Cliff Notes – The Simpsons writer ‘doesn’t give an eff’ about controversial storyline decision
- Showrunner Matt Selman defends the show’s flexible timeline, stating that changing character ages allows for contemporary storytelling and creativity.
- Selman encourages fans to enjoy the show’s playful nature, asserting that inconsistencies in the timeline are part of its charm and do not negate previous storylines.
- Despite past criticisms regarding plot holes, Selman believes that most fans are not concerned with the show’s canon, as evidenced by its enduring popularity over 37 seasons.
The Simpsons writer ‘doesn’t give an eff’ about controversial storyline decision
The Simpsons has thrown fans a curveball this week (Picture: Fox)
A showrunner on The Simpsons has shut down any fans who might be annoyed about a recent plot hole.
Last week the long-running animated sitcom returned to screens with its 37th season, however a detail might have left some long-time viewers somewhat confused.
The premiere episode Thrifty Ways to Thieve Your Mother followed Lisa as she joined the Fashion Club at school after becoming popular for wearing her mum Marge’s old clothes.
One sequence showed the matriarch recalling her youth, which appeared to have been in the 1990s as she remembered being a teenager watching a drama that parodied Dawson’s Creek.
This timeline then suggests that Marge – and therefore her husband Homer – is a millennial despite the fact that all of the adult characters on the show have remained the same age since it first hit screens in 1989.
A few days on, one of the show’s creatives has weighed in on the decision to make a statement about the main character’s ages.
The episode Thrifty Ways to Thieve Your Mother takes a trip back in time (Picture: Fox)
Matt Selman, who has worked on the show since 1997, has said he isn’t fussed about changing the character’s ages as he believes it enables the series to remain contemporary.
‘My creative process is; I don’t give an eff,’ he told Entertainment Weekly.
‘The options are we don’t do flashback shows ever and we don’t mention the past ever, which creatively handcuffs us, or we are playful and silly, which is the DNA of the show, and we have fun with whatever generation the show is airing in.’
He went on to explain why keeping consistent backstories for the cast would restrict the writer’s ability to be creative.
‘If the show only took place in the present with a kind of vague 1970s-high-school Homer-and-Marge backstory that seems increasingly impossible — that would be much worse for telling good stories,’ he went on.
‘Part of telling stories is people remembering things from their youth, their childhood. Everyone’s childhood is directly responsible for how they behave as an adult. You can’t ignore childhood if you’re going to be a storyteller. So, we’re not ignoring childhood. It would’ve been interesting as an experiment to just lock into the ’70s and have them be like, “Well, Lisa, when I was a kid in the ’70s…” and then just have it all be about the ’70s, even though we live in the f***ing post-apocalyptic future now.’
It saw Lisa getting popular for wearing her mum Marge’s old clothes (Picture: Fox)
After 37 years on screen, Selman said fans of The Simpsons shouldn’t expect complete consistency in a comedy cartoon.
He also explained that any new developments didn’t cancel out previous histories detailed in the programme – as it was entirely fictional.
‘I would also like to point out that in no way are we saying that the beloved other flashbacks didn’t happen. We’re not saying that. None of it happened! It’s just a silly little show! So, I like it all. Everything happened and didn’t happen with the same level of historical veracity.’
He also had a message for fans who ‘found pleasure in picking apart the timeline of a 40-year-old show where the characters do not age’. ‘Please pick it away. Pick, pick, pick. Have fun, pick at it, go crazy, pick it away.’
The writer also said he believed very few The Simpsons fans even bothered to pay attention to the show’s canon and the number who could be bothered was ‘very small’.
Instead, he said if many long-time fans actually cared about plot holes, the show wouldn’t have continued for this long and he ‘wasn’t worried about messing with the timeline’.
The ages of the characters haven’t changed since the show premiered in 1989 (Picture: Everett/ Shutterstock)
Selman added that he felt ‘story and character should come first’.
The contentious timeline of the character’s ages has got fans talking several times in the past.
In one season 4-episode, Homer’s birth year was listed as 1956.
But a season 19 episode that aired in 2008 – titled That 90’s Show – infamously revealed Homer and Marge were teenagers in the 1990s.
At the time, some fans said the episode ‘ruined the timeline’ and was a ‘shocking departure from the historical timeline of the show’.
Despite this, they didn’t switch off and continued to tune in.
Then, last week, it was announced the iconic family were returning to the big screen after nearly two decades.
After The Simpsons Movie was released in 2027, a follow-up will hit theatres on July 23, 2027. The untitled feature is being developed under Disney’s 20th Century Studios banner
The announcement was made on Instagram, which teased fans with a poster featuring Homer lunging for a sprinkle-topped donut shaped into the number ‘2.’ The cheeky tagline: ‘Homer’s coming back for seconds.’
The first Simpsons Movie premiered in 2007 and became a surprise box-office juggernaut, grossing over $536million (£440m) worldwide on a $75m (£55.8m) budget.
The Simpsons is streaming on Disney Plus.
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