The Simpsons is an American institution. Recently renewed through Season 30, it’s almost hard to believe that the series will one day end after having debuted in 1989 as its own entity from creator Matt Groening. Prior to the series itself, The Simpsons first hit the scene as a series of animated shorts on the short-lived The Tracey Ullman Show. While not exactly displaying the animation and character work that we know from the show at this point, the Ullman debut gave us the groundwork for the characters we’d grow to know and love over time.

But with such a large pedigree of nearly 30 years under its belt, how can one simply end the adventures of Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart, and Maggie in a satisfactory way? Series finales for television shows have always been something of a mixed bag with standouts such as Six Feet Under, mixed-response entries such as Seinfeld, and flat-out disasters like Dexter. Here we’ll study episodes that could have potentially fit the bill as series finales (even though they weren’t) and explore different possibilities for wrapping up the series in a nice “THRILLHO” bow.

Sunrise, Sunset

The Simpsons had been enjoying an insane marathon of all the show’s episodes, which were played in their chronological order, on FXX in preparation for their 600th episode extravaganza. While some may argue that the series has overstayed its welcome with such a long shelf life, it continues to garner the number of viewers needed to maintain its longevity at Fox. The Simpsons began its series as a Christmas special (“Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire”), airing the story of the family getting their dog Santa’s Little Helper after the pooch is kicked out of a greyhound race track. Homer, in an attempt to earn extra money for Christmas, doubles as a Mall Santa, which Bart discovers during his spy mission to learn what his father had been doing at night. The Holiday Special sets the stage for the series and longtime Simpsons writer Al Jean actually had somewhat of an ingenious idea as to how to tie the series finale into it.

Chatting with CNN, Jean stated:

“However, there is an ending I've always had in mind, which was, I thought it would be cool if in the last episode they're getting ready to go to a Christmas pageant, and they go to the Christmas pageant that opens up the first episode, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire," so the entire series is a loop with no end. That would be my way of concluding the run, but nobody has asked me for it yet.”

This would make for an excellent way to cap off the series, and as Jean said, it would be great for syndication as it would create a continuous loop rather than giving us a definitive ending.

The Future Is Now

There have actually been a number of episodes that you could consider to be finales, with the most prominent being “Behind the Laughter.” The Season 11 Finale took a “behind-the-scenes look” at the family in a faux Behind the Music style, looking into each of their lives outside of the show. Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart, and Maggie were revealed in this episode to simply be actors from a small Kentucky town, working with one another to create a series for television audiences. The summation of the episode ends with the family watching an upcoming episode that has them winning a trip to Delaware, which as ridiculous as it sounds alone is actually placed into an episode of The Simpsons down the line. What would make this such a surreal yet perfect ending would be in its breaking of the fourth wall and painting us a picture of a somewhat happy ending, with the family being “real” and moving on from the series that was responsible for their popularity.

Other episodes that would have also worked as series finales saw the Simpsons growing older and living their lives years into the future. The first being “Lisa’s Wedding” which saw Lisa attempting to marry a fellow college student from “across the pond” in jolly old England. Of course, as with most things Simpsons related, things go to pot and the wedding is called off when Lisa’s future husband refuses to wear “pig cufflinks” given to him by Homer.  These episodes, while ranging in thematic tones and settings, do manage to give the series their individual crescendos in their unique ways. Of all of these, the episode “Days of Future Future” pulls heart strings the most, with the ending literally being Bart dying of old age after wistfully looking at pictures of his life, and perhaps would have been the most fitting to be a series finale to the show considering it closes the loop on one of its most popular characters.

The End is Nigh

Let’s look at the pros and cons of an “ending”. What I mean by this is whether or not the series’ story should even acknowledge if the finale is an ending or if it should just be a regular episode that just so happens to be the final episode of the Family Simpsons’ adventures up to this point. There’s a good argument for both sides of the coin really, as not having an ending would be somewhat close to writer Al Jean’s of benefiting syndication. Continuity has been a fickle mistress for The Simpsons, with the characters refusing to age and, outside of some minor developments of supporting characters or a death here and there, with their personalities remaining stagnant, the theme of the series points in this direction for a finale. Also, in a sense, with 600+ episodes and counting, this would make it feel as if the series never really ended at all. I can’t imagine that audiences have seen all the episodes at this point, or maybe ever.

However, if we were to go in the route of a finale that could knock it out of the park, giving us an extended look into how the lives of our characters would wrap up would be worthwhile. In this respect, I would make the suggestion that rather than simply having one episode or one extended final episode, spend an entire season working on a story that goes back to its roots, brings the laughs, and takes time to really give us an in-depth sense of finality to each of the characters that a lot of us have grown to know throughout our lives. Take one last episode to put the spotlight on Mr. Burns, on Krusty the Clown, on Principal Skinner, on Moe, and so and so forth. It would make for an ambitious ending to a giant production that has been going for so many years. Also, bring back the old writers and creators to give them the sandbox to play in once again; it would make for a hell of a ride.