It's Guest Star Tina Fey vs. Lisa On 'The Simpsons'

This season on "The Simpsons," a smart and snarky comedienne  will be a hunter setting after Lisa Simpson as her prey.

Even with "30 Rock" winding down into its final season, there's nary a role in which the versatile Tina Fey can't shine. In the coming 24th season, the "Saturday Night Live" alum, author and actress will play a predatory substitute teacher with a place on her wall for Lisa's spikey, lemon-hued noggin.

Relax, folks, This isn't a "Treehouse of Horror" teaser. Fey's temporary instructor Ms. Cantwell just has a knack - and taste - for breaking the will of over-achieving students, Entertainment Weekly reports.

"She gives Lia a 'B' and Ralph an 'A' even though Ralph signed his paper 'Ralpa,'" executive producer Al Jean said. "And Lisa has a reading kangaroo with a bunch of little joeys in it for the books that she reads, and [Ms. Cantwell] takes the joeys out and puts them in other kangaroos. Hardcore stuff."

Damn. Our Ms. Cantwell doesn't play.

OK, so it's not the most completely original premise Team Groening has ever devised, but it's one that at least plays off a certain character consistency: whether in the classroom, the schoolyard or even in young love, Lisa often buckles beneath the weighty moments when she's not the Alpha. Competition doesn't suit her, and the state of being second-best has always reacted violently with her unfamiliarity with being a rung down on the ladder.

Begs the question: whatever could happen when she's left nowhere else to be but in that corner? How adaptable can she be?

The 24th season kicks off Sun. Sept. 30 on FOX, with Fey's turn as Ms. Cantwell set nebulously to debut some time in Spring 2013.