Across the pond, Sky1’s first showing of “The Man Who Came To Be Dinner” on March 1 garnered 530,000 official viewers, the eighth most watched programme on the channel that week, and the highest rated Simpsons of the week. This figure is down 21k from the previous week. (BARB)
By now, you’re probably worrying about the “Premium Helen Lovejoy”. Don’t worry, she only thinks she is. She gets Database to change her to premium.
But enough about clarifying that, we’ve got a new level. As you know, we’ve got the fan favorite Helen Lovejoy, as well as Jessica Lovejoy, who comes with the Lovejoy Residence for 180 donuts, plus the Municipal House of Pancakes, a favorite amongst the Investorettes for $1m, and Shorty’s, the coffee place where we first saw Helen try to get some Marge gossip way back in 1990, for 60 of those sprinkle-top foodstuffs.
The new Friendship levels consist of the air conditioning store, It Blows, where Homer used the money to buy a new air con instead to buy Lisa a new sax, and the Canyonero. We also see the addition of the premium Murderpuss, and the Christmas-leaked Book Burning Mobile. Early Access is available for this update’s premium items until the 16th March.
The Bartman Cave was also implemented as part of the Superhero event.
Find out what Helen’s getting up to in town, whether it’s competing with Marge in the bake sale contest with lemon cakes, cauldron bubbling and other things to do with selling herself off (premium, get it?!) in the Level 50 update!
How comes no one’s ever around when I say something clever? – Marge
Welcome back to this week’s Throwback Thurs!
20 years ago on this date, we saw the town of Springfield become engrossed in a film competition – with guest star Jay Sherman one of the judges, after Springfield is rated the lowest popular city in the whole country.
This encourages the whole of Springfield to enter, including Hans Moleman’s film of getting hit in the ?$%&£! by a football (or rugby ball, if you’re from the UK), Mr. Burns’ of his fictional life, which sees him in a variety of roles, and Barney’s of his alcoholism story, which won the town’s heart so much it won – after much convincing Homer, who was also on the panel, to vote for it by Marge.
But despite his movie being about keeping off the booze, the prize turns out to be a lifetime supply of Duff, which Barney tells them to hook up to his veins.
Poor Barney. At least he finally managed to sober up again, for longer than he did briefly when he drove Homer’s car to New York, five years later.
(P.S. Did you know that Jay Sherman only guest starred because he thought it would promote his new series The Critic, and that Matt Groening ordered his name be removed from the episode’s opening and closing credits because he didn’t want to be associated with the episode?)
And, last but not least, we have our other commemorations/birthdays/other things that happened on this day. On this day in 1955, Penn Jillette, the illusionist who guest starred as himself in “The Great Simpsina”, was born. Also, in 1969, Sabine Bohlmann, the German voice of Lisa, was born.
That’s it for this Throwback Thursday! See you next week!
And, for the first time, we’ve also got UK ratings news, as 551,000 people tuned in to watch the, pushed-back US November, episode “Blazed and Confused”, on January 22 on Sky1, 18,000 down from the 7-day official of 569,000 “I Won’t Be Home for Christmas” posted when it aired on December 21.
Sources: BARB, TV by the Numbers
Welcome back to another Throwback Thursday! On this date in 1989, Bart and Lisa visited a grocery store without any money (what the-?) and Bart shoplifted some candy – before being caught. Well, they were bulging out of his clothes. And then he decides to eat them. Way to get rid of the evidence, Bart. Try wiping your mouth once in a while.
Then, in 1995, we saw the feud between Homer, Patty and Selma intensify when Homer loses most of his money in pumpkin stocks and has to turn to Patty and Selma for a loan – but the payback isn’t what he expected.
And, then in 2006, PE turned into tragedy as Willie lost the most important thing of his life – his shack.
Also on this day, in 1932, Johnny Cash, who voiced the cayote spirit guide in “El Viaje Misterioso…that Spanish-titled episode” was born. Andy Houts, a production assistant, died on this day in 1997, and so did Lawrence Tierney on this day in 2002, who guest starred in “Marge Be Not Proud” as Don Brodka.
It’s been three years since the Simpsons were ran out of Springfield for the second time and Springfield relocated – for a second time.
The 500th episode of the show premiered on February 19, 2012, and the show is airing its 567th episode this Sunday. The Simpsons were run out of town again and set up home in the Outlands…and met Julian Assange and some crazy rednecks, which I don’t think were happy when Springfield decided to set up shop – again, there, but this time, they haven’t transported the whole town using a truck, which happened exactly 300 episodes prior to this one.
But that’s not all we’re celebrating today, we are also celebrating 20 years since the episode where Bart’s run of offending nations continued, but hasn’t yet reached the standard Top Gear has done, and was threatened to be kicked up the bottom with a boot as a punishment for ringing someone there and inquiring which way the toilet water went down the drain – and Bart running from being kicked with a boot formed the plot for the episode.
Plus, back in the quiet Simpsons-era of early 1989, Homer and Marge try some Home Hypnotism to try and pacify the kids (well, Maggie is already…), but things don’t go to plan.
Finally, there’s another 4 things we need to comment on – births! Amy Tan, born on this day in 1952, writer, guest starred as herself in “Insane Clown Poppy”. 6 years later in 1958, Helen Fielding, best known for creating “Bridget Jones”, was born, who guest starred in “A Star Is Born Again” as herself and was interviewed in 2007 BBC2 documentary The Simpsons: A Culture Show. Then, in 1965, Jon Fishman, member of the band Phish, who voiced himself in controversial Season 13 episode “Weekend at Burnsie’s”, was born. And, then, in 1979, Brendan Hay, who wrote “Coming to Homerica”, was born.
That’s it for now! See ya next Throwback Thursday!
The Superheroes event, which will end on March 31st, is split into four (or five, technically) and revolves around the superheroes of Springfield defeating the evil criminals.
There will be four prize tracks with three prizes in each track (part), as well as the return of the crafting system from last Halloween and the upgrading system from Clash of Clones and Halloween. Carbon Rods, Freeze Rays and Arbitrarium are currency, from what I can deduct from the files, and I believe the latter is used to upgrade the Superior Squad HQ, one of the main buildings in the event.
There’s been plenty of changes and new additions, so why don’t you check out the event article here to discover more, while us at Wikisimpsons try to get all the information possible for the event article?!
That’s it for now! Sorry there’s not much, but that’s basically all we’ve got!
Today marks 3 years since The Simpsons: Tapped Out first appeared in the Singapore, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland App Stores. Our first glimpse of the game was at our wiki article being created on February 19, 2012, pictures filtering through through different country’s App Stores and the game’s official Facebook page and a gameplay video uploaded to YouTube on February 22.
Hype quickly built up and the waiting paid off with millions, on March 1 around the world, the release date for the rest of the countries the game wasn’t available in, going into their App Stores and downloading the game – but it was so overwhelming that people had trouble trying to get into the game – and the worst part – all those glitches.
After the launch of the game, the official ”Tapped Out” forum was inundated with users reporting problems, calling one of them the “DC [disconnected] while loading friends city bug”, a major problem which encompassed when trying to visit a friend that is a lower level than you and being disconnected, your town is reset to look like theirs, losing buildings, characters, decorations, land expansions, cash and donuts in the process. This “DC while loading friends” bug was a massive problem during the early days of the game, the bugs and the “positively overwhelming” response to the game’s release leading EA to pull the game from all App Stores (although apparently it was still available in Canada for a few days after).
Throughout the following months EA tried desperately to fix the game, pulling it from the servers in mid-June to try and resolve problems, ending up with players receiving present towns based on their levels, plus an extra 60 Donuts.
60 FREE DONUTS?! Woo-hoo! It’s Donut Christmas! – Homer
But there was something EA missed out:
60 FREE DONUTS?! Woo-hoo! It’s Donut Christmas! – Homer
As one of our top players, you’ve received a FREE Olmec Head! Find it in your inventory. – System Message
Ooh, a gigantic menacing stone head! I already have one of those in my basement… but it’s nice to have one for outside too. – Homer
Enjoy this FREE limited-edition Olmec Head decoration, available only to our top players that stuck with us while we made game fixes! – System Message
Yeah, I guess EA must’ve thought it was unfair, or the game was too glitchy or code wasn’t properly written to implement the Olmec Head, which eventually came round with the Friend Points update in February last year.
But anyway, as referenced in the title, “beta-testers” were what some incensed players called themselves during this incredibly glitchy period.
Throughout that summer, EA was hard at work trying to solve the game’s problems, bugs and glitches, and in late August through to September, the game was finally re-released into the App Store (the only reason I got my iPod Touch was to play this), but it wasn’t until the following January and February Android players got to experience Homer’s indignant cry of “Is this what enhanced interrogation is?!”.
It’s been suggested that the friend action of stealing a Lemon Tree was the main cause of the launch’s glitches, but nothing’s been confirmed to ever prove this. When the ability was removed to steal a friend’s Lemon Tree, it seemed to have been removed forever.
We’ve had a terribly glitchy period recently after Christmas and during, but nothing matches up to this. Go read the official EA forums from 2012. You’ll be amazed at what it was like.
Well, we’ve certainly digressed much haven’t we?! It’s Tapped Out‘s birthday, not a history lesson. But, again, it’s interesting to learn how Tapped Out was born and how EA were un-prescient deluded ******* not realizing how popular the game would have been. It was getting around 5m in the US ratings then, plus 6 million played 2012’s Halloween event! How could they not have predicted that reaction? (Well, the US Postal Service printed 1 billion of their Simpsons-themed stamps and only sold 318m, costing them $1.2m) Either that or they just plain didn’t any more server capacity available to dedicate to the game.
Well, Happy Birthday Tapped Out! We wish you well for the future and another 3 years! Depending on if the attention wanes or they run out of events. But I’m pretty sure we won’t be saying bye to you for a while yet. EA’s made hundreds of millions of dollars off you. You’re a gold mine, Tapped Out, and you shouldn’t let EA treat you like that, with this ever-exponentially-increasing influx of premium items.
But we’re forgetting something else as we digress further more. There’s one glitch from the launch that we see almost all the time, and will probably never be fixed:
And so, the latest episode, wherein Marge became a taxi driver, mustered just 2.67m (1.1/3) (down from overnight of 2.75m (1.1/3)) at 8pm, winning Fox’s night. Brooklyn Nine-Nine scored a series low with 2.08m (0.9/2) (down from overnight of 2.14m (0.9/2)) at 8:30pm, before Family Guy fell further to 2.51m (1.2/3) at 9pm, and Bob’s Burgers the only show up, to 2.01m (0.9/2) (up from overnight of 1.99m (0.9/2)) at 9:30pm.
So, here’s how the lowest ever The Simpsons ratings table is looking:
1 MY FARE LADY FEBRUARY 16 2015 2.67M
2 DIGGS MARCH 9 2014 2.69M
3 WALKING BIG & TALL FEBRUARY 8 2015 2.78M
4 THE YELLOW BADGE OF COWARDGE MAY 18 2014 3.28M
5 THE MUSK WHO FELL TO EARTH JANUARY 25 2015 3.29M
And there’s no episode next week, because Fox have finally learnt their lesson and decided to postpone the next episode until March 1, where it’s not up against a ratings powerhouse, unlike next week when it’s THE OSCARS! With that against it, I don’t even want to think how far down it could have gone if the two were scheduled against each other.
Well, that’s it for now! See you March 2nd!
Could it be true? Could Homer Simpson, one of the most famous characters in US cultural history have been dreaming since April 1993, when Bart’s April Fools prank of shaking a beer can so furiously (and him being flattened by a vending machine), have sent him into hospital?
The theory, which was originally posted on Reddit 10 days ago (Feb 4) and has become so popular it has nearly 1000 upvotes and has made worldwide news.
The redditor, Hardtopickaname, starts off his post with:
“October 1992: Homer The Heretic airs and ends with Homer talking to God.
God: Homer, I can’t tell you that. […] You’ll find out when you die.
Homer: I can’t wait that long!
God: You can’t wait six months?
April 1993 (SIX MONTHS LATER): So It’s Come To This: A Simpsons Clip Show airs and involves Bart’s April Fools prank inadvertently putting Homer into the hospital, where he is then crushed by a vending machine and put in a coma.
Now the episode ends with Homer waking up (and giving us a hilarious POV shot of him choking Bart), but it seems to be too convenient and sudden.”
Continue reading Behind the Laughter: 22-Year-Comatose Homer?