Fmr. "Simpsons" showrunner Mike Reiss on OceanGate: "They're not dare devils"
MINNEAPOLIS – We're hearing from a man who knows first-hand what it's like to be inside that same submersible.
A friend of WCCO News reporter Esme Murphy was on that sub last summer.
If you have ever seen "The Simpsons," you have seen and laughed at the work of Mike Reiss, a producer and writer for the show.
Reiss went down in the same vessel to the Titanic last summer. His wife Denise was scheduled to go but got COVID. The pilot who perished, Stockton Rush, is a friend of theirs.
The Reisses actually took four different dives with the same company, OceanGate, and Reiss says communication with the mothership was lost -- at least briefly -- every single time. But he says he was never that worried.
RELATED: What we know about the tourist sub that disappeared on an expedition to the Titanic wreck
"There was one dive we took, as soon as communication went up we went right back to the surface. We had gone to see a new boat just off the shore of New York, and we saw it for one second and they said, 'We're going back up, we shouldn't be down here.' So you know, they're not hot dogs, they're not dare devils here. They take this very seriously."
Reiss says their trip was worth it.