Danny Elfman Claims ‘The Simpsons’ is About to End. Does Anyone Care If It Does?

This is probably going to be one of those rumors that turns out not to be true, but Danny Elfman is telling people that The Simpsons is going to end after its next production season, which will air during the 2020-2021 season.

Here’s what Elfman, who wrote the theme song for the show, said in an interview, as reported by TVWeb.

“Well, from what I’ve heard, it is coming to an end. So, that argument will also come to an end… I don’t know for a fact, but I’ve heard that it will be in its last year.”

I know exactly what Simpsons quote you’re thinking of. “Krusty, why retire now? Why not 20 years ago?”

Man, has it been that long since The Simpsons has actually been good? No, it’s been more like 10-15 years. Waverly Hills 9-0-2-1-D’oh was pretty good in season 20, for example, and I have a soft sport for The Saga of Carl from season 24, but the number of good episodes per season has been dropping hard for a long time. If you made a list of the best episodes of The Simpsons, almost every episode from season 8 would be on it, while you’d have to struggle to find a single episode that aired in the last five seasons that belongs on the list.

Of course, CNN just ran a story about why The Simpsons is so important to Disney+, with the reason being it’s the only show on the service people are likely to binge watch (although I would say Even Stevens is up there if you’ve never seen it), so it’s conceivable Disney may want more episodes even if Fox doesn’t, though 700+ episodes is probably enough.

And it almost doesn’t matter if The Simpsons ends. It’d be strange, sure; I’ve literally been seeing new episodes of The Simpsons since I was so young that stupid people still thought my parents shouldn’t let me watch The Simpsons. But when I want to watch it now, I’m just going to watch old episodes anyway. Barring a real renaissance in the writers’ room there, we’re not actually losing anything if The Simpsons ends; unlike Firefly or Police Squad, no one is ever going to complain that there aren’t enough episodes of The Simpsons.