Warning: This article contains spoilers for the season 36 premiere of The Simpsons.
The Simpsons is still finding new ways to push the story forward after 36 seasons.
As season 36 premiered on Sunday, Sept. 29, the long-running animated series kicked things off by airing what it called a "series finale" -- and speaking to PEOPLE exclusively, the cartoon's showrunner and executive producer Matt Selman breaks down how they pulled off this episode.
"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. 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?" Selman, 52, explains. "I always felt like there was no good answer to that question because the show was never meant to end."
"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," he says.
The episode titled "Bart's Birthday," hosted by an animated version of former Simpsons writer Conan O'Brien, opened with the comedian greeting an audience of familiar faces (and former Simpsons guest stars) like Seth Rogen, Lady Gaga and Ron Howard to commemorate the end of The Simpsons. Addressing the audience, O'Brien began: "It's such an honor to be with you all for the series finale of The Simpsons."
"I knew I was the right man for the job because I've hosted the last episode of three of my own shows and counting," he continued in his monologue. "Well, it's true. Fox has decided to end The Simpsons. This show was such a special part of my early career, so being here means the world to me. Also. I left a sweater in the writer's room in 1993 this is the only way they'll let me get it back."
The episode then explored Fox's many supposed attempts to cancel The Simpsons, but O'Brien noted that "the time has finally come to end" the series once and for all. To help them pull off that task, Hack-GPT was recruited, with O'Brien dubbing the artificial intelligence device as a "cutting-edge breakthrough in plagiarism" that can wrap up "the characters' storylines in emotionally satisfying ways, but won't damage the most important legacy of the show."
The AI device ultimately came up with a script for the final episode script, titled "Bart's Birthday," which featured several series finale cliches. It even saw Bart rebelling at the thought of turning 11. But by the episode's end, all the big changes reverted as if they never even happened -- including the idea that the series was over for good.
Pulling this off meant getting O'Brien, 61, to return in animated form and poke fun at himself. "I don't remember who pitched it, but it just seemed like for the idea that there's a show within a kind of not an award show, but if the wraparound for this is a live show in which they're broadcasting this finale with all the stars that have appeared on the show," says Selman.
"There was no one better than Conan who both speaks as part of the show as an outside hilarious person. No other person in the universe occupies those two roles so perfectly. So if he had said no, I don't know what we would've done," he continues. "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."
Fortunately for fans, "Bart's Birthday" does not actually mark the end of the series but is instead a meta-approach to launch the new season, which officially scored its renewal in January 2023. But Selman says he's "really hardened by the fact that so many people have wanted to talk about" the season 36 premiere's bold approach 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."
"I want to see other shows do self-hating, non-finales and see what they do with it," he continues, mentioning Family Guy and Rick and Morty. "I would love that."
Selman also has a "crazy idea" that "every episode of The Simpsons should be both the pilot and the finale," though he admits that may be "a little confusing" for viewers to wrap their heads around.
"You want every episode to be a big transformative cinematic journey," the six-time Emmy winner adds. "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."
Fox has not officially announced plans to renew the show for season 37. Still, The Simpsons -- which premiered on Jan. 14, 1990 -- is the longest-running animated series. South Park follows behind as it prepares to launch its 27th season in 2025.
Fans are still preparing for the eventual end of The Simpsons, with Reddit users discussing three years ago why season 36 would serve as a perfect stopping point. Yet, series creator Matt Groening previously told USA Today in 2021 that he has no plans to wrap the series any time soon.
"My standard answer is there's no end in sight because anytime I speculate on the show ending, the people who work on it and diehard fans get very upset," Groening, 70, said. "So, I always say there's no end in sight."
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