By Ben Riley
The beginning on The Simpsons was quite a humble one. In 1989, two young comedy writers were hired for a part-time job of turning short cartoons into a TV series.
Al Jean reminisces, "The job was only two days a week. It was turned down by several people."
But soon the part-time employment turned out to full-time. It has been 22 years now, and today Jean is now the show-runner of "The Simpson," which is all set to air its 500th episode on Sunday. Jean says he did not expect so back when the series started. "If I (had) said I'd be here answering questions about Episode 500, they would have locked me up."
The episode includes some unusual finishes- such as the guest voice of WikiLeaks' Julian Assange to the slightly odd story where the Simpsons are banished from Springfield. It also has long opening credits commemorating the 500 episodes, and a different closing note. Jean says, "I've jokingly said, 'Why not 1,000? Why not 2,000?"
The one biggest hurdle came in 2011 when Fox officials said that the show's budget had become too high, and demanded cutting back on the voice actors. Jean says, "Had they not signed, we would’ve stopped the show." In fact, they had even written a final episode, showing the Simpsons in the future. "Had we ended the series, that would have been the last episode," says Jean. "We were prepared to do that, but … I don't think it ever really got close to that."
Eventually, the actors signed and "The Simpsons" continues to go on today.
Matt Groening, the creator of the "Life in Hell" comic strip, had created short "Simpsons" cartoons for "The Tracey Ullman Show." But then later on, along with James Brooks- a star writer-producer who started working in the "Mary Tyler Moore Show," he wanted to expand that to a series. Jean says, "I liked 'Life in Hell' very much and it was a chance to work for Jim Brooks."
Reasoning as to how the show lasted as long, Jean says, "It is just such a rich universe. (And) the fact that the characters don’t age is key. I think if Bart was really 40 and living on his parents’ couch, it would be too sad." He added, "The first movie came 20 years after the shorts began. We still have about 15 years left."
