‘The Simpsons’ showrunner reveals how they pulled off the ‘series finale’ as Season 37 is still unconfirmed

nypost.com:

its “series finale” — only to reveal that the entire storyline of the episode was generated by AI.Showrunner and executive producer Matt Selman told People in an interview published Monday how the idea for the episode came to be.“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,” he explained. “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?”“I always felt like there was no good answer to that question because the show was never meant to end,” he added.

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.”Selman, 53, said that while he doesn’t remember who pitched the concept for the Season 36 premiere, he immediately loved the idea of starting the episode with an animated Conan O’Brien hosting a star-studded gala that involved a lengthy monologue about the show allegedly ending.“There was no one better than Conan who both speaks as part of the show as an outside hilarious person,” Selman said about O’Brien, 61, who used to write for the show. “No other person in the universe occupies those two roles so perfectly,” the TV writer went on. “So if he had said no, I don’t know what we would’ve done.

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.”The episode, titled “Bart’s Birthday,” explores AI-generated scenarios for the end of the show, including Mr.