The thirty-second season of the American animated television series The Simpsons premiered on Fox on September 27, 2020,[1] and ended on May 23, 2021.[2] This season contained twenty-two episodes.[3] On February 6, 2019, the season was ordered along with the previous season.[4] This season includes the series' 700th episode "Manger Things".
Mr. Burns discovers that his employees do not like him very much, because of his pompous ways. Smithers decides to helps a distraught Mr. Burns go undercover as a man named Fred Kranepool. Initially determined to punish disloyal employees, the plant employees grow to like "Fred", causing Mr. Burns to want to adopt that personality permanently. Smithers is forced to expose his boss, causing Mr. Burns to revert to his former tyrannical personality.
While the Simpson family visit a museum exhibit on Ancient Rome, Marge chastises a bored Homer for his lack of ambition when he admits to shirking chances for promotion. The curator overhears the squabble and begins to relay the tale of Obeseus the Wide (Homer), a gladiator who went on to become a powerful Roman senator, only to be usurped by his own son (Bart).
While sick, Lisa reads a book about Western art, and imagines her family as famous painters.
"Lisanardo da Vinci": Lisa imagines herself as Leonardo da Vinci, the painter and inventor.
"1863 France": After initially being picked on by the other students, a French impressionist (Bart) receives praise from a stranger for his work and he earns the respect of the other students.
"Frida Kahlo": Shortly after Diego Rivera (Homer) and Frida (Marge) are married, Diego has them move to America, where John D. Rockefeller has Diego paint a mural at the Rockefeller Center, while Frida is left out, causing friction in their marriage.
"2020 Election": During Election Day 2020, everyone is voting who will be the next president of the United States, except for Homer who does not vote. 2 months later, on Inauguration Day 2021, the entire city of Springfield is in chaos, while Homer relaxes.
"Toy Gory": Bart is gored by his own toys as revenge for treating them so badly.
"Into the Homerverse": Homer accidentally mistakes a machine at the nuclear plant for a vending machine and when he inserts a coin into it, multiple different versions of himself from different dimensions come through a portal.
"Be Nine, Rewind": Lisa gets stuck in a time loop on her ninth birthday in which she dies each time.
When Marge and Lisa get addicted to true-crime podcasts, they feel like the experts when Grampa is accused of murdering his new girlfriend Vivienne. At the same time, Kent Brockman makes a podcast of his own about the occurrence entitled "Guilty Grampa".
Note: This episode was dedicated in memory of Alex Trebek who previously guest starred as himself in the episodes "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace" and "Penny-Wiseguys." Regular cast member Yeardley Smith also appears in a cameo as herself (the host of the podcast Small Town Dicks).
Comic Book Guy attends the Comicalooza convention, planning to present the ultimate audience question with hopes he will be hired by Marvel Comics. Meanwhile, Lisa develops a crush on a new kid named Blake who also plays the saxophone but isn't what he seems. Bart is hired as a voice-over actor for a new cartoon show, only to become embarrassed by the role where he has been cast as a princess.
When Superintendent Chalmers is selected to give the keynote speech at an administrator's convention in Cincinnati, Principal Skinner takes some advice from Bart and replaces favored Principal Finch as his superior's plus-one, hoping he can get to know Chalmers better during their 800-mile journey to get there.
When Lisa's "Who Inspires You?" project results in the same B− grade as every other student in her class, she becomes angered with Miss Hoover and calls her a hack. When Lisa refuses to apologize she is sent to detention. When her stubbornness only makes matters worse, she is encouraged to try and understand things from her teacher's point of view.
Guest stars: Christine Nangle as Ms. Timberwood, Ariana Piknjac and Ella Piknjac performing the end titles theme
Aspiring Heartmark Channel film producer Mary Tannenbaum is sent to Springfield to help sort out problems with a Christmas movie being filmed there during Summer. Mary stays with the Simpsons where Heartmark fan Marge assertively tries to befriend her, Homer tries to profit from the film, Lisa follows Mary with her own camera to film a behind-the-scenes documentary and Bart becomes bitter when he has to give up his room for film crew. Meanwhile, Mary forms an odd rapport with Seymour Skinner after the two make a deal so that her film doesn't interfere with his Lettuce and Tomato Festival.
Homer and Marge team up with Comic Book Guy and his wife Kumiko to win a trivia contest. After spending time with Maggie, Kumiko decides she wants to have a baby, only for her husband to disagree. But just as Comic Book Guy begins to come around on the matter, the pressure to offer emotional support to a distressed Bart and Lisa sees him fleeing his wife and problems back to his family home.
Bart and Milhouse discover Mrs. Krabappel's old diary after buying a bunch of books at Ned Flanders's yard sale to attempt a stunt. Discovering a page where Krabappel had written her success of fixing Bart's school life after classes, Bart is suddenly convinced that he's the most improved student. With the help of Maggie, Lisa finds the diary at the treehouse and discovers that Mrs. Krabappel was actually referring to her cat, but only reveals this to Bart after he decides to enter the school's spelling bee. Later in the treehouse, Ned tells Bart that Mrs. Krabappel surely still thought fondly of him, and a thankful Bart returns the diary to him.
After being told of a golf course in Springfield where golfers pay their caddies very handsomely, Bart signs up for the job. Marge goes to great limits to encourage Bart to quit after worrying about his personality and future. After Marge accidentally causes the sport to become a religion, Bart is finally convinced to leave his job and attempts to destroy the golf course.
When Homer spends a night sharing the drunk tank with Cletus, the yokel's singing about family makes Homer remorseful and he vows to become a better husband and father. Homer offers to manage Cletus to help him become a country singing sensation, only for success to see Cletus replacing Homer with a new slick manager when he decides to go professional.
A pizza palace visit awakens bad memories of Homer's youth working there, when the mechanical band he loved was taken from him. Marge, Bart, Lisa and Moe all track down the lost animatronics to reunite them for Homer once again, but discover that film and television producer J. J. Abrams is also collecting the band for his next film project.
During Christmas, Bart finds an ornament featuring Todd Flanders on it, prompting Homer and Marge to proceed telling the kids a flashback event from 6 years prior about the Flanders family's past and a secret room within the Simpson household.
While on a chaperone trip with Bart's class, Marge finds out that Ralph Wiggum's mother Sarah actually has more to her personality on the inside than on the outside. When she and Sarah are captured by the latter's old partners-in-crime, they reveal the secret about Sarah's past to Marge and recruit them to take part in a jewel heist.
Mr. Burns almost kills himself eating Krusty Burgers and learns that the town would prefer he had died. To help his boss with both his image and newfound love of burgers, Smithers suggests Burns get into the plant-based burger business. Soon Burns has both Lisa and Homer aboard, while Marge accidentally buys ever-rising stock in Burns' new company. But when Bart sees Krusty Burger failing and tries to get Lisa to help, she does not believe that Burns' new venture is evil.
After being humiliated in front of the whole school when she accidentally eats bacon, Lisa begins hallucinating depressed 1980s British singer Quilloughby as an imaginary friend who helps her fire back at the mean people around her. Meanwhile, Homer becomes obsessed with a new truck with awesome torque.
Note: This episode was dedicated in memory of Edwin E. Aguilar, an animator, character layout and assistant director of The Simpsons who died on April 11, 2021.
At a magic store, the family is given tarot card readings that tell of another future disagreement between Lisa and Marge. In this case, it involves Lisa deciding she doesn't want to go college and both declining her many great admission offers and completely devastating Marge in the process. Lisa then finds her own path of education that leads to her becoming President of the United States, but it'll be a harder task to mend fences with an enduringly-bitter Marge.
Homer meets a British secret agent named Terrance who has spent 50 years hunting a suspected Russian spy known as "The Grey Fox". After Homer and his friends hear Terrance's story, Homer soon discovers that not only is Grampa Simpson the man Terrance seeks, but that he might even be a traitor like the agent claims.
After Moe breaks their one important rule, a secret society of bartenders seeks ultimate vengeance on Homer and his drinking buddies. This causes Homer's friends and himself to be hunted down by all the bartenders in Springfield. The bartenders inject them with "Anti-Booze", a serum that stops them from drinking alcohol.
The season was produced during the COVID-19 pandemic, which impacted many other television productions, but left animated production largely unaffected. Executive producer James L. Brooks encouraged the staff to begin working from their homes in early March 2020, before California's stay-at-home order was declared. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in late March 2020, showrunner Al Jean stated, "Production hasn't skipped a day or lost a beat." At that point seven episodes for the season, including the Treehouse of Horror episode, were already completed, and they had started reading the remainder of the twenty-two total. Jean also stated that "we're a little ahead of where we usually are."[30] The series had a panel at the 2020 San Diego Comic-Con, which was marketed as "Comic-Con@Home", to promote the season, with Jean, Matt Selman, David Silverman, Carolyn Omine, and Mike B. Anderson on the panel, with cast member Yeardley Smith serving as moderator.[31]
^ A. Only in episode "I Carambus" as alternate version character Carlum.
^ B. In episodes "Treehouse of Horror XXXI," "Podcast News" and "Diary Queen"
^ C. In episodes "Wad Goals," "Panic on the Streets of Springfield" and "The Last Barfighter"
On June 26, 2020, it was stated that "Moving forward, The Simpsons will no longer have white actors voice non-white characters." This follows Mike Henry stating that he will no longer voice the African-American character Cleveland Brown on fellow Fox animated series Family Guy, and Jenny Slate and Kristen Bell's announcement that they will no longer voice mixed-race characters on Big Mouth and Central Park, respectively, in response to the race riots. It also follows series regular Hank Azaria's January 2020 announcement that he will no longer voice the Indian character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon on The Simpsons.[32] Series regular Harry Shearer was not fully in agreement with the decision, stating that "the job of the actor is to play someone who they're not".[33] On September 24, 2020, it was announced that Alex Désert would voice Carl Carlson in the first episode of the season, taking over from Azaria who voiced the character since the first season.[34] He also became the new voice of Lou.
^This episode was originally scheduled to air on October 18, 2020,[2] but was preempted as a result of the 2020 National League Championship Series running overtime.[8] However, the episode was screened on October 14, 2020, at "Paley Front Row: Simpsons Treehouse of Horror," a panel discussion hosted by Decider, Paley Center for Media, and Fox.[9] The episode still aired on its originally scheduled air date in Canada on Citytv.
^This episode was originally scheduled to air on February 14, 2021, in the United States but was preempted due to rain delays during the 2021 Daytona 500, which prompted new episodes meant to air that night to be shown next Sunday night.
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