If you were confused by the Season 36 premiere of “The Simpsons,” you’re not alone. The Fox staple returned Sunday night with an episode that claimed to be the series finale — even though it was actually a season premiere.
“Bart’s Birthday” opened in a big glamorous theater filled with “Simpsons” regulars and yellow versions of some of the biggest names in sports, politics and entertainment. Minutes into the episode, Conan O’Brien took the stage and announced that everyone is here to celebrate the ending of “The Simpsons” after 36 years.
“I knew I was the right man for the job because I’ve hosted the last episodes for three of my shows — and counting,” O’Brien, who was formerly a writer for the show, cheerfully said. “Not many people know this, but Fox has been trying to end [‘The Simpsons’] for years. When the the very first episode aired in 1989, the viewers agreed on one thing: It wasn’t as funny as it used to be.”
O’Brien then revealed that a new device, known as Hack-GPT, wrote the finale after being fed every “Simpsons” episode as well as every series finale ever made. What follows seems to be a fairly routine episode about Bart’s birthday. But when it becomes clear that Bart is turning 11 instead remaining 10 — the age he’s maintained for decades — the episode quickly becomes meta.
In a recent interview with Cracked, writer Jessica Conrad and co-executive producer Michael Price revealed that the inspiration for the episode came from showrunner Matt Selman. “One of our first days back from being out on strike, Matt basically pitched this idea, saying, ‘People keep asking me how we’re going to end it. It’s always been a big problem, so why don’t we just do it now? Do a fake ending, and we’ll get that out of the way,’” Price told Cracked.
In addition to answering that long-standing TV question, the episode also makes fun of TV finales themselves. It includes nearly every cliche in the book, from multiple people turning off the lights and saying “I’m going to miss this place” to jarring celebrity cameos, like John Cena, and a surprise baby plot. After Bart becomes sentient of what’s happening, he tries everything in his power to stop his life from wrapping up in a neat little bow. The finale spell is finally broken when Bart goads his father enough that Homer strangles him.
In reality, “The Simpsons” isn’t coming to an end anytime soon. It still has the rest of Season 36, which will continue to air new episode on Sundays. And though the series hasn’t officially been renewed for Season 37, it’s already been announced that the series will produce four new episodes exclusively for Disney+, which will include a Christmas-themed two-part episode.
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