The Simpsons To Finally Come To An End

By Mark Lorenz on October 6th, 2011

It’s so weird to imagine that soon we’ll live in a world where new Simpsons episodes don’t make it to air. But that’s about to happen.

The only people whose lives haven’t been touched by the Fox series were people who either didn’t own a TV or enjoy comedy – the series has been on the air for over two decades. Two decades of original episodes, lining the pockets of Sam Simon, Matt Groening, and James L. Brooks many times over. To think that they created an entire cartoon lineage, village, and an environment rich enough to last that long is astounding. 23 years. 23 YEARS of television. Entire families have been born, there must’ve been hundreds of people who’ve worked on those shows.

Negotiations have reportedly broken down between the cartoon’s voice cast, which includes Harry Shearer, Dan Castellaneta, Yeardley Smith, Julie Kavner, and Nancy Cartwright – they’ve refused the network’s proposal of a 45 percent pay cut – meaning that the key players would be pocketing around 8 million dollars an episode.

FOX says their current budget doesn’t allow for that kind of rampant spending – they have to cram all of their resources into shows like Glee.

Remember when FOX was in last place? That’s how old The Simpsons is. We’ll miss you, old friend.