The first ever The Simpsons panel occurred yesterday, October 19, 2024 at the New York Comic Con. This article will cover details from the livestream from Popverse on Youtube. 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 the final season, episodes within that season and the panelists’ opinions on saying goodbye to the show.
Azaria and Selman talk about their experience of attending The Simpsons panel for the first time. Azaria then reads a statement that was written from the point of view of his character, 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 that Comic Book Guy is funny and further implements ideas to bring characteristics to light. He talks about his voice acting impressions and how it is a skill to be developed over time.
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 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, showing 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 that Long said, “Your career is over,” to which 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 asked 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 had seven men record Mo that day and then later chooses which one he wanted to use or if he knew right away that Azaria was it for Mo. Groening jokes, “well not seven,” meaning he did let other men record as Mo. Then, he gave him credit for providing 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 exclusive clips of the two Azaria 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 how distraught he knew the show was coming to an end. Selman talks about how he does not want word getting out about the show. Otherwise, the press will change the show’s narration.
The new episodes referenced an 1985 Indie film titled After Hours, in which Lisa was trapped in the weird parts of New York City. The episode is also a tribute to 1980s Indie films and Long and Omine’s interpretation of Lisa’s experience in 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 the character Venom named Denim and an episode consisting of short stories of Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles).
Other discourse included the panelists working with John Cena (Barbie, Ferdinand), 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 Selman for writing the episodes and making the show what it is.