By Kelley Forrester - 'Larry King Now'
For the first time in the 27 seasons of 'The Simpsons' Homer Simpson will be going live.
According to Fox, "Marge, Lisa and Bart will turn the show over to Homer who will take a break from stuffing his face to comment on the events of the day LIVE during both the East Coast and West coast broadcasts."
The brand new episode will appear as usual until the final three minutes of the show when Homer goes live. Homer will be talking about the day's events and answering fan questions from Twitter. Simpsons fans have the opportunity to get their questions answered by using the hashtag #HomerLive from May 1 to May 4.
Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer will be improvising the live segment for both the East and West coast broadcasts with the help of 'The Simpsons' showrunner Al Jean and some of the show's writers. The episode airs Sunday, May 15 on Fox.
Jean told CNNMoney, "Dan Castellaneta will be in the studio and not only what he says will go out live, but the motions he makes will be incorporated in what Homer does on screen." Jean explained that motion capture technology will be used to animate Castellaneta's words and motions in real time.
For something that generally takes months to produce - the rest of the episode took eight months alone - this will happen in a three-minute segment.
Following the success of Fox's 'Grease: Live!' the network continues to explore the world of live television productions.
"As far as I know, this is the first time that's been done by any animated show," Jean said.
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