To quote Homer Simpson: “TV gives so much and asks so little.” The same could be said for “The Simpsons” itself, which has for the last 25 years blazed a yellow trail through television history, with a record-breaking twenty-four (and counting) seasons, one hit movie, and an army of Springfielders so extensive that half of them don’t seem to recognize each other from one episode to the next.
So, in light of the show’s creator Matt Groening, along with long-time producer-director David Silverman, conceding to a symposium of entertainment lawyers last week that they have no immediate plans for a follow-up to “The Simpsons Movie,” we can, perhaps, forgive them a little downtime. Speaking at UCLA, Groening recalled the pressure of juggling the production of the 2007 feature alongside its TV counterpart: “It took us four years [to make the movie] and it killed us… it stole animators from the show.” Silverman projected that no follow-up film should be expected for “maybe another 10, 15 years.”
“The Simpsons” debuted on “The Tracey Ullman Show” back in 1987, and according to Groening, its greenlighting for primetime was a case of “the right place at the right time.” On the enduring success of his creation, he credits the open door of having versatile characters and plenty of them, saying, “We’ve got about 400 or 500 characters, and about 50 per episode.”
With the franchising boom becoming, dare we say it, a little tiresome, a big-screen hiatus may be a wise move for America’s (other) First Family. And as Season 24 sees the show rediscovering some of its long-lost mojo, it looks as though everything might be coming up Milhouse. [THR]
