Smashing through a record that literally only ever comes up these days in the context of how long The Simpsons has been on the air, the canonically long-running Fox show is finally about to break Gunsmoke’s 635-episode hold on the title for longest-running scripted prime-time series ever. (For context, Gunsmoke was a TV Western that first aired in 1955, as part of efforts to ensure that there would someday be some kind of old-timey series that The Simpsons could destroy.)
And while the internet is, presumably, already sharpening its knives and/or questions about when the show will break the record for good episodes of a prime-time scripted show, the series itself seems to be in a celebratory mood. (That might just be the thrill of pulling down headlines that don’t involve words like “Apu,” “Hari Kondabolu,” or “stereotypical caricature” for the first time in a bit, though.) Fox released a clip from Sunday night’s 636th episode onto the internet today, showing Maggie—that notorious gunslinger—shooting a version of Gunsmoke’s Matt Dillon dead in a dusty Western street. Take that, Gunsmoke fans!
