TheSimpsons-related stories
Posted Oct 19th 2009 8:46PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: The Simpsons, Animation, Reality-Free
Do you just love it when life imitates art? It makes me wonder if art can legally sue for copyright infringement.
Fox wants
Simpsons viewers to design a new character as part of a contest for a future episode at
TheSimpsons.com. Aspiring character engineers have until Oct. 24 to submit their entry.
And here's the best part: you don't even have to know how to draw to enter. All you have to do is describe your character and the animators will draw it for you. That should come in handy for the next WGA Strike. I wonder if the winning character will go in a fire extinguisher case in case of contractual emergencies.
Posted Oct 16th 2009 11:03AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, The Simpsons, Reality-Free
As part of the 20th anniversary celebrations, Fox is holding a contest in which fans can
create a character online that will appear in an upcoming episode of
The Simpsons. Entries can be submitted on
The Simpsons website (although apparently not yet) and should include such information as name, age, appearance, occupation and catchphrase ("D'oh!").
I suspect that all entries will be the property of Fox upon submission. Since the show has been around for so long, it must be tough to invent new, unique and interesting characters so Fox is having the fans do it.
Of course, everyone could always just submit themselves as a candidate. It would be a little like that "
Simpsonize yourself" craze from not too long ago. So many celebrities have made appearances on the show over the years, it would be nice if a non-celebrity, the sort that kept the show in business, would have a cameo.
Posted Oct 7th 2009 10:02PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: TV on the Bigscreen, The Simpsons, Reality-Free
If you fondly remember watching the first
Simpsons Movie hoping that the sequel would bring you equal amounts of life affirming excitement, keep hoping.
Matt Groening and Al Jean said an interview with Morgan Spurlock, the
Super Size Me star and director hired for
the show's big anniversary extravaganza, that they have
no plans to start doing another Simpsons movie anytime soon.
They didn't rule out the possibility of another movie, but it certainly won't be in the foreseeable future. The pair said the process for the first movie was so frustrating that they couldn't fathom even starting a second one without some kind of heavy duty anti-psychotic medication.
Posted Oct 5th 2009 7:02PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: The Simpsons, Awards, Reality-Free
The Simpsons have been around for so long that one must wonder if there is an award they haven't been given yet. I mean other than that stupid, meaningless paperweight the industry calls
the Emmy.
The Paley Center for Media will pay a special tribute to
The Simpsons at this year's annual fundraising gala. The Center's president Pat Mitchell said they chose to honor the show because of its "tremendous impact on the television sitcom over the last 20 years and continues to influence and redefine the medium."
So I guess now when the nominating committee for the Paley Center has their annual honor candidate hoedown and someone suggests
The Simpsons, the
South Park delegate can yell "
Simpsons did it!"
Posted Sep 25th 2009 11:05AM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: The Simpsons, Interviews, Reality-Free
Al Jean started out with
The Simpsons 20 years ago as a writer working a couple of days a week. He was there when the series started, and even before it was officially a series, working on the Christmas show in 1989, when
The Simpsons first broke away from its beginnings on
The Tracey Ullman Show.
Now he's an executive producer and showrunner, staring down the twentieth anniversary of the official start of the series, which happens in January. I spoke with him this week about this Sunday's season premiere, a bit of
Simpsons history, and just how long the
Simpsons can keep making people laugh.
After 20 years of doing The Simpsons, how do you find something new to do with the show? How do you generate ideas you haven't done before?
Well, it's the best of both worlds. If something happens to you in your life or to the world, you can satirize it but you get to use these characters that people love and that you're very familiar with. To me, there's a lot of topics that are fresh and interesting.
Continue reading Executive producer Al Jean talks about 20 years of The Simpsons
Posted Sep 19th 2009 5:03PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, The Simpsons, Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free
Practically every other celebrity on Earth has been a guest voice on
The Simpsons. Hell, then even managed to land the reclusive author Alan Moore for a comic book-themed episode. Now,
Borat and
Bruno star
Sacha Baron Cohen will be lending his voice to an episode of the animated series.
Supposedly, Cohen will play an "angry but funny" tour guide that helps them while the family tours Israel with their church group. For such a low income family, the Simpsons sure get to tour a lot of different countries. Homer even went up into space at one point.
Cohen will not be playing any of his trademark characters, and that's probably for the best. They were getting a little stale anyway. Perhaps he could invent a new character (or at least a character voice) for this appearance.
In other facts about the episode, Homer gets Jerusalem complex while visiting and thinks he's God. And to the Fox network, he is.
Posted Aug 28th 2009 12:28PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: The Simpsons, Reality-Free
I'm ashamed to admit this, but in the wake of Sen. Edward Kennedy's passing, a thought occurred to me: "I wonder what the late Senator and son of Camelot thought of
The Simpsons' Mayor Quimby impression."
But what started as the nerdy thought of an overworked blogger also held a deep lesson in humility.
The late Sen. Kennedy, lampooned in the long-running Fox sitcom by actor Dan Castellaneta's voice-over caricature, actually embraced the animated politician as part of a contest held in conjunction with the theatrical release of
The Simpsons Movie.
Continue reading A lesson in humility from Sen. Edward Kennedy and Mayor Joe Quimby
Posted Aug 11th 2009 6:29PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Industry, Animation, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Seth MacFarlane might have one of the most overrated shows on television right now (
in my personal opinion, of course), but he hasn't let that cloud his realism when it comes to its future.
He of all people realizes that the best shows are the ones that left people hungering for more long after they left the airwaves. You following me,
Scrubs?
MacFarlane told the
Edmonton Sun and
TV Guide Canada's resident TV junkie
Amber Dowling that he has seen the future of
Family Guy's finale and hopes it will come to an end while it is still on top.
Continue reading Is the end nigh for Family Guy?
Posted Aug 11th 2009 11:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Awards, Reality-Free
How many people remember
Dragnet? Or maybe I should say how many people remember actually watching
Dragnet, the "just the facts" police show starring the iconic Jack Webb? The reason I ask is because the
U.S. Postal Service is immortalizing Dragnet with a postage stamp tomorrow.
In light of the fact that letter writing and postal service are dramatically in decline, my guess is that there will be an older crowd nodding appreciatively when
Dragnet is honored. You see, the younger generation (did I really say that?) doesn't have much use for stamps and won't be buying the
Dragnet first class stamp.
Continue reading Dragnet rates a U.S. postal stamp
Posted Aug 6th 2009 12:15PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: The Simpsons, TCA Press Tour, Reality-Free
It's Fox day, at the TCAs, and they've started the day by giving us some announcements:
- Guest voices on the 21st season of The Simpsons will include: Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Anne Hathaway, Chris Martin, Sarah Silverman, Angela Bassett, Chuck Liddell, Jackie Mason, Neve Campbell, Eli and Payton Manning, Bob Costas, and the late Eartha Kitt.
- From November 9 through November 15, Fox will hold a Simpsons "scavenger hunt" with clues scattered through their programming.
- Gordon Ramsay will conduct a live one-hour cooking demonstration on December 15 at 9 ET. The show is called Gordon Ramsay: Cookalong Live.
- Finally, Britney Spears will receive the "Ultimate Choice" award at the Teen Choice Awards.
More stuff to come during the day. Of course, for the latest,
follow our Twitter feed.
Posted Aug 1st 2009 10:03AM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: Programming, The Simpsons, Animation, Documentary, Reality-Free
When documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock first saw
The Simpsons, he was a 19- or 20-year-old college kid, still living at home with his mother in West Virginia. Having grown up watching
Monty Python,
Fawlty Towers, and
Blackadder, Spurlock was ecstatic to watch
The Tracey Ullman Show, the show that would eventually introduce him to
The Simpsons.
Twenty years later, Spurlock has established himself as a filmmaker with
Super Size Me and
Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden, and will direct a segment for the upcoming adaptation of
Freakonomics. And he'll get to tackle the show he's loved these past two decades as he produces and directs
The Simpsons Anniversary Special - In 3-D! On Ice!, which will air Thursday, January 14, 2010.
Spurlock remembers his first impression of the show, watching back in his college days. "When it first came on, I was in college, and it was literally an obsession. It was something that me and all my friends would literally ... at 8 o'clock, we were sitting there on the couch watching this show, and it was something that we all did together," said Spurlock in a conference call with media last week. "For all my four years of college, that was something that we did."
Continue reading Morgan Spurlock on The Simpsons Anniversary Special -- In 3-D! On Ice!
Posted Jul 14th 2009 8:25AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, The Simpsons, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Now we know why Homer weighs so much: he's eating too many Big Macs. Seriously, Fox is capping off their 20th anniversary celebration of
The Simpsons by hiring
Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock to
direct a documentary of the show.
Sadly, since Fox is behind this production, the documentary will likely be biased on behalf of
The Simpsons. Possibly even making them into sympathetic characters, thus ignoring Homer's temper and drunkenness, Bart's antisocial psychotic behavior, Marge's ignorance of the aforementioned and Lisa's extreme liberalism. Of course, if all that was taken into account, the documentary would only be about Maggie.
I do hope the documentary has some original material, like a framing sequence with the family. Although that's been done before with the
"Behind the Laughter" episode.
The Simpsons did it! The title of the documentary says it all:
The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special in 3-D on Ice. In 3-D. On Ice. This is a must-see.
Posted Jul 3rd 2009 10:03AM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Programming, The Simpsons, Video, Animation, Celebrities, Reality-Free
"Stark Raving Dad," the season three opener of
The Simpsons, is a hilarious and heartwarming half-hour. It reminds me of the show's best days when it delivered that perfect blend of bizarre humor, social commentary and unexpected sweetness. I'll be one of the millions tuning in this Sunday when
Fox re-airs the ep as a tribute to uncredited guest star Michael Jackson.
Like Joel
reminded us last week, the King of Pop provided the voice for Leon Kompowsky, a large and loveable brick layer who says he is Michael Jackson. In the episode, Homer is charmed by Leon and brings him home from a mental institution, where the rest of the family eventually falls in love with him. The sweetest moment comes at the end when Leon and Bart perform a birthday song for Lisa.
Continue reading Fox to re-air Michael Jackson Simpsons episode
Posted Jun 27th 2009 2:02PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: The Simpsons, Watercooler Talk, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Michael Jackson's impact on TV's infallible mammoth
The Simpsons goes far deeper than we
previously suspected. In fact, Jackson is probably one of the many creative minds who helped the show and its characters move into more musical territory and become an even deeper part of global pop culture. When you're a king, you have all sorts of powers, so you might as well use them for the good of your kingdom.
That's why when I become king, I will order all television networks to play nothing but
Top Gear and
Robot Chicken and that episode of
Married...With Children where Al meets a stripper named Rocki Mountains. Anyone who tries to stop me will be thrown into a cell without the benefit of trial and forced to watch reruns of
Cop Rock and
AfterMASH until their eyes stop working and/or melt right out of their skull. Whadaya gonna do about it? I'm the frigging king!
Continue reading Michael Jackson's connection to The Simpsons runs deeper than you think
Posted Jun 26th 2009 11:26AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: TV Royalty, OpEd, The Simpsons, Video, Watercooler Talk, Celebrities, Reality-Free
When I heard that
Michael Jackson died, I tried to think of how his career touched the world of TV. What surprised me was that he utilized TV much more than most people realized: from his first appearances on shows like
The Ed Sullivan Show, to his groundbreaking MTV videos and moonwalk on
Motown 25, to even the coverage of his court battles, Michael has been as much a TV fixture as a musical fixture.
But when I think of MJ on TV, my mind will always drift to his memorable appearance on
The Simpsons. It was the first episode of the third season (all the way back in -- gulp -- 1991), in an episode called "
Stark Raving Dad." Homer is thrown in a mental institution for wearing a pink shirt to work. In there, he meets a huge galumphing patient named Leon Kompowski, who happens to sound like Michael Jackson. Leon leaves with Homer (he's there voluntarily) and helps Bart write a stirring birthday tribute to his sister, "Happy Birthday Lisa."
Continue reading Michael Jackson's memorable Simpsons stint
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