The Simpsons gets The Simpsons meta crossover episode

1987 Simpsons will meet 2014 Simpsons

(FOX)

In its most meta crossover episode yet, The Simpsons is to collide with itself, when the current Simpson family meet the original Simpson family from The Tracey Ullman Show.

If the Futurama crossover was, as the creators put it, "a show out of ideas teaming up with a show out of episodes", then this will be a show out of ideas teaming up with the ghost of its formerly energised self.

Airing on Fox on 19 October, the annual Treehouse of Horror episode will parody the film The Others, when Homer and his family are terrorised by a ghostly family which turns out to be the crudely drawn Simpsons that got their start in a series of shorts in 1987.

The crossover will be challenging for voice actors Dan Castellaneta (Homer), Nancy Cartwright (Bart), Yeardley Smith (Lisa), and Julie Kavner (Marge), who will have to replicate the vastly different voices their characters had back in the 80s.

"People remember Dan’s, but Nancy’s is different too," Simpsons executive producer Al Jean told EW.

The Simpsons meets Futurama in November (Picture: Fox) (Entertainment Weekly)

"It was lower-register, and you can see in the difference in this segment. It was really funny to get the interplay [between the two versions of the Simpsons] and for the actors to see the voice evolution. The great thing is we didn’t have to ask—we already had the cast hired for the Tracey Ullman Simpsons."

Hinting of the episode's plot, he added: "We’ve implied that they were murdered and buried under the house, so this is expanding that thought… If people want a real Halloween bloodbath, they get it."

The Simpsons' crossover with rival show Family Guy airs in the US on 28 September, with the Futurama one to follow in November.