“The Simpsons” is famous for having done everything already — now including reaching its 800th episode. But one thing the Fox animated sitcom won’t be doing is end.
“We did an episode about a year-and-a-half ago that was like a parody of the series finale. We jammed every possible series finale concept into one show, so that was sort of my way of saying we’re never going to do a series finale,” showrunner Matt Selman told TheWrap ahead of Sunday’s milestone. “We did a series finale in the middle of the show that made fun of all the ideas of wrapping everything up or ending.”
“The show isn’t supposed to change. The characters reset every week. It’s like Groundhog Day but they don’t know it — and they don’t die that much,” he added. “If the show ever did end, there’s no finale, it would just be a regular episode that has the family in it. Probably a little Easter egg here and there, but no ‘I’m going to miss this place.’”
Season 37, Episode 14 — entitled “Irrational Treasure” — marks Fox’s 800th episode of the Matt Groening cartoon. And since its debut as part of “The Tracey Ullman Show” in December 1989, the team behind America’s most famous family loves finding new situations in which to place Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie and the rest of Springfield.
“We just want to make every separate episode its own amazing little mini movie that stands on its own and is original from the other 799,” Selman explained. “It’s a hard challenge, but it’s a really fun challenge, that quest for originality; and to really be worthy of the mantle of making a TV show where we can kind of do whatever we want and people still seem to like it. So we’re just the luckiest writer Ding-Dongs in the world. I just don’t want to screw it up.”
Selman joined the show in 1997, writing “Natural Born Kissers,” eventually becoming an executive producer in 2005, co-showrunner in 2021 and sole showrunner in 2024. He’s also won six Emmys since first joining the writers’ room nearly 30 years ago.
“Some people are still here, some people went on to do other things — the ones who stayed probably feel pretty good about that decision, given what happened to the rest of show business,” he recalled. “It’s still that same thing of showing up every day. Like, how can we honor these characters? How can we be funny? How can we be original? How can we be emotional? How can we not waste the greatest creative opportunity anyone has ever been given, in a certain respect? There aren’t a lot of people in show business that have a green light to do whatever they want.”
Another thing “The Simpsons” is famous for is predicting the future. But believe it or not, that’s not part of the job description.
“We never try to predict anything. We just know that people are silly and make bad decisions, and the people in Springfield are easily misled and are kind of Ding-Dongs. They’re good at heart, just like everybody is kind of good at heart, but they can be misled into making bad choices and manipulated and being short-sighted and selfish and all these things,” Selman said. “That’s a universal thing that doesn’t change over time, so we just study history, we study humanity, we study the past, we study culture, and these things seem to repeat themselves more than you would think.”
So what exactly has changed for the characters across 800 episodes and 37 seasons?
“We don’t really have a Show Bible. Only a few things have been kind of sticky — Lisa being vegetarian, or Patty being gay, Maude Flanders being dead, probably a couple others — but most other deaths and job changes and stuff are pretty fluid. That’s just part of the silly nature of the show,” Selman added. “It’s shocking when people run headlines like, ‘Duffman Quit His Job.’ But then next week, it didn’t happen. It’s like Groundhog Day.”
“The Simpsons” airs Sundays on Fox before streaming on Hulu and Disney+.
