As The Simpsons heads in its 20th season, we know millions of fans have seen the name "Al Jean" roll by in the show's credits. But rarely do fans get to hear from the writer/producer co-responsible for so many of jokes and ideas behind the hilarity. Al Jean has been with the show as writer and producer since the animated series first aired in primetime back in 1989 and he's still enjoying the ride. Who dreams up stuff like "I was saying Boo-urns" or "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala (annoyed grunt) cious"? Although it's a collaborative effort between Matt Groening, James L. Brooks, and The Simpsons writing staff, we can thank writer/producer Al Jean for helping bring 20 years of life in Springfield to the small screen.

With The Simpsons getting set to makes its 20th season debut on Sunday, September 28 on Fox, in which Homer jumps into the role of bounty hunter to track down baddies while Robert Forster and Joe Montegna guest star, we caught up with Springfield creative genius Al Jean to get the scoop on Season 20, how he stays interested in the show after so long, and why they won't be making fun of Republican VP MILF Sarah Palin.

THE DEADBOLT: Congratulations on the Emmy.

AL JEAN: Oh, we’re very happy.

THE DEADBOLT: Since you’re going into your 20th season, are you now just trying to stay ahead of Law & Order?

JEAN: You know, I hate to admit it but we actually do count episodes. I think we’re about twelve ahead of them. Their schedule is a little later and they do slightly fewer per year. So in number of episodes, we’re ahead of them. But we’re still behind Lassie and Gunsmoke. And those two - Gunsmoke did 600. They [did] forty a year, so that’s a tough one. We are up to 445 in terms of record.

THE DEADBOLT: You’ve been with the show for a long time. How do you stay interested, or has it become just a job now?

JEAN: No, it’s never just a job. It’s a great job. What keeps me interested is when you see something that’s a good idea and you’re able to take it to the writing staff and translate it into something that’s funny and a pleasure to watch. It just feels [like] the greatest sort of way to vent what you feel about life . And it’s just a wonderful place to be and I’m happy to be there.

THE DEADBOLT: You mentioned that it takes about a year to flip one of these over.

JEAN: It does, yeah, between the original concept and the final airing. You know, in the early years there was a show where we did a joke about the Soviet Union and before the episode was complete the Soviet Union broke up.

THE DEADBOLT: So is it frustrating that you probably can’t do something about Sarah Palin right now?

JEAN: You know, it’s not, because again, I don’t know what people are going to think about her in six months. She may not even be in office as Vice President. You know, if I’ve already seen the Tina Fey sketch, which I thought was very funny, a big flip in the last week in terms of what people think. So yeah, we prefer to do things that you can watch five years later and still appreciate them and not go, ‘What was that a reference to?’.

Other Conference Call Highlights:

Al Jean on the changes in animation since the beginning of The Simpsons:

"Well, I love animation and I think it’s been a golden age both in film and TV. But the biggest technological change has been the influx of computers. I mean, when we started it was hand-drawn animation in films only and now hand-drawn animation... We were like one of the last movies ever I guess. And the other thing that’s happened is in television, even though there were shows on primetime in the past like The Flintstones, I don’t think they were really aimed at adults. I think they were aimed mostly at children. And I’m not saying we tried to have risqué content per se, although that’s been partly the case, but we aimed our show at an adult audience and have done things we think are smarter and kids won’t necessarily get them. They’ll watch because of the form."

Jean on a certain type of guest star they’ve never been able to get:

"Yup, it’s one group. It’s U.S. Presidents, and it’s hard to get them going back to - I think Richard Nixon was actually the first, you know. [laughs] They’ve all said, no. Ronald Reagan, or his assistant, wrote us a very polite no. But that was the closest we got."

On having Anne Hathaway, Jodi Foster, and Seth Rogen down as guest stars this season:

"That’s true and this week we also recorded Ellen Page. I can announce that now. With Jodi Foster we tend to do these trilogy episodes and this one has powerful women through history. And we do a parody of The Fountainhead, an Anne Rand book where Maggie is in our pre-school where she’s trying to build these beautiful block buildings and the pre-school teacher keeps knocking them down because they’re too creative. In the end she goes on trial like in The Fountainhead and Jodie Foster does Maggie’s voice.

"Anne Hathaway, we do a show where Bart meets a girl who’s really sweet and thinks he’s really a nice kid and not a brat. So he tries to hide his true identity from her and then, you know, she finds out what he’s really like and they break up. But she was very funny, just hilarious to work with.

"And Seth Rogen, who actually co-wrote with Adam Goldberg [on] the episode, and the episode that he’s in, Comic Book Guy creates a super hero called Everyman and his power is that any comic book that he touches, he gets the power of the hero of that comic. So they make a movie starring Homer, and Homer is overweight and doesn’t look like a super hero. So Seth Rogen plays a personal trainer who is going to get him in shape."

Al Jean on the upcoming Tree House of Terror episode:

"This year is a really fun one. It is November 2, so the opening we do a little thing about the election where Homer tries to vote for Obama, but the machine keeps changing it to McCain and then finally kills him. Then we do a satire of the fact that they can take dead celebrities and put them in commercials or do whatever they want. So Homer starts killing living celebrities so they can use them in commercials. And, at the end, we have a parody for the first time of 'It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown', where our character, The Grand Pumpkin - totally different legally - comes to life and he’s so mad at the way humans treat pumpkins and he tries to kill them all."