The man in charge of “The Simpsons” has a lot to say about the show’s latest twist.
The animated series dubbed its Season 36 premiere (which aired Sunday) its “series finale” — only to reveal that the entire storyline of the episode was generated by AI.
Showrunner and executive producer Matt Selman told People in an interview published Monday how the idea for the episode came to be.
“I was in New Zealand and then the writer’s strike ended, so I started immediately working on the show again in New Zealand a year ago,” he explained. “And part of that was doing press for Season 35, which was about to start. And the question you always get doing press is what would you do for a last episode of the show?”
“I always felt like there was no good answer to that question because the show was never meant to end,” he added. It was meant to go on forever. It was meant to make fun of the idea of last episodes and everything we do, every episode is both a first and a last episode of the show.”
Selman, 53, said that while he doesn’t remember who pitched the concept for the Season 36 premiere, he immediately loved the idea of starting the episode with an animated Conan O’Brien hosting a star-studded gala that involved a lengthy monologue about the show allegedly ending.
“There was no one better than Conan who both speaks as part of the show as an outside hilarious person,” Selman said about O’Brien, 61, who used to write for the show.
“No other person in the universe occupies those two roles so perfectly,” the TV writer went on. “So if he had said no, I don’t know what we would’ve done. He was a super sport and was willing to make fun of himself. I think he showed it to his son to make sure young people thought it was funny.”
The episode, titled “Bart’s Birthday,” explores AI-generated scenarios for the end of the show, including Mr. Burns dying, Moe’s shutting down and Principal Skinner retiring. There were also animated re-creations of the final scenes from popular shows like “Game of Thrones,” “Succession,” “The Sopranos,” “Breaking Bad” and “Frasier.”
But Bart eventually snaps out of the AI illusion, putting an end to the faux “series finale.”
Selman said he’s “really [heartened] by the fact that so many people have wanted to talk about” the episode and “thought it was kind of an audacious idea to have our season premiere be the series finale because there’s no better only we could do that.”
He then shared another “crazy idea” for the show: “every episode of ‘The Simpsons’ should be both the pilot and the finale” — though he acknowledged that would be “a little confusing” for viewers.
“You want every episode to be a big transformative cinematic journey,” Selman explained. “And then of course, no rational family could have 800 of those journeys actually happen to them while they don’t get older while 35 years have gone by.”
Selman has worked on “The Simpsons” since 1997. The six-time Emmy Award winner currently serves as the showrunner alongside AI Jean.
Matt Groening, the creator of the series, told USA Today in 2021 that “there’s no end in sight” for the show.
“Anytime I speculate on the show ending, the people who work on it and diehard fans get very upset,” he said.
Season 37 of “The Simpsons” has yet to be announced.