the simpsons-related stories
Posted Nov 2nd 2009 11:01AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: The Simpsons, Animation, Web, Reality-Free
While we wait for the World Series to be over and
The Simpsons (and other Sunday night FOX shows) to return, here's something fun: a list of the
14 most awesome fake products from the show (
The Simpsons I mean, not the World Series).
I'm sure that there have been a gazillion funny products over the years on the show. I can't even remember more than a few of them. But this list brought back a lot of memories of certain episodes with great fake products, including: Malk, Cheezus H. Rice, and Nuts and Gm (Together At Last!).
[via
Pop Candy]
[Watch
clips and episodes of The Simpsons and other shows at SlashControl.]
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 19th 2009 8:06AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: The Simpsons, Reality-Free
Warning: the following might be NSFW, if your W objects to cartoon nudity.
We told you last week about
Playboy's new issue with
The Simpsons mom Marge on the cover. Well, she's also the subject of a pictorial inside (complete with a questionnaire) and now the images have made it online. After the jump, one of the pictures (
here are the rest).
The funny part is (and something I didn't really think about before) was that Matt Groening drew these pics himself.
Continue reading Here's Marge Simpson - nude!
Posted Oct 18th 2009 12:13PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free
At 7, ABC has a new America's Funniest Home Videos, followed by new episodes of Extreme Makeover, Desperate Housewives, and Brothers & Sisters.- CBS has a new 60 Minutes at 7, then new episodes of The Amazing Race, Three Rivers, and Cold Case.
- NBC has a new Football Night in America at 7, followed by the Bears vs. the Falcons.
- FOX has a new Brothers at 7.
- At 8, FOX has a new episode of The Simpsons, then a new Cleveland Show.
- TBS has Baseball Playoffs at 8, the Dodgers vs. the Phillies.
- Nickelodeon has a new Nick News Special Edition at 8.
- At 9, PBS has a new Masterpiece Mystery!
- Food Network has a new Next Iron Chef at 9, then a new Iron Chef America.
- IFC has Monty Python: Almost The Truth (The Lawyer's Cut) at 9.
- HBO has a new Curb Your Enthusiasm at 9, followed by a new Bored To Death.
- Also at 9: Showtime has a new Dexter, then a new Californication.
- At 9:30, FOX has a new American Dad.
- At 10, AMC has a new Mad Men.
- At 11:30, Cartoon Network has a new Titan Maximum.
- At midnight , Cartoon Network has a new Venture Brothers.
Check your
local TV listings for more.
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 11th 2009 12:17PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free
TBS has Baseball Playoffs all night.- At 7, CBS has a new 60 Minutes, followed by new episodes of The Amazing Race, Three Rivers, and Cold Case.
- NBC has a new Football Night in America at 7, then the Colts vs. the Titans.
- FOX has a new Brothers at 7.
- At 7:30, ABC has a new America's Funniest Home Videos (30 minutes), followed by new episodes of Extreme Makeover, Desperate Housewives, and Brothers & Sisters.
- At 8, FOX has a new episode of The Simpsons, then new episodes of The Cleveland Show, Family Guy, and American Dad.
- Food Network has a new Challenge at 8, followed by new episodes of Next Iron Chef and Iron Chef America.
- At 8:30, Disney has a new Jonas.
- At 9, PBS has a new Masterpiece Mystery!
- HBO has a new Curb Your Enthusiasm at 9, then a new Bored To Death.
- Showtime has a new Dexter at 9, then a new Californication.
- Lifetime has the season finale of Drop Dead Diva at 9, followed by the season finale of Army Wives.
- At 10, AMC has a new Mad Men.
- At 11:30, Cartoon Network has a new Titan Maximum.
Check your
local TV listings for more.
Posted Oct 9th 2009 3:27PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: The Simpsons, Reality-Free
Come on guys, admit it: you've wondered what Marge Simpson looks like naked, right? She has always had a great body for a cartoon character, looking great on the rare times that the Simpsons go out to a fancy dinner or party. Wait, is it just me that thinks that way? Never mind. Ahem.
Anyway, Marge is the cover girl for the November issue of
Playboy! I wonder if we'll see more of her than we've ever seen before.
[via
TMZ]
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 Oct 4th 2009 12:19PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free
At 7, ABC has a new America's Funniest Home Videos, followed by new episodes of Extreme Makeover, Desperate Housewives, and Brothers & Sisters.- CBS has a new 60 Minutes at 7, then a new Amazing Race, the series premiere of Three Rivers, and a new Cold Case.
- NBC has a new Football Night in America at 7, followed by the Chargers vs. the Steelers.
- At 8, FOX has a new episode of The Simpsons, then new episodes of The Cleveland Show, Family Guy, and American Dad.
- Food Network has a new Challenge at 8, then the season premiere of The Next Iron Chef.
- At 9, PBS has a new Masterpiece Mystery!
- HBO has a new Curb Your Enthusiasm at 9, then a new Bored To Death.
- Lifetime has a new Drop Dead Diva at 8, followed by a new Army Wives.
- Showtime has a new Dexter at 9, then a new Californication.
- Discovery has two new episodes of Raging Planet at 9.
- At 10, AMC has a new Mad Men.
- At 10:30, HBO has the season finale of Entourage.
- At 11:30, Cartoon Network has a new Titan Maximum.
Check your
local TV listings for more.
Posted Sep 27th 2009 12:09PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free
At 7, ABC has the two-hour season premiere of Extreme Makeover, followed by the season premieres of Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters.- CBS has a new 60 Minutes at 7, then the two-hour season premiere of The Amazing Race and the season premiere of Cold Case.
- NBC has a new Football Night in America at 7, followed by the Colts vs. the Cardinals.
- At 8, FOX has the season premiere of The Simpsons, then the series premiere of The Cleveland Show and the season premieres of Family Guy and American Dad.
- TBS has The Wizard of Oz at 8.
- Nickelodeon has a new Nick News Special Edition at 8.
- Also at 8: Food Network has a new Challenge, followed by a new Iron Chef America.
- At 8:30, ESPN has the Red Sox/Yankees game.
- At 9, HBO has a new Curb Your Enthusiasm, then a new Bored To Death.
- Showtime has the season premiere of Dexter at 9, followed by the season premiere of Californication.
- Cartoon Network has a new Total Drama Action at 9.
- Hallmark has the movie Mrs. Washington Goes To Smith at 9.
- At 10, AMC has a new Mad Men.
- At 10:30, HBO has a new Entourage.
Check your
local TV listings for more.
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 26th 2009 12:28PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming, Video, Reality-Free
Pop culture lists that have 100 or more entries, whether it's a list for television, film, music, books, advertising, whatever - are too long. When you list 100 of anything, you're not really getting down to the "best" (or "worst," if that's the theme of the list), you're just giving a list of 100.
Supertremendous.com has their list of the
100 most iconic TV show intros. You can read the first 90, but I wanted to concentrate on
the top ten. That list includes
The Brady Bunch,
The Simpsons,
M*A*S*H,
Knight Rider (???), and
The Twilight Zone, along with the number one pick after the jump. Can you guess it before you click?
Continue reading Here's a list of 100 iconic TV show openings (OK, maybe not 100 ... )
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