The Simpsons has had a home at Fox for nearly four decades. Now it looks like our favorite family could be leaving forever.
Walt Disney Co. acknowledged Tuesday that it will be vacating the storied Fox Studio Lot, where it has been the primary occupant since Disney bought most of Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets in 2019. The $71.3-billion deal did not include the studio real estate. However, it featured a provision that Disney would move in as a tenant for at least seven years.
James L. Brooks’s production company Gracie Films, which produces the show, has had offices on the lot since the mid-1980s as a result of his 1984 production deal with Fox. It hasn’t been publicly confirmed if Gracie will be relocating to Disney’s lot in Burbank. However, by comparing a 2014 map of the lot with Fox’s future concept plans, it looks like Fox intends to replace the writers’ building (which has a fountain in front) with new production offices (indicated in blue). Here’s a comparison I whipped up:
Recently, executive producer Al Jean, perhaps feeling nostalgic, has been posting photos of the offices on social media:
Yesterday and today @TheSimpsons pic.twitter.com/g2fA0iAsx0
— Al Jean (@AlJean) January 18, 2025
Same bg today… pic.twitter.com/EviuEa0vxM
— Al Jean (@AlJean) March 15, 2025
That building has borne witness to some historic moments in television history, like the time Conan O’Brien and the other writers stuck a huge glob of caramel to the ceiling, and where somebody punched a box. The writers’ room was used as the model for the Itchy & Scratchy writers’ room in the season 4 episode “The Front,” and a cartoon version of the exterior was included in the mobile game Tapped Out.
The Fox lot is also home to the Marge Simpson ADR Stage, where the dialogue is recorded. A big Simpsons mural is on the exterior of Stage 20, and there’s a cafe themed after Moe.
In other news, Fox has renewed The Simpsons for four more seasons, ensuring the show will still have a home on the network until at least 2029.