720 episodes later women take the lead as The Simpsons confirms a full female creative team just in time for Women’s History Month.
Ahead of the new The Simpsons episode set to air in the US tomorrow, Sunday March 14, (but not in the UK until Mid-April) it was confirmed by Variety the iconic show would now have a full female lead for the first time in its 720 episode history.
A Brief History of The Simpsons
The animated sitcom was created by Matt Groening and first hit our screens as shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show in April 1987. It was then picked up by Fox and commissioned for a series of half-hour episodes in 1989.
For those not familiar with it, The Simpsons centres around the family of five headed up by Homer Simpson.
Over the 35 years the show has been around although the characters don’t change or age the storylines keep up with politics, religion and culture.
Toys, comics, computer games, and even a movie have come from the incredibly successful franchise which now has a home on Disney+ since the company acquired Fox.
Women lead the way
In all its previous 33 seasons or 719 episodes – which would take you over two weeks to watch consecutively – the show’s top four key creative roles that guide animation are all women.
The team includes: director Jennifer Moeller, assistant director Debbie Spafford, lead timer Esther Lee and background layout lead HeeJin Kim. Also, the episode airing tomorrow – titled ‘You Won’t Believe What This Episode Is About — Act Three Will Shock You!’ – has a “written by” credit for Christine Nangle.
This isn’t the first time The Simpsons has had women take the lead with writer-director pairs but it is the first time for the full animation creative team.
Jennifer Moeller has directed several episodes of the show in the past – including the season 32 episode ‘Mother and Child Reunion” and “Do Pizza Bots Dream of Electric Guitars’.
What Can We Expect From The New Episode
Kumail Nanjiani is set to guest season 33 episode 14 during which Homer is blamed for leaving Santa’s Little Helper locked in the family car on a hot day. It’s actually not Homer’s fault, but footage of the incident is posted on a neighbourhood social media website – dubbed ‘NeighborHub’, a parody of NextDoor – and goes viral.
Nanjiani plays Theo, a mysterious man who runs ‘The Institute’ – a company that rehabilitates the reputations of those people savaged on the internet.
Homer is approached by Theo who offers to help him and has the father-of-three join a group which includes: Helen Lovejoy, Councilman Jed Hawk, Larry Doogan and Kirk Van Houten. The storyline is also said to touch on Internet clickbait culture and headlines.