The Simpsons has graced our televisions since 1989. It’s the longest-running American sitcom and animated program, and now, we’re going to see something out of The Simpsons that we haven’t seen before in an animated show.
On May 15, the show will feature a live segment with Homer, where he will interact with fans by answering questions who call in. According to Entertainment Weekly, the segment will air at the end of an episode that, “deals with Homer attempting to rebuild his confidence through the magic of improv comedy after he mangles a speech at work.”
Executive producer Al Jean told Entertainment Weekly that while it’ll be challenging to make it happen, it’ll be worth it:
“Well, it’s certainly us making it a lot harder on ourselves than we have to, but the interest in it has been so enormous, it’s definitely worth it. When you have a show like this that has so many things going for it, you gotta use that capital and do interesting things because you can.”
According to EW, the producers will be using new-and-improved motion-capture technology. While it won’t look exactly the same, it’s supposed to look very similar to what you’re using to seeing in a normal episode.
Jean explained to EW the difference, and the limitations that they face in doing it live:
“There is less of a variety of motion, and after awhile, it might start to look a little repetitive. That’s why we’re not doing any more than three minutes. You have a limited number of lip assignments and motions that Homer can make, and you see him run through those in the course of the three minutes. The reason I don’t think they’re going to be doing half-hour motion capture shows in the near future is because although it is much cheaper and you can just film it live, you can’t do the complicated set pieces that people want from animation. We do everything we can in the three minutes that’s possible.”
This should certainly be a fun experience for the producers of the show, as well as the fans. The Simpsons always stayed current with what was on their show, and for them to do something innovative such as going live, seems appropriate for the show.
