After creator Matt Groening’s conflicting comments earlier this year, the fate of The Simpsons looked unsure. Now, as Bart and his cartoon clan enter their 14th season — debuting Sunday at 8 pm/ET on Fox — the picture is clearer. “Realistically, the way it works, the actors are signed to do season 15, which starts a year from now,” exec producer Al Jean tells TV Guide Online. “I don’t see why that won’t happen.” Read More >>>
Author: Adam

Rock On, Simpsons
Canoe.ca: As any fan knows, Homer can’t get no satisfaction. The same can’t be said of Joel Cohen, the Calgary writer who has helped put the “Doh!” in the animated icon’s mouth for three years now. In Sunday’s official Simpsons season opener, the family encounter a who’s who of dinosaur rockers, including Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. For Cohen, that meant a chance to rub elbows with the aging music gods. “I kind of met Mick,” said Cohen. “You have the recording studio and next to it, the engineering room. So you’ll have people drop in to watch the stars record, depending on who they are. When Mick was there, the room was jam-packed. He didn’t shake hands or show pictures of his family or anything.” Read more on Joel’s experience >>>

Simpsons Make Rock History!
Rolling Stone magazine is paying tribute to The Simpsons by featuring them on its cover. The magazine is marking the start of the show’s fourteenth series by releasing three different covers with the characters on famous album sleeves. The first one shows Bart as the baby on Nirvana’s Nevermind. The second features Homer as Bruce Springsteen on the cover of Born In The USA. The third shows The Simpsons as The Beatles on the cover of Abbey Road. All three covers have been designed by Simpsons creator Matt Groening himself. The covers can be seen below.

D’oh! Homer’s Still A Hit
Another ratings report, this one sums it all up. E! Online has posted its Neilsen ratings summary, and The Simpsons cracked the top 10 for the prime-time week ended Sunday. The 14th season debut Treehouse Of Horror XIII was watched by 16.7 million diehard fans, landing the show in tenth position on Neilsen’s ratings meter. In contrast, NBC’s Scrubs and Will And Grace landed in eighth and ninth positions respectively. This definitely looks good for the future of the show, lets see if ratings can remain consistent next week. Go here for a full rundown of the week’s ratings.

FOX Plays Scary Game
FOX’s broadcast of Sunday’s San Francisco-Oakland game came close to ticking off fans of “The Simpsons.” In endless commercials broadcast throughout the earlier Eagles-Bears game, Fox promoted the cartoon’s season-opening “Treehouse of Horrors XII” episode. The show was to begin at 7:30 p.m., right after the West Coast game. But choke-artist 49ers kicker Jose Cortez shanked a gimme at the end of regulation, and the game dragged into OT. Cortez eventually redeemed himself, winning the game with a 23-yarder. But by then, it was 7:35 p.m. Fox then filled the next five minutes with enough plugs to float the Titanic. And then, it joined “The Simpsons” in progress. Read More >>>

FOX Wins Sunday Ratings Battle
Even without the World Series, FOX was able to handily win Sunday night in North America, thanks to a couple of series premieres and the Simpsons Halloween special. The Simpsons’ “Treehouse of Horror XIII,” 8.9/13, and the season premiere of King of the Hill, 7.0/10, were tops at 8 p.m. The rating numbers for The Simpsons was the best start for the series in five years. Overall, the network raked in a 7.8 rating/12 share, but its competitors weren’t far behind. Read More >>>

New Site Looking Decent
A new site called Springfield A&M has opened. This site provides both multimedia and informative content, and their design is quite unique. Although there is not much content there currently, the owner says there is much to come. This site looks very promising in my eyes, and is very much needed due to all of the current sites closing their doors due to C&D’s and loss of interest.

Send In The Reviews
Seen the new “Treehouse of Horror XIII” episode? Want to comment on it? Well, feel free to express your opinion regarding it (or read the other critiques) at the No Homers Club and Springfield Message Board, two of the most popular Simpsons forums online. And while I’m at it, here’s what our staff thought of the first new Simpsons episode in months.

HGS Is Back!
A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Springfield returns to the web after a short absence at a new URL, roundspringfield.com. The site moved domains to elude the FOX lawyers, after changing names not that long ago because of a C&D they had receieved. They continue their excellence with a big staff, innovative multimedia, and daily updates.

One Week On..
It’s been just over a week since we launched with our new format. So are we staying? If things continue like this, we most certainly will. I am making this post to discuss some of the goings on here at The Simpsons Channel right now.

Switch On With The Simpsons
Bart and Homer Simpson are coming to town. The pair will be the guests of honour at Huddersfield’s Christmas lights switch-on. More than £15,000 will be spent on illuminations to get the town’s shoppers into the festive spirit.

Doh! Why We Still Love Em’
Citizen Times: At first, 32-year-old photographer Bo Post didn’t want to go on the record badmouthing “The Simpsons.” “If I tell you my name and that I don’t like The Simpsons, I’m going to get nasty phone calls because most everyone watches it,” she said. At 8:00 on November 3, a good deal of fans will be sitting down for the annual Halloween episode, which unofficially kicks off the show’s 14th season. The official premiere runs Nov. 10.