Rob Lowe previews his The Simpsons debut as Principal Skinner's cousin

The Simpsons is ready to parody the pandemic era, and they're bringing Rob Lowe along for the ride.

In this weekend's upcoming episode, "The Very Hungry Caterpillars," Springfield is plagued by a swarm of caterpillars that forces the citizens into lockdown and onto their computers. When Principal Skinner (Harry Shearer) accidentally leaves his computer camera on following a video chat session, Bart Simpson (Nancy Cartwright) gets a peek into his principal's home life — which is disrupted by the arrival of Skinner's Cousin Peter (Lowe).

"It's rarer and rarer to find firsts for me in the business, and this is a big one," Lowe tells EW about making his debut on The Simpsons. "I feel like, finally, I've arrived."

FOX Cousin Peter (Rob Lowe) arrives on 'The Simpsons'

Bart and his friends soon learn that Skinner's mother Agnes (Tress MacNeille) favors Peter over him — and why wouldn't she, when he's flaunting chest scruff and two-toned locks while Skinner logs onto "Chat Hippo" in rocket-themed pajama pants?

"Actors always talk about how multi-dimensional their characters are; well, this character's two-dimensional," Lowe says. "He's an actual cartoon, so that was a nice change of pace."

Lowe currently stars on 9-1-1: Lone Star as firefighter captain Owen Strand, and recently appeared opposite his son John Owen Lowe on Netflix's Unstable. His experience in the animated space includes voicing Simba on the Disney animated series The Lion Guard, among other credits.

"Voice acting is a whole different muscle — those muscles being your vocal cords, obviously," Lowe says. "No matter how many times I do it, I'm always amazed at how different voice acting is from any other type of acting."

Check out the exclusive photo of Cousin Peter above. "The Very Hungry Caterpillars" episode of The Simpsons airs Sunday, May 7, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Fox.

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