All posts by Solar Dragon

About Solar Dragon

I am Solar Dragon, the head admin on Wikisimpsons.

Alf Clausen Fired from The Simpsons

Miscellaneous

Alf Clausen, long-time composer for The Simpsons, has reportedly been fired from the show after 27 years composing music for the show.

According to an article published by Variety, Clausen received a call from producer Richard Sakai who told him they were looking for “a different kind of music” for the show.

Clausen joined the show back in season 2, first composing for the original “Treehouse of Horror” episode. He has since gone on to score over 600 episodes of the show. Clausen has won two Emmy Awards and five Annie Awards during his tenure on the show.

Adam West Has Died at 88

Deaths

American actor Adam West, best known for playing Batman in the 1960s TV series Batman, has died at age 88 after a battle with leukemia. He died on Friday night, surrounded by his family.

Adam West had multiple roles on The Simpsons, voicing himself in the season 4 episode “Mr. Plow” and reprising his role as Batman in the season 14 episode “Large Marge“. He also voiced Mayor Adam West in Family Guy, a role which he reprised in the Family Guy/The Simpsons crossover episode, “The Simpsons Guy“.

West is survived by his wife Marcelle, his six children, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Sources

Season 29 News: Shaquille O’Neal to Guest Star in Season 29

Episodes, Guest stars


Former basketball player Shaquille O’Neal is to guest star in an a season 29 episode of The Simpsons.

The episode, which will air sometime in late 2017 or early 2018, will see Homer go to Shaq to ask him for help. O’Neal has also appeared as an unvoiced character in season 22‘s “Love Is a Many-Strangled Thing“.

Season 29 is set to air in Fall 2017 and will also see Rachel Bloom and Norman Lear guest starring.

Sources:

“Embiggen” is now a perfectly “cromulent” word!

Miscellaneous


The Oxford English Dictionary has added the words “embiggen” and “cromulent”. The words were both made popular in The Simpsons episode “Lisa the Iconoclast” and were both added to the dictionary on April 12th, 2017.

The word “embiggens” is also part of Jebediah Springfield‘s motto; “A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.”.

Embiggen:

verb

[WITH OBJECT]humorous

Enlarge.
‘you need to embiggen your vocabulary’

Cromulent:

adjective

humorous

Acceptable or adequate.
‘the continental breakfast was perfectly cromulent’
‘however you spell it, it’s certainly a cromulent word’

Simpsons Comics Knockout – Review

Book reviews

This book was provided to me by HarperCollins.

Simpsons Comics Knockout is the latest Simpsons Comics compilation book from HarperCollins. It’s comprised of five different Simpsons Comics stories; Mall or Nothing, Sandwiches Are Forever, The Flunky!, Homer Drops the Ball! and The “X” Men.

Stories

Mall or Nothing


Mall or Nothing was originally released in Simpsons Comics #116 in March 2006. It is written by Chuck Dixon and Elma Blackburn. The story involves a company buying out all the land on Evergreen Terrace to build a mall. Homer refuses to sell his house and the mall is built around their house.

Homer and Bart think living inside a mall is the best thing ever, meanwhile Marge and Lisa dislike it. Whilst Homer and Bart are out having fun, Lisa tries to figure out a way to revert what happened and to get their neighborhood back. She eventually finds out that the land belonged to the Woppakanomie Tribe of which Lenny is the last surviving member of. The mall is sold off and Lenny builds an Indian casino in its place.

The story is funny, although a bit unrealistic. But it’s The Simpsons so that’s to be expected.

Sandwiches Are Forever


Sandwiches Are Forever was originally released in Simpsons Comics #117 in April 2006. It is written by Ty Templeton.

The story sees the return of popular Simpsons character Hank Scorpio, who has been in a prison in Turkey for three years. Homer gets put in the same cell as Scorpio for trying to smuggle sandwiches out of the country. After the prison guards get poisoned from the sandwiches, Hank and Homer escape and take the Simpson family with them to escape from the police.

They eventually get to an old Soviet base where they offer to repair the soldiers weapons and technology in return for using the rocket to get to Hank Scorpio’s satellite death ray so Hank can take over Europe. Upon arriving, they find the death ray only destroys cheese now. Hank uses this as leverage to take over France, who don’t want to live in a world without cheese.

Hank Scorpio is a great Simpsons character so it’s great to see him back in Simpsons media. Overall, I enjoyed the story, although some parts did seem a bit long and unnecessary.

The Flunky!


The Flunky! was originally released in Simpsons Comics #119 in June 2006. It is written by Scott M. Gimple. After Mr. Burns goes on vacation, Homer causes a meltdown at the Power Plant. The town then decides to boycott the Power Plant. To win the town back, Mr. Burns starts a reality TV show called The Flunky, the winner of which becomes his successor. The show becomes very popular and Mr. Burns is liked for his meanness in the show.

Eventually, Homer wins the contest but instead of becoming Burns’ successor, he is put in a vault in Shelbyville where he can do no harm. Homer leaves the vault, goes back to the power plant and caused a core breach microwaving a burrito.

I feel this story is the weakest in the book. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense and didn’t really deliver any laughs to me.

Homer Drops the Ball!


Homer Drops the Ball! was originally released in Simpsons Comics #120 in July 2006. It is written by James W. Bates. In this story, Homer catches a baseball during a game and becomes a celebrity. He uses his newfound status to get free food and TV interviews. Eventually, Marge gets annoyed at Homer for the way he is treating Bart and gives Bart the ball instead.

Many rich people start trying to buy the ball off Homer and Bart but eventually a bird steals it off them. It took it back to the baseball stadium and eventually dropped back at the feet of Danny Dings, the player who hit the ball into Homer’s nachos. Homer and Bart are then thanked for returning the ball.

Overall, I enjoyed this story. It showed off the typical relationship between Homer and Bart quite nicely.

The “X” Men


The “X” Men was originally released in Simpsons Comics #118 in May 2006. It is written by Ian Boothby. In this story, Skinner joins a support group for lonely people who can’t find dates. They eventually find they all enjoy activities that raise their adrenaline and start doing high risk activities.

Homer gets jealous of everyone in the club having fun and wants to join too. Eventually, the whole town gets in on it and decides to hold a mass skydiving event to br broadcast across the whole world. Everyone in the club gets dates who are attracted to their extremeness and lose focus on the skydive, forgetting their parachutes. They all fall to the ground and die. It then turns out this was all a story being told by Grampa.

I rather enjoyed this story as its focus wasn’t on the Simpson family for most of it, but on other side characters. The story was also packed with nerdy references from Star Wars to The Flash and Marvel Comics.

Conclusion

Overall, I enjoyed the book. There was a good selection of stories with interesting storylines with only one story I would call average. Thank you again to HarperCollins for providing me with the book to review.

Simpsons Comics Knockout comes out on February 21st and will cost US$15.99/CA$19.99. I’d suggest picking it up if you’re a fan of The Simpsons.

RIP Simpsons Guest Star Janet Reno

Deaths

Former US Attorney General Janet Reno died today, aged 78, following complications from Parkinson’s disease, which she was diagnosed with in 1995.

Reno guest starred as herself, alongside her sister Maggy Reno Hurchalla, in the season 24 episode “Dark Knight Court“. Due to the difficulty in speaking longer sentences due to Parkinson’s, Janet’s sister helped out with recording some lines. They donated the money they made for the role to Innocence Project.

Reno served as the Attorney General of the United States from 1993 until 2001, under president Bill Clinton. She was the first woman to serve in the Attorney General role and was the second longest serving Attorney General.

Former Writer/Producer Kevin Curran Dies, Aged 59

Deaths

Former The Simpsons writer and producer Kevin Curran died today, October 25th, aged 59. He died today in his home in Los Angeles after a battle with a long illness. Al Jean reported his death via Twitter.

Curran served as a writer and producer between season 14 and 27, writing 11 episodes for the show. He won three Emmy awards during his time working on the show.

Sources

    • Get Your FREE The Simpsons Google Cardboard Viewer!

    Merchandise


    Residents of the United States can get hold of a The Simpsons Google Cardboard viewer, for free! These are being released in connection with the 600th episode, “Treehouse of Horror XXVII“, and the virtual reality couch gag for the episode, Planet of the Couches.

    To get your viewer for free, all you need to do is go to simpsonscardboard.com and sign up and order it. This is only open to residents of the United States and isn’t available to anyone else in the world.

    For a full gallery of designs, see our article.

    FXX to Air Every Episode Again!

    Episodes

    The Fox-owned TV channel FXX is going to air every episode again this year, all 600 of them. The thirteen day marathon will start on November 24th and run until December 6th.

    FXX previously ran a marathon, which they called Every.Simpsons.Ever. back in 2014. This new marathon will include all 552 episodes that marathon ran as well as the seasons released after that, and the first few episodes of the new season, season 28, up until “Treehouse of Horror XXVII“.

    The season 28 premiere, “Monty Burns’ Fleeing Circus“, is to air this Sunday, 25th September.