10 Unusual Demands Made By Guest Stars On The Simpsons
2. Paul & Linda McCartney - Lisa Stays Veggie
As with most cartoons, The Simpsons very rarely makes permanent changes to its characters. There is very little continuity on the show that has celebrated Lisa's 8th birthday no fewer than three times, but if anyone was going to change something for good on The Simpsons it was going to be a former Beatle.
In Season 8's "Lisa The Vegetarian", the middle Simpson child gets a little help from Paul and Linda McCartney as she discovers life without meat. The McCartneys had been approached for this episode due to their own devout vegetarianism (Linda's name can still be seen on meat-free products to this very day), but Paul only agreed to do the show on one condition.
McCartney asked that Lisa not revert back to eating meat once this episode was through. The writers agreed and Lisa Simpson has been a vegetarian ever since. It's not like it was a big change - Lisa not eating meat fits her character perfectly - but it's strange to think that one of the things most heavily associated with Lisa came about because The Simpsons writers really wanted to get Macca on their show.