Fox’s Animation Domination is giving us a post-Halloween treat with the latest “Treehouse of Horror” episode of The Simpsons airing this Sunday November 5th at 8pm. Writer and Co-EP Brian Kelley, who’s been with the iconic series for nearly two and a half decades, shares insights on this year’s stories, some Simpsons secrets, and how a movie sequel will be decided. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity.)

Jackson Murphy: I’ve loved watching this show for most of my life and I look forward to the “Treehouse of Horror” episode every year. This one delivers the goods.

Brian Kelley: That’s a relief to hear. (laughs) You say you’ve been a fan of the show your whole life. So have I. I started working there in the year 2000. I was like, “I have to get on this show that taught me so much about comedy, just because I want to be part of the last season or two.” (laughs) And now it’s many years later and we’re still going.

JM: Still going strong! How important is “Treehouse of Horror” to all of you?

BK: It’s the most important [episode]. We look forward to it every year. It’s so fun to write. I know fans really love it. You get to be non-canonical and do whatever you want. The freedom is great. It’s tough to come-up with new stuff at this point. I’m not gonna lie. We’ve parodied just about every horror and science fiction movie that anyone’s seen. But the challenge is really fun. We love it. We spend a lot of time on it. It’s a real labor of love.

JM: Hollywood keeps making new horror movies and shows, so you’ll have years of stuff.

BK: But they’re all bad! (laughs)

JM: This year has some really fun storylines. Before we get into them, I gotta know how everybody comes up with the nicknames that [appear] on the opening credits.

BK: That might be everyone’s least favorite job, at least if you’ve been there a while. I’ve done so many of these. Some people farm the names out to people on Twitter. Alex Duke, who does a lot of our post-production, sends out an email two or three weeks ahead of when they’re due. Everyone groans and goes, “Oh God, we gotta do this again.” And then, invariably, on the deadline, there’s a half-dozen people who haven’t done a thing. So we sit in the room and sometimes brainstorm altogether on them. It’s nothing to gripe about. It’s really cool that we get to do this. But when you try to do your 20th… the name Brian Kelley’s not great for it. It’s hard to do puns off Brian Kelley. It’s been a struggle, but we’ll keep doing it as long as people keep watching!

JM: In the first story that everyone will see Sunday night, Bart becomes an NFT. Do you understand the Blockchain at all?

BK: No. Not at all. Jim Brooks really wanted us to do something with NFTs. One of our writers, Jeff Westbrook, was a computer science professor before he became a writer. So we lean-on him very heavily. He actually wrote this segment. Fortunately he knew what he was talking about. Every time I tried to make a change, I would say, “Jeff, is that okay?” And he would approve it. A lot of it is pretty accurate. It was really finding a way to tell a fun story about NFTs. We spend a lot of time pitching these ideas out and they change a ton. Matt Selman came-up with the “Snowpiercer” tie-in, to envision the Blockchain as a Blocktrain. That’s when everything clicked. “Okay, we know how to tell this story.”

JM: And Kylie Jenner shows up as herself!

BK: At last! (laughs) She was super nice. Very fun. We needed someone to be sort of the mastermind of Blockchain technology and the guardian of the internet. Fortunately she said, “Yes.” She was super game, which is all you want in your actors — to go for it. Really fun.

JM: Story 2 is a murder investigation conducted by an adult Lisa. How gruesome did you want to get? There’s blood and guts galore!

BK: This is a messy one. We try to have one really gorey story. It’s our opportunity to do it, and I think fans like it. Horror should be gorey. Obviously we’re a family show, so there’s a limit. But we kind of pushed it in this one. We wanted to do something with the great, great Kelsey Grammer, back as Sideshow Bob. When we hit on this idea of telling a story set in the future, with an alternate history, Jess Conrad, who wrote the episode, came-up with the idea of doing a David Fincher-esque style of storytelling and visuals. This was my first time I’ve ever directed Kelsey. That was bucket list “Simpsons”. He’s incredibly fun. He comes in and it’s so fast, because he’s perfect, basically. Every reading’s hilarious. It was probably 20 minutes total, because he’s just so good. I would’ve liked to have more notes and drag it out but I couldn’t come up with any notes for him. He’s amazing.

JM: One of my 10 favorite actors of all-time and I’ve met him on a couple occasions. I’ve watched the new season of “Frasier”, which is fantastic as well. In Story No. 3, the town of Springfield becomes more Homer-like than ever before. This must’ve been challenging for all of the animators.

BK: It was. Big project. One of the first things you do after the script is written is work on the designs. And the designs went back and forth so many times with these Homer characters. We have an amazing design team. The director of this episode is Rob Oliver, who’s done some of our greatest episodes. He’s a genius. The stuff they came up with was amazing. We’ve even got a Homerized Kang and Kodos in there. I think people will really love the look of that segment.

JM: It is striking. It is surprising. Kang and Kodos ARE Halloween to so many people. What do those characters mean to you and the legacy of this show?

BK: They’re mandatory on Halloween. They have to be in there. They remind you that you’re working on a cartoon and that you have a lot more freedom than you think. They’re voiced by Dan Castellaneta and Harry Shearer. They’re fun to record and fun for the animators to draw. We love them dearly.

JM: How deep into planning are you on next year’s “Treehouse of Horror”?

BK: The writers’ strike delayed that a bit, but we are now full steam ahead. That one is being co-run by Rob LaZebnik. I haven’t seen it yet but I’m hearing very good things. I think it’s mostly figured out. We’ll read that one in January.

JM: Cool. From your perspective, what is the secret that has kept this family connected to so many — and kept the show on the air — all these years?

BK: A writing staff that gets along incredibly well. And we’re very good at pulling stories out of each other. Most of these [stories] start with just joking with each other, sharing embarrassing stories, usually. The best stories come from real things. They’re not crazy make ’em ups. There’s an emotional bit — a kernel of truth there — and that’s what we focus on. Matt Selman, who runs the show, is incredibly good at identifying areas.

JM: I met James L. Brooks in December 2016 and asked him, “Are we gonna get a Simpsons Movie 2?” And he said, “Maybe.” So Brian, are we getting closer and do you really wanna see a Simpsons Movie sequel happen?

BK: Oh, I really wanna see it happen. That would be really fun. Fortunately, that decision is above my pay grade. So I don’t know. It’s really up to Jim. If he hears an idea that he wants to do, and he’s got room in his schedule because he’s a very busy man, then yeah, it will happen. I would love to see it happen. It’s a way to tell a very different story than we can tell on the show. I know the actors enjoy it and we all love it. And I get to go to a movie premiere and eat free food.