Ahead of the long-running Fox cartoon’s landmark 800th episode on February 15, showrunner Matt Selman revealed how a hypothetical series finale would play out for Homer, Marge and their family, insisting that their swan song wouldn’t follow typical TV tropes.
In an interview with The Wrap on February 13, “If the show ever did end, there’s no finale. It would just be a regular episode that has the family in it. Probably a little Easter egg here and there, but no ‘I’m going to miss this place”.
In fact, the show’s creative team previously explored the idea of a dramatic goodbye during the season 36 premiere in September 2024, offering a parody of conventional happy endings.
Matt noted, “We did an episode about a year-and-a-half ago that was like a parody of the series finale”. He further said, “We jammed every possible series finale concept into one show, so that was my way of saying we’re never going to do a series finale”.
After all, even though the Matt Groening created series has been on the air since 1989, the town of Springfield and its inhabitants have stayed largely the same over the years.
“The show isn’t supposed to change,” Matt explained. “The characters reset every week. It’s like Groundhog Day but they don’t know it and they don’t die that much”.
Indeed, various characters have been killed off for good over the years, like when Larry the Barfly who appeared in the show’s very first episode died during season 35. The show even depicted Marge’s death during a flash-forward scene in May, but after a wave of strong reactions online, Matt assured fans the matriarch’s demise was purely hypothetical.
“Obviously since The Simpsons future episodes are all speculative fantasies, they’re all different every time,” he told Variety in June. “Marge will probably never be dead ever again. The only place Marge is dead is in one future episode that aired six weeks ago.”
As The Simpsons celebrates its 800th episode, keep reading for more on the beloved animated sitcom.