The Simpsons may have some long-running mysteries over the course of its history, but it seems that one has recently been solved.
The animated sitcom has been a mainstay on the small screen since 1989, telling the stories of the titular family as well as the residents of Springfield.
Over the course of its 35-year run, one amusing running joke has been how the dim-witted Homer has managed to keep his job at the Nuclear Power Plant despite a litany of mishaps and blunders.
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The mystery seems to have been solved in the fourth episode of the 36th season, titled ‘Shoddy Heat’, which revealed that Homer’s father Grandpa Abe had previously made a deal with Mr Burns, the owner of the power plant.
The episode saw Abe’s past as a private investigator come to light as a body was unearthed, with a business card reading: ‘Simpson and O'Donnell – Private Investigators.” From there, Abe recounted his story involving his work partner, Billy O’Donnell.
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The story went all the way back to 1982, with the pair investigating Montgomery Burns after being enlisted by his-then girlfriend, Agnes Skinner. Billy eventually went missing after investigating Burns, who remarked that he had a “one-way ticket to paradise”.
Torn between wanting to avenge his former colleague and also protecting his family, Abe reluctantly accepted Burns’ offer – that Homer would be given a job at his power plant and that he would ultimately be secure in his job no matter his performance.
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One of the other enduring aspects of the show has been its uncanny knack of predicting the future, with showrunner Matt Selman recently explaining that such accuracy was simply due to studying both history and probability.
“The sourpuss answer I always give that no one likes is that if you study history and math, it would be literally impossible for us not to predict things,” he shared. “If you say enough things, some of them are going to overlap with reality, and then that's the math element.”
The Simpsons airs Sunday nights on FOX in the US. The show currently streams on Disney+ in the UK.
Reporter, Digital Spy George is a freelance writer who specialises in Movies and TV. After graduating with a degree in Film Studies and Journalism from De Montfort University, in which he analysed the early works of Richard Linklater for his dissertation, he wrote for several websites for GRV Media. His film tastes vary from blockbusters like Mission: Impossible and John Wick to international directors such as Paolo Sorrentino and Hirokazu Kore-eda, and has attended both the London and Berlin film festivals.
