He Puts The Strings In Springfield

ASCAP and composer Alf Clausen celebrate 400 episodes of The Simpsons

Alf Clausen (center) with (from l-r) ASCAP's Mike Todd, Nancy Knutsen, Shawn LeMone and Josh Briggs

Clausen's custom-decorated Simpsons cake

ASCAP congratulates Alf Clausen, composer of The Simpsons, on scoring the 400th episode of the beloved animated sitcom. On May 4th, 2007, Clausen celebrated the milestone with friends, colleagues and a "Simpsonically-decorated" cake at the 20th Century Fox Newman Scoring Stage.

Clausen has scored The Simpsons for 17 seasons, and in the process has logged over 12,000 separate cues. He has received two Emmy awards, three Annie awards, three International Monitor Awards, eighteen additional Emmy nominations and three additional Annie nominations for his work with The Simpsons.

The 400th episode marks the finale of the 18th season of The Simpsons, which continues its reign as the longest-running comedy, and longest-running animated series, in American TV history. It was recently renewed for a 19th season, due to air on Fox in 2007-8.