The team behind The Simpsons rejects the notion that the long-running comedy is past its prime.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Yeardley Smith, who voices Lisa Simpson, opened up about the remarks that rub her the wrong way. “My feeling today is most people say, ‘The show hasn’t been good since Season 10.’ And it’s like, fuck you. The piece that goes along with a comment like that is, ‘I can’t believe they don’t try anymore.’ That is so offensive to me. You’ll never meet more hardworking writers, animators and actors than at The Simpsons,” she said.
Nancy Cartwright, who voices Bart Simpson, agreed with her costar, saying, “It also bothers me. That is just a critical person. My response is, ‘What are you doing?’ Everyone is just trying to get by, especially with the pandemic. So to have a show that still brings lightness and thought-provoking storylines — after 33 years we’re still culturally relevant. That is mind-boggling.”
There is little question that The Simpsons owes its longevity to its dedicated fans — however, the intensity of a fandom can be a double-edged sword. Smith acknowledged that it’s sometimes a fine line to walk. “You have to co-exist with the fans because without an audience, there is no show,” Smith said. Nevertheless, she was adamant that the relationship can quickly turn unhealthy. “The amount of armchair quarterbacking on the internet where it is so easy to fire off something really horrible, that toxic fandom has become its own animal,” the voice actor said. “There are entire Reddit threads on how ‘shitty’ The Simpsons is now. And it’s like, you’re really going to spend all this time or something you don’t even enjoy? You all need to get a hobby.”
Whatever detractors it may have, The Simpsons has cemented itself as a staple of the television landscape; it is the longest-running animated TV show in U.S. history. Originally created by Matt Groening as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ulman Show, the Fox classic is now on its 33rd season and shows no signs of slowing down. At the 2019 D23 Expo, executive producer/writer Matt Selman spoke of endless possibilities for the show. “I think Disney would be supportive of anything we wanted to do, maybe a crazy limited series with a side character or a movie that we surprised you with,” he shared. “They’ve been really creatively supportive, and this is going to afford so many new ways to do the show than just the traditional format.”
At a 2021 Comic-Con panel, similar conversations arose about The Simpsons‘ future. Smith admitted that the series is probably closer to its end than not but joked that “if [series producer] David Mirkin were here, he’d say we’re only halfway through.” On a more serious note, Selman contemplated that the final episode would be a tough one to write. “It just doesn’t seem like you could end this show without any planning. It just doesn’t seem right,” he said. Though he added, with a smile, “It also seems like, in one form or another, Disney will never let the show end, so we might not ever have to worry about it.”
The Walt Disney Company closed its $71.3 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox back in 2019. (The Simpsons, known for its prescient episodes, actually predicted this acquisition in a Season 10 episode.) The historic merger gave Disney ownership of The Simpsons and a host of other film/television properties, including X-Men, Deadpool, Die Hard, Home Alone and Family Guy. All seasons of The Simpsons are exclusively streaming on Disney+. However, some subscribers will notice that they don’t have access to all episodes; Disney recently faced backlash after removing an episode for Hong Kong subscribers that made reference to the Tiananmen Square massacre.
New episodes of The Simpsons air on Sundays at 8 p.m. EST on Fox. Season 34 is expected to premiere this fall.
Source: THR
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