September 23rd, 2024 
Jackson Murphy 
Annie and seven-time Emmy-winning The Simpsons co-showrunner, executive producer and writer Matt Selman joins me for this new Animation Scoop Q&A to discuss Season 36 (which starts this Sunday Sept. 29 at 8pm on FOX) and the first-ever Simpsons panel presentation at New York Comic Con (Saturday Oct. 19 at 11:30am on the Main Stage). This interview was edited for length and clarity. Images Courtesy: FOX.
Jackson Murphy: You’ve been with the show since 1997. How have you seen the evolution of the show in 27 years?
Matt Selman: It’s hard to see the forest for the trees. It’s much easier to get caught up in the trees. There’s always a new tree. You’re always planting trees, growing trees and getting trees ready to be on television. But you also have to be thinking of the next tree, and a tree is not a terrible metaphor because you always have to be think-staggering ahead. You have to be thinking a year ahead cause they take a long time to grow. Solid metaphor. How the show has changed… I don’t know. People could probably speak to that more objectively than I could. I’m just lucky. Lucky is an understatement. I’m shocked and stunned that I’ve had this sort of lottery win of a life experience where I got to personally do every job on the show, starting from staff writer where you’re just there and you’re scared and you’re nervous. “God, if I can just get one joke in today… oh my God, that’d be so great.” You’re so hyper-aware of everything and trying not to be annoying. “If I can just contribute a little bit, that’s so great.” And not be annoying. Always a challenge.
Matt Selman:And then, up to a senior writer who has a lot of autonomy and can have pretty good control of his or her episodes up to showrunning episodes where you really do every little thing along the way. Now I’m supervising other people who are doing that and just trying to keep everything going. And along the way, you’re doing more really interesting [things]. It’s never gotten boring, even though technically it’s the same job for almost 30 years. There’s always been something new along the way to do. In 2007, there was the movie and many video games along the way. And there was the ride at Universal and the mobile game and tons of other fun inside projects that I’ve forgotten. We have a big one. I can’t reveal what it is, but we’re doing a big side project for this fall that’s super cool. We’ve never done it before. Going to really, really be good. I wish I could say what it was. But it’s really fun.
Along the way, in addition to having more managerial responsibility, or whatever you want to call it, of this show and characters that you love so much, you’re trying to keep the characters real, and have the characters not change, but at the same time, the world is changing. Different stuff is always happening. Now when Bart is watching TV, he’s also looking at his phone. Cause that’s what people do. Before the Simpsons were just watching TV. That’s the only change, really. They’re looking at their phones now. That’s the answer to your question. They have phones. (laughs) But no, for me personally, just to be able to always be doing different things and testing out different muscles of this amazing show that is so beloved, it’s been so fun. And to do big picture stuff with Disney+ now, and trying to launch these original episodes for Disney+ that are really cool.
JM: Those Disney+ episodes include a two-part Christmas one. And of course, it all started with the Christmas episode. So for diehard fans, this is, as The Simpsons has always been, event television.
MS: It is. And that episode will premiere on the 35th anniversary of The Simpsons’ original Christmas special, December 17th. One little correction is that it’s not a two-parter. It’s a double-size episode, but it’s not a two-parter. All our other two-parters have had a big break in the middle, where it’s like a cliffhanger. “What’s gonna happen?” I think we’ve maybe done three or four other two-parters before that. This is really one story. It’s not meant to be a two-part show. It’s really not meant to be broken up. It’s gonna appear on Disney+ as one thing. It’s not going to appear as two episodes. One very rich, emotional, Christmas story… just played out over more time so it can really breathe and really not feel like the constraints of a 20-minute episode.
Matt Selman
JM: That’s great. You get the opportunity to do that. Maybe the most in that case since the movie back in 2007, which was obviously about an hour and a half long. Do you feel like this gave you that freedom and brought you back to working on the movie?
MS: Well, the movie is really a different animal. For one thing I have to say about this Christmas episode, this is really the brainchild of the terrific writer, producer, co-runner, Carolyn Omine, who’s one of our best senior writers and brings her voice and her sense of humor and her soul into every frame of every show that she produces. So I can’t really take credit for this other than just doing my best to support Carolyn and not drive her crazy. Carolyn is very passionate about preventing spoilers, as we all are. So I don’t want to reveal too much, but there are some cool musical guest stars that are interesting. And we’ll definitely be showing a sneak peek at New York Comic Con.
JM: How excited are you that “The Simpsons” is going to New York Comic Con for the first time? It’s been a staple at San Diego Comic Con over the years, but now New York Comic Con. And what can the East Coasters and the diehard Simpsons fans going to New York Comic Con also expect from what’s going to happen?
MS: So in addition to some cool Christmas stuff, to be determined by Carolyn, there is an episode written and produced by Tim Long, another one of our great senior writers, which is, and I don’t think Tim would mind if I talk about this, a love letter to 80s downtown New York, crazy one crazy night in the life type movies, like “After Hours” by Martin Scorsese. And “Desperately Seeking Susan”. Lisa spends one crazy night in Capital City, which is like our New York. And she has the most insane positive negative romp of slightly surreal madness that you could ever imagine. Tim did such a good job writing it. Richard E. Grant is in it. He’s the main guest star. I feel it’s like one of those stories that only “The Simpsons” could do, a show that’s deep into its 700s, the level of specificity about this one period of time in art and moviemaking and culture that probably most people don’t know about anymore or care about or even remember. But we can do it because we have this amazing creative freedom and people expect us at this point to go deep on unexpected worlds.
JM: The homages to movies, what you’ve always done for decades, to different genres, to specific films, specific television shows, your accuracy to pop culture, your accuracy at predicting the future, it’s what makes “The Simpsons” one of the greatest television shows of all time, and will continue to be for however long the show goes on — because of the creativity, because of the writing, because of work like the work that you bring. You co-wrote “The Simpsons Movie”. I want to ask you about the iconic Tom Hanks cameo. How did you get Tom Hanks to do the legendary cameo in “The Simpsons Movie”?
MS: I do have a writing credit on “The Simpsons Movie”. But I feel like the more accurate credit would be: I watched them write “The Simpsons Movie”. It had already been mostly written when I signed on and then I was there for the kind of hair pulling out last year and a half of anxiety honing the movie. I made some contributions, but I’m more a fan of “The Simpsons Movie” than I am an active, creative, equal in its creation. So I don’t remember how the Tom Hanks thing happened. It might have been done before I worked on the second half of it, but I will say, I can say this in the Simpsons premiere on September 29th, another Tom Hanks cameo.
JM: Whoa. Wow.
MS: He’s back.
JM: Wow, that’s crazy… for Bart’s Birthday. The episode title is “Bart’s Birthday”.
MS: Yeah. The logline is Bart celebrates his birthday, but it’s a little more than that. If you like the more experimental episodes we’ve been doing lately, like “Lisa The Boy Scout” and some of the crazier ones, this would fall into that category. That episode also has Conan O’Brien in it. John Cena is in it. Danny DeVito is in it.
JM: That’s amazing. All these guest stars — I think it’s a bucket list thing for so many celebrities to want to be a part of this show because they know of the impact, they know of the influence that it’s had, and they know that the writing is so darn good that they have to be a part of it as a new high point in their careers. Kelsey Grammer stars in this new short as Sideshow Bob, called “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year”, which premieres October 11th on Disney+.
MS: The Disney shorts are really fun. It’s cool that they appeal to even a younger audience. It introduces five or six year olds to “The Simpsons” and then by the time they’re eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, it’s their favorite show a big chunk of their life. And then they move on to something crazier, which is really a privilege to have that role in their life.
JM: “Playdate with Destiny”, the Maggie short which was in theaters… and “The Longest Daycare” as well, which… was nominated for the Academy Award. Both of those went to theaters and both of those had an impact on young people and kids. And now as they get older watching all these episodes of “The Simpsons”. I’ve been at New York Comic Con the last several years, and the Animation Domination presence is huge and it’s wonderful. And over the last several years on FOX, the Animation Domination lineup has expanded. It used to be, you guys, “Family Guy”, “King of the Hill”, some of the others… and now we have a lot of these other new shows coming in and doing really well. Strong numbers, strong fan base. What does it say to you about FOX’s devotion to animation, this presence at New York Comic Con, and what this animation block has meant to you and to so many people?
MS: I credit… and my appreciation to FOX., As much as the rest of TV is churning and changing and getting shredded or burned down and rebuilding, whatever metaphor you want to use, to have that steady Sunday night presence of really well-written, funny shows that people know and are for the whole family. FOX has committed to that. And our show, “Bob’s Burgers”, “Family Guy”, “Krapopolis”, and this new one [“Universal Basic Guys”] and “Grimsburg” are all smart, funny, good shows. I think kids and their parents know that this is one of the last tentpoles of smart, original, live television entertainment that you can depend on.
We all know TV is changing with streaming and strikes and tech and all that. There’s a kind of a technological revolution which has some good things and some bad things. It’s harder for network TV to make an impact like they used to but for FOX to commit to this old school slate of terrific original shows is a testament to their courage as a network. And it’s really heartening and we’re really appreciative to FOX, for not just messing around and throwing us everywhere and screwing it up.
I just want the show to continue and I want to keep doing original stories. That’s the most fun [part] of the job. As much as the characters don’t change, the stories are still original, and we’re not repeating our stuff and we still have fresh things to say. It’s the most fun thing about the job. It’s the main reason I’m excited to come to work every day. And obviously, are we going to repeat ourselves? Yes. But are we also going to do crazy stuff that no one else would do? Of course. So it’s a really good, creative situation for us.
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