The Simpsons did it. After 35 years, TV’s longest-running sitcom aired its series finale.
Make that “series finale.†There will still be more episodes — after all, it’s the premiere of the 36th season — but “Bart’s Birthday†is The Simpsons’ take on what a finale might look like, satirizing not only the idea that the show could ever end but also the concept of series finales in general. It’s proof that, after all these years, The Simpsons can still find new ways to subvert both the sitcom form and viewer expectations.
Inspired by the season-seven clip-show parody “The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular,†“Bart’s Birthday†is formatted like a hosted special. But instead of just showing clips from the past and making up fake ones — although there’s some of that — host Conan O’Brien introduces a brand-new, AI-written episode designed to be the series finale. That episode-within-the-episode mostly follows Bart as he watches the show’s characters go through cliché, overly sentimental finale-type story lines with increasing consternation. The result is an irreverent, mega-meta, sneakily touching Simpsons episode that’s both gloriously referential and unlike anything the show’s done before. Earlier this week, while still tweaking the final version of the episode, showrunner Matt Selman, the person largely responsible for the show’s recent renaissance, explained what the hell the writers were thinking.
Why a “finale�
When you write for The Simpsons, you get asked a lot about what a finale episode might be like. It’s a tricky question for Selman, who has worked on the show since 1998, because he believes The Simpsons was “never built to have a final episode.†As a comparison, he points to Groundhog Day, where every episode resets. “It can go on forever because it doesn’t have a hard canon or a dense continuity,†he says. More than that, The Simpsons was “meant to reject the notion of corny finales.†So when asked about a possible finale, he would usually say there wasn’t really an answer.
After the 2023 strikes, when Selman was able to do press again, he found himself in Australia being asked the same old question. But this time, during an interview, it hit him: “What if we did a fake finale that makes fun of finales, wrapping things up, but then rejects it in a Simpsons-y way?†When Selman got back to L.A., he talked to Mike Price, who has worked on the show since 2003, and writer Jessica Conrad, who has been there since 2020. They brainstormed what Fox would actually do if there was a Simpsons finale and landed on the idea of a grand, star-filled celebration that would serve as a meta takedown of showbiz self-mythologizing and poke fun at the reverence some fans have for a certain era of the show. And to further the case of the latter, they knew exactly the star to bring in.
Conan returns
In “Bart’s Birthday,†Conan O’Brien serves as host of the finale celebration, just like Phil Hartman’s Troy McClure did in “The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular.†Conan, who worked on The Simpsons for two seasons and wrote what is generally considered one of the series’ all-time great episodes, “Marge vs. the Monorail,†represents the show’s so-called golden age, and the writers were interested in poking fun at that symbolic power. They roast Conan, making a requisite dig at his wig hair and having him deliver jokes like, “It’s such an honor to be here for the series finale of The Simpsons. They knew I was right for the job because I’ve hosted the last episode of three of my own shows—and counting.â€
This role was always written for Conan, but there was some risk he might be offended. Selman says, however, that Conan was “smart enough and funny enough to know that he was 100 percent the best person to tell this story.â€
The stars are out
While Conan’s role is central to the episode’s conceit, the vast majority of the cameos in “Bart’s Birthday†are just animated audience members. This meant the show didn’t have to ask for their permission, though Fox Legal made the writers give Conan the line, “This theater is filled with the many celebrities who appeared on The Simpsons over the years, who have come to say farewell. We got you for scale then; we’re getting you for free tonight!†(However, Seth Rogen had to give clearance because the show used his laugh from a previous episode.) Tom Hanks reprised his role as himself from The Simpsons Movie, even improvising a line, and for the episode-within-the-episode, the AI got John Cena to cameo as himself, which felt to Selman like the type of stunt guest star the show would try to get for a finale.
However, there was one cameo even Selman and the writers didn’t anticipate. Historically, on the rare occasions Maggie has spoken on the show, stars like Elizabeth Taylor and Jodie Foster have been brought in, but in the original cut of this episode, series regular Nancy Cartwright delivered Maggie’s one line (“What’s up his butt?â€). When I pointed this out to Selman, he realized it was a missed opportunity for an episode so focused on lampooning the show’s legacy. This was just six days before the episode aired, which Selman referred to as “not too late†to text his producers to see how much a last-minute change would cost. Thursday afternoon, Amy Sedaris came in to record the final version.
The fin-AI-le
Coming out of the 2023 strikes, where AI was a major topic, the writers saw this as the perfect moment to weigh in. “AI is good at regurgitating but not at being imaginative,†says Selman. So they imagined feeding AI every series finale ever and having it spit out the least imaginative episode possible, full of characters rehashing finale clichés.
For example, Principal Skinner announces that he’s leaving to become the headmaster of a school in Sacramento as “a delightful midseason replacement,†adding, “I’ll no doubt find a whole new eclectic cast of characters to interact with, and also, Groundskeeper Willie will be my roommate.†Bittersweet music plays as Skinner says, “I’m going to miss this place,†while turning off the lights, a nod to the classic Mary Tyler Moore Show ending. The episode continues in this fashion, mocking other finale clichés like babies (Comic Book Guy’s wife Kumiko Nakamura gives birth) and surprise inheritances (Mr. Burns dies, first as a prank and then for real, accidentally bequeathing his fortune to the power plant’s staff), each culminating in characters parroting the same line and turning off the lights. Throughout, Bart rejects these moments, as when he moons the camera in an attempt to stop Krusty from taping a final show.
Bart’s mounting panic in the face of all these endings represents his role as what Selman calls the “Simpsons alpha.†The first element of the show to really break out, Bart embodies The Simpsons’ core irreverence and rebellious spirit, even as the show has branched out to showcase other characters more and more. At first, the episode revolved around Bart pulling off the greatest prank of all time, but James L. Brooks suggested changing the framing device to a birthday party for “the world’s longest serving 10-year-old,†which not only felt more winkingly cliché but also spoke to finale-friendly themes of growth and change.
Are the writers trolling?
Selman admits that he’s a bit of a Bart Simpson himself, especially when it comes to teasing a portion of The Simpsons fan base that delights in pointing out how “the show sucks now.†The episode takes a direct shot at such fans when Conan jokes, “When the very first episode aired in 1989, the viewers agreed on one thing: It wasn’t as funny as it used to be.†This sets up the meta gag that Fox has been trying to wrap up the show for years and that many classic episodes were actually designed to be finales, which is followed by a series of reanimations of iconic scenes where things go extremely awry in very dark ways.
Perhaps the biggest middle finger to die-hard fans comes late in the episode-within-the-episode when the real Principal Skinner (from season nine’s controversial “The Principal and the Pauperâ€) reunites with his mom. That reveal — that the Skinner we know is actually an impostor named Armin Tamzarian — remains one of the most hated moments in the show’s history, but 27 years later, Selman thinks fans should get over it. “That we just added pretty late in the game,†says Selman. “We were just like, Screw it. Let’s just burn it down. Let’s poke the bear.â€
Have no fears, they’ve got stories for years
The Simpsons purists are not the only target for Selman and the writers. They also wanted to do the writer’s equivalent of mooning the people in the media and online spheres who never discuss the show unless it can be used for think-piece fodder. So the episode builds to a standoff between Bart, who doesn’t want to turn 11, and Homer, who through couples therapy is trying to change and be a better man, husband, and father. Bart won’t accept that and goads and goads Homer until, in classic fashion, he strangles Bart.
This might surprise some since, in a November 2023 episode, Homer said about strangling Bart, “I don’t do that anymore. Times have changed.†This became a massive news story, but according to Selman, if there has been any drop in stranglings, it is because “some of those things you’ve just done a million times.†With this episode for Selman, it came down to strangling just being “part of the DNA of the show, so if anything could unkill The Simpsons, it would be a nice hard strangling.â€
And it works. By the end of the episode, everything resets and Bart stays 10. Conan tearfully admits this must actually be the season premiere, leading the celebrities to boo and riot. While the credits run, eagle-eared (how is eagles’ hearing?) viewers will notice an instrumental version of “They’ll Never Stop the Simpsons,†the “We Didn’t Start the Fire†parody that played at the end of season 13’s clip-show episode, “Gump Roast,†and mocked the sort of gimmicky episodes the show would have to do to keep going. Selman wrote the original 22 years ago but never liked the line “They’ll never stop The Simpsons,†as he just wanted the chorus to repeat “We’re sorry for the clip show.â€
“But now,†he says, “we’re bringing it back and we’re owning it.â€
Correction: This article originally misstated the season number of “The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular.†We’re sorry for the clip show error.