After 800 Episodes THE SIMPSONS Showrunner Says There Will Never Be a Conventional Finale
After 37 years and seasons, and over 800 episodes, The Simpsons is the longest-running animated American TV show in history. The show has told so many stories at this point, it’s a wonder they still have ideas. Yet, week after week, fans return to see TV’s favorite family up to new shenanigans.
In celebration of the show’s latest episode milestone, showrunner Matt Selman talked to TheWrap about the show’s future, and he said definitively of a possible “finale”:
“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.
“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.
“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. Selman went on to say of the series:
“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.
“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.
“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.”
The Simpsons is a total original. I hadn’t watched in a while, but it’s been fun to see my kids get into the show, and catching parts of old episodes here and there has been fun. I hope the series goes on for a long time, and ends in a way that both fans and the creators are happy with.