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Interview: Al Jean
As season 27 of The Simpsons arrives on TV2, showrunner Al Jean explains how
the series has lasted so long.
By Fiona Rae In Entertainment, Television
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Can Simpsons showrunner Al Jean
you
give us a hint of what’s coming up in the season?
We have a regular Halloween show as well as the Treehouse of Horror; we have a show based on
the movie Boyhood, where we go through Bart’s life before and after he’s 10 and see where he
might wind up; and we have a show where Marge’s sisters quit smoking and at the same time
Maggie befriends a squirrel, it’s very Disneyesque, very sweet.
Everybody wants to talk about the longevity of The Simpsons – but the simple fact is that
millions of people around the world are still watching it, you wouldn’t be on the air
otherwise.
We are still in the US the most viewed animated programme. Without a doubt the television
market has gotten fractured over the years since we started, it’s gone from four networks to 500,
but there are very few things that have maintained an integrity over 30 years, and we’ve done it.
Is it also fair to say that The Simpsons would be directly responsible for the huge amount of
animation we have now?
I believe honestly that if we had never come around that South Park or something would have
broken through, because for people of my generation animation is something that adults would
watch as well as children, but there is no doubt we accelerated the process and we were very lucky
to be at the big bang. It’s a funny thing because the same year we started the series, The Little
Mermaid came out and there was a similar renaissance in movies and the two have gone on
simultaneously.
Homer and Candace (Lena Dunham), “Every Man’s Dream”,
So it was a generation that was
season 27
particularly receptive to animation?
My theory is when I was a kid in the 60s,
there was a lot of animation you could see on television, either old features like Bugs Bunny which
were now on TV or shows like Rocky and Bullwinkle – and I loved shows like that, as did Matt
Groening and other people. I think by 1990, that audience had grown to where it was really ripe for
something in primetime, and Jim Brooks made sure that The Simpsons scripts had the same level
of writing as the scripts that he had done with The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
How do you and Matt and the writers decide what cultural references and pop culture and
whatever else to put into the show?
We look for long-term trends, like we’re doing an episode now about the Oculus, you know, virtual
reality, because in the six months’ till it airs, I think it will still be around or even bigger. We don’t
do jokes that you’ll only get the day that they air, like a talkshow. One reason we’ve been on so
long and the reruns fare so well is because we have shows that are kind of timeless and don’t have
dated material.
Will you be addressing the presidential elections?
We will, but I have to say, in my life I’ve never seen it this hard to figure out what’s going to
happen. We usually like to wait till the nominees are decided and go from there, but I don’t think
that will be too soon. We had Homer vote in 2008 and 2012 and once you know who the
candidates are we can get something done in about three weeks. We might just abstain this year,
it’s a pretty tough choice. I’ve never seen anything like it, especially in one party someone who the
party establishment doesn’t seem to want. But you know what? I bet in a week it’s going to look
totally different.
Is there a problem that events move even A typical American family
more quickly now and they might go out
of date?
I feel like families have problems – that will always be the case and if you’re doing a show about
families and tell the truth, there will always be somebody there for you. It’s why the show is
popular in New Zealand and around the world. Everyone comes from a family, everybody can
relate to Homer whether or not they’re American – and if you’re not American maybe you’re
laughing at America a little bit, that’s fine too.
Are there any rules about what the show wouldn’t use or tackle?
Homer loves Marge, and it’s always the case where they love each other and they’re not an
antagonistic couple. They have problems, they do things wrong, but to Marge, Homer’s the
handsomest man in the world. Other than that, it’s a pretty wide berth.
There have been other innovations such as the guest animators for the couch gags. How do
you decide who to choose?
We’re trying to look for people who are brilliant animators who may not be famous. It started
because I saw the Banksy documentary and I thought it would be interesting if we pretended
Banksy had graffitied our show and that was so popular that we said, let’s get some of these people
that we really admire like Sylvain Chomet and John Kricfalusi. I love doing them.
There’s amazing guest stars – who have Stephen Hawking in The Simpsons
you been most excited to have on the
show?
Well, I met three of the Beatles, that is something I never thought I’d do in my life. Stephen
Hawking was another. Thomas Pynchon, Tony Blair – it’s been amazing.
The look of the show is so different now – almost somewhere between 2D and 3D. Is it more
complicated to make now?
The colour change is much easier, because it’s computer colour, there are no cells. What’s much
more difficult with high-def is that you can’t have little animator shorthand like a scribble
equalling a piece of writing. You have to put a title on every book in the background, you can’t
have anything that isn’t fully fleshed out now.
Are you’re looking at a nice even 30 seasons?
There’s no guarantee that will be the last, we have the cast guaranteed till that point, but I was
happy when we got to five, I never know any more.
In general, is this the best job in the world for you?
Yes, there’s no question, emphatically yes.
THE SIMPSONS, TV2, Sunday, 7.00pm, from February 14.
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