Under The Dome Showrunner Acknowledges The Simpsons Movie

By Rudie Obias | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

Mr. Burns Threatens SpringfieldThe TV adaptation of Stephen King’s Under the Dome will premiere this June on CBS. The story of a small town that becomes trapped (as the title suggests) under a mysterious dome should be one of the highlights of the summer TV season. The premise sounds very promising, but it also sounds very, very familiar.

Of course, it’s the same premise as The Simpsons Movie from 2007, where the small town of Springfield becomes trapped under a dome after the town’s pollution levels become unmanageable and the head of the EPA presents President Schwarzenegger with five “unthinkable” options. You might think King got the idea for his best-selling novel from The Simpsons Movie, you’d be wrong. The novel was released in 2009, two years after The Simpsons Movie, but King claims he started working on the book in 1976.

The Simpsons creator even acknowledges the eerie coincidence in a later episode, where Mr. Burns threatens to place the town of Springfield in a transparent dome. Burns said he got the idea from a best-selling novel and continues to hold a copy of King’s book to show the townspeople. This leads nuclear power planet worker Lenny Leonard to say, “It’s been done.”

Under the Dome’s showrunner Neal Baer also acknowledged The Simpsons and even makes a reference to the long-running Fox animated TV series in an upcoming episode. “We do make a reference to The Simpsons Movie,” he tells Entertainment Weekly. “We have a ‘recharge party’ in episode 3 and the kids are watching it.” Baer says the episode of Under the Dome will not feature any footage from The Simpsons Movie, however, but rather will make verbal references to the 2007 film instead.

Under the Dome will premiere on June 24th on CBS. Watch Mr. Burns reference to Under the Dome on The Simpsons below: