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The Simpsons special LEGO episode tonight!

As you have probably heard by now, The Simpsons is having a very special episode tonight titled “Brick Like Me”. This is the 550th episode of The Simpsons, and will premier this evening at 8/7c on the Fox channel. The Simpsons Facebook page posted the following teaser poster to get you ready for the show. So let’s take a look at what to expect. 🙂

LEGO The Simpsons Brick Like Me

There is a really interesting interview with executive producer Matt Selman in the TV Guide, where he reveals some tidbits about how the episode came about. I will quote from the interview below and you can also read the original here: Exclusive: Inside The Simpsons’ Very Special LEGO Episode. I also got some extra info from the Wikipedia page about the episode. You can see that here: The Simpsons – Brick Like Me

LEGO The Simpsons Brick Like Me Image 1

Matt Selman said in the interview, “We’ve literally been at this thing for two years — twice the time it takes to do one of our regular episodes — and that’s way too long for comedy people to live with the same jokes. It’s been an epic process. First, we had to convince (executive producer) Jim Brooks and our showrunner, Al Jean, that a LEGO episode was a great idea and not just an excuse for our staff of nerds who grew up in the ’70s to crack LEGO jokes. There needed to be a real emotional story there.” The Simpsons staff also had to have the approval of the LEGO company. “We’re pretty picky about how our brand is represented, and The Simpsons, which is so famous for its satire, has its own distinct point of view,” said Jill Wilfert, the LEGO Group’s vice president of licensing and entertainment. “No one at the show is used to dealing with creative input from the outside, so there was certainly some back-and-forth to get it all right. But, at its core, the LEGO brand is all about creativity and imagination. We respect that in others.”

LEGO The Simpsons Brick Like Me Image 2

The idea of the episode was conceived several years ago, when the toy company approached Fox about producing a LEGO set of the Simpsons’ home, including minifigures of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie and Ned Flanders, which went on sale in February. While that merchandise was still in the works, Wilfert pitched the idea of a LEGO couch gag: “We went to the guys at The Simpsons and said, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun if you did your opening couch sequence LEGO-style?’ They quickly came back to us and said, ‘Forget the couch; let’s do an entire episode!'” The Simpsons showrunner Al Jean also explained that the episode is not trying to copy The Lego Movie, saying: “None of us saw the movie until very late in the process-long after our story was set.” Matt Selman added: “Any similarities are completely unintentional. We didn’t even know there was a movie. Nobody at LEGO told us about it until after the point of no return. But at the eleventh hour, we did manage to sneak in a little wink to the film.” The episodes writer Brian Kelley spoke about how the episodes extensive CGI forced the staff to work in a whole new way, saying: “With this style of animation, everything needed to be locked in very early on, meaning we had to settle on our story and our jokes and commit to them with no room for screw-ups. On top of that, every character we used had to be built from a 3-D model, which took a lot of time and money.”

Kelley also explained that a big church sequence in the episode gave the staff a chance to include all of Springfield’s citizens, saying: “We pushed as much as we could to get everyone into those pews. We were like, More Characters! More characters! because we knew our audience would hate us if any of their favorites didn’t get to be LEGOs. You won’t see Señor Ding Dong or the Grumple, but i think we crammed in everyone else.” Al Jean also spoke about how LEGO and The Simpsons were an easy fit, saying: “But, in a way, the LEGO-Simpsons is an even easier fit-and not just because our characters and their minifigures are both yellow. Both styles are similar and deceptive in their simplicity. When you get right down to it, LEGO is just bricks, and Matt Groening’s design for our characters is really just eyeballs and a few lines-easy enough for any kid to draw.” Kelley also spoke about The Simpsons staff were big fans of LEGO, saying: “We are major LEGO fans at The Simpsons, and the LEGO master builders are huge fans of our show. It’s been a fantastic, rewarding experience to pull this off together. After 550 episodes, we really need that shot in the arm. Now we’re pushing ourselves for more big episodes. Onward and Upward!” Selman also said that no one on the staff took issue with the episodes tamer approach, saying: “Some of our episodes can get a little outrageous and push the envelope, but we would never want to be rude to our friends at LEGO. Let the guys at South Park do their own LEGO episode and go nuts. For us, it was all about sending a love letter.”

LEGO The Simpsons Collectible Minifigures

Interesting, isn’t it? Another notable detail is that the just released LEGO The Simpsons Collectible Minifigures and the ones that are in the LEGO The Simpsons House set are quite different from the ones in the TV show. It looks like producers of The Simpsons show made their version of the minifigs more LEGO-ish, and LEGO made The Simpsons minifigures more like the characters in the TV show. If you are interested in The LEGO Simpsons set and minifigs, they are now available at the Online LEGO Shop.

LEGO The Simpsons House Available Now

So what do you think? Are you planning to watch The Simpsons tonight? If you do, feel free to come back later and let us know how you liked it so we can all discuss. 😉

And you might also like to check out the following related posts:

{ 43 comments… add one }
  • brickman May 4, 2014, 10:09 AM

    First comment, Im not a fan of the simpsons but the minifigures are kinda cool.

  • krono111 May 4, 2014, 10:36 AM

    Is this only in the US?

    • Håkan May 4, 2014, 10:41 AM

      It’s a Fox premiere, but it will probably go global soon.

      • krono111 May 4, 2014, 11:56 AM

        Thank you

  • Lorca Strand May 4, 2014, 12:55 PM

    Will you be posting the episode on TBB? Or, do you know of anyplace I could find it?

    • admin May 4, 2014, 12:57 PM

      I’m not sure what is LEGO’s arrangement on this. Perhaps they will post it on their own YT channel, or maybe Fox will post it… I really don’t know at this point how restrictive they are going to be. We just have to keep our eyes open and see if there will be a legitimate way to watch the episode online.

  • legostuff71 May 4, 2014, 1:21 PM

    MAY THE 4 BE WITH YOU. Yes, I will watch the Simpsons tonight can’t wait.

    • ninja of stealth May 4, 2014, 1:55 PM

      MAY THE FORTH BE WITH YOU TOO! 😀 But why do they have to do this! why, LEGO why! 😥

      • ninja of stealth May 4, 2014, 1:56 PM

        even though LEGO isn’t making the episode.

    • Yoda Archives May 4, 2014, 6:28 PM

      May the 4th be with you.

      • Brick addict May 4, 2014, 6:54 PM

        im gonna go along and say it MAY THE 4th BE WITH U!!!! 😀

        • admin May 4, 2014, 8:39 PM

          All right, I will say it too; MAY THE 4TH BE WITH YOU… ALWAYS…

          • BLProductions May 4, 2014, 9:25 PM

            Yes, let me say it too: May the Fourth be With You, always. 🙂

            • ninja of stealth May 5, 2014, 12:39 PM

              let me say it again, May the 4th be with you!

  • BLProductions May 4, 2014, 1:38 PM

    I’m gonna watch the Amazing Race instead. Although it sounds kinda interesting. Sounds like it took a lot of work to make the episode.
    Also, the Simpsons minifigure series is indeed raised to $3.99 US. 😕

  • ninja of stealth May 4, 2014, 2:01 PM

    I know this is off subject but, Republic…Gunship…out…of…stock… on lego.com 😥 (NOOO!!!) I think its a little to late to get Darth Revan… 🙁

    • BLProductions May 4, 2014, 4:44 PM

      I know! I saw it last night! And now the AT-TE, too. 🙁 🙁
      But I think my mom bought something on Lego shop that got her Revan and the poster. It included a Yoda watch… 😕
      Although, if you add to bag, maybe they’ll still give you Revan, it just won’t come until the Gunship is back in stock. 😕

      • ninja of stealth May 4, 2014, 8:48 PM

        you got the minifigure! that’s what I really wanted and I looked on amazon and the Darth Revan minifigure is $32.00

        • BLProductions May 4, 2014, 9:22 PM

          Well, I didn’t yet. She just said she got it.

      • ninja of stealth May 5, 2014, 12:41 PM

        I think that’s what I did, oh well, I will find out when I get the email. (hopefully it come soon.)

  • Yoda Archives May 4, 2014, 6:17 PM

    I’ll be watching, It should be fun.

  • Carbo May 4, 2014, 6:18 PM

    I have never watched the Simpsons, in fact the only reason I ever even heard of it was because of LEGO getting the license, but I will watch this. It looks really interesting, and it’s LEGO Simpsons. How bad can it be? 🙄
    I do have all of the Minifigures though. At first I didn’t like their heads, but they have grown on me, plus they all have awesome accessories!! 😀
    And Admin, would it be okay if I sent you a post about the new LEGO Club magazine? There’s some goodies in there! 🙂

    • ninja of stealth May 4, 2014, 8:50 PM

      lets just say Carbo that the show can be inappropriate, that’s what I heard.

      • admin May 4, 2014, 8:52 PM

        I wouldn’t recommend The Simpsons for kids, however this episode is kid-friendly. 😉

  • Carbo May 4, 2014, 6:21 PM

    Admin, would it be okay if I sent you an article on the new LEGO Club magazine? There are some goodies there! 🙂 BTW, I tried to submit this comment as the same comment as my first comment, but it said duplicate comment detected. What’s that mean? I’ve never said that before!

    • admin May 4, 2014, 6:33 PM

      Carbo, I was actually just thinking about writing an article about the latest LEGO Club Magazine, so yeah, if you can get it done fairly fast, go ahead. I mean no rush, but it would be nice if we could publish it before the end of this month.

      I’m not sure what you mean in the second part. If you try to submit a comment that is exactly the same one you just submitted you will get that notification. I did see that you had two comments that were almost exactly the same so I have deleted one of them. But I’m not sure if that answers your question…

  • Carbo May 4, 2014, 7:27 PM

    I already have an article written, and I will send it ASAP. Wait, now my original comment showed up. Weird…

    • admin May 4, 2014, 8:40 PM

      Carbo, that may have to do with catching. When the website is very busy there is a slight delay before comments show up. Don’t worry, they will be there, so no need to repost them. Otherwise they will be duplicates. 😉

  • Kim May 4, 2014, 8:02 PM

    I’d definitely like to watch it because I like The Sumpson’s and it looks cool. I hope it ends up on Hulu or sonewhere though because I don’t even have local TV, just Internet.

  • Yoda Archives May 4, 2014, 9:03 PM

    That was pretty funny. A few LEGO jokes in the show. paraphrase.
    “I’m a imaginative but undisciplined builder.”

    • admin May 4, 2014, 9:05 PM

      In my experience imaginative = undisciplined. :mrgreen:

  • Yoda Archives May 4, 2014, 9:09 PM

    from fox tv.com
    “Episodes are available 1 DAY after airdate to subscribers of participating TV providers.” To watch your favorite FOX shows the next day after they air, just pop in your TV Provider’s Username and Password.

    Episodes unlock 8 days after airdate so it should be here, http://www.fox.com/full-episodes, next monday.

  • LK901 May 5, 2014, 8:14 AM

    Happy may the fourth!
    Revenge of the Fifth…… 😛

    • admin May 5, 2014, 10:33 AM

      Yeah, REVENGE OF THE FIFTH! 😈

    • ninja of stealth May 5, 2014, 12:43 PM

      that’s very clever!!!!! A.W.E.S.O.M.E!!!!! revenge of the fifth!

  • Beardless Dwarf May 5, 2014, 10:45 AM

    Ugh, practically nothing makes me more upset than this (except for the deviations in Desolation of Smaug). I just can’t believe LEGO is doing this. I guess it’s too late now but I still think this was a complete waste of time…

  • Piggyy69 May 5, 2014, 2:51 PM

    Did anyone else notice the Radioactive Fig poster? I really want to watch this, but don’t have FOX…..

    • admin May 5, 2014, 3:13 PM

      I have already posted the link where you can watch it online. Enjoy! 😉

  • Yoda Archives May 6, 2014, 12:46 AM

    The episode is on fox Demand. According to an ad it will be on fox.com foxNow and Hulu. They did not say when.

    • Håkan May 6, 2014, 7:21 AM

      I’m afraid those sites are only available for US viewers, though. I guess there are ways to get around it by going through international servers and stuff, but it requires some work.

  • HomerDude99 May 13, 2015, 5:07 PM

    Im really exited!

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