Why there will never be a final episode of The Simpsons

The animated series aired its 800th episode on American TV last night. But for the producers, there is no question of concluding!

800 episodes is a lot.

While The Simpsons has just ended its 37th season with a milestone, showrunner Matt Selman reminds us that the series has no plan to end.

The 800th episode was broadcast last night on American TV (in France, it will be on Disney +), using Petit Papa Noël, the family dog, as a nostalgic link between the very first episode and today. The end? No way.

“We did a parody episode about the series finale a year and a half ago,” recalls Selman in an interview for The Wrap. “We crammed every possible series finale concept into one episode, to sort of say that we’re never going to do a real Simpsons Series Finale! It’s never going to happen.”

The showrunner is referring to the season 36 premiere, “Bart’s Birthday,” which featured Conan O’Brien and an AI service called HackGPT, tasked with generating a ridiculous ending for Springfield. The team incorporated several absurd ideas: the death of Mr. Burns, the closing of Moe’s bar, Krusty stopping his show, Milhouse moving to Atlanta, Skinner retiring, and Maggie speaking for the first time. This must all remain a joke. This kind of clichéd or sentimental conclusion is not for The Simpsons:

“The series is not meant to end,” Selman insists in the New York Post. “Making a lame final episode, like many other series, would be frankly lame. So we preferred to make fun of it by making this totally offbeat episode.”

The showrunner also explains to EW that The Simpsons does not follow a strict mythology. History is moving. The characters too. How do you end a plot that never really started?

“I don’t care about the timeline. The story and the characters come first. It’s just a silly little cartoon! Everything happened and nothing happened in Springfield. With the same level of veracity…”

The Simpsons can be seen in France on Disney +.