The Simpsons are one of the most recognizable names in pop culture history. Created by Matt Groening and originating as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987, the concept spun off into its own primetime animated series on Fox in 1989. Taking place in the fictional city of Springfield, the Simpsons family consists of loving but dumb dad Homer, stay-at-home mom Marge, troublemaker son Bart, genius daughter Lisa, and baby Maggie. It has been a massive hit with critics and audiences over the years and winner of multiple Emmys, and the series’ quotes and catchphrases have become part of the cultural lexicon. Even if someone has never seen The Simpsons they likely know “D’oh!” or “okily dokily do.”
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After being on the air for almost two decades, The Simpsons finally made their way to the big screen in 2007’s The Simpsons Movie. With a series as popular and well known as The Simpsons, the movie was a highly anticipated event with the promotional material keeping the plot a mystery. The Simpsons Movie opened to an impressive $74 million in its opening weekend going on to a domestic total of $183.1 million domestic and a worldwide gross of $536.4 million making it the eighth highest grossing movie worldwide for the year.
The Simpsons Movie in many ways felt like the natural endpoint for the series. It was the massive event of the series fans had been waiting years for, and by the time the movie opened there was a common critique that The Simpsons series had gone downhill and stopped being funny at various points throughout its run. With all that, should The Simpsons Movie have been the final entry in the franchise, or was it right to continue?
The Simpsons Up to That Point
20th Television
By the time The Simpsons Movie premiered, the series had been on for 18 years. While it still had a large loyal fanbase and was a consistent hit in the ratings, the feeling among longtime fans had been that the series had lost its way, with the most common episode cited as the turning point for the series’ decline in season nine’s episode “The Principal and the Pauper.” Yet even then the series kept going strong and added many new elements to the series that kept it fresh like making Lisa a Buddhist, killing Maude Flanders, and the introduction of Apu’s wife Manjula just to name a few.
Development on The Simpsons Movie dates back to the early days of the series, with the season four premiere “Camp Krusty” at one point considered for the feature film. Other potential ideas of The Simpsons Movie included rescuing a family of manatees which became the episode “The Bonfire of the Manatees,” and a premise where The Simpsons realized they were fictional characters in a television show which became the basis of The Simpsons Game which was released in 2007 a few months after The Simpsons Movie. The film entered pre-production in 1997, with the cast officially signing on in 2001 and writing on the project truly beginning in earnest in 2003.
Simpsons Ending On a High Note
20th Century Fox
By the time The Simpsons Movie hit in the summer of 2007, it felt like an event years in the making. The film’s first teaser was released in March 2006, more than a year before it opened. The film received positive reactions from critics and audiences, and there were plenty of easter eggs for longtime fans. The movie hit many major emotional climaxes for the characters that had been sprinkled throughout the series including Homer and Marge’s marriage, Homer and Bart’s complicated father/son dynamic, and Lisa finally getting the boy of her dreams. It felt like the natural endpoint for the series.
The Simpsons Would Have Avoided Some Controversy if it Ended
The Simpsons Movie being the end might mean many great episodes of the later seasons would not have aired, but it also means that The Simpsons could have avoided its biggest public controversy, specifically The Problem With Apu.
The Problem With Apu was a 2017 documentary written by and starring comedian Hari Kondabolu that focuses on the character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon and explores encounters with negative stereotypes, minstrelsy, and racial microaggressions against people of Indian and South Asian heritage. The short documentary received positive reviews and sparked a discussion regarding white actors voicing minority characters. While The Simpsons has historically been a forward-looking and positive series, both the show’s internal response in the episode “No Good Read Goes Unpunished” as well as The Simpsons’ creator Matt Groening’s response to the incident were less than ideal. Hank Azaria, the voice actor of Apu, eventually stepped down from the role and made multiple apologies, as he never meant for the character to cause any harm.
Maybe It’s Good The Simpsons Hasn’t Ended
Here is an interesting aspect of time. When The Simpsons Movie opened in theaters it was released between seasons 18 and 19, with the opening episode of season 19 featuring a coach gag acknowledging the events of the movie. The Simpsons are now in its 33rd season, meaning there is almost as much distance between The Simpsons Movie and today as there was when the series premiered on Fox and the premiere of the movie, and still no word on a sequel.
Throughout the series’ 33 seasons on the air, the world has changed drastically. The Simpsons has been on the air through six presidential administrations, a world of changing technology, and a global pandemic; after all, it’s the longest running primetime series, the longest running sitcom, and the longest running cartoon in American history. Yet through it all, The Simpsons has always been there and while old fans might have dropped the series, young fans are finding it. The series is still so popular that the all-day(s) marathon on FXX was a big cultural deal, and the series is now a major part of Disney+ following Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox.
While many series and movies have been rebooted, The Simpsons has stayed the same. The world is constantly changing, and the future is always uncertain, but there is some comfort in knowing that Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie, and the citizens of Springfield will always be there to welcome viewers back.
