TVSquad

(S21E05) I've been waiting all season for this episode. As a long-lapsed fan of The Simpsons, it was beginning to look like someone had sucked the heart right out of Springfield's first family. Maybe they have, for the most part, but everything that made The Simpsons such a great show 20 years ago was there tonight.

Maybe it was that we finally got to see Mr. Burns again; he was always my favorite. Yes, he only had a bit part, and in fact the part of maniacal boss was played by Carl instead of Burns, but his presence set up the stories of the entire episode. I'll go so far as to say everything about that episode worked, from Marge's sexy calendar to Ned Flander's role in the final moments.

Even the brief encounters with Bart at school fed the main story, and were handled perfectly. This is what The Simpsons is capable of, and despite a few moments that were a bit more crass than I recall the Simpsons of yore being, it was classic Simpsons all over again.

As you know, we're in the middle of the 20th anniversary of FOX's The Simpsons, and the network has a special contest that actually starts during tonight's episode of House.

It's a scavenger hunt, and here's how it works. During this entire week (November 9-13) the network will scatter references to the show throughout their lineup. And this isn't something that will show up in just a few shows here and there, you're going to find a reference to The Simpsons in every FOX prime time show.

(S21E03) "Call me a killjoy, but I think that because this is not to my taste, no one else should be able to enjoy it!" --Marge Simpson on Ultimate Punching

I'm not a fan of Ultimate Fighting, though I think that other people should be able to watch it, if they're so inclined. But it is an all too common stance among watchdog groups, including mothers, sympathetic school officials and the clergy, as Nelson so kindly pointed out. Of course, this has been going on for years, but it was still a clever enough send-up of the problem.

Maybe it's because I don't find Marge to be one of the funnier characters on the show and this episode focused on her, so there weren't as many funny moments in the main storylines. Luckily, there were plenty of side characters and moments to spotlight.

This wooden Simpsons couch can be yours for only $5000 or so!

It's one of 1500 displays that were sent to movie theaters when The Simpsons Movie came out. Now it's being sold on eBay. You can either bid on it or buy it now for the above price. Might be kind of fun to have the show's couch in your living room next to your own couch.

[via MTV]

Gadgets have always fascinated me. And it's not because of what you can do with them. It's what you CAN'T do with them. The day my microwave can cook my dinner, then feed it to me while it's cleaning my toilet, de-crumbing the toaster, and doing my taxes is the day my interest in gadgets dies.

The most impressive aspects of gadgetry are how much you can customize them to fit your taste and personality. Just a few years ago, having a Dilbert screen saver that didn't send your hard drive into an epileptic fit was the epitome of "personal" computing.

Now you can change the way it looks from every angle, the way it thinks, and even the way it talks. TomTom unveiled a new voice skin for their GPS devices. Now Homer Simpson, the actual voice of Homer Simpson voiced by Dan Castellanetta, can guide you to locations and it doesn't have to be a dispensery of donuts.

Was there a theme for last night's animated shows on FOX? First The Simpsons has an episode about letting a neighbor (in this case, Ogdenville residents) into Springfield and then building a fence to keep them out. Then King of the Hill had an episode where the guys battled with a new family from Canada. I actually thought that the King of the Hill episode was funnier, though I did love that one joke where Krusty eats one of his new environmentally-friendly burgers, but it's really a stunt-eater eating it in a close-up.

What did everyone else think?

I can vividly remember a time when The Simpsons was the hot new show that every parent had to keep away from their kids or Child Protective Services would show up and take them away. So every time I see the newest thing that The Simpsons are on this week, I can feel myself aging.

I love The Simpsons. It has been my all time favorite show as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end, amen. So I have to have the coolest Simpsons stuff. But every time I see Bart on a TV shirt, I can feel my hair turning gray and thinner.

I've often heard from married guys that the best way to test your loved one's love is to change the wedding plans at the last minute to something completely outrageous. I'm assuming they mean an idea more outrageous than marriage.

If you're a football fan, tell them you want a cake in the shape of Dick Butkus' head -- or John Madden, if you've got more than 100 people. If you're a Star Trek fan, tell your bride you want a Mr. Spock impersonator as your best man who will say in his toast, "After today, I now understand this human emotion called love."

The whole thing sounds like a foolproof escape plan, which would explain why married guys are the ones who keep thinking of it. But for one groom who is organizing a Simpsons themed wedding, it seems to have either backfired or fulfilled his deepest dream.

This Sunday, FOX will air the annual Simpsons Halloween special "Treehouse of Horror" episode. We've already told you that this year's installment will spoof Peanuts, advertising, and Transformers. Now we have some screen shots of the opening credits, courtesy of Best Week Ever.

As you can see from the picture above, The Simpsons are doing Mad Men this season. Now, there's nothing particularly Halloween-ish or scary about Mad Men (though we could talk for hours about how Mad Men really is kind of frightening, with marriages and characters and the American Dream falling apart and all that), but I've been waiting for someone to parody the beautiful opening credits.

Hasn't The Simpsons already spoofed It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown on one of its many "Treehouse of Horror" episodes? You would think it would be a natural for them and it would have been done years ago.

The classic Peanuts show is one of the segments spoofed (it's called "It's The Great Pumpkin, Milhouse") on the annual Halloween episode of the show. The other segments include a Transformers spoof (the robots try to destroy Springfield, of course), and the segment I'm most looking forward to, a Mad Men takeoff. Seems that advertising agencies hire Homer to kill celebrities so they can make a bunch of money off of their likenesses. It's called "How To Get Ahead In Deadvertising." We'll see Homer falling off of a building a la Mad Men's opening credits.

As is often the case, the Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror" episode will actually air after Halloween, on November 2. After the jump, a video retrospective of the show's Halloween episodes and a sneak peek at one of the scenes from the new one.

The Simpsons is about to go some place it has never gone before: Homer Simpson's colon.

According to The New York Post, Homer is going to undergo a colonoscopy this season. Actually, it's not going to be part of the long-running FOX show, it's going to be part of the multi-network cancer benefit on September 5 titled Stand Up To Cancer. The Post even quotes a line from the segment that already has me laughing, from Marge: "There's his wedding band! He told me he was having it polished!" Which begs the question, do Marge and Homer even wear their rings?

Stand Up To Cancer is an ambitious telethon that will air on all four networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX). The three network news anchors (Katie Couric, Charles Gibson, and Brian Williams) even went on the morning shows several weeks back to promote this rare display of unity between the networks.

Hopefully Homer will be clean as a whistle, despite 40 plus years of eating fried foods and donuts.

I was going to make some sort of "dough" and "doh!" here, but I'm sure that will already happen elsewhere.

The owner of a candy store in Aviles, Spain found a Euro with the face of Simpsons star (star? character?) Homer Simpson on it. The coin usually has King Juan Carlos on it. The other side of the coin wasn't touched, and no other coins have shown up with the likeness of Homer, or any other TV character, for that matter.

Which got me thinking: putting TV and movie characters on coins is a great idea. The U.S. is so obsessed with pop culture, what better way to show that then to put celebrities and characters on our money? I can imagine Montgomery Burns on the $100 bill.

(S19E20) "Applause is an addiction, like heroin or checking your e-mail." -- Sideshow Mel

Well, another season of The Simpsons has come to an end. As with the last few seasons some stuff was good, some was okay, and the rest should have gone back to the Writers' Room for further revision ("Treehouse of Horror", anyone?). Most of the weak stuff landed in the first half of the season for some reason -- maybe everyone was tired from the completion of The Simpsons Movie. The second half picked up steam, thanks to some solid episodes featuring Lisa and Bart.

Luckily, The Simpsons ended on a strong note with the Lisa-centric season finale. Once again going back to the on-going theme of how success can corrupt Lisa, we were treated to an episode featuring her turn to work with the famous Krusty the Clown. I say 'her turn' because older brother Bart had worked for Krusty in the past. And, like Bart, Lisa usurped Krusty's fame to become the star of the show.

You would think Krusty would have learned his lesson.

I went to Universal Studios in Hollywood on Saturday for the revealing of The Simpsons Ride. Celebs walked the "yellow" carpet. The mayor welcomed the crowds and led the countdown. A human cannonball was shot into the air. And a yellow sheet dropped to reveal a 32-foot Krusty the Clown face at the entrance to the attraction.

Despite the launch being for The Simpsons, there were hardly any members of the cast there on the yellow carpet. Kelsey Grammer (Sideshow Bob) was there along with creator Matt Groening and producer James L. Brooks but no other voice talents were anywhere to be found. See who I talked to and read more about the ride unveiling after the jump.

(S19E19)"Mom, I can't believe you're here! You keep disappearing and reappearing and it's not funny! You're just like that show Scrubs" -- Homer to his mother after her unexpected return.

Over the past few Sundays this space has been reserved for deeper looks into The Simpsons. Despite the fact that it is an animated series there is usually an underlying base of themes, emotions, and psychoanalytical analysis that takes place amongst the Simpson family and those around them. In fact, one 22-minute episode can contain many layers of subtext that define each character further.

This week, though, not so much of that. What we may have thought to be a sweet story about the return of Homer's mother turned out to be a huge joke fest. Well, actually more a joke fest during the second half of the show than the first half. The first half was actually kind of sad as Homer couldn't take one more of Mona Simpson's promises that she had stopped running from the government and was now ready to devote her time to Homer and his family. The second half was a totally different Simpsons episode.