The Simpsons to Parody Dexter/Inception

Yesterday, as part of the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour studio day, IGN TV took a tour of The Simpsons animation studio in Burbank and spoke with producer/showrunner Al Jean and series director Mark Kirkland. Some of the info we learned had already been revealed at the Comic-Con panel last week, but Jean himself told us that The Simpsons will be doing an Inception parody this season.

The topic came up of the challenges involved, after two decades, of not repeating yourself on a show like The Simpsons. But with the new HD digital animation, have they ever been tempted to re-make an old episode using the new animation style? "We'd never do that, Jean told us. "But we just did an Inception thing where one dream level was all done in the old Tracey Ullman style. And Homer has his old voice."

For those of you who've never seen The Simpsons back when they were part of animated breaks on FOX's The Tracey Ullman Show, they looked like this…

The special guest voices this season will be provided by Kiefer Sutherland, Andy Garcia, John Rivers, Jane Lynch, Jonah Hill, Tim & Eric, Neil Gaiman and Gordon Ramsay Also, reported back at Comic-Con…Ted Nugent will be running for president, Michael Cera will play a love interest of Lisa's and Jeremy Irons will play the voice of Mo's bar rag as we follow it through history. The Social Network's Armie Hammer will also appear next season, reprising the double-role of the Winklevoss twins.

We also learned, back at Con, that this year's Treehouse of Horrors episode will include a great Dexter parody featuring Flanders. Click the pic below to watch the clip over at EW.com

There will also be a Christmas in the Future episode where, according to Jean, "you see the family 30 years from now and Bart's this lousy, dead-beat dad who actually lives in the school – which are now condos. And Skinner's his landlord. It was written by one of our former Futurama writers Stewart Burns. One thing we took out though was that there was a joke about the power plant having a meltdown in the future. But we took that out after the tragedy in Japan. But it was just a small joke."

What else is in store for us this year? "I'm working on an episode right now where Homer's a Glen Beck-style TV pundit," Kirkland said. "He starts the Gravy Boat movement." Jean then added "and because he gets to decide who gets to be president he picks Ted Nugent." Also on the horizon…"Homer gets addicted to a show that's basically 'Lost' but it ended five years ago and so he's always like 'Don't tell me how it ends!'"

And what about episode 500? What does the show have planned for such a historic night? Without wanting to give too much away, Jean told us "There's a big town meeting that the Simpsons don't know about, but when they go in they discover that the rest of the town is saying 'we're going to get rid of The Simpsons. We're sick of them.' So that's the premise. It was written by Michael Price."

Was there ever a star who turned down doing a guest voice on The Simpsons? "90% of people we ask say 'yes,'" Jean said. "Like with Jeremy Irons playing Mo's bar rag. But once we actually had someone who said 'please put me in' and then we did and he wouldn't do it. And it was Jon Bon Jovi. He was going to be covered with spaghetti and I guess he thought he was really going to be covered with spaghetti or something. I don't know. I don't know why he turned it down. I've been yelling about it ever since. It's been eight years."

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The Simpsons will return for its 23rd season on Sept. 25. The annual Treehouse of Horror episode will air Oct. 25 and the special 500th episode will air Feb. 19.

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