‘The Simpsons’ airing hour-long episode this winter; Taraji P. Henson, Keegan-Michael Key to guest

While “The Simpsons” has done a remarkable number of things as a series over the years, apparently there is one classic comedy convention that even they have not broached until now: Airing an episode that runs for a full hour.

While at TCA this morning, Fox confirmed the glorious news that the upcoming “The Great Phatsby,” which will air during this upcoming season, will run for a full hour. Not only that, but Taraji P. Henson of “Empire” fame is currently slated to guest star alongside Keegan-Michael Key of “Key & Peele.”

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, executive producer Matt Selman makes it clear that this episode ended up being a case of a story that dictated the runtime rather than them trying to make an hour-long episode from the onset:

“This was just going to be a regular episode, but the table read went so well, in a fit of passion and excitement and ambition and excess, we decided to supersize it … And we haven’t done a huge amount of stories in the world of hip-hop and rap culture, so we just went for it.”

We suppose that technically, this is not the first time that an extended storyline for “The Simpsons” has been brought to the table. We’ve had season finales before that carried over to the next year, just as we also had the feature film that hit theaters some time back.

This also is not the only significant comedy news to come out of the network at TCA, as they have also announced plans to air an hour-long crossover involving “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and “New Girl.”

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