The season premiere deals with Homer being diagnosed with narcolepsy, his breaking up with Marge, and falling for a pharmacist.

Guest stars for this season include Blake Anderson, Kristen Bell, David Copperfield, Lena Dunham, Kelsey Grammer, Nick Kroll, Yo-Yo Ma, Edward James Olmos, Kevin Michael Richardson, and George Takei.

Carl Zealer, who won a competition to be animated into The Simpsons, appeared in the episode "Halloween of Horror".

Starting with the episode Paths of Glory (The Simpsons), which began a new production cycle, voice actresses Pamela Hayden and Tress MacNeille were given their own "Also Starring" credit.

On May 14, 2015, showrunner Al Jean announced that veteran Simpsons voice actor Harry Shearer had left the show to pursue other work after his contract expired.

After Homer uses his narcolepsy diagnosis as an excuse to be lazy, a therapist suggests he and Marge go through a trial separation.

Jacqueline Bouvier decides to reveal the truth: her husband died because of lung cancer, but did not say so before because back then, people were reluctant to admit it.

However, Selma resumes smoking shortly after, causing an angry Patty to move in with Marge and Homer, much to the latter's dismay.

Guest stars: Blake Anderson as Dickie and Nick Kroll as Lem In the twenty-sixth annual Simpsons Halloween special: Guest stars: Kelsey Grammer as Sideshow Bob and Chris Wedge as Scrat Lisa becomes friends with a rich girl named Harper.

Going home, Lisa says that Harper never let her talk, but Homer convinces her to stay friends, so he can enjoy their rich lifestyle.

When the girls begin fighting on the island, the Simpsons leave with Homer commenting that no one like Harper deserves to be Lisa's friend.

Inspired by Homer's firing, she writes an app that can predict the effects that any post on social media will have.

Later, the app hacks into the power plant to blackmail Mr. Burns into giving Homer his job back.

Bart experiences early puberty and begins competing with Principal Skinner for the affections of his new teacher, Mrs. Berrera.

Apu finds a lottery scratch-off ticket in the debris and wins enough money to buy the store back from Jay and rebuild it.

Grampa prefers the hallucinations because he can be with Mona, but Marge, Bart, and Lisa convince him to be in the real world where people still love him.

After performing CPR on a raccoon, Lisa is put in charge of the class hamster while she works as a veterinarian intern.

Meanwhile, Marge makes a little extra money cleaning up crime scenes, but she becomes traumatized by the blood and gore.

Meanwhile, Milhouse competes against a new boy, Jack, for the lead role in a school production of Casablanca, so he can act alongside his own unrequited love, Lisa.

Marge wants to restore her relationship with her daughter, so they take a weekend trip to Capital City to attend a performance of Bad News Bears: The Musical.

Homer finds a rare car in the garage left by the previous owner and sells it for a trip to Paris.

[26] Executive producer Matt Selman was also the showrunner for several episodes, a role he performed since the twenty-third season.

[27] Despite co-developer Sam Simon's death in March 2015, he retained executive producer credit in all episodes due to his agreement when he departed the series in 1993.

However, in July 2015, it was reported that Shearer was returning, signing the same contract as the other series regulars to remain through a potential thirtieth season.

[31] The penultimate episode of the season featured a live segment of Homer answering viewer questions.

[34] The news prompted posts on the internet regarding the couple's divorce, leading to Fox publishing a video of Homer and Marge reassuring viewers on the state of their marriage.

[35] Another promotional video featured Homer becoming a paid actor at the announcement of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

[39] At the 68th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, the episode "Halloween of Horror" was nominated for Outstanding Animated Program.

Re-Recording mixers Mark Linden and Tara Paul were nominated for Outstanding Sound Mixing for the same episode.

[41] [42] At the 43rd Annie Awards, the episode "Halloween of Horror" won for Best General Audience Animated Television Broadcast Production.