The Simpsons will air an hour-long episode for the first time ever
It’s a hip-hop twist on Gatsby…
After almost three decades, 27 seasons and 600 episodes, The Simpsons is finally airing an hour-long episode.
And it gets even better...
The episode is called “The Great Phatsby” and is essentially a hip-hop infused – and substantially more yellow – version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic 1920s novel The Great Gatsby.
It will feature the voices of actress and hip-hop artist, Taraji P. Henson, and Playing House actor Keegan-Michael Key. The episode will centre on Mr. Burns meeting a hip-hop mogul called Jay G… aka Jay Gatsby.
The Simpsons executive producer Matt Selman said: “This was just going to be a regular episode, but the table read went so well, in a fit of passion and excitement and ambition and excess, we decided to supersize it.
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“And we haven’t done a huge amount of stories in the world of hip-hop and rap culture, so we just went for it,” he told Entertainment Weekly.
“It’s a tale of greed, excess, betrayal, revenge, and ruthlessness,” sums up Selman of the episode, “and there’s a hilarious goose in it. The goose is really funny.”
It’s not the first time Fitzgerald's tale has been given a hip-hop edge – the soundtrack for the 2013 movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby featured music from Jay Z, Kanye West and Beyoncé to name a few.
The Great Phatsby will air in the US in January and in the UK at a later date.
