In the world of entertainment-themed sports altcasts, the upcoming Monday Night Football game between the Cincnnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys featuring The Simpsons on December 9th might be the most anticipated.
We’ve seen ESPN and Disney use their all-encompassing corporate synergy for animated altcasts before with Toy Story and Big City Greens, but The Simpsons is in a completely different class of cultural relevancy and fandom thanks to their 36 seasons on the air. And thanks to Disney’s purchase of 20th Century Fox a few years ago, The Simpsons now exists in the same corporate universe as Monday Night Football, making their altcast possible.
In an interview with Sports Business Journal, Simpsons showrunner Matt Selman previewed the altcast and even gave a breakdown of the setup. It’ll be presented as a dream scenario in Homer’s mind after a backyard football game with Bart (Bengals) and Homer (Cowboys) on different sides of the MNF tilt. Bart will be joined by some of his Springfield Elementary cohorts while Homer will be joined by his cronies from Moe’s Tavern.
Selman touted “so many surprises and references” that will be packed into the event — they are going to max out “the amount of Simpsony goodness that we’re going to cram into this,” he quipped — which will include original content. In conversation with SBJ, he largely avoided sharing spoilers but did divulge the premise of how the football games plays out in the Simpsons universe. (“I’m going rogue,” he warned a publicist on the zoom call.)
Here’s the idea: Bart and Homer are playing a game of backyard touch football when Homer over-exerts himself and falls asleep in front of Monday Night Football. The actual Bengals-Cowboys game then plays out as a dream in Springfield’s Atoms Stadium, retaining that classic Bart-Homer conflict that’s “so baked into the DNA of the show,” Selman said.
Bart, along with Krusty, Nelson, Milhouse and Ralph, will all be on the Bengals sideline. Homer, Carl, Barney, Lenny and Moe will join the Cowboys. At times, Bart and Homer will replace the animated football players and join the action on the field. Lisa and Marge will do in-game interviews, with Maggie controlling the SkyCam.
“There’s a thematic overlap between Bart and Joe Burrow — they have the same energy — and then Homer and the Cowboys and maybe Mike McCarthy,” Selman said. “There’s a similarity there. I feel like there’s a good character conflict.”
As an added bonus, Selman also says the actual cast from The Simpsons will provide the voiceover for the event. And while they are handling the script, the animation will be done on the ESPN side of things as they emulate the live action going on in real time.
There are so many Americans who grew up loving The Simpsons that this has all the potential to be one of the best and most popular altcasts ever. Even the Easter Eggs alone will mandate anyone with a casual interest in The Simpsons to tune in. At the top of my personal wishlist is a Hank Hill “we drove 2,000 miles for this” cameo.
But as far as realistic wishes go, certainly we can have C. Montgomery Burns in the role of Jerry Jones whenever he inevitably appears on screen. It’s just too perfect not to work.
