Lisa Simpson once said during an episode of 鈥淭he Simpsons:鈥� What could be more exciting than the savage ballet that is pro football?
On Monday night, the entire Simpsons universe gets to experience it in a way not many could have imagined.
The prime-time matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys will also take place at Springfield鈥檚 Atoms Stadium as part of 鈥淭he Simpsons Funday Football鈥� alternate broadcast.
The altcast will be streamed on ESPN+, Disney+, and NFL+ (on mobile devices). ESPN and ABC have the main broadcast, while ESPN2 will carry the final 鈥淢anningCast鈥� of the regular season.
The replay will be available on Disney+ for 30 days. Globally, more than 145 countries will have access to either live or on replay.
鈥淲e鈥檙e such huge football fans, and the Simpsons audience and the football audience, I feel, are like the same audience of just American families and football. And the Simpsons are so much a part of the DNA of the American family and culture that for us to, like, mush them together in this crazy video game, it鈥檚 so fun,鈥� said Matt Selman, executive producer of 鈥淭he Simpsons.鈥�
While the game is the focal point, the alternate broadcast, in some ways, will resemble a three-hour episode of 鈥淭he Simpsons.鈥� It starts with Homer eating too many hot dogs and having a dream while watching football.
Homer joins the Cowboys in the dream while Bart teams up with the Bengals. Lisa and Marge will be sideline reporters.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 the beginning of the story, and the story continues through the entire game until Homer wakes up from his dream at the end of the game. It is like a complete story, and the NFL game will happen in between. It鈥檚 just going to be an amazing presentation with tons of surprises,鈥� said Michael 鈥淪pike鈥� Szykowny, ESPN鈥檚 VP of edit and animation.
This is the second year ESPN has done an alternate broadcast for an NFL game. It used the for last year鈥檚 Sunday morning game from London between the Atlanta Falcons and Jacksonville Jaguars.
鈥淭he Simpsons鈥� has featured many sports-themed episodes during its 35 seasons. Even though 鈥淗omer at the Bat鈥� remains the consensus favorite sports episode for many Simpsons fans, there have been football ones such as 鈥淏art Star鈥� and 鈥淟isa The Greek.鈥� There also was a Super Bowl-themed one after Fox鈥檚 broadcast of Super Bowl 33 between Denver and Atlanta in 1999.
Even though 鈥淭he Simpsons鈥� remains a staple on Fox鈥檚 prime-time schedule, it is part of the Disney family after their acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2019. All 35 seasons are on Disney+.
The show鈥檚 creators have worked with ESPN and the NFL to make sure the look and sound is definitely Simpsonsesque.
The theme song is a mash-up of 鈥淭he Simpsons鈥� opening and 鈥淢onday Night Football鈥檚鈥� iconic 鈥淗eavy Action.鈥�
There have also been pre-recorded skits and bits to use during the broadcast featuring Simpson鈥檚 legendary voices Hank Azaria, Nancy Cartwright, Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, and Yeardley Smith.
The telecast will be entirely animated, with the players鈥� movements in sync with what is happening in real-time on the field. That is done through player-tracking data enabled by the NFL鈥檚 Next Gen Stats system and Sony鈥檚 Beyond Sports Technology.
While Next Gen Stats tracks where players are on the field with a tracking chip in the shoulder pads, there is skeletal data tracking and limb tracking data 鈥� which uses 29 points per player 鈥� to get closer to the player鈥檚 movements.
The other data tracking will allow Beyond Sports and Disney to add special characters to the game. For example, there might be a play where Lisa catches the ball and goes 30 yards instead of Cincinnati鈥檚 Tee Higgins.
鈥淟isa is much smaller than the rest of the players. So, in real life, the ball would go over her head, but now, with data processing, we can take the ball and make it go exactly into her hands. So for the viewer, it still looks believable, and it all makes sense,鈥� said Beyond Sports co-founder Nicolaas Westerhof.
The other major challenge is making 鈥淭he Simpsons鈥� two-dimensional cartoon characters into 3-D simulations. Szykowny and his team worked to make that a reality over the past couple of months.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 a big leap of faith for them to say, hey, we trust you to make our characters 3-D and work with it. Our ESPN creative studio team has done a wonderful job,鈥� Szykowny said.
Lisa, Krusty, Nelson, Milhouse and Ralph will be with Bart and the Bengals; while Carl, Barney, Lenny and Moe join up with with Homer and the Cowboys.
The broadcast will also feature ESPN personalities Stephen A. Smith, Peyton Manning and Eli Manning.
ESPN鈥檚 Drew Carter, Mina Kimes and Dan Orlovsky will call the game from Bristol, Connecticut, and also be animated. They will wear Meta Quest Pro headsets to experience the game from Springfield using VR technology.
For Kimes, being part of the broadcast and being an animated Simpsons character is a dream come true. She is a massive fan of the show and has a framed photo of Lisa Simpson 鈥� who she said is a personal hero and icon 鈥� as part of her backdrop when she makes appearances on ESPN NFL shows from her home in Los Angeles.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 have any input, and I didn鈥檛 see anything beforehand, so I wasn鈥檛 sure if it would look like me, but it kind of does, which is very funny,鈥� said Kimes, who drew Simpsons characters when she was a kid. 鈥淭o see the actual staff turn me into one was a dream.鈥�
Even though have struggled this season, Selman thinks both teams have personalities that appeal to 鈥淭he Simpsons鈥� universe.
鈥淲e were just so lucky also that the Cowboys are sort of like a Homer Simpson-type team, American team, and Mike McCarthy might be a Homer-type guy, one might imagine,鈥� he said. 鈥滱nd then you have Joe Burrow on the other side who is a cool young, spiky-haired, blonde bad boy — he鈥檚 like Bart. And that fits our character archetypes so perfectly.
鈥淚f Homer is mad at Bart and has a hot dog dream while watching 鈥橫onday Night Football鈥�, and then it鈥檚 basically McCarthy versus Burrow, Homer versus Bart, and that鈥檚 the simple father versus son strangling 鈥� Homer strangling Bart dynamic that has been part of the show for 35 years. I don鈥檛 know if that would have worked as well if it was like Titans versus Jacksonville. We would have found something. We would have made it work.鈥�
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