Voice actor Harry Shearer has returned to the show after seemingly quitting seven weeks ago. The actor, who voices many characters in The Simpsons, said that he quit the show over having little freedom to do other things.

Shearer has signed the same contract as the other main cast members, which is a four season contract which is estimated to earn each cast member more than $300,000 per episode.

It was feared by fans of the show that his characters could be recast as Al Jean stated that if Shearer did not sign on by the end of Summer at the latest, his characters would be recast to different voice actors.

Shearer quitting due to not having enough freedom to do other things is possibly because in a period where Harry Shearer thought he had a break from the show, but the producers requested material from him as they were unaware of this arrangement. Even if this was the case, it’s been cleared up now and Shearer’s back.

Sources:

• Entertainment Weekly – “Harry Shearer returning to The Simpsons”
• The Simpsons on Twitter
• Al Jean on Twitter: 1, 2, 3

This post will be updated with any news when we get it

You’ve most likely heard by now that Harry Shearer‘s future with The Simpsons is in doubt. He has announced that he has left the show, but is willing to return if he is given more freedom to do what he wants outside of The Simpsons. However, the producers have said that he has that freedom, and they don’t know what the problem is.

He wasn’t forced out of the show, and it’s not a case of money causing him to leave. He got offered the same contract the other main cast members got offered, and they all signed on May 1st. The contract he was offered is estimated to have been for $14 million over the 2 seasons.

In an interview with CNN Money, Shearer said “Stay tuned” when asked if there was a possibility he could be back. This might mean he’s willing to go back into negotiations, although it’s unlikely the contract will change.

If Shearer does not return to the show, his characters will be recast to different actors. It’s estimated that they have the Summer to get a deal made to keep him on the show and after that, they’ll have to look for new actors.

Sources

• The Hollywood Reporter
• CNN Money

…because today, it’s 28 years since the Simpsons first appeared on U.S. television, as split-up ad-break bumpers during The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987. The short they first featured in was “Good Night”, which is one of the few shorts to have been released on home media, and is the only short to have been featured fully in an episode, “The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular”, which in the countries which show this episode, is the only showing to have occurred, as only countries such as Germany and the UK have aired the short standalone, but do not air it regularly now.

The shorts came about, if you don’t already know, when show creator Matt Groening was invited by James L. Brooks to animate bumpers of his now-defunct comic strip, Life in Hell, between the advertisement breaks of The Tracey Ullman Show. With only a few minutes left until the meeting, Groening thought about if this all went wrong and then Fox would own his characters. To avoid using the characters from the comic, he drew up what is now known as the Simpson family, using names from his family to name the characters, substituting Bart for his name, an anagram for “brat”. This short was written and storyboarded by Groening, and the family was crudely drawn, because Groening had submitted basic sketches to the animators, assuming they would clean them up, but instead they just traced over his drawings. In further shorts, the Simpson family became much more smoother and cleaner in appearance and resembled how they are today.

Well, that’s another anniversary. Will the Simpson family be around to see their 30-year-anniversary of being on U.S. television? We’ll have to see…

As you may have read on Wikisimpsons, season 27 is confirmed. However, these are all leftover episodes from the last production season, which most of season 26 was made out of.

For those of you that don’t know, a production season is different to an airing season. Each episode has a production code, i.e. TABF14, the production code for the season 27 premiere, “Every Man’s Dream“. TABF is the production season whilst 14 is the episode number within that production season. Most airing seasons will have episodes from two different production seasons, the current and the last one.

So, whilst season 27 is confirmed, currently only episodes from the last production season have been confirmed. There are currently no new episodes from a new production season as no new episodes are being created.

The animators for the show are currently on hiatus, and have no return date to the show. According to one of the animators, this has only happened once in the past. The likely cause of this is due to contract negotiations with the cast taking longer than usual, and that is the popular theory although no confirmation has been given to this as of yet. Therefore, no one is currently working on new episodes. If contract negotiations with the cast fall through, there could only be half a season of episodes, rather than a full season, consisting of episodes from the last production season. This could also spell the end for The Simpsons.

However, don’t panic. That is only a worst case scenario. The Simpsons is a huge money maker for Fox and I doubt they’ll be letting it go any time soon.

EDIT: The Upfronts in May, the days when TV networks announce the shows that are being cancelled or renewed, will likely be the latest we hear some news about the future of The Simpsons.