Homer, Marge Simpson to separate in new season

Trouble in paradise — again — for The Simpsons: The executive producer of the series says Homer and Marge are going to separate in the premiere episode of Season 27 in the fall.

Al Jean, chief of the longest-running series in TV history, reiterated to Variety some details of what's ahead for the cartoon characters, including the previously reported new threat to the marriage of dopey Homer and blue-haired, long-suffering Marge.

"In the premiere, it's discovered after all these years Homer has narcolepsy and it's an incredible strain on the marriage," Jean said. "Homer and Marge legally separate, and Homer falls in love with his pharmacist, who's voiced by Lena Dunham. We'll have cameos from the other women from Girls."

Jean has said this before, most recently in January when the news of Dunham's guest-role in the series first broke. The premiere episode, called "Every Man's Dream," is supposed to be different from all the other times the Simpsons' marriage was on the rocks, Jean told Entertainment Weekly.

"We wanted to take a serious look at what it would really be like to be Mrs. Homer Simpson," Jean said at the time.

Homer's narcolepsy, which is the reason he's always falling asleep on the job, will explain how he meets Dunham's twentysomething character, Candace, the pharmacist who fills his prescription.

EW even included a picture of the character at the time. Now it's all over Twitter.

Some people were freaked out at this non-news news, especially on The View, where co-host Whoopi Goldberg suggested Homer might want to step out with a black woman in a future story line.

"Homer, what about a sister?," Goldberg demanded. "In the time that I've seen you, I've never seen you with a black woman. Or maybe Marge is just a light-skinned sister and they haven't said it."

The Simpsons have not had a trouble-free union. Homer has been tempted before, and even Marge has wavered, once with a bowling instructor.

Despite more than a quarter-century on TV, the show's writers seem to have no trouble coming up with new Simpsons-style wacky story lines, as Jean explained to Variety.

"We have an episode coming up where Lisa befriends a homeless woman who turns out to be an incredible singer. The woman's voiced by Kate McKinnon, but the singing is done by Natalie Maines," he said.

There's even going to be an episode based on the Oscar-nominated film Boyhood.

"It's a flashback/flashforward about Bart," Jean said. "We go to various points in his life and his life to come which I think came out really well."