The Simpsons Showrunner Unpacks Homer’s Greatest Hits & Addresses Reactions To Season 36 Finale

Enthusiasts of The Simpsons are in for a deal with on Disney+ due to July’s brand-new Homer-centric circulate. Composed of the 200 largest and easiest examples of Homer Simpson as a personality from the display’s historical run, the circulate will spotlight the long-lasting energy of the nature, highlighting his comedic chops and emotional vulnerability throughout many years of tv. It is a a laugh instance of the way Disney+ can use the streaming fashion and their get right of entry to to all the run of The Simpsons to their benefit, particularly because the display approaches season 37.
To ensure the choice of episodes completely represented what makes Homer so nice, the streamer recruited one of the most display’s maximum creatively important figures to assist curate the record. Right through an interview with ScreenRant, The Simpsons showrunner Matt Selman mentioned the Homer-centric circulate coming to Disney+, printed considered one of his favourite underrated episodes, teased the impending season 37, and defined which different persona he thinks marks a core a part of the collection.
Matt Selman Explains What Makes A Excellent Homer Episode Of The Simpsons
“You Really feel What Homer Is Feeling…”
Disney+ is celebrating The Simpsons with a recent circulate of Homer-centric episodes, in my view curated via Matt Selman. “There are 200 episodes,” Selman. “The workforce at Disney+ and I in my view curated what we concept have been the 200 Homer-iest Homer episodes. I believe they are nonetheless being proven in chronological order, season via season.” Taking a look again on the historical past of the display and what makes for a excellent Homer tale, Selman surmised that “Homer’s an overly versatile persona,” which makes him an excellent tale engine.
“There are a large number of nice Homer episodes the place the rationale he cares about one thing is, ‘Marge, it used to be all the time my dream to [blank]’, proper? That claims simply sufficient and is solely foolish sufficient to paintings. I believe the most efficient Homer episodes are when he has one thing that he emotionally cares about that you simply at house can if truth be told relate to. If we do our activity proper, even though it is one thing foolish, it is one thing you’ll be able to hook up with. Clearly, being concerned about his family members or his pals? That’s extra common. However there may be extra you’ll be able to make him emotional about.”
Homer will throw the whole lot he has into seeking to be a mentor to the only particular person on this planet who if truth be told appears to be like as much as him.
To Selman, one of the most easiest examples of this from contemporary years can also be observed in season 31’s “Move Large Or Move Homer.” Directed via Matthew Faughnan and written via John Frink, the episode makes a speciality of Homer’s surprising mentorship of a Nuclear Energy Plant intern, Mike Wegman. Selman described the episode as one “that I like that’s not as well-known, however I believe it is terrific… Homer cares about the truth that he is not revered. He is simply now not revered at paintings, and he realizes everybody thinks he is a funny story.“
“However then there may be one man… who does appreciate him. And even if he is the type of self-destructive and a actually dumb, dumb, dumb particular person, all it takes is one particular person for Homer to throw the whole lot he has into seeking to be a mentor to the only particular person on this planet who if truth be told appears to be like as much as him.” To Selman, the episode successfully purposes as an immediate distinction to season 8’s “Homer’s Enemy,” which offered Frank Grimes as one of the most handiest other people in Springfield who acknowledges Homer’s flaws and faults.

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“Frank used to be the only one that may just obviously see [Homer], the only sensible particular person in Springfield who may just obviously see Homer and ask why this man is getting away with it each week? How does he have such a lot excellent good fortune and pals and fortune and does not need to paintings exhausting and screws the whole lot up, and but, he by no means can pay the cost? However in “Move Large or Move Homer,” Homer’s intern, Mike Wegman, is the one one that thinks Homer is superb. He is the other finish of the spectrum of Frank Grimes.”
For Selman, the important thing to Homer plots depends upon the reaction of the target market. “If a Homer episode is superb, audience at house are feeling what Homer is feeling and being concerned about what he is being concerned about… other people relate to Homer, in a actually particular means, greater than maximum characters. That is essential. I imply, some other people [would say a good Homer episode] provides him a loopy activity, or will get the crap beat out of him 100 occasions… to me, it is nonetheless that many of the elementary storytelling serve as. You are feeling what Homer is feeling, as loopy a scenario as he is in.”
That core thought extends to Selman’s number of the 200 episodes incorporated within the Homer-centric circulate, which intended some episodes that many would be expecting to be incorporated have been if truth be told omitted. For one instance, Selman cited season 3’s “Flaming Moe’s” for example of a Homer-heavy episode that he did not really feel like belonged on an inventory of the most efficient Homer episodes. “Folks may take factor with the curation of the record,” Selman admitted. “It will spark public debate.”
“I assumed “Flaming Moe’s” used to be indisputably Homer-centric, however Moe is within the identify. It is form of Homer’s tale, however it used to be one of the most first occasions The Simpsons had actually devoted such a lot time to a non-family member… It used to be one of the most first occasions the display had long gone in and been like, ‘Oh, we are seeing the house lifetime of Moe. We are seeing the interior global of Moe.’ We aren’t simply seeing him because the bartender who says, ‘The way you doing Homer?’ That is why I took it off.“
Taking a look Again At “Estranger Issues” And If The Display Will Go back To A Marge-Much less Long term
“The Display Is, As At all times, A Beneficiary Of The Truth That The International Is So Dumb”
That flexibility with Homer has been afforded to him (and the display’s huge forged at massive)_ due to the static atmosphere of Springfield. Whilst the sector would possibly trade round them, The Simpsons characters have now not elderly or modified an excessive amount of since their preliminary appearances. That is what makes attainable futures, equivalent to the only depicted in “Estranger Issues,” the entire extra attention-grabbing. The episode established a global the place Marge died earlier than Homer, leaving the Simpsons family members to splinter aside in her absence.
The episode generated quite a lot of controversy weeks after it used to be launched, when some retailers started reporting that the display had killed off Marge (whilst leaving out the truth of the display’s versatile canon and transparent shift from the usual canon). Taking a look again on the episode, Selman said that “we did not actually deal with Homer’s grief. It is not actually a Homer episode. It’s kind of of a Bart and Lisa episode. We skipped the grief.” When requested if enthusiasts can be expecting a go back to this timeline, Selman replied, “No. I believe one useless Marge used to be sufficient.”
The response from some retailers to “Estranger Issues” nonetheless frustrates Selman, who notes how “it speaks to the truth that Simpsons headlines force site visitors. It manner the display does nonetheless have sturdy hobby, fan hobby, and dad cultural energy. If the web can whip up a pretend — smartly, it is not faux. I imply, it did occur within the episode. Marge did die within the episode, nevertheless it used to be intentionally deceptive. I assume we will have to feel free that the sector is so dumb… The display is, as all the time, a beneficiary of the truth that the sector is so dumb.”
Selman in particular famous his frustration with the “shall we say, the distressed situation of journalism. It’s surprising to me that the rest like a newspaper, a model just like the New York Publish, can use as a supply for a headline, one nameless web fan. I imagine there used to be as soon as a time when to position a reality in a newspaper, you could have 3 on-the-record resources confirming it. Now, to ensure that a complete headline, of ‘Simpsons enthusiasts enraged that Marge is killed,’ the only supply used to be like, Gamer z-z-z stated they killed Marge! That is the supply. Oh, smartly.”
Taking a look To Season 37 And Which Persona Fashionable Simpsons Has Perfected
“She Wasn’t The Comedy Engine, That is Homer. However She’s A Nice Emotion Engine”
The Simpsons has been on a historical run for nearly 4 many years, with the display showed for no less than any other 4 seasons. This may increasingly carry up the overall seasons to 40, a staggering checklist for a Top-Time tv display that’s not prone to be damaged anytime quickly. That does not imply the display has ever stopped converting or evolving. Selman cited the ways in which positive characters have got higher spotlights in recent times, particularly Marge. “I think like one persona now we have actually been writing smartly for this present day is Marge. I like Marge. I like Julie Kavner.”
“I think like we’ve got completed actually excellent, sturdy stuff for Marge in recent times. I believe within the outdated days, other people used not to wish to write for Marge as a result of she wasn’t as humorous as Homer and wasn’t as foolish, it wasn’t as balls-out loopy, the place it’s worthwhile to do the rest. She wasn’t the comedy engine, that is Homer. However she’s a super emotional engine, and much more so than Homer. If Marge cares about one thing, I believe the target market cares about that very same factor. I am actually pleased with one of the vital Marge stuff we’ve got completed in contemporary seasons.”
[We’re satirizing] tech billionaire tradition and the will for frame hacking, seeking to keep alive eternally.
Taking a look forward to season 37, Selman famous with fun that the season premiere — which makes a speciality of Lisa getting sucked into the sector of thrifting — is a good way to position “a recent coat of paint on a ‘Lisa Will get In style’ episode. I like it. I am not seeking to knock it, we gotta repeat ourselves a bit of bit every now and then. I like this episode, it is tremendous humorous. The B-story is Homer will get hooked on a Reacher-type Dad TV display, with numerous punching. That is a Homer-B tale, we would have to incorporate it in a ‘Absolute best Homer B-Tale’ circulate.“
Selman additionally teased the following iteration of Treehouse of Horror, the display’s annual Halloween anthology, hinting that enthusiasts would in finding out extra about that episode at San Diego Comedian-Con. Selman additionally discussed that there’s “a large two-hander with Bart and Professor Frink… it roughly satirizes tech billionaire tradition and the will for frame hacking, seeking to keep alive eternally.” The way forward for The Simpsons appears to be like shiny, at the same time as longtime participants of the display like Matt Selman in finding recent techniques to rejoice the legacy of the display on Disney+.
The Simpsons‘ “Homerpalooza” circulate starts in on Disney+. Keep tuned for precise main points!

The Simpsons
- Unlock Date
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December 17, 1989
- Community
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FOX
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Homer Simpson / Abe Simpson / Barney Gumble / Krusty (voice)
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Marge Simpson / Patty Bouvier / Selma Bouvier (voice)