What to expect, where to see

Not only does Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow look like Bart Simpson, but he’s starting to do some Bart Simpson-like things. Specifically, Burrow just spent $3 million on a Batmobile from Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy.

“This is a very Bart move, to get a lot of money and buy the Batmobile,” said “The Simpsons” executive producer Matt Selman. “Bart is the bad boy who is almost like Joe Burrow. They also both have spiky blonde hair. It’s almost too good to be true.”

He’s why it’s kind of serendipitous: Bart Simpson will serve as Burrows’ Bengals coach on tonight’s NFL “.” Well, such a one. In the latest unique NFL alt-cast aimed at kids and families, Disney+, ESPN and “The Simpsons” producers have teamed up to “Simpsons” Monday night’s showdown between the Bengals and Dallas Cowboys. While the game will be played as usual on ABC and ESPN (and via the “Manningcast” on ESPN2), it will be animated “Simpsons” style as “The Simpsons Funday Football” live stream on Dec. 9 at 8 p.m. ET on Disney+ and ESPN+.

“It’s all what I call an irresistible challenge, being big NFL fans in ‘The Simpsons’ writers room and loving ESPN and all their great personalities,” Selman said. “How can we do a ‘Simpsons’ version of a live football game that feels ‘Simpsons’-y and also football-y? You want to balance football with ‘The Simpsons,’ and that’s the fun and the challenge. ”

The three-hour event will incorporate the actual matchup with a “Simpsons” storyline and unfold in real time as the game unfolds. After the first live broadcast on Disney+ and ESPN+, “The Simpsons Funday Football” will be available 12 hours later on demand (for 30 days, only on Disney+). And in case you don’t have that kind of time, an edited highlight cut of “The Simpsons Funday Football,” clocking in at closer to 40 minutes, will be available soon after on Disney Channel, Disney XD, FX and FXX.

The ambitious takeover starts with a regular 2-D “Simpsons” story, helmed by “Simpsons” writer Joel Cohen, in which Homer has a “hot dog fever dream” imagining himself coaching the Cowboys and facing for Bart on the Bengals side.

“Homer is mad at Bart and wants to beat Bart,” Selman said. “That’s the story, but you don’t need much more than that.”

From this wrap, which also includes a halftime cartoon segment, the ESPN production team has created thousands of different computer-generated moments with the residents of Springfield, all of which will be peppered throughout the broadcast.

Games will be shown in “Simpsons”-like animation thanks to motion-activated tracking technology from the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, Sony’s Beyond Sports and optical tracking from Sony’s Hawk-Eye Innovations. The technology will even allow “Simpsons” characters to take over for Bengals and Cowboys players at times.

Michael “Spike” Szykowny, ESPN’s vice president, editing and animation, and ESPN’s senior creative director David “Sparky” Sparrgrove will be at the controls Monday night adding all those “Simpsons” elements to the live game. It’s something they’ve been working on for months.

“The ESPN producers really have that ‘we have to work around the clock’ attitude to get as much ‘Simpsons’ content into this CGI football game as possible,” Selman said. “Spike and Sparky are going to sit there, like Phantom of the Opera, plugging in all these visual sight gags and references and Easter eggs and predictions and jokes and visuals as the game progresses, in real time.

“There are all these fun, surprising pre-tapes that it’s up to the seasoned NFL ESPN producers to know when to insert them into the game during commercial breaks and timeouts and things like that,” he added. “I trust Spike and Sparky. It’s their time. They’re in the booth, at the control panel with the idea that ‘if I got this button, ten different Ralph Wiggum things will happen. If I push this button, Krusty something.'”

Viewers will watch the match played at the Springfield Atoms stadium. On Homer’s side, “Moe’s Juice Bar” (family friendly, after all) has set up shop. On Bart’s side, it’s a version of Kamp Krusty, complete with video games and skateboard ramps.

Other pre-produced pieces include inspirational halftime speeches by “Simpsons” characters like Moe, Krusty and Lisa. An animated version of ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith has some hilarious rants in store. Expect to see a reference to the now infamous “Simpsons” ability to predict the future. And Selman promised a surprise guest star from the world of sports.

Marge and Lisa also did interviews with the actual Cowboys and Bengals players — and “the football players were adorable in their responses,” Selman said. “They were very nice.”

There is still one game in progress, but analysts Mina Kimes and Dan Orlovsky, as well as play-by-pay announcer Drew Carter, will also be animated, calling the game with “The Simpsons” in mind.

“We gave them a ‘Simpsons’ reference cheat sheet and peppered them with ‘Simpsons’ references to the game,” Selman said. “If I had to give the biggest ‘Simpsons’ geek award, it would have to go to Mina. We’ve been emailing back and forth all week, ideas for deep ‘Simpsons’ references for her to put into the game. Hopefully it’s a fun challenge for them to do a ‘Simpsons’-ified version of play-by-play and color commentary.”

Selman said ESPN originally expected the Cowboys-Bengals game to be higher stakes at this point in the season. But with Cincinnati currently at 4-8 and Dallas at 5-7, the pressure is off a bit. But in a sense, Selman said he expects more tune-in to the “Simpsons” version as a result.

“Now it’s just a fun, great game with two teams that didn’t really reach their thresholds of excellence,” he said. And if Bart is like Burrow, then Homer is a little like Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy, he added.

“The Simpsons” writers plan to watch the game Monday in their offices — with a taco truck in tow. It’s a big week for the show and Disney+: On Friday, “The Simpsons” will hold a red carpet premiere event for “O C’mon All Ye Faithful,” a new holiday special that repeats the first of several new exclusive editions of “The Simpsons” for Disney+.

In this special, which launches on December 17, British mentalist Derren Brown hypnotizes Homer, who then believes he is Santa Claus. The two-part episode features music from Patti LaBelle and Pentatonix – and premieres 35 years to the day when the very first episode of “The Simpsons,” “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire,” premiered in 1989.

“We’ve never done a single 40-minute Christmas story with this much emotional intensity,” Selman said. “It really feels like a movie. It has the deep emotion of cinema, as well as being very funny. It’s almost Capra-like. It’s a pretty sweet special.”