The Simpsonsis currently in its 36th season and recently celebrated the 35th anniversary of the show’s original premiere broadcast. Ending any beloved series is difficult. However, closing one as iconic and groundbreaking asThe Simpsonsis truly “impossible,” according to executive producer and showrunner Matt Selman, who revealed details of how he feels the long-running and beloved animated series should come to an end.
Speaking withThe New York Post, Selman noted that a conventional series finale ofThe Simpsonswould be “impossible.” But the finale has clearly been on the minds of those involved with the show. The 36th season premiere saw the show poking fun at the nostalgia that most series go for when riding off into the sunset. The “series finale” episode made light of saccharine show endings as well asThe Simpsons’actual ending, which will happen one day.
The Simpsons Season 36 Premiere Gives Fans Something They’ve Waited Years To See
The episode left several The Simpsons fans feeling a little confused.
“The discussion that it would be so hard to do a last episode is what led to the fake series finale,” Selman told The Post. “That it’s sort of an impossible thing. The show isn’t meant to end. To do a sappy crappo series finale, like most other shows do, would be so lame. So we just did one that was like over the top.”
Selman also said that the realSimpsonsfinale will just be a “regular episode,” with the team deciding that it will be the final show after the fact. “The characters in this crazy show don’t age … I think later we’ll just pick an episode and say that was the last one. No self-aware stuff. Or, one self-aware joke.”
The showrunner did, however, note that the last episode should play to a strong suit ofThe Simpsons, that, despite being a band of misfits, they are a band of misfits together. Selman said he envisioned “a really good story about the family” for the final episode.
TracingThe Simpsons’Origin Story
While the show recently celebrated the 35th anniversary of the original premiere broadcast on July 23, 2025,The Simpsonscharacters created by Matt Groening actually date back even further than that. The show originated as an animated short onThe Tracey Ullman Showon August 09, 2025, where it found a home for three seasons.
Groening based and named the characters after members of his family. The creator detailedThe Simpsonsorigin story in an interview withSmithsonianmagazinein 2012:
“I had been drawing my weekly comic strip, ‘Life in Hell,’ for about five years when I got a call from Jim Brooks, who was developing ‘The Tracey Ullman Show’ for the brand-new Fox network. He wanted me to come in and pitch an idea for doing little cartoons on that show.”
“I basically drew my own family. My father’s name is Homer. My mother’s name is Margaret. I have a sister Lisa and another sister Maggie, so I drew all of them. I was going to name the main character Matt, but I didn’t think it would go over well in a pitch meeting, so I changed the name to Bart.”
Following its premiere as a standalone show in 1989,The Simpsonswould soon enterits “golden age” in the 1990s, becoming a centerpiece for Fox. The iconic show is also historic, becoming the longest-running American animated series, longest-running American sitcom and the longest-running American scripted primetime television series.
