Within the run-up to final night time’s Season 36 premiere of The Simpsons, Fox had been fairly cagey about what was in retailer for viewers. The official Twitter account solely mentioned that “it’s the episode followers have waited for since 1989,” and the TV promo heard Bart ominously saying, “One thing tremendous bizarre is happening!”
The surprise was a meta twist of sorts: The season kicked off with “The Simpsons Series Finale,” hosted by former writer Conan O’Brien. Conan defined that Fox has tried to finish The Simpsons many occasions over time, however that this was lastly the true ending. He then launched an A.I. bot that processed the dialogue of each episode of The Simpsons, plus each sequence finale in tv historical past, they usually have been now going to run the “good” finale as written by A.I.
What adopted was the story of Bart’s eleventh birthday, which noticed him encounter each sequence finale cliché — from companies closing, to characters shifting away, to infants being born, to shoehorned movie star cameos. It was a reasonably hilarious satire of an especially drained trope, and it was the work of Simpsons author Jessica Conrad in addition to co-executive producer and episode co-runner, Michael Value, who jumped on a name final night time after the premiere aired to debate the way it all got here collectively.
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The place did the concept for a pretend finale for The Simpsons come from?
Value: It got here instantly from (showrunner) Matt Selman. We have been on strike final 12 months for a very long time, and in the course of the strike, Matt took a visit abroad. Often, he’s stopped by individuals who all the time ask, “How for much longer will the present go on?” and “How will you finish it?”
So, one in all our first days again from being out on strike, Matt mainly pitched this concept, saying, “Individuals maintain asking me how we’re going to finish it. It’s all the time been an enormous downside, so why don’t we simply do it now? Do a pretend ending, and we’ll get that out of the way in which.” We thought Jess could be nice to jot down it, and from there, all of us began determining how we may do a pretend sequence finale. All of us felt it was a good way to make enjoyable of sequence finales.
At one level, we had it the place every act was a distinct finale, like Act One was going to be the finale of Cheers and Act Two was going to be the finale of one thing else. However that by no means fairly had an organizing thought behind it. I believe it was Matt who had the concept for A.I. He additionally mentioned, “What if Bart is the one one who begins to really feel like one thing bizarre is happening, and he begins combating this?” So our finale story wasn’t simply making enjoyable of various kinds of finales, nevertheless it had an emotional story to inform, too.
Why was Bart chosen to inform this story?
Value: As a result of it hit on that factor of Bart all the time being 10 and the characters by no means ageing. We talked about “What may the ultimate scene of The Simpsons ever be?” So we hit on, “What if it’s his birthday?” and he’s turning 11. That’s when he begins to appreciate, “If I flip 11, I don’t exist anymore.” It received form of metaphysical there.
How quickly did Conan get into the combo?
Value: Fairly early. He has such a historical past with the present, being a author on it and showing on it.
Because it’s supposedly written by A.I., was it powerful to jot down the finale “unhealthy” however nonetheless have good jokes in it?
Conrad: We determined to essentially lean into the Hack GPT of it. Like when Maggie says her first phrases within the finale, now we have her say probably the most hack line we may consider when she says, “Effectively, that simply occurred.”
Amy Sedaris was the voice of Maggie, and we simply recorded that on Thursday. It was Nancy (Cartwright) for the entire run of it, after which, like every week in the past, any person mentioned, “What if we get a celeb to do Maggie’s voice?” Our best choice was Amy Sedaris, and he or she was like, “Sure, I’ll do it!”
Value: It was a balancing act as a result of we actually did wish to lean into the corniness of all of it and the way sappy these items are, particularly for comedy exhibits. The sunshine-switch factor got here from Cheers, nevertheless it’s in different ones as effectively. The Mary Tyler Moore Present did it as effectively. These exhibits are all so humorous and nice, however they get so sappy on the finish, just like the M*A*S*H finale. It was enjoyable to lean into how emotional everybody will get. We watched lots of last episodes of exhibits, however we largely ended up hitting the emotional half, with everybody saying goodbye and turning the lights off. It additionally felt like that may be the factor that may make Bart be probably the most upset.
Conrad: There’s additionally the concept of the impossibility of wrapping up a present like The Simpsons that’s been on for therefore lengthy. What would followers need out of a Simpsons finale? So now we have all of those outdated visitor stars, and everyone seems to be there on the finish — even the useless characters.
Like Danny DeVito as Unky Herb.
Value: That was enjoyable, yeah. The one I bear in mind pitching particularly was when the true Sgt. Skinner exhibits up, and Mrs. Skinner says, “My actual son is residence.” I believed the individuals would go loopy for that.
Something you’d prefer to say in regards to the ending?
Value: We initially had a for much longer speech for Bart on the finish there, the place he talks about how nobody in Springfield is comfortable, everyone seems to be screwed up, everybody stinks, everybody’s silly. Homer particularly, the concept that Homer is out of the blue this developed, good dad and Bart tells him, “You’re an enormous fats drunk loser.”
It truly ends with Homer strangling Bart. I used to be curious when you’d gone there as a result of that’s change into such a hot-button subject. Is that usually off limits now?
Conrad: No. That was only a throwaway joke in an episode, and it simply took off from there.
Value: For that half, we had David Silverman, who’s been with the present because the Tracey Ullman days, he animated that second himself as a result of we wished him to do it. Even within the script it mentioned one thing like, “Homer strangles Bart in pure, David Silverman, Season One-style violence.”
Did some other episodes of The Simpsons assist inform this one?
Value: We have been conscious that this was coming very quickly after “Lisa the Boy Scout” and with an identical feeling, so we have been cautious to not make it an excessive amount of like that. The opposite present that’s much like this was “The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase” in that Conan is type of enjoying the function Phil Hartman’s Troy McClure performed in that episode. We watched that one so much, particularly the wraparounds he did, which have been so humorous.
Was there something that you just hated having to depart out?
Value: We have been hoping to get the largest visitor star of all time — we wrote a component for Barack Obama. There was going to be an entire factor the place celebrities have been doing tributes to the present. We had him saying one thing like how The Simpsons is like being the president, the place he had eight nice years, then lots of unhealthy stuff comes after it, one thing like that. However they mentioned, “Thanks, however he’s form of busy proper now with the election.”
Earlier than we wrap up, I, in fact, must ask: What ought to the precise finale of The Simpsons be?
Value: Boy, I can’t say. Who is aware of when that may be, or if it’s going to ever be? My solely factor could be that it shouldn’t be like what we simply did. There shouldn’t be that closure with a narrative like “the Simpsons are shifting away” or any person dying. It ought to simply be a very humorous Simpsons episode.