Fans of The Simpsons won’t have to worry about the show ending in the immediate future. Currently in the midst of season 33, the show was previously renewed through season 34, and showrunner Al Jean recently said he wouldn’t be surprised to see it given another two-season renewal when that time comes. It’s impressive as it is for the series to still be going strong after more than three decades on the air, and even more so to hear how there are no plans to end it all just yet.
With all that being said, Al Jean does have an idea in mind on how to end The Simpsons if the show’s owners at Disney say that it’s time to put a bow on the long-running show. In a new interview with RadioTimes.com, Jean detailed the meta ending he had in mind, which would literally bring The Simpsons back full-circle to where it all began. In fact, it could end with an apparent time loop, bringing the animated family to the Christmas pageant they attended in the show’s first episode in 1989.
“I mentioned that there would be an ending where the last episode, they’d be going back to the Christmas pageant from the first episode [“Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire”], so that the whole series was a continuous loop – that’s how I would end it, if I had to.”
The good news is that Al Jean does not foresee this pressure to end the show happening in the near future. Thanks to bringing the series to Disney+, where it has consistently remained one of its most-watched titles, it has helped to convince Disney that The Simpsons is worth keeping around. Its continued success on television only helps the show’s odds of reaching the ultimate goal of surpassing 1000 episodes, as Jean is hoping for.
“But to be honest, the talk of ending, especially as we’re doing really well on Disney Plus in the US and the UK and other countries in the Americas, I don’t see anybody going, ‘let’s wrap it up, or figure out how to get out of it’ at the moment’. I think we’re the number one scripted show in the US, and with the new episodes as well. I calculated that if we make it to 1,000 episodes, that’s 12 more seasons… So I’ll just be saying, I’ll be very happy to be here in 12 seasons’ time… [but] it’s not just a hop, skip and a jump, it’s a little further than that…”
The relationship between The Simpsons and Disney has also resulted in short specials released on Disney+, including the recent Plusaversary special to honor the streaming service’s 2-year anniversary. Jean is hoping to take on other Disney-owned properties in the future as well, and described just how much fun it was to do this most recent one with various Disney Pixar characters.
“We really wanted to get as many Disney Pixar characters as we possibly could – we wanted to explore the friendship between Homer and Goofy, which I think we did, and we were asked to write a Disney song, which we did in a very left-handed way and so all our ambitions were met and we hope people enjoyed it as much as we did making it.”
The Simpsons airs Sunday nights on Fox with classic episodes streaming on Disney+. This news comes to us from RadioTimes.com.
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