The Simpsons is the longest-running scripted show on U.S. television, and while it’s been renewed for two more seasons, longtime showrunner and executive producer Al Jean has been thinking about the end.
Deep breath, Simpsons fans: “Nobody’s going, ‘Let’s wrap it up,” Jean tells Digital Spy. “No one.”
That said, Jean explained setting the final episode where the first one took place, at a school Christmas pageant, would be the “perfect” capper. “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire,” the series’ first full-length episode, aired December 17, 1989.
“I just thought that the beautiful thing about that would be that the whole show would never have an end. It would be a loop, and you’d never go,” said Jean, explaining, “In animation, you don’t want characters to age and grow. You want them to be the same, you know, Bugs Bunny that he always was. So, I thought that would be a perfect end to the show.”
Jean says, “Fortunately, we are not tasked with coming up with an ending any time soon.”
He also allows of his ideal closer, “[I]t might be like the ‘Heisenberg principle‘, in that now that I’ve stated it, it’s less likely to happen.”
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