First Look At The Simpsons Live Episode

An upcoming episode of The Simpsons will feature a live session where Homer Simpson will interact with viewers in real time — a first for primetime TV animation.

EW has this first look at the segment, which will apparently simply feature the character sitting behind a desk, taking questions.

We’re guessing that while Homer himself won’t be anything visually spectacular — the animators will be focused on making his mouth move correctly during the broadcast — the room itself might be doing something pre-planned to make it look less simple.

(Unless, of course, that’s the joke, as in the “live” episode of Arrested Development).

“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,” executive producer Al Jean told EW. “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.”

The segment will last about three minutes and take place at the tail end of May 15’s episode, using motion capture technology to “animate” Homer’s mouth in real time while voice actor Dan Castellaneta improvises.

The episode will air at 8 p.m. ET/PT on FOX.