Marc Shaiman shares scandalous Oscars tune ABC would not let Robin Williams carry out

Marc Shaiman is lastly sharing the tune he wrote for Robin Williams to carry out on the 2005 Oscars that ABC deemed too scandalous.

The composer and lyricist, who’s simply an Oscar away from an EGOT, shared the unique demo of the tune they meant Williams to sing whereas presenting Greatest Animated Function, in an Instagram publish on Friday.

"The loss of life of far-right evangelical James Dobson mixed with the lack of my buddy David Steinberg jogged my memory of an incident from 20 years in the past," Shaiman wrote within the caption. "David, who managed Robin Williams, known as Scott Wittman and I, explaining that Robin was set to current the Greatest Animated Function on the Oscars and so they thought we might write a tune about how this James Dobson had just lately known as for a boycott of SpongeBob, claiming SB have to be homosexual as a consequence of being a part of a marketing campaign for tolerance!"

Shaiman and Wittman — the Tony- and Grammy-winning workforce behind Hairspray and Some Like It Scorching — in the end created a satirical tune for Williams to carry out about Dobson's "ridiculous protest." Nonetheless, the community majorly pushed again on the tune as a consequence of its content material.

"We bumped into such censorship at ABC (and reality be instructed, if we wrote it as we speak, we’d most likely be censored from all sides) that we pulled the tune," Shaiman mentioned. "You’re listening to my demo however you’ll be able to solely think about how nice it might’ve been if Robin Williams carried out it with a full Choir and Orchestra. Ah properly!"

Take heed to the tune in Shaiman's Instagram publish beneath:

Among the many tongue-in-cheek lyrics, the spoof comically alleges, "Sleeping Magnificence is popping capsules," "Superman is on steroids," "Chip 'n' Dale each are strippers," "Bugs Bunny's a sexaholic," "Jessica Rabbit can be a man," "Olive Oyl is anorexic, "Casper is within the Ku Klux Klan," and "Cinderella's into id theft."

In his publish, Shaiman additionally shared a hyperlink to an essay he wrote for Entertainment Weekly in 2005 in regards to the "backwards and forwards" ordeal with the censors.

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On the time, Shaiman wrote that he took "a little bit of dramatic license" to disclose the painful vetting course of with Oscars producers that in the end led to the tune getting killed. The community had points with the tune outright naming Dobson, drug use being "promoted on prime-time," using phrases together with "strippers" and "sexaholic," and extra.

"The place was their sense of the ridiculous?" Shaiman wrote in his EW essay. "And extra importantly, who had been they afraid was going to sue, Casper or the Klan?"

After a prolonged listing of irritating notes and compelled adjustments, Shaiman and Wittman admitted defeat.

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"Sadly, by this level, Scott and I had additionally misplaced our humorousness, and understanding it might be inconceivable to rewrite this tune in a approach that happy these time vacationers and ourselves, we pulled the quantity," Shaiman wrote. "If this foolish tune brought about the powers that be a lot grief, it boggles the thoughts to think about what else is censored 'on our behalf' every single day, far-off from the Kodak Theatre."

Watch Williams' alternate presentation on the 2005 Oscars above.

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