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Movies & TV

07th Feb 2019

Agony prolonged as The Simpsons renewed for another two seasons

Dave Hanratty

Stop. Stop. It’s already dead.

Official confirmation that there is no justice in the world arrived this week with the grim announcement that The Simpsons has been renewed for another two seasons.

Yep, not just one, but two. Why the hell not? Give them three or four more while you’re at it.

Seasons 31 and 32 were given the official green light by Fox this week, which means that by the time those have aired, we’ll have had 713 episodes of the hit show in total.

One hates to sound too critical given just how genuinely brilliant the show was during its golden era, but that was what, over 20 years ago now?

The move comes at an interesting time for Fox, with the network looking to remain a valuable commodity in the wake of a merger with Disney.

The speculation is that Fox’s days are numbered, with as many as 4000 jobs said to be lost in the new deal, but The Simpsons is one major property that won’t be moving to the House of Mouse.

So whether it’s ‘New Fox’ or ‘Fox Entertainment’, the network’s first family is staying loyal. Shame about the whole ‘being generally dreadful for years’ aspect, though.

Speaking with the Los Angeles Times in January, show creator Matt Groening proclaimed that there’s “no end in sight” for Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie, which honestly sounds more like a threat than anything else at this point.

“I still love doing it,” Groening said.

“I still like that all these people whom I care about are still employed and there are still stories I want to tell.”

Good man. We’ll always have seasons three through eight, I guess.

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