Simpsons Composer Alf Clausen Fired by Fox After 27 Years

People still watch the Simpsons?

His music was too white male oriented.

The natural progression of all successful TV shows is that they continue to get more expensive over time. Even if the production budget can be kept down in other ways, the contracts for the creative team members (producers, actors etc.) will increase over time. One of the reasons actors tend to negotiate their salaries collectively (as happened on Friends) is because it eliminates the temptation to reduce costs by firing one of the more expensive cast members.

In the case of the Simpsons, they had a very high profile incident where they let a cast member go, and the fallout eventually caused great regret among all those involved. So much so, that years after they killed Maude Flanders, they quietly hired the actor back to the show and gave her everything she had asked for (she had originally been vilified by the show unfairly.)

With the cast dead-set against any further such incidents, the studio nonetheless went after a big fish this time, and fired Harry Shearer. Suffice it to say, that was never going to fly, and the producers and cast pushed back heavily, resulting in the restoration of Shearer's contract.

The network was still desperate to reduce costs. Alf Clausen was likely the highest-paid creative staff member who wasn't an actor and whose contract was up this year.

In an interview, he mentioned that he believed he was being let go to reduce costs.

I wouldn't personally consider him expendable, but the show is obviously long past its creative peak. It's hard to know whether his absence will have much impact, but I expect that getting rid of him is not a sign of good things to come. Which is hardly much of a concern, since the show could be cancelled tomorrow and it would still be the most successful scripted show of all time.