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How The Creators Of ‘The Simpsons’ Brought Homer To Life For The Live Episode

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 02:25 PST, Jun 6, 2016

The Simpsons, the longest-running animated comedy sitcom, has remained one of the most well-known series of all time. The show has been on the air for decades and has become a pop-culture fixture. The show started airing in 1989, and it has successfully completed 27 seasons without a hitch. One of the wonders of the latest season was that the show went live on May 15. “Simprovised,” the 21st episode of the season, showed Homer Simpson answering fan questions live during the end segment.

Homer’s witty joke about Drake, the host of the previous episode of Saturday Night Live, was for many fans sufficient to prove that the character was indeed answering questions live on television, rather than questions that had been preprepared.

According to Uproxx, the animators used Adobe Character Animator, a new feature in After Effects CC, to enable them to program simple movements for the Simpsons character while the show was streaming live.

The animators were able to trigger the movements with a keystroke that were then synchronized with the words spoken by Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer Simpson. Homer Simpson took questions on various topics in the special episode in addition to revealing his pizza preferences. However, it was strange for the beer-drinking and doughnut-loving Simpsons protagonist to answer only a single question about food, but at least it was about pizza.

According to the Daily Meal, Homer Simpson spoke about his preference for Chicago deep dish pizza over the New York version.

“I prefer Chicago deep dish because I like Italian better than Chinese.”

The answer didn’t come as any surprise for longtime Simpsons fans, as Dan Castellaneta is a native Chicagoan and the viewer who had put forth the question was aware of the fact. Homer Simpson also gave tips for coping with a hangover and publicly vouched for Bernie Sanders as the next President of the USA. The three-minute question-and-answer session revealed that the current season was not the last season of The Simpsons, and fans will need to stay tuned for the upcoming Season 28.

The Simpsons is much more that a satirical parody of the American middle-class lifestyle. The Simpsons, which is based in the absurd and strange town of Springfield, has had a profound impact on way people see themselves and the world around them. Since its debut in 1989, The Simpsons has been on the forefront of American pop culture thanks to its witty scripts that parody current-day events, politics, and cult icons. According to the Irish Times, it is estimated that many people have gained powerful life lessons from The Simpsons.

Fans will probably remember the episode that featured the famous “You don’t win friends with salad,” Homer and Bart’s song which was dedicated to the newly-vegetarian Lisa.

Additionally, quotes from the series have been used in daily conversation and also in popular media culture and internet memes. In fact, three devoted Simpsons fans have come up with a search engine called Frinkiac, which generates memes based on the keywords typed in. Frinkiac, named after the Simpsons character Professor Frink, allows fans to create memes based on the screengrabs from the first 15 seasons of the sitcom.

All fans have to do is type in a line of dialogue pertaining to the moment in the site’s search box. The search engine will automatically come up with several images that one can combine with an amusing text quote to create a terrific meme. Applications like Frinkiac that are dedicated to The Simpsons confirm the popularity of the animated series. The Simpsons will continue to edge forward and will always be remembered as the first animated series that was telecasted live in the history of television.

[Photo by Ethan Miller & Craig Barritt/Getty Images for WGAw]

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