Not only does Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow look like Bart Simpson, but he’s starting to do some Bart Simpson-like things. Specifically, Burrow just spent $3 million on a Batmobile from the Christopher Nolan “Dark Knight” trilogy.
“This is a very Bart move, to get a bunch of money and buy the Batmobile,” said “The Simpsons” executive producer Matt Selman. “Bart is the bad boy who’s almost like Joe Burrow. They both have spiky blonde hair too. It’s almost too beautiful to be true.”
He’s why it’s a bit serendipitous: Bart Simpson will serve as Burrow’s Bengals coach on tonight’s NFL “Monday Night Football.” Well, sort of. In the latest unique NFL alt cast geared toward kids and families, Disney+, ESPN and “The Simpsons” producers have collaborated to “Simpsons”-ize the Monday night matchup between the Bengals and the Dallas Cowboys. While the game plays as usual on ABC and ESPN (and via the “Manningcast” on ESPN2), it will be animated “Simpsons”-style as “The Simpsons Funday Football” livestream Dec. 9 at 8 p.m. ET on Disney+ and ESPN+.
“The whole thing is what I call an irresistible challenge, in that we are big NFL fans in ‘The Simpsons’ writers room , and love ESPN and all their big personalities,” Selman said. “How can we make a ‘Simpsons’ version of a live football game that feels ‘Simpsons’-y and also football-y? You want to balance the football with ‘The Simpsons,’ and that is the fun and the challenge.”
The three-hour event will incorporate the actual matchup with a “Simpsons” storyline, and unfurl in real time as the game transpires. After its initial live airing on Disney+ and ESPN+, “The Simpsons Funday Football” will be available 12 hours later on demand (for 30 days, only on Disney+). And in case you don’t have that kind of time, an edited highlights cutdown of “The Simpsons Funday Football” that clocks in closer to 40 minutes will be available soon after on Disney Channel, Disney XD, FX and FXX.
The ambitious takeover will start off with a regular, 2-D “Simpsons” storyline, spearheaded by “Simpsons” writer Joel Cohen, in which Homer has a “hot dog fever dream” in which he imagines he’s coaching the Cowboys, facing off with Bart on the Bengals side.
“Homer is mad at Bart and wants to beat Bart,” Selman said. “That’s the story, but you don’t need much more than that.”
From that wrap-around, which includes a half-time cartoon segment as well, the ESPN production team has created thousands of different computer-generated moments featuring the citizens of Springfield, all of which will be peppered throughout the broadcast.
Game play will appear in “Simpsons”-style animation thanks to motion-enabled tracking technology from NFL’s Next Gen Stats, Sony’s Beyond Sports and optical tracking from Sony’s Hawk-Eye Innovations. The tech will even allow “Simpsons” characters to take over at times for Bengals and Cowboys players.
Michael “Spike” Szykowny, ESPN vice president, edit and animation, and ESPN senior creative director David “Sparky” Sparrgrove will be at the controls on Monday night, adding all of those “Simpsons” elements to the live game. It’s something they’ve been working on for months.
“The ESPN producers really have the attitude of, ‘we’re going to work 24 hours a day’ to jam into as much ‘Simpsons’ content into this CGI football game as can possibly be done,” Selman said. “Spike and Sparky are going to sit there, like the Phantom of the Opera, plugging in all these visual sight gags and references and Easter eggs and predictions and jokes and visuals as the game progresses, in real time.
“There’s all these fun, surprising pre-tapes that it’s up to the seasoned NFL ESPN producers to know when to insert those into the game during commercial breaks and timeouts and stuff like that,” he added. “I trust in Spike and Sparky. This is their time. They’re in the booth, at the control panel with the idea that, ‘if I got this button, ten different Ralph Wiggum things happen. If I hit this button, Krusty does a thing.’”
Viewers will see the game play out at the Springfield Atoms stadium. On Homer’s side, “Moe’s Juice Bar” (family friendly, after all) has set up shop. On Bart’s side, it’s a version of Kamp Krusty, complete with video games and skateboard ramps.
Other pre-produced pieces include inspiring half-time speeches by “Simpsons” characters like Moe, Krusty and Lisa. An animated version of ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith has some funny rants in store. Expect to see a reference to the now-infamous “Simpsons” ability to predict the future. And Selman promised a surprise guest star from the world of sports.
Also, Marge and Lisa have banked interviews with the actual Cowboys and Bengals players — and “the football players were adorable in their answers,” Selman said. “They were very cute.”
There’s still a game going on, but analysts Mina Kimes and Dan Orlovsky, as well as play-by-pay announcer Drew Carter, will be animated too, and call the game with “The Simpsons” in mind.
“We gave them a ‘Simpsons’ reference cheat sheet, and peppered them with ‘Simpsons’ references for the game,” Selman said. “If I had to give the biggest ‘Simpsons’ nerd award, it would have to go to Mina. We’ve been emailing back and forth all week, ideas for deep cut ‘Simpsons’ references that she can jam into the game. Hopefully it’s a fun challenge for them to do a ‘Simpsons’-ified version of play-by-play and color commentary.”
Selman said ESPN originally expected the Cowboys-Bengals matchup to be higher stakes at this point in the season. But with Cincinnati currently at 4-8 and Dallas at 5-7, the pressure is off a bit. But in a way, Selman said he expects more tune-in to the “Simpsons” version as a result.
“Now it’s just a fun, great game with two teams that didn’t really hit their thresholds of excellence,” he said. And if Bart is like Burrow, then Homer bears a bit of a resemblance to Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy, he added.
“The Simpsons” writers plan to watch the game on Monday in their offices — with a taco truck in tow. It’s a big week for the show and Disney+: On Friday, “The Simpsons” will hold a red carpet premiere event for “O C’mon All Ye Faithful,” a new holiday special that reps the first of several new exclusive installments of “The Simpsons” for Disney+.
In this special, which launches Dec. 17, British mentalist Derren Brown hypnotizes Homer, who then believes he is Santa Claus. The two-part episode features music from Patti LaBelle and Pentatonix — and premieres 35 years to the day that the very first episode of “The Simpsons,” “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire,” premiered in 1989.
“We’ve never done a single, 40-minute long Christmas story with this much kind of emotional intensity,” Selman said. “It really feels like a movie. It has the deep emotion of cinema, in addition to being very funny. It’s almost Capra-esque. It’s a pretty sweet special.”
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