Adventure Time’s Finn and Jake crash the Simpsons’ couch gag.
The Simpsonsseason 28 kicks off this Sunday, September 25 and they producers pulled up a couch for Pendleton Ward. The Simpsons premiere couch gag is a crossover with the Cartoon Network series Adventure Time.
"That was the brain child of Mike Anderson, our supervising director,” executive producer Al Jean told TVLine. “It's a really beautiful, elaborate crossover."
The couch gag casts Bart as Finn, Homer as Jake, Maggie as Princess Bubblegum and Mr. Burns as an atomic Ice King. Last season opened with a couch gag inspired by Disney and a Halloween sequence by Ren and Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi.
The Simpsons will hit 600 episodes this season. The Simpsons season 28 will celebrate the milestone with a 60-minute hip-hop homage to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby called “The Great Phatsby.” The episode will guest star the voices of Empire star Taraji P. Henson and Keegan-Michael Key.
Homer Simpson, taking his cue from the book’s Nick Carroway, will narrate the story, most of which takes place at Burns’ summer mansion in the Springfield Hamptons.
“Burns is an old-school Gatsby and Jay G is a new-school Gatsby, and their mutual Gatsbyism brings them together,” Selman told EW. The ancient tycoon and the rap mogul will become quite friendly until Jay G “seduces Burns into the excesses of the hip-hop lifestyle.”
Henson will play Praline, “a Simpsons version of Cookie” from the book, Simpsons executive producer Matt Selman explained to EW. “She teams up with Burns and Homer and Bart and our all-star team of rappers to help get revenge on Jay G.”
The Simpsons previously split up their almost-murder mystery “Who Shot Mr. Burns?” with a cliff-hanger that closed out season 6 in 1995 and resolved itself in the opening of season 7.
“This was just going to be a regular episode, but the table read went so well, in a fit of passion and excitement and ambition and excess, we decided to supersize it,” Selman told Entertainment Weekly. “And we haven’t done a huge amount of stories in the world of hip-hop and rap culture, so we just went for it.”
“The Great Phatsby” will air in January 2017. It will focus on how Mr. Burns, the town’s most evil man you hate to love (who runs the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant) and the rise and fall of his friendship with a hip-hop mogul named Jay G.
“Part 1 of the show I would subtitle as ‘The Betrayal,’ and part 2 I would subtitle as ‘The Revenge,’” Selman detailed. “It’s kind of like a two-part rap album.”
Key will voice rapper Jazzy James, who is bent on revenge on Jay G.
“It’s a tale of greed, excess, betrayal, revenge, and ruthlessness,” Selman told EW. “And there’s a hilarious goose in it. The goose is really funny.”
Burns’ old-school finances won’t be able to stand under the strain of the excessive spending and Jay G will take over the nuclear plant after Burns files for bankruptcy.
Lisa will bag herself a rich boyfriend. Marge will try her hand running a boutique store.
The music will be scored by Empire’s music producer Jim Beanz.
The Simpsonswere renewed for not one, but two more seasons back in May 2015. That includes season 27 (which aired its finale on May 22nd) and next season's TheSimpsonsSeason 28.
“I’ve outlasted Letterman, Jon Stewart and ‘McDreamy,’ because I have something they don’t: a costly 200-donut-a-day addiction.” Homer was quoted as saying.
“Excellent,” Burns can be heard hissing in many clips.
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By the time The Simpsons Season 28 finishes, we'll have hit 625 episodes, making it one of the longest running scripted shows in television history, animated or otherwise. Ay Caramba, indeed.
The Simpsons Season 28 Premiere Date
The SimpsonsSeason 28 premiere will air on September 25th, 2016.
