{"id":283919,"date":"2026-02-14T13:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T13:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/283919\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T13:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T13:57:08","slug":"the-simpsons-showrunner-says-series-will-never-have-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/283919\/","title":{"rendered":"The Simpsons showrunner says series will \u2018never have a\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Simpsons<\/a> fans have long been predicting the show will end soon, but the animated series\u2019s showrunner has now shed light on what that would look like.<\/p>\n

The series, which premiered in 1989, is on its 37th season and 800th episode \u2013 and it\u2019s being speculated<\/a> that the forthcoming film, a sequel to 2007\u2019s The Simpsons Movie, could serve as its swansong.<\/p>\n

Should the show come to an end, though, Matt Selman is adamant it won\u2019t be your standard season finale and would merely seem like just another episode.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did an episode about a year-and-a-half ago that was like a parody of the series finale<\/a>,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe jammed every possible series finale concept into one show, so that was sort of my way of saying we\u2019re never going to do a series finale.\u201d<\/p>\n

He told TheWrap<\/a> the episode \u201cmade fun of all the ideas of wrapping everything up or ending\u201d, adding: \u201cIf the show ever did end, there\u2019s 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 \u2018I\u2019m going to miss this place.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Selman said The Simpsons \u201cisn\u2019t supposed to change\u201d each week, stating: \u201cThe characters reset every week. It\u2019s like Groundhog Day, but they don\u2019t know it \u2013 and they don\u2019t die that much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite Selman\u2019s comments, the show has killed off several characters<\/a> in recent years.<\/p>\n

In November, The Simpsons killed off Alice Glick, the organist in Springfield\u2019s church, who died during a service being led by Reverend Lovejoy.<\/p>\n

Alice Glick was introduced in season two episode 21, \u201cThree Men and a Comic Book\u201d, which aired in 1991, and was voiced by Cloris Leachman. Tress MacNeille took over the role following Leachman\u2019s death in 2021.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Simpsons\u2019 finale would end just like any other episode, says showrunner (Fox)<\/p>\n

Executive producer Tim Long confirmed Glick\u2019s death, telling People: \u201cIn a sense, Alice the organist will live forever, through the beautiful music she made. But in another, more important sense, yep, she’s dead as a doornail.\u201d<\/p>\n

The year before, The Simpsons killed off Larry the Barfly, a beloved character who had featured on the show since season 10.<\/p>\n

In response to an outcry from viewers, Long said: \u201cI\u2019m sorry if some fans are upset, but we really wanted to use Larry\u2019s death as a way to show that even the most peripheral people in our lives have dignity and worth, and that we really shouldn\u2019t take anyone for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Simpsons fans have long been predicting the show will end soon, but the animated series\u2019s showrunner has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[251,784,156,788,782,111,43,785,783,786,139,69,787,437,255],"class_list":{"0":"post-283919","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-daily-news","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-global-news","12":"tag-inkl","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-news-app","16":"tag-news-headlines","17":"tag-news-today","18":"tag-newzealand","19":"tag-nz","20":"tag-today-news","21":"tag-tv","22":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}