Disney+ has added a 24/7 stream of The Simpsons, meaning you never need to ponder which episode you want to watch—simply hit play and let the antics of the iconic yellow family roll.
Endless Fun With The Simpsons on Disney+
In September 2024, Disney+ introduced “streams” in the United States, which are live non-stop playlists that cycle through content from the on-demand catalog. Some existing streams include Hits and Heroes (action stories from big brands like Marvel) and Real Life (documentaries, biopics, and the like).
Now, The Simpsons has its own stream, showing 767 episodes of the show. That’s the entirety of seasons 1 through 35, excluding season 3 opener Stark Raving Dad, which stars Michael Jackson and was pulled from circulation in 2019 (and has never appeared on Disney+).
For the launch, the stream is showing every episode chronologically, though Disney notes the lineup will be refreshed monthly—a sensible decision, since viewers may be unwilling to sit through the weaker later years of the show (though it has stepped up its game recently).
Disney+ is also home to various The Simpsons one-off specials, along with The Simpsons Movie, but these aren’t part of the new endless stream. The same applies to season 36, which is currently airing on Fox in the US, with episodes available to stream on-demand on Hulu in the US and on Disney+ internationally. The Hulu episodes will eventually transfer to Disney+ and presumably enter the 24/7 stream rotation.
Currently, Disney+ streams are only available in the US and to those with a premium ad-free subscription, so hopefully the feature rolls out to other countries in the future.
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Room for Improvement
Streams are a neat addition, especially for a comfort show like The Simpsons, but I think there are improvements Disney+ could make:
- A shuffle feature so that you can watch a random episode of The Simpsons without it necessarily being the one streaming live at that moment.
- Disney+ has some special features, but it’s missing all the insightful and fun commentaries present on The Simpsons DVDs.
- The ability to build a custom playlist so you could, for example, build a list of your favorite The Simpsons episodes.
How to Stream The Simpsons in the Correct Aspect Ratio
Before you go and watch The Simpsons on Disney+, you may need to fix the aspect ratio so that you can appreciate the show as it was intended.
When the first season of The Simpsons aired in 1989, the standard aspect ratio for television was 4:3 and so this is what the show was designed for. In 2009, for the 10th episode of the 20th season, the show made the switch to high definition and 16:9 (complete with a new intro sequence), which is the standard ratio for modern TVs.
If you watch an old 4:3 show on a 16:9 TV, it has black bars on the sides to maintain the original aspect ratio. However, when you stream The Simpsons on Disney+, it uses a “remastered aspect ratio” by default.
This means that, for the first 20 seasons, the episodes are cropped at the top and bottom so that they fill the entire screen. This may look better at a quick glance, but you’re literally seeing less of the animation. In some cases, it ruins visual gags.
Thankfully, you can disable this so that episodes made in 4:3 appear in that ratio. To do that, go to The Simpsons page on Disney+, switch to the “Details” tab, and disable the “Remastered Aspect Ratio” toggle.
The Simpsons is one of the best shows on Disney+, so it’s great to see it getting its own stream—fingers crossed it launches outside the US soon.
Source: The Walt Disney Company
