Based on what I know about how TV shows, including the Simpsons, are renewed, The Simpsons creators will probably get at least two seasons advance notice about the show being discontinued.
However, even when a show is pronounced to be out of time, if the ratings jump then they can keep it on life-support even longer. I hope this doesn’t happen for the Simpsons.
OK, let me get to the point: the final season of The Simpsons will be an amazing thing. Here’s why it will be an amazing thing:
Number one: for a show that’s been going on as long as the Simpsons, they could spend the entire final season as one big finale.
Number two: we’ll all get to witness the finale of one of the best works of popular art of all time.
Number three: even though the Simpsons hasn’t been nearly as great for the last 20 years as it was for the first 15, the final episodes will probably kick ass, if you’ll pardon my French.
Number four: when the Simpsons finally wraps itself up, the interest in the television show will be much, much greater than it has been for decades. With the final work of art complete- all 3 1/2 decades of it- we can appreciate it and all it’s greatness in certain seasons and also people will have more interest in watching the episodes from the lesser seasons because the show will be complete and a person could watch the entire series (imagine that, The Simpsons finally being complete), the entire story.
Number five: the Simpsons had its glory days. It’s time to leave television to those who have new ideas.
I sincerely hope that within the next 5 to 10 years this unstoppable juggernaut of a television show will finally allow itself to become a finished part of history. It’ll be an amazing experience.
OK guys so I did a little googling and I found a website where a guy talks about why the Simpsons should end-
There’s also several discussions on Quora, Most notably this one-
Has anyone ever thought of starting a movement to try to get the Simpsons to wrap up?
A boycott by viewers to get the writers and producers to commit to two final seasons at some point, and then they have to stop?
I know how ugly that sounds, but I think eventually we the viewers have to force them into that situation so they can kick ass for two more seasons and come to an amazing conclusion.
They might not actually get much notice. When “Holidays of Future Passed” was produced, the showrunners were not sure whether Fox was going to renew them (it was before the cast agreed to take a pay cut), and so the episode was designed to serve as a series finale in case the show didn’t come back for Season 24.
It might not be a bad idea to give the producers an end date. The Simpsons cast has had numerous deaths over the years and while the show could continue until one of the main cast dies, why not prepare? Harry Shearer is 78 and nobody live forever.
Knowing that the end is coming could allow for a 2 or 3 season ‘final arc’ for not just OFF but all of Springfield.
Short of several core voice actors all deciding at once to not renew their contracts, I don’t really see why Disney would ever prepare for an ending. The show may not be as popular as it used to be, but it still makes money.
Even one or two actors leaving won’t slow them down. Remember what happened when Family Guy decided to get a black actor to voice Cleveland Brown? They found an impersonator who does the voice perfectly. There are absolutely people out there who can do spot-on Homers and Barts and Smitherseseses, or close enough that it won’t make any more difference than the differences already inherent in voice actors aging thirty years over the course of a show.
So long as it keeps making money, they’ll keep making episodes.
I don’t understand this way of thinking. Why would someone who enjoys watching the Simpsons want there not to be more episodes of it? It’s not like the writers have a fixed set of good ideas and if you force them to only write X more shows those shows will be really good because they’ll put all the good ideas in them. That’s not how the television writing process works.
There are plenty of shows that I stopped watching when they got bad. When enough people do that, the show gets cancelled. I don’t think I ever wanted a show I once enjoyed to end. I wanted it to get good again!
There have been shows that string the viewers along by refusing to answer questions, or creating two questions for every one that gets answered. Lost was infamous for this, and I’m sure many fans were fatigued by the end and had been wishing it would just finish.
But that’s not The Simpsons. It’s nothing but episodic pop culture. It can literally go forever, so long as it’s worthwhile to produce.
Yeah, I can understand that for shows like Lost. Although I think that’s at least a little of “I wish this show would be good”, because just having a lot of open plot threads and questions go unanswered strikes me as pretty bad writing.
On the other hand, I loved Twin Peaks, and it mostly did that too. I would have gladly watched a few more seasons of bizarro-world with way more questions than answers because I didn’t expect anything to wrap up neatly.
Agreed that there’s nothing to resolve with The Simpsons. A given episode is either good or not. Make more good ones!
I have to have a small chuckle at the naivety of the OP. If the Simpsons writers had any great episodes left in them, they’d be writing them now.
TV history is full of great, or long-lived, or “impactful” shows that just petered out, or had crappy finales. The Simpsons is no different.
My expectation: the finale of the Simpsons will suck royally, and then everyone can debate it forever. Which is sort of a meta-ending the show demands.
Why is everyone assuming The Simpsons will have a finale. The history of sitcom finales is littered with disappointments (Seinfeld, How I Met Your Mother.) What are we expecting from a final episode? Marge leaves Homer? Bart and Lisa magically age 20 years? The family strikes oil and moves to Beverly Hills?
If there’s any kind of closure at all, it will be in The Simpsons Movie II - not on Fox on a Sunday night.
