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!
The last two “TABF” production codes have been confirmed as “The Kids Are All Fight” (TABF11) and “Bull-E” (TABF15), showrunner Al Jean has confirmed.
Jean has also confirmed that “Mathlete’s Feat” will air as the season 26 finale in May. And to top of the news, “Peeping Mom” will air on April 19.
Stay tuned!
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
These are the upcoming events in March 2015 to look for.
“The Princess Guide” will air on March 1st, this very day. The episode is written by Brian Kelley. Yaya DeCosta guest stars as Princess Kemi, Richard Branson guest stars as himself and Joe Mantegna guest stars as Fat Tony. In the episode:
“Homer is put in charge of keeping Princess Kemi out of trouble while her father, a Nigerian king, works out a uranium deal with Mr. Burns. When Kemi ends up at Moe’s, Moe jumps to the conclusion that she must be related to the Nigerian prince who scammed him over email and schemes to get his money back. But much to his surprise, he finds himself falling for the princess.”
See also: Moe will plot revenge over Nigerian E-mail scam this March and 10 New Promotional Images for “The Princess Guide” have been released!
“Sky Police” will air on March 8th. The episode is written by Matt Selman and directed by Rob Oliver. Nathan Fielder guest stars as himself. In the episode:
“Chief Wiggum is mistakenly delivered a military jet pack, which he gleefully accepts and uses in order to fight crime. But when the jet pack crashes into the church, the congregation, led by Marge, must resort to gambling and counting cards in order to collect money to repair the church.”
See also: Chief Wiggum is mistakenly delivered a military jet pack this March and 5 Promotional Images for “Sky Police” have been released!
“Waiting for Duffman” will air on March 15th. It is written by John Frink. Cat Deeley guest stars as herself and Stacy Keach guest stars as Howard K. Duff VIII. In the episode:
“When Duffman undergoes hip replacement surgery and retires, the company sets up a reality show competition to find his replacement. Homer wins the competition, and because the job requires him to stay sober, he learns that beer isn’t as necessary as he thought to have a good time.”
See also: So You Think You Can… DUFFMAN? on an all-new episode this March and 3 Promotional Images for “Waiting for Duffman” have been released!
On March 3rd, Bartman will be coming into The Simpsons: Tapped Out as a costume for Bart, as part of the Superhero update. He will be available at 8am GMT across all games worldwide for 60 donuts. He will be available until the end of the update.
On March 10th, Fruit-Bat-Man will return to Tapped Out. He first appeared during the “Dark Knight Court” episode tie-in. He will be available for 90 donuts and will be available until the end of the event as well.
If you already had Fruit-Bat-Man from his original release, he can be used to fight felons for the premium time of 3 hours. He will be able to do this if you choose to purchase him.
On March 17th, the fourth book in the Vault of Simpsonology series will be released; Lisa Simpson’s Guide to Geek Chic.
“In Lisa Simpson‘s Guide to Geek Chic, Springfield‘s most sensitive student reveals the secrets of being a misunderstood geek goddess. The geeks have inherited the earth . . . And Springfield’s most outspoken and overlooked middle child, Lisa Simpson, is here to tell you why! So what does it matter that you don’t run with the popular crowd? You control the trends and tastes of popular culture. Who cares if you aren’t part of a clique? Your idiosyncratic style is now très chic. So what if you’re not very social? You’re tech savvy drives all social media. There’s no need to lay low in nerd anonymity. You are the smartest person in the room, and it’s time to fulfill your dork destiny!”
The Simpsons skins have been released on Minecraft! You may remember us reporting on this back in January.
The $3.00 pack is available on Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition and Minecraft: Xbox One Edition. The pack is also rumored to be released on PlayStation 3 in the coming months.
Stay tuned!
This is the summary of all The Simpsons news from February, in case you missed anything.
On February 8th, “Walking Big & Tall” aired. The episode, written by Michael Price and directed by Chris Clements, guest starred Pharrell Williams as himself and Kevin Michael Richardson as Albert. Springfield learns that the town anthem they had used for 30 years was bought from a salesman and lots of other towns used it. So, Bart and Lisa help write a new town anthem. Meanwhile, Homer becomes proud of being fat.
See also: “Walking Big & Tall” promotional images released!, Pharrell Williams to guest star and Pharrell invites 2.8m
“My Fare Lady” aired on February 15th. Rich Sommer and Christopher Lloyd guest starred in an episode written by Marc Wilmore and directed by Michael Polcino. In the episode, Marge becomes a driver for a transportation app service to earn money. Meanwhile, Moe’s Tavern is destroyed by Homer when he watches over it for Moe and Moe becomes a janitor at the Nuclear Power Plant.
The episode also had a special couch gag by Australian animators Paul Robertson and Ivan Dixon. The couch gag was created and released onto YouTube by them and was found by the producers who liked it and added it to the episode.
See also: “My Fare Lady” information released, “My Fare Lady” promotional images released and Simpsons wins Fox’s night – with second-least watched episode ever
The Stonecutters made a return on the 5th February. This update was just a resale of items from the previous Stonecutters event. This update had no new content at all and was a resale of most of the old Stonecutters stuff.
See also: Who is EA’s cheap(-ish) replacement for a Valentine’s event? They are, they are!
A week after the Stonecutters event, Valentine’s Day came around. The last two years, this was a major event. However, this update was a small update with very little new content. This was because something new and big was coming…
See also: Homer’s running late for Valentine’s…and so is EA!
February 18th brought a new event… Superheroes! This event, scheduled to end on March 23rd, added 3 new character collections; Superheroes, Vigilantes and Criminals. The update is split into four parts, called issues, and there is a comic book theme to the music, text, text bubbles and other parts. For full details, read our article.
See also: Homer’s leading the charge in an all-new Tapped Out event!
Simpsons Illustrated #15 was released on February 4th. The description of the comic is:
“The Simpson family embarks on a globetrotting adventure that not only takes them around the world but, literally, into orbit around the Earth with everybody’s favorite, eternally optimistic, moonraking megalomaniac, Hank Scorpio! And when Bart finds himself living the dream after landing a gig as the new Radioactive Man comic book writer, Comic Book Guy finds himself living his worst nightmare. Then, Lisa applies her deductive skills to discovering the identity of her anonymous valentine.”
See also: Simpsons Illustrated #15 now available!
Simpsons Comics #218 was released on February 18th.
Comic Book Guy falls asleep during a Sci-Fi DVD marathon and dreams up three thrilling astronomical adventures. First, Bart is recruited by a battle school, where he and a ragtag crew of cadets are trained to fight an alien war. Then, Lisa finds herself set adrift in space when the satellite she is tethered too is destroyed by Krusty-themed space junk. Finally, no one is safe when Homer and yet another ragtag band of misfits become Protectors of the Planets.
See also: Simpsons Comics #218 now available!
Leonard Nimoy, best known as Spock from Star Trek, passed away earlier today following a battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Nimoy had been diagnosed with the illness and had been in and out of hospitals for months. He was admitted to hospital on February 19th following severe chest pains and passed away today in his home.
Nimoy voiced himself in two episodes of The Simpsons; season 4‘s “Marge vs. the Monorail” and season 8‘s “The Springfield Files“.
He will be missed.
Just a small update regarding upcoming episodes.
A new season 27 episode title has been revealed as “Friend with Benefit“ (TABF21). Also, the production code for the upcoming “Peeping Mom“ episode is TABF11, according to a script.
Stay tuned!