Matt Groening helped Simpsons cast negotiations

Al Jean, Executive Producer of The Simpsons, has given an interview about the negotiations last week that saved the show from expiring.

When things got tight he and fellow executive producers Matt Groening and James L. Brooks sat down with the stars to try and resolve the show’s future.

Jean is adamant that FOX wanted to keep the show going but had to trim costs across the board.

“When we talked to the cast at that point I was very optimistic; it was very clear to me how much they loved the show and how much they wanted to continue to do it,” he says.

Here are excerpts from his interview with TV Guide Magazine.

TV Guide Magazine: Among the budget cuts were a reduction in salary for the producers. Can you talk to where else things were trimmed?

Jean: They’re all over the budget. We don’t like to talk about specific areas or specific people’s salaries. But everything involved in the show, from the animation and the post-production to the writing, yes. But this is the world we live in. Everyone involved, especially me, believes this is a terrific place to work. There are so many economic difficulties that people face now, I would never complain about anything we’re having to do.

TV Guide Magazine: It was a week of uncertainty, but it led up to this being resolved rather quickly. Walk me through what happened. Was there was a moment where you thought maybe this was all over?

Al Jean: It was definitely serious in that we would not have been brought back at the same amount the show now costs. Fox had actually come to us months ago with an analysis basically saying, DVD sales are less, foreign revenues are less, and we’re a really expensive show. They said, “This is what we have to get the budget down to,” and this was shared with the cast some time ago. And it just became public a week ago, and that’s when everything turned from a “negotiation” to an “impasse.” We got mislabeled by the reporting. One thing that was really untrue, it was never discussed to do just one more year. It was always going to either end, or do at least two more years.

Guide Magazine: When Harry Shearer put out his statement on Friday, what was the reaction, and did it help move a deal along?

Jean: The only comment I would make is that the actors are very valuable and deserve to participate in the success of the show. I agree with both of those statements. The negotiation determines in what way that happens. We would never do a show without them. I think everyone who has worked here for a while [has] certainly done quite well by The Simpsons, and everyone is grateful for it. We’re going to move on now and settle the NBA strike.

TV Guide Magazine: When the two-year renewal came out, we couldn’t help but notice how it brings us right to that nice 25-year number. What is your sense of whether The Simpsons will end after that?

Jean: Nobody can predict what the future holds. But the fact that we got the costs down is, in my view, a very big hope that we can continue beyond those two seasons. They never said, “We want to end it.” They said, “We want to find a way so that it can continue into the future.”

TV Guide Magazine: So 30 years?

Jean: I’m so optimistic I’m upping it to 50 years now.

TV Guide Magazine: And now that this is out of the way, we can get back to asking you about a second Simpsons movie.

Jean: Oh, come on! I’ve always been of the view that if we ever did a second movie, which would be exciting, it would be whenever the run of the show ended. So I guess the news is a Simpsons movie has been pushed back another two years at least.