“Oh, Springfield Elementary, I will have you back again! After all, tomorrow is another school day!” – Principal Skinner Happy Simpsons Day, everybody! Today marks the 30th anniversary of “Simpsons Roasting On an Open Fire” and the beginning of the best ten-ish year streak in television history. I’m sure there are a lot of retrospective pieces up around the internet today, but as you can tell from the near total lack of substantive posts around here, I don’t think there’s much left to be said, so you’re on your own for finding them. About that total lack of posts: I…
Tag: Simpsons Day
Quote of the Day
“What are the odds on Santa’s Little Helper?” – Homer Simpson “Ninety-nine to one.” – Ticket Booth Guy “Wow! Ninety-nine times thirteen equals merry Christmas!” – Homer Simpson Happy Simpsons Day everybody!
The Cost of Zombie Simpsons
“I think it’s full, sir.” – Mr. Smithers “That’s ridiculous! The last tree held nine drums!” – C.M. Burns NOTE: Back in September, in response to Alf Clausen’s firing, I posted what would be a new chapter for an expanded version of “Zombie Simpsons: How the Best Show Ever Became the Broadcasting Undead”. The book is still being shopped to publishers, and early responses have been mixed, in that some of them ignore it, and others reject it. But it’s Simpsons Day, and I’m a long way from giving up on it, so here is another new chapter. It’s very…
Cruelly Bleak Simpsons Lines
“I’m just wondering: what’s the point? Would it make any difference at all if I never existed? How can we sleep at night when there’s so much suffering in the world?” – Lisa Simpson “Well . . . uh . . . come on, Lisa! Ride the Homer horsey! Giddy-up, weeee!” – Homer Simpson The Simpsons always took a pretty dim view not just of human nature, but of human existence generally. Misdeeds are rarely punished, triumphs are rarely recognized, and justice is all but non-existent. After all, if there’s one thing Homer’s learned, it’s that life is one crushing…
Quote of the Day
“Yello?” – Homer Simpson “Marge, please.” – Patty Bouvier “Who’s this?” – Homer Simpson “May I please speak to Marge.” – Patty Bouvier “This is her sister, isn’t it?” – Homer Simpson “Is Marge there?” – Patty Bouvier “Who shall I say is calling?” – Homer Simpson “Marge, please.” – Patty Bouvier “It’s your sister.” – Homer Simpson Happy Simpsons Day, everybody!
Some Simpsons Day YouTube
“Oh, Marge, sitting next to the boss, the best night of the year and it’s ruined!” – Homer Simpson Last year Simpsons Day fell on a Saturday and I got to spend the whole thing sitting on my ass and watching cartoons. Sadly, today is a work day, but there’s still plenty of great, old Simpsons stuff to enjoy on-line. For starters, check out this 1990 interview with Groening, Brooks and Simon: Near the end, the interviewer asks about all the merchandise (remember, this was the absolute height of Bartmania), and Groening plugs some of the upcoming licensed crap: We’ve…
Quote of the Day
Image shamelessly yoinked from here. “I think what we have on our hands here is a classic case of what laymen refer to as ‘fear of failure’. As a result, Bart is an underachiever, and yet he seems to be, how should I put this? Proud of it?” – Dr. J. Loren Pryor Happy Simpsons Day, everybody!
Behind the Scenes
For some more Simpsons Day YouTube fun, here are a couple of very old behind the scenes videos. This first one is really cool. It’s a home video tour of Klasky-Csupo studio back at the very beginning of the show. I have no idea where it came from, and it isn’t really informative per se, but it is fascinating. These are the rooms those early episodes were drawn: There are a lot of familiar names, plus late 80s fashions and gizmos, on display. And, wow, David Silverman looks…
Groening on The Tonight Show in 1991
On Simpsons Day last year I posted an old video of Groening on Letterman right before “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” premiered. He wasn’t exactly camera comfortable then. Here’s an interview with him from The Tonight Show in 1991 (this must be Leno guest hosting for Carson), and he’s got his shtick down much better. This has to be shortly after the premier of the third season when the show couldn’t get a bigger, and even then Groening only rates as the third guest. What’s funny is…
One Bad Episode
“Aw, come on Dad. This can be the miracle that saves the Simpsons’ Christmas. If TV has taught me anything it’s that miracles always happen to poor kids at Christmas. It happened to Tiny Tim, it happened to Charlie Brown, it happened to the Smurfs, and it’s gonna happen to us.” – Bart Simpson The Dead Homer Society Manifesto lists Season 7 as having “One Bad Episode”. That episode is “Marge Be Not Proud”. Please understand that we only consider “Marge Be Not Proud” a ‘bad’ episode by the towering standards of early season Simpsons. Compared with the wretched dreck…
How Far We’ve Come
Because I can’t get enough vintage twenty year old YouTube today here’s a promo for the FOX network in what looks like the fall of 1990. The Simpsons are featured heavily: Here’s a random block of commercials from Christmas of 1989. Skip to the :30 mark for the Simpsons promo: Amusingly, the Simpsons promo is followed by a “Married with Children” promo, which is followed by a commercial for an easy listening compilation, $19.99 for 3 records or 2 cassettes, $24.99 for 2 CDs. Hey music industry, want to know why no one feels bad about stealing your music? …
Crazy Noises: Marge Be Not Proud
“I don’t think we should hang out together anymore. You’re turning me into a criminal when all I want to be is a petty thug.” – Bart Simpson As part of our efforts to bring you only the finest in low class, low brow, and low tech internet Simpsons commentary we’re applying our “Crazy Noises” series to “Marge Be Not Proud”, the “One Bad Episode” our Manifesto has in Season 7. Because doing a podcast smacks of effort we’re still using this “chatroom” thing that all the middle schoolers and undercover cops seem to think is so cool. This text…
“Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” Promos
“They’re coming to save the 90s!” How prescient: This is the promo clip Letterman showed in his interview with Groening: Then as now once people got a taste of good Simpsons they just wanted to watch it over and over: And, the aftermath:
Groening on Letterman in 1989 & NBC News in 1990
Matt Groening was a guest on David Letterman’s 12:30 show (the one Conan O’Brien would be taking over just a few years later) in 1989 to help promote “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire”: You can really see how Groening hasn’t yet got the hang of being interviewed. He’s not uncomfortable exactly, but he’s very unpolished. His stories are too long and Letterman has to bail him out a couple of times to keep things going. This was a week before the special when nobody had any real idea of how it was going to go. He’s nervous enough that…