‘The Simpsons’ to have ‘live’ episode … but how?

Everyone loves to do the live-TV experiments in some shape or form, but we have to admit that “The Simpsons” is not a show we envisioned ever making the jump over to this format.

Yet, this somehow seems to be happening still. Fox has announced that for their upcoming May 15 episode of the show, Homer is going to have a “live” segment during both the East and West Coast shows in which he answers some questions from fans. You can use the hashtag #HomerLive to ask some of these questions starting from May 1 until May 4.

As for how in the world this is going to be live since you cannot exactly draw a character while a show is airing, our guess is something like this: In the week and a half between the end of the question period and the live segment, the animation team will get to work cultivating the movements that Homer needs to make. Then, maybe you have Dan Castellaneta standing by with a microphone, and he will read off the scripted answers live timed with Homer’s mouth movements. If they’re really doing this live, that’s the only way we can envision it working unless the producers and Fox have forged some other idea. Maybe they’ll have some animators working up to the last second “South Park” style so that things are as timely as possible.

No matter the mechanics, we’ll still give the show some credit for what we think is a pretty creative attempt to bring a show that has had some recent ratings woes (along with many other comedies on Fox) a little more attention. We’re not getting signs that “The Simpsons” is going anywhere, so for this show trying to continue to find new ways to innovate has to be one of the greatest challenges.

For now, what do you think of this “live” idea? Does it make you more or less interested in watching? Share below, and head over here to get some other TV news on everything we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: Fox.)