Part of the show’s creative team since Season 1, the longtime animation writer, producer and EP took to X to bid adieu after the November 2 episode.
executive producer and showrunner Al Jean, who’s been a central creative presence on the iconic, Emmy Award-winning animated series since the very first season – before some of its current writers were born - is stepping down after the November 2 episode.
He took to X to share his official status change:
After starting as a writer on the show in Season 1, Jean eventually worked his way up to Showrunner on Season 13 in 2001.podcast co-creator Henry Gilbert posted on Bluesky, “Sounds like he’ll still be involved as a writer-producer like David Mirkin or Mike Reiss, but Matt Selman will be sole showrunner now.
End of an era.” It’s unclear if Jean will have any role in the new movie just announced for a 2027 release.Just this past April, FOX renewed the show for four more seasons, guaranteeing at least for now it will run through its record-setting 40th Season, continuing to extend its standing as the longest-running scripted primetime series in television history.Last November, when asked what still drives him creatively after such an unprecedented TV series run, he told AWN, “For 35 years, I've been working on what I think is one of the best TV shows of all time.
So, I'm really lucky.I mean, I've known people who've worked on great shows, but they didn't last as long.To be one that's still going, there couldn't be a bigger, luckier break.
Whether I work a lot on an episode or not, I think they're all great.I'm still really thrilled to be here.”
Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.
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