A yellow end in sight for Homer

After 16 series and several hundred episodes, an end date has now been suggested for The Simpsons.

11:14 04 October 2004

After 16 series and several hundred episodes, an end date has now been suggested for The Simpsons.

Matt Groening, executive producer of the world's most famous yellow family, has said that the series is running out of steam.

"The Simpsons' success has been unbelievable," Groening told The Sun.

"But the show gets harder and harder every year because we are trying to keep surprising the audience - and trying to surprise ourselves."

There are plans in place to keep the actors that voice Homer, Bart and company, working until 2008- the show's 19th season.

Groening wants to do one more series - to make the show the equal longest running of any on American TV - but thinks things should wind down after that.

And that is not his only goal.

"I'd love to get to 365 episodes, so there's one for every day of the year with no repeats," he told the paper.

This would seem an eminently achievable target as, so far, 335 Simpsons episodes have been made across 16 series - along with one special.

As for how to keep the plots fresh after so long, Groening had a simple solution.

"I expect we'll do more and more stories about the other citizens of Springfield."