The first ever Simpsons panel occurred yesterday on October 19, 2024 at the New York Comic Con. Editor at Vulture Jesse David Fox was in charge of moderating the panel discussion. Matt Groening (Futurama, Disenchantment), Hank Azaria (The Smurfs, Anastasia), Matt Selman (When Billie met Lisa, The Simpsons Movie), Caroline Omine (The Angry Birds Movie, Leo) and Tim Long (The Exchange, The Angry Birds Movie) were the panelists. The main topic of the panel was of the final season, episodes within that season and the panelists’ opinions on saying goodbye to the show
Azaria and Selman talk about their experience about attending the Simpsons panel for the first time. Azaria then reads a statement that was written from the point of view of Comic book guy and how he feels about attending comic-con. Stewart Burns (Futurama, Unhappily Ever After) wrote the statement and as Selman stated, he made him write it when he had covid.
Groening gets into discussing how comic book guy “came to be”. From Groening’s perspective, he is supposed to represent every comic book store manager, but Azaria is the one who makes him come to life through his voice acting. Azaria adds how comic book guy is funny and further implements ideas to bring characteristics to him. He talks about his voice acting impressions and how it is a skill to be developed overtime.
The panelists dive into the writing and how it has progressed in the past twenty-five years. Selman says they have to “keep it fresh”, otherwise content becomes over repeated. Comic Book guy has a character arc and he is also being adapted to the current nerd culture to fit into the modern day nerd. Long mentions the fact that comic book guy found somebody to marry him shows his redeemable qualities. There’s talk of comic book guy and his wife having children, despite him being an occasional “villain” on the show.
The 35th anniversary since the debut episode of the Simpsons aired will be December 17. Groening converses about his experience before the show aired. His team lied to Fox about not receiving an animation for The Simpsons because the original animation was “horrendous”. The debut was delayed from Fall 1989 to December 17, 1989. Groening mentions one of the other writers said to him, “Your career is over”, and Long states, “I still regret saying that.”
The initial reaction of The Simpsons went really well, as in 1990, BootLeg t-shirts of Bart Simpson were selling. Azaria considers the time he played two characters at the same time for the first season and had no recollection of the character ‘Lessmore’. After Fox asks how he felt after the episode, he stated “I’m lucky to have a job” and how he was confused the entire time. Azaria then asks Groening if he has seven men record Mo that day and then later chooses which one Groening wanted to use or if he knew right away Azaria was it for Mo. Groening jokes “well not seven”, meaning he did let other men record as Mo. Then, give him credit for giving humor in their own way.
Mo was made a well-known character because of a “one off joke” and developing to getting “flesh-off”. They discussed the direction of showcasing the character’s humanity.
Selman discusses how the show will progress from the first episode to the season finale. The season 30 premiere was the season finale, which was basically an anti-finale finale. Unfortunately, there were in room exclusive clips of the two Azaria’s characters having a conversation. Groening talks about how busy he was with his other show Futurama but he stayed to make a scene for The Simpsons wherever there was trial and error before it was funny. Azaria shares his experience reading the finale and his distraught he knew the show is coming to an end. Seltman talks about how he does not want word getting out about the show, otherwise the press will change the narration of the show.
The new episodes referenced a 1985 Indie film titled After Hours, where Liza was trapped in the weirded parts of New York City. The episode is also a tribute to 1980’s Indie films and Long and Omine’s interpretation of Liza experiencing New York. Fans can expect unbelievable animation, guest stars and many 80s references. Capital City earned its title because it was a placeholder for another title, but they stuck with the setting name.
Fans can expect the Halloween episode to air on November 2, a parody of ‘Venom’ called ‘Denim’, and an episode consisting of short stories of Ray Bradbury.
Other discourse included the panelists working with John Cena, different cities implemented in the show, an upcoming christmas episode, ideas of episodes, their favorite TreeHouse of Horrors episodes, predictions in the writing, and thoughts on a movie.
Groening takes the time to acknowledge and thank the writers Omine, Long and Seltman for writing the episodes and making the show what it is.