Springfield is celebrating its octo-centennial.
On Sunday, “The Simpsons” is hitting a major milestone, airing a landmark 800th episode (8 p.m. on Fox).
“There was never a point where I went to bed thinking, ‘The show is probably going to end. We’re going to have to pack it up and clean all the crap out of our offices,’” showrunner Matt Selman told Page Six.
“The Simpsons” first premiered in 1989, making it the longest-running American sitcom, animated series, and primetime scripted series.
It’s set in Springfield, following the antics of the iconic cartoon family, including Homer (Dan Castellaneta) Marge (Julie Kavner), Lisa (Yeardley Smith), Bart (Nancy Cartwright) and baby Maggie.
The 800th episode involves the family taking a trip to Philadelphia, and includes a satire of HBO Max medical drama “The Pitt” featuring Noah Wyle.
Selman said that because the show’s ratings have been steady, he never feared cancellation – and when Fox merged with Disney in 2019 and the show hit Disney+, “a whole new generation of younger fans fell in love with the show and it became their favorite show.”
Selman has been with “The Simpsons” for over twenty years since 1997, beginning as a writer before moving to exec producer in 2005 and showrunner.
Over the years, “The Simpsons” has eerily seemed to predict future events, such as the Disney/ Fox merger or the Trump presidency.
“It’s unnerving,” said Selman. “It sort of makes you think maybe we live in a simulation, or something like that,” he joked.
“But, I always say that the more unlikely thing would be that we never predicted anything. Because I consider these to be coincidences. And if there’s no coincidences, that’s very unlikely.”
The showrunner noted, “although the coincidences that we did happen to predict are pretty freaky.”
Over the years, he said, “The Simpsons” hasn’t hit any major roadblocks.
“The network doesn’t really weigh in that much creatively. So maybe there were little things we would have liked to push harder in terms of broadcast standards. I don’t remember them,” he explained.
He added that the team feels “lucky” that they haven’t experienced, “that kind of setback creatively – of someone saying, ‘Oh, you can’t do this. You can’t do that.’”
Selman acknowledged “The Simpsons” is not trying to be “South Park.”
“We’re not doing shows as in-your-face and dark and smart and funny and brilliant as that, ripped from that day’s headlines. We like to do shows that are ripped from like nine months ago’s headlines.”
When asked how long he sees “The Simpsons” continuing for, he said, “I think a thousand is a good number. Let’s aim for a thousand. That’s a good clean ending. But, I don’t know, that will probably be a decision above my pay grade. But, a thousand episodes would be great.”
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