Matt Selman, a showrunner for the long-running animated sitcom, has no plans to end it<\/a> as it airs its 37th season.<\/p>\n “We did an episode about a year and a half ago that was like a parody of the series finale,” Selman said in a new interview with The Wrap. “We jammed every possible series finale concept into one show, so that was sort of my way of saying we’re never going to do a series finale.”<\/p>\n He continued, “We did a series finale in the middle of the show that made fun of all the ideas of wrapping everything up or ending.”<\/p>\n FOX<\/p>\n That episode was the season 36 premiere, titled “Bart’s Birthday.” Hosted by Conan O’Brien, who served as a writer on the show before becoming a talk show host, it featured an AI service called HackGPT that generated a ridiculous finale for The Simpsons.<\/p>\n Selman and his team crammed a number of preposterous ideas \u2014 each of which could have hypothetically served as a series finale \u2014 into the episode, including Mr. Burns dying, Moe’s Tavern closing, Krusty ending his show, Milhouse moving to Atlanta, Principal Skinner retiring, and Maggie finally speaking.<\/p>\n “The show isn’t meant to end,\u201d Selman told<\/a> The New York Post around the time the episode aired. “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.”<\/p>\n Selman said if The Simpsons does one day reach its conclusion, he doesn’t want the final episode to have any extra sentimentality. “If the show ever did end, there’s no finale \u2014 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,'” he told The Wrap. “The show isn’t supposed to change. The characters reset every week. It’s like Groundhog Day, but they don’t know it \u2014 and they don’t die that much.”<\/p>\n Alberto E. Rodriguez\/Variety via Getty <\/p>\n The showrunner recently talked to Entertainment Weekly about his philosophy of not maintaining a consistent canon<\/a> with the show.<\/p>\n “I am not worried about messing with the timeline,” he said last October. “I feel like story and character should come first, and the cinematic universe rules of a show that has none should come in a distant second. It’s just a silly little show! So I like it all. Everything happened and didn’t happen with the same level of historical veracity.”<\/p>\n Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Simpsons is about to air its 800th episode on Fox. To celebrate the occasion, the show will welcome a number of prominent guest stars, including Quinta Brunson<\/a>, Kevin Bacon<\/a>, Questlove<\/a>, and The Pitt’s Noah Wyle<\/a>, Katherine LaNasa<\/a>, and Taylor Dearden. Boyz II Men<\/a> will provide special music. The episode is titled “Irrational Treasure” and revolves around a trip to Philadelphia.<\/p>\n The Simpsons airs on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET\/PT on Fox. The 800th episode of the series premieres Feb. 15.<\/p>\n![\"'The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/a71566603279054e4287db11dcbed761.jpeg\"\/)
‘The Simpsons’ season 36, episode 1, ‘Bart’s Birthday’ <\/p>\n![\"Matt](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/77394ef825ab26d5c9b082b9fffb32ef.jpeg\"\/)
Matt Selman in Los Angeles on Feb. 6, 2026 <\/p>\n