The Simpsons Go LEGO. The long-running animated sitcom The Simpsons is getting ready to debut a special LEGO episode on May 4.

The Simpsons have already gone 3D. According to The Simpsons production team, it took two years to turn Springfield into LEGOland, making "Brick Like Me" the expensive episode of The Simpsons in its 25-year history.  The staff has been working on this episode since 2012. The Simpsons LEGO idea started when the 82-year-old Danish toy company, built a LEGO version of the Simpsons' house, to scale. This led to a LEGO couch gag opening and, of course, LEGO Springfield.

Producer Matt Selman said the Simpsons LEGO hybrid had to pass through a tough screening. He told TV Guide "First, we had to convince [executive producer] Jim Brooks and our showrunner, Al Jean, that a LEGO episode was a great idea and not just an excuse for our staff of nerds who grew up in the '70s to crack LEGO jokes." There needed to be a real emotional story there."

The LEGO Group and The Simpsons mashup will be a more child-friendly view of Springfield. Homer has to choose between his real world and living in a LEGO reality, where, according to Marge, "everything fits with everything else, and nobody ever gets hurt." 

Executive producer Brian Kelley told TV Guide "As dads, Matt and I have probably spent thousands of dollars on Legos in our lives--let's say hundreds of dollars.And we face the terrible knowledge that one day our children might outgrow them, and part of the story of this episode comes from that place."
The special LEGO-themed Simpsons episode, the series' 550th, will air Sunday, May 4.

Matt Selman, the executive producer in charge of the episode, said "We've literally been at this thing for two years - twice the time it takes to do one of our regular episodes - and that's way too long for comedy people to live with the same jokes. It's been an epic process. First, we had to convince [executive producer] Jim Brooks and our showrunner, Al Jean, that a LEGO episode was a great idea and not just an excuse for our staff of nerds who grew up in the '70s to crack LEGO jokes. There needed to be a real emotional story there."