The Simpsons (season 31) (Johnsonverse)

The thirty-first season of the animated television series The Simpsons premiered on Fox in the United States on September 29, 2019, and ended on May 17, 2020. Tim and Chloe Johnson replace Al Jean as co-showrunners, a position he had held since the thirteenth season.
==Episodes==
==Production==
===Development===
Starting in this season, Tim and Chloe Johnson took control of the series, replacing Al Jean, as they were unsatisfied with the seasons he produced, and began a five-season plan to end the series. One major change starting this season was having the characters age every season going forward; the season premiere sees Bart and Lisa entering a new grade (fifth grade and third grade, respectively). Also, the Johnsons hired new writers, and pushed to get the characters "back to their 1990s selves"; most notably, Ned Flanders went back to being a friendly, traditional sitcom father who happens to be religious and the antithesis of Homer instead of an over-religious, far-right zealot.
This season features the first scripts credited to writers Max Cohn and Elisabeth Kiernan Averick. Comedian and writer Pete Holmes also both wrote and guest-starred in the two-part "Warrin' Priests" episodes, making him the third freelance writer to do so after Ricky Gervais and Seth Rogen. While in "Warrin' Priests" Holmes plays the character of Bode, he had previously guest-starred in season 30 premiere "Bart's Not Dead" as a different character. The episode "The Incredible Lightness of Being a Baby" was delayed from the previous season, with the original intent to air it instead of "I'm Just a Girl Who Can't Say D'oh" on April 7, 2019. The episode was put on hold after the show's producers decided to make a short film related to the episode involving Maggie and another baby named Hudson titled Playdate with Destiny as well. The short film premiered on February 29, 2020, attached to advanced screenings of the Disney/Pixar release Onward with "The Incredible Lightness of Being a Baby" serving as a sequel to it.
In April 2020, the show joined the rest of Fox's Animation Domination lineup in a partnership with Caffeine for the AniDom Beyond Show, a recap show hosted by Andy Richter. The hour-long program featured interviews with guests and live interactivity with fans online, with recaps for the episodes that aired through April and May. The Simpsons episode aired on April 26 featuring Al Jean, cast member Yeardley Smith and writer and guest star Pete Holmes. On May 18, Matt Selman joined the show with other writers from the Fox Animation Domination lineup.
===Animation===
This season marks a return to cel animation, which the series had used from its 1989 debut until 2002, when it switched to digital ink and paint, making it the first cel-animated series in the US mainland since Ed, Edd n Eddy switched to digital ink and paint in 2004, and the first cel-animated series in the world since the long-running Sazae-san anime in the Japanese Isles switched to digital ink and paint in 2016. The slightly cartoony style of the second through sixth seasons was brought back as well, as Tim and Chloe had criticized recent seasons' animation as "soulless", comparing it to the style of modern Garfield comics. The iconic opening sequence was also redone; it is now inspired by the 1990-2009 version, with more complex character movements reminiscent of the 1989 and 1990 opening sequences, fewer attempts at humor, and even more characters, environments, and references to older seasons; the title card and billboard gags were retained.
Parts of this season were produced and aired during the COVID-19 pandemic, which delayed or canceled the production of many television productions, but as an animated production, this took less of a toll on the show than most live-action ones. Executive producer James L. Brooks encouraged the staff to begin working from their homes in early March 2020, before California's stay-at-home order was declared. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in late March 2020, Tim Johnson stated, "Production hasn't skipped a day or lost a beat. We intend to do the 22 shows we were contracted to do... There's been no change in how we do things."
===Casting===
It is the last season to feature the voice talents of recurring co-star Russi Taylor who died on July 26, 2019, and had been with the show since the first season voicing characters such as Martin Prince, Sherri and Terri and Üter Zörker. Taylor's characters were adopted during this season's production cycle by voice actress Grey DeLisle starting with the episode "Marge the Lumberjill", though the last episode to feature Taylor would be "Thanksgiving of Horror" which aired afterwards due to being part of the prior season's production run. This is also the first season in which Apu is voiced by Kal Penn and his wife Manjula is voiced by Pallavi Sharda, taking over from Hank Azaria and Tress MacNeille respectively, starting in "TBA". Starting in this season, Marge, Patty and Selma's voices are altered through VoxMutatio; Tim noted that Julie Kavner's voice "was starting to sound like Marge took up chain smoking like her sisters".
Several recurring guests made return appearances, including four stints from Joe Mantegna reprising his role of mobster Fat Tony, four different roles from Dawnn Lewis, Natasha Lyonne voicing Krusty's daughter Sophie again, Sara Gilbert voicing Laura Powers again, Kimmy Robertson voicing Samantha Stanky again, Glenn Close as Homer's mother Mona Simpson, Kelsey Grammer as Sideshow Bob, Jon Lovitz as Artie Ziff, and Werner Herzog and Michael York as new characters Dr. Lund and Clayton respectively.
The season features guest appearances from John Mulaney, Michael Rapaport, Jason Momoa, Bob Odenkirk, Jane Goodall, Asia Kate Dillon, Fortune Feimster, Scott Bakula, Steve Ballmer, Zach Woods, Beanie Feldstein, Ed "Too Tall" Jones, Jim Parsons, Taran Killam, Dr. Drew Pinsky, Billy Porter, Kevin Smith, Joey King, Lilly Singh and Cate Blanchett. Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker has a cameo in a referential segment of "Thanksgiving of Horror" while the episode "Bart the Bad Guy" features Marvel Cinematic Universe producers Kevin Feige and the Russo Brothers in parody roles, along with Maria Hill actress Cobie Smulders. "The Hateful Eight-Year-Olds" features Riverdale stars Camila Mendes, Madelaine Petsch and Lili Reinhart playing three girls who bully Lisa.
===Music===
In this season, Alf Clausen (who was the composer from 1990 to 2017 and was replaced by Bleeding Fingers Music in the twenty-ninth season) returns as composer.
Also in "The Hateful Eight-Year-Olds", members of the band Weezer voiced the members of cover band Sailor's Delight, performed the main theme song at the end of the episode as themselves and also debuted their song "Blue Dream" within the episode. Musician Jill Sobule wrote and performed an original song for the episode "Marge the Lumberjill" and John Legend also performed an original song for "The Miseducation of Lisa Simpson" while guest-starring with his wife Chrissy Teigen.
==Reception==
===Ratings===
===Accolades===
===Controversy===
It was during the run of this season that longtime voice actor Hank Azaria announced that he was officially stepping down from voicing Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, a character he had played since the episode "The Telltale Head" from the first season. The character and Azaria's portrayal of him had come under scrutiny since the release of Hari Kondabolu's 2017 documentary The Problem with Apu. Apu's portrayal came under scrutiny again when the Simpsons staff referenced the criticism as being too politically correct in the season 29 episode "No Good Read Goes Unpunished" which resulted in backlash from some people concerned about the issue who felt that the response was immature. Azaria said that it was a mutual decision made between himself and the senior staff, stating, "all we know there is I won't be doing the voice anymore unless there's some way to transition it or something"; during the season, the role was recast with Kal Penn, who made his debut as the character in "TBA", in which Apu explains that he and Manjula decided to use their real voices after years of "sounding like a white guy doing an Indian voice".
Category:Johnsonverse