‘The Simpsons’ Renewed For Two More Seasons, Heads For Record Books
In TV years,The Simpsonsis already the equivalent of the Grail Knight fromIndiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and the series isn’t giving up its post any time soon.
The all-time record for a scripted prime-time TV series is 635 episodes, held byGunsmoke,which ran from 1955 to 1975.The Simpsonshas already run far longer thanGunsmokedid, as the show is currently in its 26th season. Now, withThe Simpsonsrenewed for seasons 27 and 28, the finale of that 28th season will see the series just shy ofGunsmoke’s all-time record. Which means we might as well bet on a 29th season, too.
TheLA Timeshas info on the renewal, noting that by the end of season 28 there will be 625Simpsonsepisodes — ten shy of the record. Whether Fox might greenlight a full 29th season remains open to question, but at this point there are families of two generations who might never have lived without The Simpsons on the air, so why would Fox quit in two more years?
And, let’s face it, you probably only watch the new episodes when Fox breaks out a splashy couch gag by a high-profile artist (yep,welovethose) or when the show makes a big change bykilling off a characteror featuring a surprisinggimmickorguest star. But after more than twenty years, the roster of guests with the power to surprise is pretty small.
The Simpsonsis in an unusual position in that the current episodes seem more like reminders for prior seasons and merchandise than the other way around. There’s no question that the show remains a cultural force — the streaming debut of the entire series caused a sensation, if not entirely for the right reasons, and the characters are going strong in video games and merchandise. At this point,The Simpsonscan do just about whatever it wants until it crosses that 636-episode line.
Then maybe it can go after daytime records. The soap operaDays of Our Lives, which began in 1965 and still runs, has aired overtwelve thousandepisodes.
