The Simpsons Showrunner Teases Who Is Stealing Christmas

The Simpsons is speeding through Season 31 and fans have had to adjust to a ton of change as the series stretches onward. Producer Al Jean took a moment to spotlight tonight’s Christmas themed episode. He asked fans who exactly is stealing Christmas this year? The synopsis for the episode seems to point toward Sideshow Bob being involved as the villain is serving as a Santa Claus in the mall. But, when someone starts stealing the holiday packages, he’s obviously going to be the first suspect in any large scale crime wave to hit Springfield. The results should be entertaining as the show tends to bring out that fastball for holiday episodes. As evidenced by the hysterical Thanksgiving horror-themed episode this year, The Simpsons still has another gear it can hit when it needs to. Things are setting up for an interesting finish to the season as more guest stars roll through the doors.

But in other parts of the operation, this has been a season of change for the show. Simpsons World had to shut down because most of the episodes migrated to Disney+ this fall. The question of how much longer the show can run have circulated for years now. Fans got quite a scare when Danny Elfman told Joe that the series might be coming to an end soon.

“Well, from what I’ve heard, it is coming to an end,” Elfman began. “So, that argument will also come to an end. I don’t know for a fact, but I’ve heard that it will be in its last year.”

Elfin would go on to admit that he was absolutely unsure about the show’s prospects when they started out. Luckily for everyone involved, The Simpsons is still going strong years and years afterward.

“I’m so flabbergasted and amazed that it has lasted as long as it did,” he added. “You have to realize, when I scored The Simpsons, I wrote this crazy piece of music, and I expected no one would hear it, because I really did not think the show had a chance in hell.”

The only thing left for the show is getting the right versions of episodes up on Disney+. A spokesperson told fans hat the aspect ratio on the show would be corrected in the new year.

“We presented The Simpsons in 16:9 aspect ratio at launch in order to guarantee visual quality and consistency across all 30 seasons. Over time, Disney+ will roll out new features and additional viewing options. As part of this, in early 2020, Disney+ will make the first 19 seasons (and some episodes from Season 20) of The Simpsons available in their original 4:3 aspect ratio, giving subscribers a choice of how they prefer to view the popular series.”