FOX has renewed “The Simpsons” – again.
The network announced today that it has ordered a whopping 26th season of the animated comedy, which returned for its 25th year on Sunday and will air its latest “Treehouse of Horror” episode (with a couch gag by Guillermo Del Toro!) two nights from now.
I know it’s fashionable to dismiss latter-day “Simpsons” as a waste of time, or a tarnishing of the legacy of the years that gave us “Marge vs. the Monorail” and “Homer the Heretic.” But as I wrote the last time FOX issued a renewal (for the 24th and 25th seasons), “The Simpsons” creative team still puts out enough good episodes each season that I’m glad the series continues to exist.
“The Simpsons” isn’t what it once was, but I take comfort that Marge, Homer, Bart, Lisa and Maggie are still having adventures, and that from time to time they can still make me laugh very hard, still make me feel genuinely moved by the plight of four-fingered people with yellow skin and weird hair. I will watch large chunks of this 25th season, and I’ll gladly do the same next year.
What does everybody else think about the renewal news?