'The Simpsons' Will Feature That Aussie-Made Pixel Art Couch Gag

Earlier this month, we brought you the story of Melburnian animators Paul Robertson and Ivan Dixon of Rubber House Studios, who with local muso Jeremy Dower had recreated the entire opening of The Simpsons using only pixel art, but probably nobody expected that their nostalgia-laced creation would actually make it to the show itself.

However — after less than two weeks on YouTube and a viral response of more than 2 million views in that time — that's exactly what it's destined to do, after long-time executive producer Al Jean tweeted confirmation that Robertson and Dixon's video will indeed air at the start of this weekend's episode on 15 February in the States.

As Dixon told Fairfax in an interview regarding the pick-up, the original correspondence he received from the show's creators, asking him to give them a call, "went to my spam folder, so I actually thought it was a hoax".

But, upon establishing the veracity of the email after calling the number, it all went from dream to reality pretty quickly.

"We secretly hoped they would pick it up, but it all came so fast," Dixon told Fairfax.

From homage to authentic piece of The Simpsons history in a little under two weeks? That's a paddling. And by "a paddling", in this case, we mean "incredible". Maybe they ought to reimagine a few other long-running series' opening credits, just for kicks - apparently there's just no telling when something made as a labour of love will actually pay off in more than a purely emotional sense.