Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Happy Anniversary to ‘The Simpsons’!!

The SimpsonsThe Simpsons
Today is December 17, 2017. It is a special day for The Simpsons, because the very first episode of the show aired for the first time on December 17, 1989. In other words, today is the 28th anniversary of The Simpsons!

The First Episode: “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire

The Very First Episode
The first episode of The Simpsons, titled “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire“, aired for the first time on December 17, 1989. It was the first independent episode of The Simpsons, with the previous short episodes, the Ullman Shorts, having only been aired as part of the The Tracey Ullman Show. The episode was written by Mimi Pond and directed by David Silverman.

In the episode…
It’s a not-so-merry Christmas for the Simpsons, when Mr. Burns decides to cut the Christmas bonuses and Marge has to spend the family’s Christmas savings to erase a tattoo Bart thought would make a great Christmas present. In order to hide the fact he did not get the bonus, Homer takes a second job as a mall Santa.

Happy Simpsons Day!
And stay tuned for more!

Alf Clausen Fired from The Simpsons

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.

SD Comic-Con 2017: ‘The Simpsons’ panel!

The panel has started! Here’s the live report of the panel:
(Time is local San Diego time)

Season 18 DVD to be released on December 5!!!!

11:58 – Al Jean announces a “big surprise” for the panel.

12:05 – The panel starts with a screening of the video “Donald Trump’s First 100 Days In Office”

12:09 – Live animation again! Only that this time Bart is donig a live Q&A!

12:15 – The Simpsons will be released on DVD again!

Source

12:23 – Al Jean confirms that commentaries for Seasons 18-20 have been recorded and the S20 ones will soon be available on Simpsonsworld.com!

12:26 – “How did you react to Homer being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame?” “They must’ve lowered their standards.”

Note: Nancy Cartwright (voice of Bart) and Joe Mantegna (voice of Fat Tony) are also panelists this year.

12:32 – “I’d tear the arms off that guy.” ???? @nancycartwright on who would win in a fight between Bart and Stewie! #SDCC2017 #TheSimpsons

12:37 – A future episode could show a timeline where Lisa is married to a woman.

12:39 – Chants against Trump (“Lock Him Up”) are heard in the room!

12:43 – There will be a Futurama announcement at the end of the month!

12:43 – Lucky fans at #SDCC2017 panel are viewing an EXCLUSIVE first look at this year’s Treehouse of Horror! (Spoiler: Maggie gets possessed) The segment is called “The Exor-Sis”.

12:45 – And the panel is over for this year!

Stay tuned for more because in some minutes we’ll do a post with the panel highlights!

SD Comic-Con 2017: ‘The Simpsons’ panel in 3 hours!

Comic-Con 2017The San Diego Comic-Con 2017 started last Thursday and today will take place most of the panels of FOX’s shows, including The Simpsons. The panel will take place between 12pm and 12.45pm (San Diego time).

We’ll do a post with the highlights of the panel after the event. The post will be created minutes after the panel starts in case some info gets to the media before the end of the panel. Minutes after the panel ends, the post will have the highlights of the event.

The Panel

Entering its gravity-defying 29th season, The Simpsons celebrates with huge secrets, surprises, and clips from the upcoming year. Join creator Matt Groening, executive producers Al Jean and Matt Selman, supervising director Mike B. Anderson, and director of The Simpsons Movie David Silverman. Moderated by Mike Schneider.

Remember,
Stay tuned for more!

30 Years of the World’s Most Beloved Family!


Today is April 19, 2017. It’s a special day. 30 years ago (April 19, 1987) from today, a father and a mother debuted on TV along with their three children. These parents appeared saying ‘good night’ to their children and they did that as bad as possible, though they didn’t notice it.

These parents were no other than Homer and Marge Simpson. Their children (Bart, Lisa and Maggie) also debuted on TV.

The Debut

It’s April 19, 1987. FOX is airing the third episode of The Tracey Ullman Show. During the episode, an animated short is shown.

“Good Night”

Good Night” airs and the Simpson family debutes on TV. No one could have imagined that 30 years after, that family would still be on TV. The airing of that short marked a milestone in the history of television.

30 years ago, a legend was born but, how did it all really start? Just keep reading…

The Birth of a (Yellow) Legend

In 1987, Matt Groening waits in the lobby of TV producer James L. Brooks‘ office. He has been asked an idea for a series of one-minute shorts that will be used to separate segments on The Tracey Ullman Show.

Adapting his comic strip Life in Hell seems the best option but, at the last moment, Groening is afraid of throwing his beloved rabbit Binky into the bonfire of television failure, so he thinks of an emergency solution and draws it on a yellow sheet of paper. He draws an american family. His own family: Homer, the father; Marge, the mother; and his sisters Lisa and Maggie. Finally, he renames himself Bart, an anagram of “Brat”. The Simpsons are born.

Two years after, the family got its own TV show, which is still on air.

Present and Future

The Simpsons family keeps on airing new episodes of its TV show on Sundays. Their show is currently on the final stages of its 28th season with 615 aired episodes (to date). The show was renewed for two more seasons (29th and 30th) in November 4, 2016. With more than 600 episodes aired, the show is still an icon all over the globe.

And remember,
Stay tuned for 30 years more!

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


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’

Bye 2016, hi 2017! The summary of 2016!

2016 is gone and 2017 has arrived. Which means it’s time to recall what has happened during 2016 in the universe of The Simpsons.

The year 2016 has brought lots of news related to The Simpsons. It’s been a long year, and lots of events have taken place. There have been good news and bad news, milestones to celebrate, Tapped Out updates to play with (and connection issues to get mad with), and much more. In conclusion, here’s a summary of the most relevant Simpsons-related news from 2016!

Homer appeared live on TV and answered questions to fans!


On May 15, during the last three minutes of the episode “Simprovised“, the world saw Homer Simpson answering questions to fans in a LIVE segment! Dan Castellaneta voiced Homer LIVE. This was a never-before-done thing in animation.

See also: Homer to Appear Live on May 15th in “Simprovised”!

The final level of Tapped Out was released!


On May, level 60, the final level of The Simpsons: Tapped Out, was released. It’s the last level update of the game to the date, but not the last content update. Lots of non-level content updates have also been released since then.

See also: Tapped Out: The final level of the game, Level 60, has been released!

The Simpsons reaches its 600th episode!


One of the most outstanding Simpsons-news of 2016 has been that the show aired its 600th episode on October 16. The episode which had the honor to be the milestone 600th episode of The Simpsons was “Treehouse of Horror XXVII”, the 2016 installment of the annual Halloween-themed episodes.

See also: The title of the 600th episode has been revealed!

FXX ran a 13-day marathon featuring all the first 600 episodes of the show!


The Fox-owned TV channel FXX aired every episode again, the first 600 of them. The thirteen day marathon started on November 24th and ran until December 6th.

See also: FXX to Air Every Episode Again!

The Simpsons has a Virtual Reality couch gag!


Still as part of the celebration of the milestone 600th episode, that episode (the 600th episode) had a special couch gag that could be viewed in Virtual Reality using a Google Cardboard. The couch gag was titled Planet of the Couches

See also: The Simpsons to Have a Virtual Reality Couch Gag!

4 Years of Tapped Out!


It’s almost 5 years now, having the game being released for the first time in February 16, 2012 in Europe on iOs, and have reached more than 140 Content Updates.

See also: Tapped Out: 4 Years Infographic released by EA

RIP Kevin Curran


There have also been bad news for The Simpsons in 2016, as former writer and producer Kevin Curran died on October 25th, aged 59. He died in his home in Los Angeles after a battle with a long illness. Al Jean reported his death via Twitter.

See also: Former Writer/Producer Kevin Curran Dies, Aged 59

The Simpsons renewed through Season 30!


Finally, one of the best (if not the best) Simpsons-related news of the year 2016: the show’s renewal for two more seasons!

On November 4, FOX released a press release announcing that The Simpsons had been renewed for two more seasons (for a S29 and a S30)! The press release also stated that this renewal will bring the show up to 669 episodes, which will break the record of the highest number of episodes for any [US] primetime scripted TV show, currently held by Gunsmoke with 635 episodes!

See also: ‘The Simpsons’ renewed for Season 29 and 30!

Thanks for reading

Thanks for reading this post and let’s hope that 2017 will continue to bring more Simpsons-related news as 2016 and previous years have done.

Happy New Year 2017 from Wikisimpsons/The Springfield Shopper!

And don’t forget,
Stay tuned for more!

Want to learn about how to have no kids and three money?

I’m not sure Glasgow University’s wanting this to happen…

Quite surprising news, that’s one way to put it, coming out of Glasgow University today (November 16). The news is that they will be offering courses on Homer Simpson philosophy next year – and sure enough, the British papers went wild.

Well, universities seemingly offer a course in everything these days.

The “D’Oh! The Simpsons Introduce Philosophy” short course runs four times next January and February from 10am to 4pm each day with tutor Dr. John Donaldson, costing £30 per person. It has been reported that all courses have been fully booked (the fact this happened so quickly showing how popular the show and the franchise still is), so don’t expect to be learning about the American way any time soon.

Donaldson said of the course: “This course is an introduction to philosophy; it’s a pick and mix of philosophy” and “uses the Simpsons as a vehicle to introduce new areas.” He said “there’s a lot of philosophy in the Simpsons,” comparing it to “a work of art” because of the depth and scope it has, it touchea a lot of philosophical areas. Donaldson also referred to how the course itself had gone viral. ‘Homer Simpson’ was a low trending topic on Twitter in the UK on the evening of the announcement.

Donaldson referred to “Matt Groening’s monument to the absurdities of human existence” enabling the ability to “explore some of philosophy’s most inspiring ideas”, and professed hopes the subject matter would help to attract people into studying philosophy, and also cited Groening having been a philosophy student himself, stating that his studying of it “comes through in each episode”.

The course will concern Homer’s deeds and pose the question if Aristotle would have regarded him as a virtuous figure, as well as morality and free will by examining early season 1 episode “Bart the Genius“, the plot of which involves Bart being referred to a school for the gifted after swapping test papers with fellow student Martin.

The University of Glasgow already offers philosophy courses derived from Doctor Who (time travel and the nature of reality), The Sopranos (about self-interest, moralty and the ethics of loyalty) and The Wire (in relation to drugs, Diogenes and the death of the American dream). Oh, and they also offer a Game of Thrones course revolving around politics, power and war.

TV fans, I think Glasgow Uni’s for you…

But I’m not sure Homer is exactly an encouraging force for students:

Trying is the first step toward failure.
Realty Bites

Or should that be REALITY bites…? In any case, it resulted in Homer’s dinner all over the tablecloth.

And I assume they’ll also be studying the ability for the show to predict… a lot of things.

But of course, it is 2016; what else would you expect?:

Homer Simpson is trending and I was worried he’d died. It’s 2016 after all.
Dr Pops on Twitter.

For further information on the course, you can visit the university’s website.

(Sources: University of Glasgow website and Twitter timeline, Frinkiac, The Scotsman, United Press International)

The Simpsons to Have a Virtual Reality Couch Gag!

VR couch gag
The Simpsons stil keep surprising us every day! They will have a Virtual Reality couch gag for its 600th episode!

At the start of “Treehouse of Horror XXVII“, the show’s 600th episode airing on October 16, fans owning a Google Cardboard will be able to watch the couch gag in VR! During the 45-second 2D couch gag, a url will appear and, by following that url, fans will be able to watch a 3-minutes version of the Couch gag.

VR Compatibility

According to EW, “Fans can enter the Simpsonized world of VR via the Google Spotlight Stories app and using the Google Cardboard viewer and their smart phone (iOS or Android). If interest parties don’t have the viewer, they can access a limited version of the experience by turning their phones in different directions”.

Source

EW.com