Interrupted only by the occasional group of neighborhood kids looking for free candy I’ve been plowing through the Halloween episodes this evening. I started at “Treehouse of Horror I” and just kept going. They’re a very accurate microcosm of the show at large in that they get a little bit weaker, but still outstanding in general, around Season 7 or 8 and go downhill from there. By Season 9 (where Homer’s the last man alive, Bart turns into a giant fly, and they do the story of the witches) things are undeniably different for the worse, and beyond that they’re…
Month: October 2009
Season 20 Releasing on January 12th
Per TVShowsOnDVD.com Season 20 won’t be here in time for Xmas. Instead, in what is sure to be a promotional shit storm that you won’t be able to escape, they’re releasing it two days before the big 20th anniversary special on January 14th. Which I just noticed is a Thursday, so steel yourselves for that cloyingly enthusiastic FOX announcer to say something like “Get ready for The Simpsons triumphant return to Thursday!” FOX is also putting the squeeze on Zombie Simpson fanboys to buy this things the day it comes out. From the TVShowsOnDVD.com: In the past, season set DVD…
Quote of the Day
“Mmmm, forbidden donut.” – Homer Simpson Happy Halloween, everybody!
Reading Digest – Title Change Edition
“Hey Einstein, put down your reading, it’s lunch time!” – Lenny Much like Sideshow Bob didn’t like that “bowel” thing, I’ve grown tired of this “dump” thing. In line with our general policy to name everything after something from The Simpsons the Friday Link Dump will be henceforth be known as Reading Digest, where we take all the Simpsons content on the internet, filter out the crap, and leave you with something that fits right in your front pocket. Today we’ve got math, some decent usage, a t-shirt I would totally buy if it existed, a non-stupid tidbit on Marge…
Quote of the Day
“This is all the Simpsons’ fault.” – Woman “Before I was just bored with their antics and their merchandise, now I wish they were dead.” – Man
Harvey Fierstein – Springfield Hero
Book promotion seems to involve taking excepts from the book and repackaging them into headlines as a way to interest people in purchasing the thing. In that vein I wanted to highlight one of my absolute favorite parts of Ortved’s book. (Which you should think about buying, or at least getting from your local library where you can “borrow” books for free.) Harvey Fierstein has solid Simpsons credentials. He was the voice of Karl in Season 2’s “Simpson and Delilah” and Patty and Selma were stunned to learn that he was gay in Season 6’s “A Star Is Burns”. Harvey…
Spurlock Update: Celebrity Checklist
Even by our low standards there isn’t much point in posting things from Spurlock’s Twitter feed, but I’m going to do it anyway: had another Simptastic day – spoke to Mike Reiss, Hank Azaria and Fat Tony himself, Joe Montagnea – tomorrow: Hef at the mansion. Crazy. Other than misspelling Mantegna’s last name there isn’t much of note here. Reiss was there for all the good stuff and has been back lately to no real effect. Azaria is, well, Azaria. Mantegna is fucking awesome and Hefner guest voiced back in the before time, in the long long ago. Will the…
Quote of the Day
“I’ll make a wish that can’t backfire. I wish for a turkey sandwich, on rye bread, with lettuce and mustard and-and I don’t want any zombie turkeys, I don’t want to turn into a turkey myself, and I don’t want any other weird surprises. You got it? . . . Hey! Hmmm, mmm, not bad, nice hot mustard, good bread, the turkey’s a little dry . . . the turkey’s a little dry! Oh foul accursed thing! What demon from the depths of hell created thee?” – Homer Simpson Happy birthday Dan Castellaneta!
“Trilogy of Error” Makes Baby Jesus Cry
“Hey Mom, look at me, look at what I can do!” – Homer Simpson “I see you Homer, that’s very nice.” – Grandma Simpson Season 12 was nothing if not a pageant of the trans-mundane and this episode fits right into its dull kaleidoscope. In case you’ve forgotten, this is the episode where they tell three weird stories that are happening concurrently and link them together in various ways. Listening to the commentary it’s very clear that the people behind the scenes were quite impressed with how well all the disparate little events tied together, and they’re right about that. …
Quote of the Day
“Homer, I’m impressed. You’re taking this quite well.” – Marge Simpson “I’ll kill you! I’ll kill all of you!” – Homer Simpson
Ricky Gervais Tries to Praise Zombie Simpsons, Unintentionally Contradicts Himself
This interview with Ricky Gervais is exactly the kind of incestuous entertainment industry fellatio that has helped allow Zombie Simpsons to stagger forward year after year. Here’s the opening paragraph, in which he employs perhaps the most cliched defense possible for why Zombie Simpsons should still be on the air: The Simpsons is quite simply one of the best TV shows of all time. When people nitpick and say, "That wasn’t a very good season", I want to go, "No, it wasn’t the best season. But it was still the best thing on TV that year". Ah, the old “it’s…
Quote of the Day
“There were monsters on that ship, and truly we were them.” – Lisa Simpson “Lisa, see what we mean when we say you’re too smart for your own good?” – Marge Simpson
DHS Book Review: The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History
“Marge, I’m bored.” – Homer Simpson “Why don’t you read something?” – Marge Simpson “Because I’m trying to reduce my boredom.” – Homer Simpson In countless discussions with other Simpsons fans over the years the one question that always seems to come up is “Why?”, as in “Why did the show get so bad?” I’ve heard a lot of different theories which always seem to boil down to something overly simple, ‘this guy left’, ‘that guy took over as show runner’, ‘they just ran out of topics/ideas’. The reality, as John Ortved documents exhaustively in his new book “The Simpsons:…
Spurlock Update: Enter Stan And Kyle
Via Spurlock’s Twitter feed we find that yesterday he interviewed Matt Stone and Trey Parker. There’s no specific word on whether or not this is for the Simpsons special, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned following Spurlock these last few months it’s that he’s involved in an enormous number of projects. But it seems unlikely that he’d be interviewing the creators of the most successful non-Simpsons animated show for something other than his upcoming Simpsons thing. So get ready for the obligatory quotes from Stone & Parker about how much The Simpsons meant for them, how it opened doors,…
Quote of the Day
“But what to do with poor Hugo? Too crazy for Boys Town, too much of a boy for Crazy Town. The child was an outcast. So, we did the only humane thing.” – Dr. Hibbert “We chained Hugo up in the attic like an animal and fed him a bucket of fish heads once a week.” – Homer Simpson “It’s saved our marriage!” – Marge Simpson
Quote of the Day
“From A-apple to Z-zebra, ‘Baby’s First Pop-up Book’ is twenty six pages of alphabetic adventure.” – Bart Simpson “Bart, do you mean to tell me you read a book intended for preschoolers?” – Mrs. Krabappel “Well, most of it.” – Bart Simpson Happy birthday Nancy Cartwright!
“Simpsons Tall Tales” Makes Baby Jesus Cry
“Ughhh, this goes on for twelve more minutes.” – Krusty the Klown “Trilogy” or “storytelling” episodes like this one, where they have three independent segments, have always been maligned, even by people who think Zombie Simpsons doesn’t suck (check out the ratings, poll, and comments here if you don’t believe me). I’ve always thought the reason for this is that there are no genuinely good trilogy-type episodes. They didn’t do the first one until Season 10 (“Simpsons Bible Stories”) long after the show had begun transforming into Zombie Simpsons and so there’s no well of built up good will from…
Saturday Morning Cartoons
Of all the many things that limit commercially supported television programs, the need to cram the story into a defined schedule, complete with rigidly timed advertising breaks, may be the most restrictive. It’s not easy to tell a story in a such a specific amount of time, much less with the need for a small cliffhanger every six to eight minutes. Naturally The Simpsons always handled this with aplomb and one of the cleverest instances of it comes from Season 3’s “Dog of Death”. Just after the family’s lottery hopes are dashed, and they are put through the cruel wringer…
Quote of the Day
“Wait! Doesn’t my father have the right to a fair trial?” – Lisa Simpson “Oh, you Americans with your due process and fair trials. This is always so much easier in Mexico.” – The Devil
Friday Link Dump – Video Clips Edition
Image used under Creative Commons license from Flickr user fo.ol. “Is a coma painful?” – Lisa Simpson “Oh heck no, you relive long lost summers, kiss girls from high school, it’s like one of those teevee shows where they show a bunch of clips from old episodes.” – Abe “Grandpa” Simpson The stuffing of my inbox with “Marge in Playboy” crap continued apace this week. Hopefully it’ll die down soon. In the meantime the Ortved publicity machine continues to roll, there’s a recipe for squishies, one piece of absolutely excellent usage and a ton of links with time wasting video…