Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for The Simpsons, Season 37, Episode 14

“When we first came up with this idea… we had no idea it was going to be the 800th episode,” he admits. The goal was simply, “What’s the best story that we can tell?” That same understanding is why the episode also finds time to celebrate one of TV’s most recent obsessions: The Pitt. Price said the writers’ room was basically hooked at once by the HBO drama, and because the story already had Marge rushing the dog to a veterinary ER, it “just made absolute sense” to go full Pitt with it. They even pulled in Noah Wyle, Katherine LaNasa, and Taylor Dearden to voice the medical staff looking after the pup.

But if you’re worried they’d ever make a milestone like this much darker, he doesn’t mince words: “There was never going to be a world… where it ended with the dog really dying.” The show can fake a series finale, have Conan O’Brien host it, and turn the lights off “literally 12 times,” but mess with Santa’s Little Helper? “That will be the end of everything.”

And that bigger-than-TV energy isn’t stopping at just Episode 800: Price also says the team is excited to return to the big screen with another Simpsons movie. “I played a small role in the writing of the first one, and I hope we make something that’s just as good as that one for this thing,” he says.

How ‘The Simpsons’ Found the 800th Episode Story Without Chasing the Milestone

The idea came first, the milestone came later: how a Philly trip, a dog show, and Marge’s bond with Santa’s Little Helper became the spine.

COLLIDER: Congrats to you and The Simpsons team on such an incredible milestone. Getting right into it, when you started thinking about this 800th episode, why did Santa’s Little Helper feel like the right character to anchor such a milestone?

MICHAEL PRICE: When we first came up with this idea for the show, we had no idea it was going to be the 800th episode. It just kind of worked out that way. When we start a new season, all the writers come up, and we talk about our ideas and things. So, Christine Nangle, a great writer, has been on the show for a number of years… I recently joined the ranks of what’s called Matt Selman’s co-runners. Matt is the showrunner, and myself, Tim Long, Brian Kelley, Rob LaZebnik, and Cesar Mazariegos are called the co-runners, meaning that we each individually have a couple of episodes that we sort of produce, kind of like the showrunner. Then Matt [Groening], of course, is, above all, running the entire show, but we have a chance to individually work on some episodes. So, I knew Christine was a great writer. She’d written a bunch of amazing episodes. She’s from Philadelphia, I’m from New Jersey, so we share some references, and we always make fun of how she’s a Philly fan, and I’m a fan. So, I approached her and said we should do a show where the Simpsons go to Philadelphia. That’s how it started.

We had no idea at the time it was going to be the 800th show. No idea. Even once we started, maybe we thought that it might be, but that was never the feeling of, like, “Oh, we’ve got to do something special for the 800th episode.” It was always, “What’s the best story that we can tell?” So, in working out the story, it kind of was the cart leading the horse in terms of, “Alright, we know we want to get them to Philadelphia and have fun in Philadelphia. What’s the best fun Simpsons story to at least get the family to Philadelphia?” And Christine is a huge dog lover. She had a wonderful dog who, sadly, passed while we were getting ready to work on the show, named Philby, so you’ll see in the episode that they talk about one of the dog shows they go to, which is called Philby’s Poop Bags Presents. It’s a little tribute to her dog, Philby. So, she loves her dogs, I love my dogs — I have two dogs, golden retrievers — and so the idea of it being a dog show that gets them to Philadelphia came up, and then we took it from there.

Then the emotional spine of the story, such as it was, was about Marge’s relationship to the dog, and this idea of trying to keep them healthy and keep them safe, and then having them being caught up in this crazy conspiracy that leads to him being in huge danger. Ultimately, this came down to being really the kind of alchemy of what makes a good Simpsons episode. There’s a lot of crazy stuff, and we do a parody of Nicolas Cage and National Treasure and everything around Philadelphia jokes, but at the center of it is that emotional story about what you feel when you’re a pet owner and how they mean everything to you, and how you want to keep them alive and keep them safe. That speech that Marge has at the end, where she thinks she’s lost the dog, and she talks about how, being a pet, you’re signing yourself up for, at some point in 10 years or so, to be devastated when they’re gone.

That’s how it came about. When we learned it was going to be the 800th show, it made total sense because we were already planning on doing this, doing the opening where it sort of tracks the relationship of the dog with the family, back to the very first episode. So, it’s sort of coincidentally, serendipitously great that it became a milestone episode, and it began by harkening back to the very first episode.

I wouldn’t say it’s not a retcon, but going back to the first episode and extending the narrative of their life in between — how do you do something like that without actually messing up their future in some Back to the Future way? How do you decide what to tweak and what not to tweak?

PRICE: Well, we went back and watched the very first episode. Of course, the ending is Homer bringing the dog home, and then it ends with Marge kissing him. We were like, “Okay, well, then what happens next?” Then we just started to tell the story of the unknown story of the dog that leads us into this story, and what Marge’s relationship with him is. We’ve done several episodes centered around Santa’s Little Helper over all these many years, and most of them have sort of centered on Bart, a couple with Homer, but we never did one with Marge. So, we figured this would be a fun thing to do. So, I don’t know, you could call it retconning. I think for us, it’s more just exploring a different aspect, and imagining what might have happened right after that moment of first getting the dog. It becomes this thing that I know personally with our own dogs that we deal with, which is wanting to love them and take care of them, but also give them treats and feed them from the table. It’s a natural thing, but maybe that’s not the best thing for the dogs’ health.

That became that. Then it became fun to track this whole story about how the dog under Homer’s and the kids’ loving neglect leads him to have this health crisis, and now we’re in Season 4, now we’re in Season 7. That’s why, in one scene, Homer’s wearing his stonecutters, and later on, he’s dressed as Pie Man from that Season 15 or 16 episode. So, this just became a fun way to sort of skip around the history of the show and track this story.

How ‘The Simpsons’ Pulled Off Its ‘Pitt’ Parody, Down to the Hospital Doors

A writers’ room obsession with ‘The Pitt’ led to a veterinary ER parody complete with lookalike hospital doors and real cast cameos.

Image via FOX

The Easter eggs from the past were fun to see, so as a long-time fan, I appreciated that. But I also really loved The Pitt parody. It was so well done, absolutely laugh-out-loud with the behavior of those characters. How did you pitch that to the cast?

PRICE: As we were working on the story, the first season of The Pitt came on HBO. It was probably around a year ago, right now, when we first started working on the episode. So then we were all into it. Let’s say the vast majority of everyone on the show was instantly like, “Oh my God, have you watched this show called The Pitt? It’s amazing. It’s great. We love it.” So, we were all into it, and then it just happened that the story was going to have Marge rushing the dog to the veterinary ER, and it just made absolute sense for me to say, “What if it’s The Pitt?” and all the writers got excited.

At one point, we even had the joke that the hospital was going to be called Springfield Pet Trauma Center or something like that, and that when you focus in on the doors, it would say The Pets, but it never worked. It just couldn’t work. But then we drew the hospital to look like the hospital on The Pitt. We’ve had other vet characters in the show. There’s one going way, way, way back to the early seasons, which is kind of based on Dr. Ben Casey from the 1960s, like a very handsome, charismatic doctor. He’s the one who threw the hamster in the garbage can. We had that guy. We had a very old, avuncular doctor, played by Michael York in some episodes. But we thought ER excitement and peril just totally make sense with The Pitt, so we knew we wanted to parody The Pitt, and then we were happy our casting director went out to Katherine [LaNasa], Taylor [Dearden], and Noah [Wyle], and asked them if they would do it. We were so happy that they agreed to do it. They were happy to be on the show, too, so that made us happy.

Was there a specific “Pitt-ism” you needed to make the segment really land for audiences? Because it’s not just the characters, but the nuance that describes the series best.

PRICE: We all like the attitude of Katherine’s character, Dana, being kind of sassy when Marge brings him in. Katherine ad-libbed a couple of funny things, like the way she said stuff. I think the thing that I was happiest with the most, and I think that Selman pitched this, was Noah Wyle’s character having the emotional breakdown and crying behind the screen.

While we were writing that episode, I had to look back at the timeline, but The Pitt was running, and then I think we wrote it originally, and then that last couple of episodes of The Pitt Season 1 came on TV, where he cries in that room after what happened with the mass shooting. So, we were so happy that he was okay to have a little fun with that. But the way his character breaks down and cries on the floor, to me, that was the thing that really made it. They really sent it over the top. That was very Noah Wyle’s character-centric.

From Kevin Bacon to Quinta Brunson, How the Series Turns Philly Love Into Guest Casting

“We actually had her in mind for it”: How Philly love shaped the guest list, and how the writers tuned Adrienne’s lines to match Quinta’s voice.

Image via FOX

There were moments in this episode when I would be wheezing with laughter. It was very good. But I want to talk about Quinta Brunson as well, because she plays Adrienne. Did you write her with Quinta’s direct and sharp rhythm in mind? Because the dialogue delivery is perfect and matches this character’s own rhythm and mannerisms.

PRICE: We actually had her in mind for it when we decided to write the show. We knew we wanted to get as many Philadelphia luminaries involved in the show as possible, even though The Pitt is in Pittsburgh. That’s alright. Christine spent a lot of time in Pittsburgh, as well. So, to us, that made sense. So, we knew we wanted Quinta to do it. We found out relatively early on that she was up for doing it, so then we definitely were trying to write in her voice… honing the script that she was interested in doing, so we knew that that was going to happen, and we were able to write as much as we could in her voice. Then luckily, happily, when she came in to do the show, I wouldn’t say we rewrote it a ton, but we did change some things to make it more comfortable for her to bring in the way she likes to, her style of acting now. She was great. She was fantastic and wonderful, and a real treat.

She is absolutely perfect in this role. That being said, it would be remiss if I didn’t mention how much I loved the H.O.A.G.I.E acronym [Historians of America’s Great Inventors and Enlightened], so kudos to Christine on that, too!

PRICE: [Laughs]

I thought it was so creative!

PRICE: Look, there’s so much in this show that we celebrate, that we love. We love Quinta Brunson. We love Philadelphia. I mean, Christine is a Philadelphia native, and she loves Philly, so it was fun to have Homer visit all those crazy places.

But then, the thing that we all really, really love, and Christine loves — it was she who suggested this angle — the National Treasure of it all. Just as we talked about how we worked out the story, the part that got them to Philadelphia was the dog show and the relationship between Marge and the dog, and then it was like, “Now what happens?” And I remember Christine came into the room one day, and she said, “What if it turns into National Treasure and the dog is somehow the key to finding gold?”

We all sort of sat for a moment, and I’ll admit that I was a little skeptical. I was like, “Well, it’s a little crazy,” but then the more we talked about it, the more sense it made. And God bless Matt Selman, he’s such a great showrunner; he encourages us to take big swings, make episodes that take a crazy veer off in the third act. He was on board with it. He likes those movies, too. So then, once we decided we were going to commit to it, we had the best time. And we luckily had Hank Azaria, who does a hilarious Nicolas Cage impersonation. He just goes into that character with both feet, and it was so much fun.

It’s so funny how, after this episode, we now know forever that Santa’s Little Helper has special pee powers.

PRICE: [Laughs] We’ll have to bring that back.

‘The Simpsons’ Won’t Cross the Line With Santa’s Little Helper

“It’s one thing to kill off Larry the Barfly… but if you kill off Santa’s Little Helper, that will be the end of everything.”

Image via FOX

The episode flirts with real loss in a way that is so sincere, and it’s something I love. I will go on a tangent, but “Bart Has Two Mommies” is an episode that always gets me — when Flanders says, “You can do it, boy! With God on your side, you can’t fail!” I get so emotional thinking about it. [Laughs] But it’s these kinds of sincere episodes that hit hard, especially in this episode, where Marge just wants Santa’s Little Helper to be healthy so that she can have more time with him. Did you guys ever consider letting it go a little darker, or was it just always important that it ends with the family being back together again?

PRICE: There was never going to be a world, I don’t think, where it ended with the dog really dying or anything like that. We couldn’t picture that. No, there was never a moment where we were like, “Oh, the dog should really be gone.” He’s such an important part of the show, too. I know there’s been a lot of discourse lately about various characters on the show dying. It’s one thing to kill off Larry the Barfly, but if you kill off Santa’s Little Helper, that will be the end of everything.

I remember I read an interview once with Michael Imperioli, who played Christopher on The Sopranos. He was a character who murdered people left and right, but in that one episode, when he was high on heroin, he sat on the couch and accidentally killed the dog by sitting on it, and people on the street would yell at him, “You killed a dog!” And he’s like, “Yeah, but I killed, like, 30 other guys.” That doesn’t matter, you know? You can’t kill a dog.

You mentioned that other episode from long ago. That’s another thing that I always talk about, which is to me — which I hope that we’re still doing — I think is the hallmark of what made the show so good at the beginning, and I hope it still is, is that it’s a mixture of really funny stuff, crazy stuff, Homer just being outrageous, eating a million hot dogs, throwing a battery at whatever, and nutty stuff, running around Philadelphia, but then real emotional truth and real heart. That’s this mixture of alchemy that is baked into the show from the beginning, between Matt Groening and his sensibility and Sam Simon and his comedy mastery, and then Jim Brooks, who’s all three of those rolled up into one, who is known for his movies like Terms of Endearment and Broadcast News, where it’s about real emotional and real things going on with real people. That’s what we try to do. I’d say with almost every episode, we try to strike that balance.

Do you guys ever talk about the final episode, and when that’s going to happen? What does that look like for you? Because I feel like, as a fan, I never like thinking about it. [Laughs]

PRICE: [Laughs] Actually, as you may know or not, we did a final episode last year, a fake final episode, that’s called “Bart’s Birthday.” That was written by Jeff Conrad, but I was also the co-runner on that, where that came about for Matt Selman being asked in various interviews that exact question, like, “When will the show end? And if it ends, how would you end it? What would your finale be?” He never had an answer because we don’t want the show to end. The Simpsons isn’t that kind of show; it’s not serialized, so it’s not, like, building towards Tony Soprano getting shot. Every show is its own thing. But he came back from a vacation and came up to me and said, “Everyone keeps talking about, ‘How are we going to end the show?’” And he goes, “Why don’t we just end it now?” So, that’s what we did.

We did this fake episode, where it was hosted by Conan O’Brien as if it were our big series finale. We were able to have our cake and kind of eat it, too, where we did an episode that was seemingly written by AI that was every finale trope piled into one, where everyone is saying goodbye and getting married and dying. So, we had tons of these things where — apparently, that just happened in the very final episode of Stranger Things — a character leaves the place where the show takes place and turns the lights off for the last time. So, when we did that literally 12 times in that episode. Everyone was always leaving places and turning lights off, and saying, “I’m going to miss this place.” So, it’s almost like we got that out of the way. Now, if and when the show does ever end, I can’t tell you, but I would hope it would just be like a regular episode, not some kind of special final episode.

The New ‘Simpsons’ Movie Is Happening, Even If the “Why Now” Isn’t His Call

Price can’t explain the “why now,” but the appetite for a second movie has been there for a while, and the team is all-in on making it worthy.

Image via 20th Century Fox

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I will say, this is one of those shows that when it eventually comes to a final stop, I’d like to place it in the freezer. [Laughs] But I will say, the movie is exciting. I watched the first one in theaters with my dad and my sister, and we were so excited about it. Why is now the right time to do another movie?

PRICE: Oh, I don’t know. That’s probably a question for somebody a little higher up than me. All I can say is that for quite a while, I think there’s been a desire to do another one. I can’t explain what made them decide “let’s do it now.” That’s probably a question for either somebody at Disney or Tim Brooks or somebody. But all I can say is I’m really, really happy we’re going to get to do another one. I played a small role in the writing of the first one, and I hope we make something that’s just as good as that one for this thing. We’re all excited to be doing it.

Well, I’m still excited, and in that same vein, what is something you think this show does that no other show can do, especially with this longevity? Is there one honest thing you think that the show does that no other show has been able to do?

PRICE: It’s hard to say. I think that every episode is different. We try to make them different. Because we have such an amazing cast of cartoon characters and also an amazing cast of actors performing those parts, we can send them anywhere. So, for instance, the episode that we’re talking about right now is very much about Marge and the dog, and then the one that’s going to be on right after it on Sunday night is a really, really super funny, but also a very, in its own way, observational and personal look at bipolar disorder. It’s about Kirk Van Houten, and how when he goes off his bipolar meds, he goes a little crazy, and does an amazing thing and creates this invention that makes him rich, but then also drives him crazy. It’s a very big episode focused on someone who, on any other show, would be the fourteenth character on the cast list: Kirk Van Houten.

We’ve been on for long enough, and have so many great characters that you can do an episode that’s… I mean, Homer is a big part of it, but you can do an episode that’s about Kirk Van Houten and his relationship to his medicine. That’s the kind of thing that The Simpsons can do that other shows can’t do. And I think just by being around for so long, being on for 37 years — that’s crazy, 800 episodes — that there’s room for that. There’s room for a Kirk episode. We did an amazing episode earlier this year that I thought was incredible, which was about the Quimby family and their family saga, and how they came from Ireland, and how they got into politics. That was really funny, too. I did one that I ran that was a very tender episode about Principal Skinner almost adopting a kid.

It’s endlessly inventive and crazy. So, we’ll do episodes that are set in a whole other world, the ones that are about the Simpsons characters, but they’re in medieval times now. It’s just so elastic. Here is such a fun universe to play in that I think there’s no limit in that way to what can be done.

What do you want people to walk away from after seeing this sweet, heartwarming 800th episode?

PRICE: We all love The Simpsons; the world loves The Simpsons. Everyone has a different relationship to it depending on when they first started watching it. People who were little kids who were watching the beginning are in their 40s now. Also, some people are kids who are just getting into it now. You hear about, especially during COVID, a lot of young people who went and binged everything. So, everyone has a different relationship to it. Certainly, those early years are deservedly revered, and they’re all great, but I just hope that people have a chance to watch us and say, “Hey, we’re still out there, and we’re making shows that are worth seeing and that are still fun, and are still The Simpsons, and measure up to what was done before.”

The Simpsons is now streaming on Hulu and Disney+.

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Release Date

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December 17, 1989

Network

FOX

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Directors

Steven Dean Moore, Mark Kirkland, Rob Oliver, Michael Polcino, Mike B. Anderson, Chris Clements, Wes Archer, Timothy Bailey, Lance Kramer, Nancy Kruse, Matthew Faughnan, Chuck Sheetz, Rich Moore, Jeffrey Lynch, Pete Michels, Susie Dietter, Raymond S. Persi, Carlos Baeza, Dominic Polcino, Lauren MacMullan, Michael Marcantel, Neil Affleck, Swinton O. Scott III, Jennifer Moeller

Writers

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J. Stewart Burns, Michael Price, Brian Kelley, Bill Odenkirk, Dan Vebber, Kevin Curran, Stephanie Gillis, Dan Castellaneta, Deb Lacusta, Billy Kimball, Jessica Conrad, Cesar Mazariegos, Daniel Chun, Jennifer Crittenden, Conan O’Brien, Valentina Garza, Elisabeth Kiernan Averick, Christine Nangle, Broti Gupta, Loni Steele Sosthand, Megan Amram, Bob Kushell, David Isaacs, David Mandel

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  Homer Simpson / Abe Simpson / Barney Gumble / Krusty (voice)

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  Julie Kavner

  Marge Simpson / Patty Bouvier / Selma Bouvier (voice)

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