The twenty-ninth season of the animated television series ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer Simpson, Homer, Marge ...

'' premiered on

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

in the United States on October 1, 2017, and ended on May 20, 2018. On November 4, 2016, ''The Simpsons'' was renewed for seasons 29 and 30. This season marked the show's surpassing '' Gunsmoke'' as the longest-running scripted series in primetime television by number of episodes, with the series' 636th episode " Forgive and Regret".

Episodes

Production

Development

During February 2018, episodes of ''The Simpsons'' were held back to avoid competing with the

60th Annual Grammy Awards The 60th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held on January 28, 2018. The CBS network broadcast the show live from Madison Square Garden in New York City. The show was moved to January to avoid coinciding with the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeong ...

Super Bowl LII Super Bowl LII was an American football game played to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2017 season. The National Football Conference (NFC) champion Philadelphia Eagles defeated the American Football Conferen ...

, the

2018 Winter Olympics The 2018 Winter Olympics ( ko, 2018년 동계 올림픽, Icheon sip-pal nyeon Donggye Ollimpik), officially the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (french: Les XXIIIes Jeux olympiques d'hiver; ko, 제23회 동계 올림픽, Jeisipsamhoe Donggye Ollimpi ...

, and the

90th Academy Awards The 90th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2017, and took place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. The ceremony was held on March 4, ...

. This resulted in a nine-week gap in between new episodes, and is the second season to not have any new episodes airing in February, after the twenty-fifth season (which also aired in a Winter Olympics year).

Casting

The season features guest appearances from Norman Lear, Martin Short,

Ray Liotta Raymond Allen Liotta (; December 18, 1954 – May 26, 2022) was an American actor. He was best known for his roles as Shoeless Joe Jackson in ''Field of Dreams'' (1989) and Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese's ''Goodfellas'' (1990). He was a Primet ...

and

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau Nikolaj William Coster-Waldau (; born 27 July 1970) is a Danish actor and producer. He graduated from the Danish National School of Performing Arts in Copenhagen in 1993, and had his breakthrough role in Denmark with the film '' Nightwatch'' (19 ...

. In addition,

Bill Plympton Bill Plympton (born April 30, 1946) is an American animator, graphic designer, cartoonist, and filmmaker best known for his 1987 Academy Awards-nominated animated short '' Your Face'' and his series of shorts featuring a dog character starting wit ...

animated a sixth couch gag in "

3 Scenes Plus a Tag from a Marriage "3 Scenes Plus a Tag from a Marriage" is the thirteenth episode of the twenty-ninth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons'', and the 631st episode of the series overall. The episode was directed by Matthew Nastuk and w ...

", having previously done so in season 23's "

Beware My Cheating Bart "Beware My Cheating Bart" is the eighteenth episode of the twenty-third season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 15, 2012. The title refers to the son ...

", season 24's "

Black Eyed, Please "Black Eyed, Please" is the fifteenth episode of the twenty-fourth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons'', and the 523rd episode overall. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 10, 2013. The nam ...

", season 25's " Married to the Blob",

season 27 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

's "

Lisa the Veterinarian "Lisa the Veterinarian" is the fifteenth episode of the twenty-seventh season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons'', and the 589th episode of the series overall. It aired in the United States on Fox on March 6, 2016. Plot T ...

", and

season 28 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

's "

22 for 30 "22 for 30" is the seventeenth episode of the twenty-eighth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons'', and the 613th episode of the series overall. It aired in the United States on Fox on March 12, 2017. In a parody of '' ...

". This season also features

Kelsey Grammer Allen Kelsey Grammer (born February 21, 1955) is an American actor and producer. He gained notoriety and acclaim for his role as psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on the NBC sitcom ''Cheers'' (1984-1993) and its spin-off ''Frasier'' (1993-2004), ...

reprising his role as

Sideshow Bob Robert Underdunk Terwilliger Jr., PhD, better known as Sideshow Bob, is a recurring character in the animated television series ''The Simpsons''. He is voiced by Kelsey Grammer and first appeared in the episode " The Telltale Head". Bob is a se ...

and Homer seeking help from Shaquille O'Neal ("

Gone Boy "Gone Boy" is the ninth episode of the twenty-ninth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons'', and the 627th episode of the series overall. It aired in the United States on Fox on December 10, 2017. The title is a spoof o ...

"), and a song written by guest star

Rachel Bloom Rachel Leah Bloom (born April 3, 1987) is an American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and producer. She is best known for co-creating and starring as Rebecca Bunch in The CW musical comedy-drama series ''Crazy Ex-Girlfriend'' (2015– ...

Springfield Splendor "Springfield Splendor" is the second episode of the twenty-ninth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons'', and the 620th episode of the series overall. It aired in the United States on Fox on October 8, 2017. This episod ...

"). The season also includes the

Simpson family The Simpson family are the fictional characters featured in the animated television series ''The Simpsons''. The Simpsons are a nuclear family consisting of married couple Homer and Marge and their three children, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. Th ...

traveling to

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

for

JazzFest The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (commonly called Jazz Fest or Jazzfest) is an annual celebration of local music and culture held at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana. Jazz Fest attracts thousands of vi ...

Lisa Gets the Blues "Lisa Gets the Blues" is the seventeenth episode of the twenty-ninth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons'', and the 635th episode of the series overall. It aired in the United States on Fox on April 22, 2018. The epis ...

"), and an episode that reimagines Stephen King's '' It'' featuring

Krusty the Clown Herschel Shmoikel Pinchas Yerucham Krustofsky (; ) better known by his stage name Krusty the Clown (sometimes spelled as Krusty the Klown), is a recurring character on the animated television series ''The Simpsons''. He is voiced by Dan Castel ...

Fears of a Clown "Fears of a Clown" is the fourteenth episode of the twenty-ninth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons'', and the 632nd episode of the series overall. The episode was directed by Steven Dean Moore and written by Micha ...

").

Music

On August 30, 2017, it was announced that longtime ''Simpsons'' score composer Alf Clausen was let go from the series. The series switched from a live orchestrated score to a produced score by

Bleeding Fingers Music Bleeding Fingers Music is a collective of composers that create film and television scores for The Simpsons. A joint venture between composer Hans Zimmer, his business partner Steve Kofsky, and Extreme Music, the production arm of Sony Music Publ ...

Hans Zimmer Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Oscars and four Grammys, and has been nominated for two Emmys and a Tony. Zimmer was also named on the list of Top 100 Living G ...

(who composed the score for ''

The Simpsons Movie ''The Simpsons Movie'' is a 2007 American Animation, animated comedy film based on the long-running animated sitcom ''The Simpsons''. The film was directed by the show's supervising director David Silverman (animator), David Silverman and star ...

'') and Russel Emanuel are score producers, with Steve Kofsky executive producing. Clausen's last episode was "

Whistler's Father "Whistler's Father" is the third episode of the twenty-ninth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons'', and the 621st episode of the series overall. It aired in the United States on Fox on October 15, 2017. This is the f ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simpsons (season 29) Simpsons season 29 2017 American television seasons 2018 American television seasons