The Simpsons has reached 800 episodes, and the team behind the show is looking back at how it began and what might come next in Springfield.
Episode 800, called Irrational Treasure, aired on Monday in New Zealand.
Executive producer Al Jean said one reason the series has lasted so long is that it does not rely on one giant story that stretches across years. Instead, most episodes end with life returning to normal, so viewers can jump in at almost any time. Current showrunner Matt Selman said that also creates a funny puzzle: after so many adventures, do the characters “remember” everything that has happened to them, or do they reset each week? Creator Matt Groening said the team is still trying to improve the show’s look, from drawing the characters correctly to making scenes feel more “cinematic”.
Groening also remembered the early days when some adults worried Bart was a bad influence at school, which only made the show more popular. The writers decided early that the programme was made mainly for adults, which allowed a wider range of jokes. Fans often talk about “predictions” from old episodes, but Jean said they are accidental, and Selman warned that many new “prediction clips” online are fake and made with AI.
Since joining Disney+ after Disney bought 21st Century Fox in 2019, the show has also reached a new generation of viewers and sometimes plays with episode length more freely. Jean says there is “no end in sight”, and the team is aiming for at least Season 40, while Groening says he still has stories in his head he wants to tell.
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