Is “The Simpsons” over? Surprise series finale, explained

The Simpsons Did it. After 35 years, the series finale of television's longest-running sitcom aired.

Do the “series finale.” There will be more episodes – it's the premiere of season 36, after all – but “Bart's Birthday” is The SimpsonsImagine what a finale could look like, mocking not only the idea that the show could ever end, but the concept of series finales in general. It's proof that after all these years The Simpsons can still find new ways to subvert both the sitcom form and viewer expectations.

Inspired by the clip show parody “The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular” from the seventh season, “Bart's Birthday” is formatted like a moderated special. But instead of just showing snippets of the past and making up fake ones – although there are some of those – host Conan O'Brien is introducing a brand new AI-written episode that will be the series finale. This episode-within-an-episode primarily follows Bart as he watches the show's characters go through cliched, overly sentimental storylines in the finale with increasing dismay. The result is an irreverent mega-meta, slyly touching Simpsons episode that is both delightfully referential and unlike anything the series has done before. Earlier this week, while still refining the final version of the episode, showrunner Matt Selman, largely responsible for the series' recent renaissance, explained what the hell the writers were thinking.

If you write for The Simpsonspeople are often asked what a finale episode could look like. That's a difficult question for Selman, who has worked on the series since 1998, because he believes The Simpsons was “never built for a final episode.” He refers to this as a comparison Groundhog Daywhere each episode resets. “It can go on forever because there is neither a fixed canon nor a tight continuity,” he says. More than that, The Simpsons should “reject the idea of ​​cheesy finales.” So when asked about a possible finale, he usually replied that there was no real answer.

After the strikes in 2023, when Selman was able to do press work again, he was asked the same old question in Australia. But this time, during an interview, he came clean: “What if we made a fake finale that made fun of finales, summed things up, but then scrapped it?” Simpsons-y way?” When Selman returned to LA, he spoke with Mike Price, who has worked on the show since 2003, and writer Jessica Conrad, who has been there since 2020. They considered what Fox would actually do if there was one Simpsons finale and landed on the idea of ​​a big, star-filled celebration that would serve as a meta-dismantling of show business's self-mythologizing and poke fun at some fans' reverence for a particular era of the show. And to advance the latter, they knew exactly which star to bring in.

Photo: Fox

In Bart's Birthday, Conan O'Brien serves as the graduation party host, as does Phil Hartman's Troy McClure in Spectacular Episode 138 of The Simpsons. Conan, who worked on it The Simpsons Widely considered one of the series' greatest episodes, “Marge vs. the Monorail” represented the so-called golden age of the series, and the writers were keen to poke fun at this symbolic power. They roast Conan, give his wig hair a proper treatment, and have him deliver jokes like, “It’s such an honor to be here for the series finale The Simpsons. They knew I was the right person for the job because I hosted the final episode of three of my own shows:and count.”

This role was always written for Conan, but there was some risk that he might be offended. However, Selman says that Conan “was smart enough and funny enough to know that he was 100 percent the best person to tell this story.”

Photo: Fox

While Conan's role is central to the episode's conceit, the vast majority of cameos in “Bart's Birthday” are merely animated bystanders. This meant the show didn't have to ask for their permission, although Fox Legal got the writers to tell Conan, “That theater is full of celebrities who performed there.” The Simpsons over the years have come to say goodbye. Then we got you for the scales; We're getting you for free tonight!” (Although Seth Rogen had to give his approval because the show used his laugh from an earlier episode.) Tom Hanks reprized his role as himself The Simpsons Movieeven improvised a line, and for the episode within the episode, the AI ​​arranged for John Cena to appear as himself, which felt to Selman like the kind of stunt guest star the series would try to recruit for a finale.

However, there was a cameo that even Selman didn't expect. Historically, on the rare occasions that Maggie has spoken on the show, stars such as Elizabeth Taylor and Jodie Foster have been brought in, but in the original version of this episode, series star Nancy Cartwright delivered Maggie's only line (“What's wrong with his butt?”). . ). When I brought this to Selman's attention, he realized that this was a missed opportunity for an episode so focused on mocking the series' legacy. That was easy six days Before the episode aired, which Selman described as “not too late,” he texted his producers to find out how much a last-minute change would cost. Amy Sedaris stopped by Thursday afternoon to record the final version.

Photo: Fox

After the strikes in 2023, where AI was a major issue, the authors saw this as the perfect moment to speak out. “AI is good at vomiting, but not at being imaginative,” says Selman. So they imagined feeding the AI ​​every series finale and having it spit out the least imaginative episode possible full of characters that rehash finale clichés.

For example, Principal Skinner announces that he is leaving the school to become principal of a school in Sacramento as a “wonderful mid-season replacement,” adding, “I will undoubtedly find a whole new, diverse cast of characters , who I can interact with, and also the groundskeeper. “Willie will be my roommate.” Bittersweet music plays as Skinner says, “I'm going to miss this place,” as he turns off the lights, a nod to the classic Mary Tyler Moore Show End. The episode continues in this vein, mocking other finale clichés like babies (Comic Book Guy's wife Kumiko Nakamura gives birth) and surprise inheritances (Mr. Burns dies, first as a joke, then in earnest, by accidentally losing his fortune). bequeathed to the power plant employees), each culminating in characters parroting the same line and turning off the lights. Bart consistently rejects these moments, such as when he puts the camera center stage to stop Krusty from recording one final show.

Bart's growing panic at all these endings highlights his role as what Selman refers to as “the one.”Simpsons Alpha.” Bart embodies the first element of the show to really emerge The Simpsons' basic irreverence and rebellious spirit, even as the series has expanded to feature more and more different characters. Initially, the episode revolved around Bart pulling off the greatest prank of all time, but James L. Brooks suggested changing the setting to a birthday party for “the world's longest-serving ten-year-old,” which not only felt more tongue-in-cheek cliché, but spoke too final-friendly topics such as growth and change.

Photo: Fox

Selman admits he's a bit of a Bart Simpson himself, especially when it comes to teasing some of it The Simpsons Fan base that loves to point out how “the show sucks now.” The episode is aimed directly at such fans, as Conan jokes, “When the very first episode aired in 1989, viewers agreed on one thing: It wasn't as funny as it used to be.” This represents the meta-gag , that Fox has been trying to wrap up the series for years, and that many classic episodes were actually intended as finales, followed by a series of reanimations of iconic scenes in which things go extremely wrong in very dark ways.

Perhaps the biggest middle finger to die-hard fans comes late in the episode, when the real Principal Skinner (from the controversial ninth season “The Principal and the Pauper”) reunites with his mother. That revelation – that the Skinner we know is actually an imposter named Armin Tamzarian – remains one of the most hated moments in the show's history, but 27 years later, Selman thinks fans should get over it. “We added that pretty late in the game,” Selman says. “We were just like that, Fuck it all. Let's just burn it down. Let's poke the bear.”

Photo: Fox

The Simpsons Purists aren't the only target for Selman and the authors. They also wanted to do the author equivalent of calling out the people in the media and online who never discuss the show unless it can be used as food for thought. So the episode develops into a standoff between Bart, who doesn't want to live to be eleven, and Homer, who tries to change himself and be a better man, husband and father through couples therapy. Bart doesn't want to accept this and keeps goading Homer until he strangles Bart in classic fashion.
This might surprise some, as Homer said in a November 2023 episode about strangling Bart, “I'm not doing that anymore. “Times have changed.” This became a big headline, but according to Selman, the decline in chokeholds is because “some of these things have just been done a million times.” For Selman, the point of this episode was that strangling was simply “part of the DNA of the show, so if anything could be unkillable.” The Simpsons, it would be a nice, hard choking”

And it works. At the end of the episode everything is reset and Bart remains 10 years old. Conan tearfully admits that this must actually be the season premiere, causing the celebrities to boo and riot. As the credits roll, eagle-eyed viewers (how's the hearing of eagles?) will notice an instrumental version of “They'll Never Stop the Simpsons,” the “We Didn't Start the Fire” parody that played at the end ” Gump Roast,” the season 13 Clip Show episode, poking fun at the kinds of shenanigans the series would have to make to keep going. Selman wrote the original 22 years ago, but he never liked the line “They'll never stop.” The Simpsons“, as he just wanted the chorus to repeat “We're sorry for the clip show.”

“But now,” he says, “we’re bringing it back and we own it.”

Correction: This article originally misstated the season number of The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular. We apologize for the error in the clip show.