The Simpsons season 30

The thirtieth season of the animated television series The Simpsons premiered on Fox in the United States on September 30, 2018, and ended on May 12, 2019. The season was produced by Gracie Films and 20th Century Fox Television. Al Jean returns as showrunner, a position he has held since the thirteenth season. Matt Selman also contributed as showrunner for the episodes "Heartbreak Hotel", "Krusty the Clown", "The Clown Stays in the Picture" and "Bart vs. Itchy & Scratchy". The series hit a milestone 650th episode on January 6, 2019 with the episode "Mad About the Toy", and the season also saw both the renewal of the series for two additional seasons on February 6, and the acquisition of the majority of 21st Century Fox's assets (which includes the show itself) by Disney on March 20.

The season received positive reviews. The episode "Mad About the Toy" won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program and Hank Azaria was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance. Two writers were nominated for Writers Guild of America Awards with Stephanie Gillis winning the Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Animation.

Main cast

 * Dan Castellaneta as Homer Simpson, Grampa Simpson, Barney Gumble, Blue-Haired Lawyer, Grizzly Shawn, Sideshow Mel, Gil Gunderson, Groundskeeper Willie, Hans Moleman, Squeaky-Voiced Teen, Mayor Quimby, Krusty the Clown, Benjamin, Itchy, Mr. Teeny and various others
 * Julie Kavner as Marge Simpson, Patty Bouvier, Selma Bouvier, Jacqueline Bouvier and various others
 * Nancy Cartwright as Bart Simpson, Maggie Simpson, Kearney Zzyzwicz, Ralph Wiggum, Nelson Muntz, Todd Flanders and various others
 * Yeardley Smith as Lisa Simpson
 * Hank Azaria as Superintendent Chalmers, Chief Wiggum, Kirk Van Houten, Moe Szyslak, Professor Frink, Carl Carlson, Comic Book Guy, Officer Lou, Duffman, Old Jewish Man, Doug, Raphael, Cletus Spuckler, Julio, Luigi Risotto, Coach Krupt, Dr. Nick Riviera, Bumblebee Man, Captain McCallister, Disco Stu and various others
 * Harry Shearer as Principal Skinner, Ned Flanders, Lenny Leonard, Dr. Hibbert, Reverend Lovejoy, Kent Brockman, Clancy Bouvier, Rainier Wolfcastle, Mr. Burns, Waylon Smithers, God, Gary, Herman Hermann, Jasper Beardsley, Dewey Largo, Scratchy, Judge Snyder, Otto Mann, Jebediah Springfield, Eddie Muntz and various others

Supporting cast

 * Pamela Hayden as Milhouse Van Houten, Jimbo Jones, Rod Flanders and various others
 * Tress MacNeille as Dolph Shapiro, Mrs. Muntz, Agnes Skinner, Shauna Chalmers, Lindsey Naegle, Laney Fontaine, Lunchlady Dora, Mama Risotto, Brandine Spuckler and various others
 * Chris Edgerly as The Detonator and various others
 * Kevin Michael Richardson as Anger Watkins, Maxwell Flinch and various others
 * Maggie Roswell as Miss Hoover, Helen Lovejoy, Luann Van Houten and various others
 * Russi Taylor as Martin Prince, Sherri and Terri and various others

The season features guest appearances from Dave Attel, Emily Deschanel, Gal Gadot, Jonathan Groff, Pete Holmes, Rhys Darby, Tracy Morgan, RuPaul, Bryan Batt, Lawrence O'Donnell, Patti LuPone, Marc Maron, Guillermo del Toro, Wallace Shawn, Awkwafina, Chelsea Peretti, Nicole Byer, Ken Jeong, John Lithgow, Liev Schreiber, Illeana Douglas and Jenny Slate. The episode "Heartbreak Hotel" saw George Segal reprising the role of Nick from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? that he had originally played 52 years earlier, musician Josh Groban provides the singing voice for longtime character Professor Frink, musician Dave Matthews gives voice to Lloyd the bartender from The Shining and the five main cast members of Bob's Burgers also reprised their roles for a crossover couch gag in the episode "My Way or the Highway to Heaven". Several prior guest stars returned this season, including longtime recurring guest star Jon Lovitz in various roles, two stints from actor J. K. Simmons to make his 4th and 5th appearances in the series, Scott Thompson returning for his fourth time as Grady, comedian Jackie Mason reprising his role as Rabbi Krustofsky once more, and Terry Gross and Ken Burns appearing as themselves. Natasha Lyonne, Will Forte and Werner Herzog all returned to roles they had previously performed once before playing Sophie Krustofsky, King Toot and Walter Hotenhoffer respectively.

Production
This season and the previous season were ordered in November 2016. Eight episodes were holdovers from the previous season. Executive producer Al Jean continued his role as primary showrunner, a role he had since the thirteenth season. Executive producer Matt Selman was also the showrunner for several episodes, a role he performed since the twenty-third season. Commenting on the show's longevity in its thirtieth season, Jean stated the show continued to perform well in the television ratings and continued to win awards, so he saw no reason for the need for the show to end.

This season features the first episode written by voice actor Nancy Cartwright with the episode "Girl's in the Band", making her the third of the six main cast members to have an episode to their name after Dan Castellaneta, who had co-written scripts since season 11 and Harry Shearer, who wrote the season 28 episode "Trust but Clarify". It also features the first episodes written by Megan Amram. In total, the season featured ten episodes written or co-written by women. For the eSports-themed episode "E My Sports", the show's producers hired League of Legends developers Riot Games as consultants in order to get the eSports referenced in the show as authentic as possible.

The acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney was completed during this season. When the acquisition was first announced, it was noted that the show had predicted the event in the tenth season episode "When You Dish Upon a Star". Jean acknowledged the event by posting a drawing on social media of Homer strangling Mickey Mouse while Bart smiles. The following month, Disney posted a video on social media of the Simpson family reluctantly putting on mouse ears. In 2021, Jean stated that the acquisition brought no editorial changes and that the producers were told to "just be yourselves".

30th Anniversary
In September 2018, Fox released a 30th anniversary logo for the series featuring a silhouette of Marge and Maggie. The series celebrated its thirtieth anniversary with a 15-hour marathon on the channel FXX starting December 9, 2018 featuring 30 handpicked episodes by showrunner Al Jean. Additionally, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", the show's first episode, re-aired on Fox on December 23, 2018.

Ratings
For the 2018-2019 television season, the season earned a 1.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic, which was the 50th best performing show. It averaged 3.65 million viewers, which was the 126th best performing show.

Critical response
Andy Wilson of Bleeding Cool thought the season was successful to satirizing the television industry with episodes focusing on topics such as reality television, gender-swapped characters, and the quality of long-running television series. He also noticed that nearly half the episodes had contributions by female writers.

Jesse Bereta of Bubbleblabber gave the episode an 8 out of 10. He highlighted the episodes featuring progressive topics but also noted many episodes featuring same tension in the marriage of Homer and Marge. He also notices that series continues to cast many high profile guest stars.

Controversy
The show came under fire for the episode "D'oh Canada" in late April 2019. While the episode mocked American and Canadian heads of government Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau and brought up the SNC-Lavalin affair, the aspects that caused offense were largely related to a parody of Frank Sinatra's song "Theme from New York, New York" where Homer made fun of Upstate New York and for the use of the slur "newfie" in relation to Canadian residents of Newfoundland. In the latter several Canadian children chime "stupid newfies" before a character closely resembling Ralph Wiggum calls himself one and proceeds to beat a baby seal pup plush toy with a club while singing about being a Newfoundlander. Musician Bruce Moss rejected an offer from the show's producers to use his song "The Islander" for the episode, referring to them as "morally bankrupt" and turning down $20,000 US.

Accolades
On July 16, 2019 it was announced that the show had received two nominations for the 71st Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, with the episode "Mad About the Toy" being nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program and cast member Hank Azaria getting a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance for the episode "From Russia Without Love" playing the characters Moe Szyslak, Carl Carlson, Duffman and Kirk Van Houten. The winners were announced on September 14, 2019 at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony, where "Mad About the Toy" won the show its 11th award in the category, while Hank Azaria lost to Seth MacFarlane for his performances in the animated series Family Guy.

Writer Stephanie Gillis won the Writers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Writing in Animation at the 71st Writers Guild of America Awards for penning the season premiere episode "Bart's Not Dead". Ryan Koh was nominated the same awards for his script for "Krusty the Clown".