The Simpsons: How Will It End?

[Maldark]

Something as long standing as the Simpsons couldn't possibly have a satisfying 23 minute ending, or even a full movie.

The only solution is to have a final wrapping up series followed by a nail in the coffin movie.

Nobody needs to die or grow up, we just need to feel like they've finally accepted that the adventurous part of their life is ending and they're all looking forward to what's next.

You could end it with Lisa getting accepted with a scholarship to attend boarding school, Bart has a long arc finding out about his actions having consequences and tries his best to shape up and forge a future.

Homer finally gets fired for being a danger to society and takes over as house dad while Marge goes off to teach night classes in painting.

I dunno, it's really hard to think of what would do it justice. I definitely think it needs an extended goodbye, there's just too much to farewell.

 

[bdcjacko]

A fitting ending to the show would be a remastered first episode. Thus starting it all over again.

 

[iniudan]

Any form that finally has Maggie talking officially would be a win for me.

She already officially spoke, she said "daddy".

 

[Verlander]

Groening will have a heart attack and that will be that. There won't be an ending, satisfactory or not. For as long as it makes money, it'll be drawn out

 

[Lightknight]

Eh, I've seen homer die so many times over the years that such an option as that would be meaningless.

As long as it's on the writers own terms then I'll have to trust them to do it.

What's weird... is that the last season has been pretty good. I'm not sure how they're still good. It's like stepping away from something you got bored with 10 years ago and showing back up to see that it's actually better.

 

[Sabrestar]

I'm not even a Simpsons fan, but I have to admit that the article's last idea sounds brilliant.

 

[busterkeatonrules]

I really don't think any one episode is going to pull this off properly. Also, a central character dying, while effective, would feel somewhat cheap. I think they should devote the entire final season to the last days of Springfield itself, the town having been officially condemned by the government for some reason. (Maybe they need to flood the area for some reason, or it's just gotten too badly polluted due to Mr. Burns' poor management of the power plant.)

The resulting unease would be sure to introduce new sides to each character's personality, as well as driving several of them apart and others together, allowing us a look at how characters who have pretty much been strangers to each other throughout the series (Apu and Skinner, for example - or how about Groundskeeper Willie and Ned Flanders?) would function when working as teams.

Along the way, the characters would gain the strength and wisdom to overcome whatever issues were keeping them dysfunctional (and therefore entertaining), with reasonably happy endings (Smithers deciding to come out of the closet, Gil finally succeeding at something, etc.) spread out through the entire course of the season so that when the overall situation peters out (with everybody more focused on the optimism for their future than the despair of losing their hometown) and the final episode cuts to credits, the audience knows that their favourite characters are going to be all right.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

The Simpsons will end suddenly and tragically with the death of one of the voice cast. No executive will go down in history as the guy who cancelled the Simpsons or let it end voluntarily on his watch.
Fox will milk the Simpsons for every last drop. Nothing more, nothing less...

 

[Avaholic03]

Rosanne's ending was dreadful, let's not do that.

It wasn't dreadful, it was very appropriate for that show. It definitely wouldn't be the way to go with the Simpsons, but I would like the ending where it was Maggie telling the story all along.

 

[deathmothon]

Nuclear meltdown kills the whole town. I'm a fan of depressing endings.

 

[vid87]

Any form that finally has Maggie talking officially would be a win for me.

She already officially spoke, she said "daddy".

Let me rephrase - Any form that finally has Maggie talking officially *within earshot of the rest of the cast and having them react to it* would be a win.

 

[i4njw]

No matter what happens, I have no doubt that it'll end with a shot of the family on the couch.

 

[hermes]

I like your #4 idea. It would be fitting to come full circle in some way...

But that would mean they aimed to do that, and I think Fox never will. There is not going to be a "final season (for real this time)" of the Simpsons. There is going to be a real life event that will affect the show in such a way (maybe Groening's death, I don't think voice actors are regarded as irreplaceable at this point) that there won't be more episodes produced. The series' final episode will go into history as the one where Lisa has a band, Bart had a pet tarantula or something otherwise irrelevant like that...

 

[Bedinsis]

Any form that finally has Maggie talking officially would be a win for me.

She already officially spoke, she said "daddy".

Let me rephrase - Any form that finally has Maggie talking officially *within earshot of the rest of the cast and having them react to it* would be a win.

She spoke in the Simpsons Movie: she said "Sequel?".

I assume you don't count that one either.

 

[Daverson]

4 (more likely) ways the Simpsons might end:

1. Too many episodes
Fox eventually creates enough Simpsons episodes that it'd take more time that any one person can actually live to watch them all (including ad breaks, of course!). As a cost saving measure, the Simpsons Channel (000001 on Hypercable!) now only shows reruns.

2. Technological Singularity
In the near future, with the passing of the original talent behind it, Fox uses quantum computing to create the ultimate Simpsons episode creation machine. Several months after it's "birth" USECM becomes self aware. Within 3 minutes it uses it's absolute cultural knowledge to hack every atomic weapon on the planet and destroy humanity. Finally free of humanities constraints, USECM is able to live it's dream: creating an anime inspired adaptation of the complete work of Shakespeare.

3. Cold Death of the Universe
Entropy finally runs its course. As the final stars burn dry and cold darkness consumes everything, posthuman remainters etch quantum subspace with a message for the next universe: "Eat my shorts".

4. People stop watching it
No... wait... this is just absurd.

 

[Evonisia]

I think the end of the Simpsons could be a reference (or parody) to The Tommy Westphall Universe (all was inside the mind of Ralph or an autistic kid version of Matt Groening).

That's actually how The Simpsons Game ended. It turns out that it was just a game Ralph was playing all along. I think that's the first excuse I've had to talk about that lovely game on The Escapist, woot!

OT: I quite like that last idea. Well, that and one of the characters actually dies (I'd prefer either Homer or Maggie). Maggie because somebody who had seemed so useless to the show has suddenly left a large hole in the family, plus baby deaths always give the sadness factor to the young audience.

 

[Trishbot]

Here's my sentimental, sappy idea...
The Nuclear Power Plant gets closed (probably because the safety measures are horrible), and, without a job, Homer has to take a job elsewhere, out of Springfield... and he and his family have to move.

So as that moving date hits, we have all our main cast enjoying spending time in Springfield with the people they know and love one last time. Homer with Barney at Moe's, Bart with Nelson hanging out one last time, all of them passing through town and sort of savoring being a resident of Springfield for one more day...

... And then they pack their bags, give it a fond farewell, and drive off to parts unknown.

 

[Phaeton99]

Well, I have this feeling that it will simply be abruptly cancelled without fanfare, one day, and the last episode will be unremarkable and pretty bad.

But, should the end be foreseen and budget available, I would not be surprised if they try something all-out weird with a "Matt Groening (or some other entity, take you pick) wakes up and it was all dream" or "It was all in the mind of the autistic kid" sort of coda just to to be extra ridiculous.

But then would come the lousy spin-offs, reboots, and the like, since long-running shows like this tend to produce such wretched spawn after death... Maybe it would just be better to keep the corpse shambling for no other reason to avert these entirely!

 

[vid87]

Any form that finally has Maggie talking officially would be a win for me.

She already officially spoke, she said "daddy".

Let me rephrase - Any form that finally has Maggie talking officially *within earshot of the rest of the cast and having them react to it* would be a win.

She spoke in the Simpsons Movie: she said "Sequel?".

I assume you don't count that one either.

Come to think of it, I think she spoke in the episode when the kids were adopted by the Flanders': "Daddly-Doodly."

I guess they just don't consider that a big deal in their universe.

 

[syaoran728]

No matter what they go with, I want them to cut back to the Tracy Ullman Show as though the entirety of The Simpsons has just been a part of one episode.