TVSquad

(S18E22)

Rod: Daddy, what are you doing?

Ned Flanders: Imploring people I never met to pressure government with better things to do to punish a man who meant no harm for something nobody even saw, that's what I'm doing!

Like I said in my other review, the "24 Minutes" episode, on the surface, seemed like the better choice for the 400th episode, but I'm glad they picked this one. The only reference to this being a milestone of some sort occurred in the opening: a short from the Tracey Ullman days showing Homer trying to take a picture of his family. It was nice and simple and a way of saying, "hey, we've been going at it this long, and we're going to keep going." Maybe I'm just not one for a lot of fanfare and hoo-ha, but I found that quite touching.

Hey, Brigitte here with TV Squad Daily. I'll be covering the TV stories I find interesting each day, Monday through Friday, in this video blog.

Today on TV Squad Daily:

• Odd roles for actors: Olsen twins as the next bond girls, Ludacris as a tube of toothpaste, and Jerry Seinfeld is back in the bee costume.
• What's in the Ritz Carlton "gifting room" for TV stars?

The video's embedded below, or you can download the file directly (Quicktime required). You can also subscribe to this podcast via our feed.

In a recent conference call, Simpsons writer and producer Al Jean spoke about the upcoming 400th episode, titled "Kent Always Say What You Want" (the title was originally "The Kent State Massacre" but that was changed for obvious reasons).

The episode airs May 20 at 8:30 p.m. and is preceded by the 24 spoof "24 Minutes" featuring guests Kiefer Sutherland and Mary Lynn Rajskub.

It's Sunday. The winter press tour is over. I'm currently coming down from being over-fed, over-sugared, and moderately-boozed. I'm also thinking back to the fact that during the last four days, I rarely left my hotel, because the networks were plying their wares for us from morning until night.

I'm going to post my overall thoughts on this TV smorgasboard later this week. But before I hop a plane back to Jersey, I wanted to talk about the session that was a TV nerd's dream, at least to this TV nerd: FOX's panel to celebrate the 400th episode of The Simpsons, which will air this May. On the panel was none other than creator Matt Groening, executive producer and TV legend James L. Brooks, current show-runner Al Jean, and voice actors Yeardley Smith (Lisa) and Dan Castellaneta (Homer and a bunch of other voices).