- New The Simpsons ‘Final Season’ episode tricks fans
- Former Simpsons writer Conan O’Brien returns
- The Simpsons parody classic season finales like The Sopranos
The Simpsons’ ‘final season’ episode tricked fans into thinking the long-running animated series was coming to an end while welcoming back one of its most iconic writers.
In the spirit of TV show finales, the episode even ended with a series of stills that Simpson-ified famous season book-ends of much-loved TV series.
An episode entitled ‘Bart’s Birthday’ started the show’s 36 season on Sunday 29 September, with former Late Night host Conan O’Brien returning to tell audiences that the show was coming to an end.
Only that wasn’t really the case.
The Simpsons ‘final season’ episode?
The episode saw O’Brien appear as himself to host a special celebration of The Simpson’s final episode, welcoming Springfield into a theatre that also featured a range of special celebrity guests. People like Danny DeVito, Seth Rogen, Amy Sedaris and Tom Hanks also appeared throughout the episode.
“Well, it’s true. Fox has decided to end the Simpsons. This show was such a special part of my early career, so being here means the world to me. Also. I left a sweater in the writer’s room in 1993 this is the only way they’ll let me get it back.”
O’Brien wrote on The Simpsons between 1991 and 1993 and was responsible for iconic episodes like ‘Marge Vs The Monorail.’
The joke was that the show wasn’t really coming to an end. Instead, O’Brien led viewers on a tour of alternate takes of classic Simpsons episodes.
The Simpsons parodies famous series finales
During the show’s end credits, we saw The Simpsons parody a number of famous final episodes from shows like The Sopranos, Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones.
Homer, Marge and Bart can be seen sitting around a diner table casually flicking through a menu while a shady character lingers in the background during a homage to David Chase’s infamous ending to The Sopranos.
A bearded Ned Flanders is found wearing a lab coat and lying on the ground next to a gas mask in tribute to Walter White’s final moments in Breaking Bad.
Elsewhere, Ralph Wiggum is seen doing his best Bran Stark impression in a spoof of Game of Thrones’ infamous last episode, while Kirk and Louann Van Houten go full Succession, lightly holding hands in tribute to Matthew Macfadyen Tom Wambsgans and Sarah Snook’s Shiv Roy.
This parody episode of The Simpsons also made headlines for re-introducing Homer’s fondness of strangling Bart, something that had temporarily disappeared from the show but has seemingly made a return for season 36.
