Final Season Fantasy Writing Staff

[kfc_colonel]

Judging from what you know about previous and current Simpsons writers, who would you pick for the final season as the showrunner(s) and 12 writers (no more than 13 altogether incase you pick a team for showrunners)? It could be anyone who has written for the show up to this point, including people who are writing for other shows like Greg Daniels since there is never a guarantee any show will still be on 2 years from now. I am guessing from what i've read here that my list won't be too different from the norm, with maybe a few exceptions...

Showrunner: David Mirkin
Writers:
David X. Cohen
Greg Daniels
Al Jean
Mike Reiss
Ian Maxtone-Graham
George Meyer
Bill Oakley
Josh Weinstein
Mike Scully
David Stern
John Swartzwelder
Jon Vitti

[garret]

Showrunner:
Dave Mirkin

Writers:
Jon Vitti
George Meyer
John Swartzwelder
David X. Cohen
Bill Oakly
Josh Weinstien
Mike Scully
Mike Reiss
David Stern
Jennifer Crindenten

[DKsimpson2]

Conan O'brien and Mr.G have to write It would be nice for Dan C. write one.

but he never wrote for the show or has anything to do with the show (that i know of) Larry David should do one.

[moed'oh]

Conan O'brien and Mr.G have to write It would be nice for Dan C. write one.

but he never wrote for the show or has anything to do with the show (that i know of) Larry David should do one.

Larry David has often been suggested on the boards, i think he is brilliant but he is not right for the simpsons. i agree that Conan would be a great choice and so would Groening. who knows, maybe conan will write an episode in the last season.

[kfc_colonel]

Why do you think Larry David is wrong for The Simpsons? I've heard a lot of people say this but i've never heard any specific examples as to why. Curb and Seinfeld are definately different from The Simpsons, but I think it's clear that Larry can write a good and funny story. At the very least, he would do better than Million Dollar Abie.

[Your_Hero]

Showrunner - Mirkin

Writers

Swartzwelder
Vitti
Martin
Oakley
Wienstein
Daniels
Cohen
Reiss
Jean
Meyer

[TerrorK]

Showrunner:
David Mirkin

Writers:
David X. Cohen
Greg Daniels
Jay Kogen
Jeff Martin
George Meyer
Conan O'Brien
Bill Oakley
Mike Reiss
David M. Stern
John Swartzwelder
Jon Vitti
Josh Weinstein
Wallace Wolordarsky

[Nebuchanezzar]

Larry David's comedy, although brilliant is based on awkward situations and continuing character based plots and jokes. That wouldn't work for single episodes, and non on going plots such as in the Simpsons.

Showrunner

David Mirkin
Jon Vitti

Writers

Mike Scully
Matt Groening & Sam Simon
John Swartzwelder
Jeff Martin
Jennifer Crittenden
George Meyer
David "X." Cohen
Bill Oakley & Josh Weinstein
Al Jean & Mike Reiss
Brian Scully
Don Payne
David M. Stern
Walace Wolodarsky & Jay Kogen

That'll do pig, that'll do.

[DKsimpson2]

Mel brooks would be cool.

But i don't know about picking writers to do the last season, its hard to tell people to write the best season ever. I would just like to see all the writers they can get write all the scripts they can and just pick the best ones.

its nice to think about who would do the best job. I just don't want to think about the last season of the show. I know alot of people hate the new seasons but I am as old as the show. I can think of a world without new episodes. I know the simpsons will be on TV in reruns forever but this world is not ready for life without the simpsons. I wana see the simpsons do parody movies. The parody world can not be left alone with Scary Movie.

[TerrorK]

Mel brooks would be cool.

But i don't know about picking writers to do the last season, its hard to tell people to write the best season ever. I would just like to see all the writers they can get write all the scripts they can and just pick the best ones.

It's quite hard, because it depends a lot on the mentality and direction the writers are given at the time, and I actually think choosing the EP is far more important.

For example, John Swartzwelder was a fantastic writer during the golden era, but then went on to write some of the more horrendous clunkers later on under Scully and Jean, though this stems from him always doing episodes that were wackier than most in their season (I always tended to see Swartzwelder actually writer episodes that for some reason seem more like they belong in the next season style-wise than the one they're in... so in a way, his episodes tend to be a vision of what's to come the next season).And several writers like Jon Vitti and those that transferrred from Futurama such as J. Stewart Burns, Bill Odenkirk, Jeff Westbrook, etc, haven't really produced anything near fantastic under Jean compared to their older stuff.

If Vitti, the Futurama writers, as well as some others that have shown promise like Matt Selman and Michael Price were working under Mirkin or Oakley and Weinstein, they'd probably be capable of producing fantastic stuff. Vitti and the Futurama writers have proven themselves before, and Selman and Price show glimmers of hope in most of their stuff (Price, for example, has a very down to earth, character-driven style I find) and they really just need the right direction.

[kfc_colonel]

I agree that showrunner is a very important position. Lets say you pick Mirkin as the showrunner, do you think a crew comprised of the best of the best like O&W, Daniels, Cohen, etc wouldn't be better than the current staff if they were both under Mirkin? Showrunners are responsible for most of what goes in the show and the direction, but the ideas and jokes come mostly from the writers under them and with better writers you have better stuff to pick from.

[Jamie]

I know its your opinion and all but what the hell is Ian Maxtone-Graham doing on anybody's fantasy list :boggled: