South Park once made the joke that The Simpsons had already covered about as many plotlines as you could conceive of for an animated series. Apparently, that extends to reality series too, as an upcoming new reality series on Max (soon to be rebranded as HBO Max, again), Back to the Frontier, is almost identical to an idea that The Simpsons did almost a quarter of a century ago.
Back to the Frontier, which debuts on Max on July 10, takes three families and challenges them to forgo the comforts of modern day and live as 1880s homesteaders. That’s what Homer, Marge and the kids had to do in The Simpsons season 14 episode 5, "Helter Shelter,” which has the official synopsis that reads: “The Simpsons [sic] family must participate in a reality television show in which they try to live in the same way that the families did in the 1800s.” Apparently, The Simpsons ability to predict the news extends to pop culture.
