It broke Fox's tradition of pushing its shows' season premieres back to November to accommodate the Major League Baseball games airing on the network during September and October of each year.

Guest stars for the season included Alec Baldwin, Kelsey Grammer, Dennis Rodman, Terry Bradshaw, Randy Johnson, Joe Frazier, Ricky Gervais, William H. Macy, Lily Tomlin, Frances McDormand, Rob Reiner, and Richard Dean Anderson.

Luke Connolly said that the season did a great job at tying things together and praised "Girls Just Want to have Sums" and "We're on the Road to D'ohwhere" as highlights.

He concluded by saying "While season 17 shows its age in certain places, its continual pursuit of originality and familiar comedy more than makes up for this, and one cannot help but be impressed.

"[53] Fanboy Nation's Sean Mukvihill was positive on the season saying "Even though it isn't as a great as it once was, the show still boast some very clever writing and the best voice cast of any animated program in history.

[56] "The Seemingly Never-Ending Story" won an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program, the first Simpsons episode to win since season 14's "Three Gays of the Condo" and the ninth time in the history of the show.

[64] The DVD and Blu-ray box set for season seventeen was released by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment in the United States and Canada on Tuesday, December 2, 2014, eight years after it had completed broadcast on television.

The box art features Sideshow Bob, and a special limited-edition "embossed head case" package was also released.