Yahoo News ‘The Simpsons’ Showrunner Matt Selman On “A New Intimacy To The Classic Homer And Marge Love Story” And His Excitement For Season 34
For a series like The Simpsons, which has been running for 33 seasons, it’s a difficult task to keep the series fresh and feeling new. That’s a task that writer, executive producer and showrunner Matt Selman says is the “greatest creative challenge” for the writing team. Even after more than three decades on television, Selman is excited for the next season and gives a tease for what is coming next. The series is Emmy-nominated this year for Outstanding Animated Program, bringing the total nominations in the The Simpson‘s lifetime to 98, with 35 wins. He talked with Deadline’s Ryan Fleming about that and much more.
DEADLINE: Why was “Pixelated and Afraid” chosen for Emmy consideration?
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MATT SELMAN: We’ve done more than 700 episodes of the show, but I feel like this one showed a new depth and a new intimacy to the classic Homer and Marge love story. And it started with a kind of sitcom premise where the kids are worried they’re not romantic enough, but then it went in this fairly brutal and unusual direction for a cartoon show. An unsparing look at the fears and dangers of being lost in the cold, icy, wet wilderness with no food and no shelter and how it was the comfort of being in a couple that ultimately saved them, not this kind of false quest for romance that people think they need to make their relationships meaningful. Homer and Marge around the house at peace with each other is one of the most beautiful things of their relationship. We really wanted to show that as like a special and unique thing to cherish. After all these episodes, to feel like you’re showing something new or having something new to say about their relationship, like that’s a big deal.
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I have to give a lot of the credit for this Emmy episode to one of our senior producers, Carolyn Omine, and the writer, John Frink. It was Carolyn and John’s idea to do this Naked and Afraid parody. Carolyn fought hard and fought the right way and won the good battles to make it about the love story of just gross comfort couch love. An important thing to do when you’re showrunning is to not take credit for yourself, give it to the people who deserve it.
DEADLINE: How do you keep a show that’s been on for 33 seasons fresh?
SELMAN: That’s our greatest creative challenge, to make sure that every episode is unique and distinct and has something fresh to say. Luckily the world keeps delivering things that need reflecting on in the Springfield mirror. So that’s a thank-you to the world, but also the world needs to do better. I don’t have any problem with repeating an emotional dynamic. There’s only so many emotional dynamics, like we have a table read where Lisa and Marge have a fight about a charity they co-founded, but Lisa and Marge have had plenty of fights before. You can’t cross off emotional family storytelling just because you’ve told those emotional family stories before. But you have to have something new to say about the outside world or a new facet of the relationship to explore that’s more specific and more interesting.
DEADLINE: What’s next for you and The Simpsons?
SELMAN: I’m excited about Season 34. It’s probably the best 34th season of any show you’ve ever seen. We have two Halloween episodes this year, two “Treehouse of Horror” episodes. One is three scary stories like we always do, but very scary and weird. We have an anime parody of Death Note, which I’m so excited about. The full-length episode is a parody of Stephen King’s book It with, get ready for it, Krusty as Pennywise. We have Simu Liu from Marvel’s Shang-Chi in an upcoming show as Lisa’s perfect future boyfriend. We have our season premiere where Homer gets into a conspiracy cabal while hunting down a missing turtle. I’m very excited about one where Krusty has a kind of nice-guy-type afternoon syndicated Ellen DeGeneres talk show that surprisingly goes awry. And then we have huge guest part for iconic comedy legend Melissa McCarthy coming up. It’s a really juicy, funny part where she plays a kid who’s Homer’s rival for love from Grandpa. She’s plays kind of a quirky kid who has Grandpa’s love and Homer’s like, “Why does Grandpa like this kid? And why didn’t he like me?” It’s really emotional as well. And we have another crazy conceptual episode that explains how The Simpsons know the future. It’s a conceptual episode with lots of crazy stuff in it, but it does an explanation of how The Simpsons can predict the future.
I’m very excited about Season 34. You can’t just rest on your laurels. You have to be pushing yourself and challenging yourself and making sure every episode is distinct and emotional and visual and compelling and scary and cinematic. So we do that on like 85 percent of them. That’s pretty good. I always thought a B+ was a good grade.
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