The Simpsons, the longest scripted TV series has been on air since 1989. And now Homer will continue to step out of his comfort zone by chatting with fans in real time, Entertainment Weekly reports.
On May 15, the animated comedy show will feature a live segment with Dan Castellaneta AKA the voice behind Homer, everyone’s favorite donut loving character.
As Homer, Castellaneta will talk to eager fans who call in and answer all sorts of questions. The segment will last about three minutes and airs at the end of an episode that focuses on Homer trying his best to gain his confidence back though improv comedy. This is all after he butchers a speech he gives at work.
The segment is called Simprovised where fans will be chatting with Homer via speakerphone.
In regards to how the producers feel about executing the upcoming project, Al Jean (executive producer) said “Well, it’s certainly us making it a lot harder on ourselves than we have to, but the interest in it has been so enormous, it’s definitely worth it. When you have a show like this that has so many things going for it, you gotta use that capital and do interesting things because you can.”
The live segment will utilize the latest motion-capture technology and the animation will look very similar to what you would typically see on the show. However Jean explained that the mini episode has “less of a variety of motion, and after awhile, it might start to look a little repetitive. That’s why we’re not doing any more than three minutes. You have a limited number of lip assignments and motions that Homer can make, and you see him run through those in the course of the three minutes. The reason I don’t think they’re going to be doing half-hour motion capture shows in the near future is because although it is much cheaper and you can just film it live, you can’t do the complicated set pieces that people want from animation. We do everything we can in the three minutes that’s possible.”
Watch what goes down live by tuning into Fox’s Simprovised on Sunday, May 15 at 8 p.m
So what would you ask Homer if you were featured on Simprovised?