AFTER 600 SHOWS, NO END INSIGHT FOR SIMPSONS

As The Simpsons nears the record for most episodes of an American scripted prime- time show — the Fox series celebrated its 601st episode Sunday, just 34 behind all-time champ Gunsmoke — the minds behind the animated program sometimes get hit with the question: So when is the show finally going to ride off into the Springfield sunset? “Never!” replies a laughing David Silverman, the longtime Simpsons producer. “We don’t want it to end,” says Silverman, who has been there since the very beginning, animating the interstitial shorts when the Simpsons debuted in 1987 on The Tracey Ullman Show. “We say, ‘Keep it going!’ 600? I say: ‘1,000! Do I hear 2,000!’” For the sake of comparison, as well as inspiration, Silverman cites the run of Looney Tunes, the classic animated comedy shorts from Warner Bros. that spanned 1930 to 1969. Even then, the show only went off the air after the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio closed as the ’ 70s dawned. As long as there’s TV, it seems, there will also be The Simpsons.