets. This event, unlike the Busta Rhymes concert and other previous CUP events, is not restricted to Northeastern students only.
“When we do just NU students, we get a lot of complaints about not being able to bring friends from other schools,” Savin said. “We’re tailoring to students’ requests. If students want to bring friends outside the university, they should be able to do so.”
The recent decision to let in non-Northeastern students has eliminated the problems previous policies presented for students with friends or significant others at colleges in the area.
Freshman music industry major B.J. Mansuetti said it’s a good idea to let non-NU students in because he wants to bring his girlfriend, a student at Boston College.
Others said letting students from different schools attend Northeastern events is good publicity.
“I think [admitting non-NU students] is an excellent idea, and gives other people an opportunity to see what goes on at our school. Great advertising,” said Willie Levesque, a graduate student studying psychology.
Savin said she is excited for the event and is hoping for a big turnout, but thinks there needs to be more advertising and word-of-mouth to make sure students know about the opportunity.
“I’m a little tentative to say [if there’s going to be a big turnout], I’m not sure if a lot of people know about it yet,” Savin said. “I’m excited about it personally, but the tail end of our week is really going to be spent focusing on advertising.”
– Correspondent Amanda Carswell contributed to this report.
