What? It seems it doesn’t take much for IrelandOnline to consider something as news. Nevertheless, this particular piece made me laugh. “The Simpsons may look the same on screen after almost 18 years but the cast behind the famous voices have been piling pounds onto their waists as well as into their pockets. Now a Springfield source has revealed that bread rolls are being banned from Simpsons table readings. This is because most of the cast have signed on to the Zone Diet to try and shift some weight.” If you ask me, the payrise isn’t worth it if they’re not delivering bread to the table. You can view the original article here.
Author: Adam
News
Homer & Marge Greatest Couple
For Romeo, you’d better read D’ohmeo. Shakespeare’s best-known lovers have been beaten in the romance stakes – by Homer and Marge Simpson. The cartoon duo, who were born in a TV studio 17 years ago and star in the longest-running sitcom in US history, have been voted the greatest fictional couple of all time. Romeo and Juliet, who were brought to life in a manuscript 409 years ago, came second. This is despite the fact they have been portrayed in countless performances over the centuries and in more than 30 TV and movie adaptations. In third place were Mickey and Minnie Mouse, who made their first appearance together in the 1928 cartoon Plane Crazy. Heathcliff and Cathy from Emily BrontÎ’s Wuthering Heights – immortalised in a dozen movies – were fourth. Read More >>>
News
Matt Groening Hay Bound
“The creator of the most famous cartoon family in the world is set to be one of the main attractions at next year’s Hay Festival of literature. Matt Groening, the visionary responsible for bringing The Simpsons to life, if the first star attraction to be booked for the 18th book festival in the Welsh boarder town. Groening, the man behind Bart, Homer, Marge, Lisa and the folk of Springfield, is only the second guest speaker to be named so far. The festival’s director, Peter Florence, said, “I can reveal that Matt has agreed to come next year. “I am just thrilled that he’s going to be at Hay. I know it might sound awfully self-indulgent but when I think about programming I first look to people I admire, people who have enhanced or enriched my life by what they do in some significant way.” Read More >>>
News
Simpsons On The Curriculum
Who would have thought that a cartoon family with yellow skin and four fingers could be educational, too? For a handful of Rushworth students The Simpsons show is proving to be far more than a laughing matter. Instead of having her students stuck in the classroom, Rushworth P-12 visual art teacher Anne Maree Klinberg decided her Year 9s should paint a mural – of the world’s most famous cartoon family. “If you choose a topic the kids are familiar with, they will automatically be excited about it,” Ms Klinberg said. “I thought about it a bit and decided on The Simpsons because they are so well known and are flat figures.” This is the second term the students have been working on the project and the mural of the quirky family is all-but complete. As part of the mural project the students were also asked to complete an assignment on the show’s creator Matt Groening.
News
TV Guide’s Top 25 Cult Shows
The Simpsons have hit the cover of TV Guide once again. In the issue on sale tomorrow, our favourite family made it to #6 on their Top 25 Cult Shows Ever list. “Hiding behind the bright colors and big, happy eyes of TV’s most functional dysfunctional family, The Simpsons is the most consistently funny and smart program on TV. Period. The comedy has sold more than 5 million DVDs, inspired more than 5000 products, and Bart has made his weekly chalkboard messages the most deciphered scribbling since the Rosetta stone.” The cover is just one in a set of four.
Ratings
Ratings: Fraudcast News
Season openers and finales tend to bring in the big figures in the tv world, but Sundays season 15 finale ‘Fraudcast News’ failed to deliver. 9.2 million people watched the Burns themed episode, down 4.2 million on last years season finale double.
With the season over, the ratings this year have been disappointing overall. 16.2 million viewers watched the season premiere, while a couple of weeks ago the show achieved its lowest figure for a new episode ever. The finale was outrated by ABC and CBS’s big guns ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’ and ‘Cold Case’ which will remain in their 8pm Sunday timeslots next year. Lets hope the Season 16 premiere in November can regain some of its lost viewers.
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News
Season Finale: Fraudcast News
By the end of tonight, Season 15 will be over. While some might talk of the decline in quality, this season’s final episode titled Fraudcast News sounds like one of the better ones. Homer causes an avalanche that buries Mr. Burns. He makes it back to his mansion, only to turn on his TV and hear Kent Brockman refer to him as a greedy tycoon, so he vows to “change this town’s accurate impression of me.” As he buys every news business in town, he runs up against Lisa, who has started a newspaper. Lisa’s example inspires many of the residents of Springfield to start their own newspapers. “Instead of one big-shot controlling all the media,” Homer says, “now there’s a thousand freaks Xeroxing their worthless opinions.” It’s the last new episode until November, so don’t miss it!
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News
The Simpsons’ Winning Formula
The finale of The Simpsons’ 15th season airing at 8pm Sunday includes pointed social satire, Capraesque small-town sentiment, broad physical humor and sly self-referential jokes. What it doesn’t have, in a time when sitcoms like “Friends” and “Frasier” featured plot arcs that played out over the course of a year, is any reference to the fact that it’s the last show of the season. In The Simpsons, everything is neatly tied up at the end of an episode. Bart is forever in fourth grade, and Maggie, the baby, will never talk. That consistency is one reason the show is one of the longest-running sitcoms in history. As actors on live-action programs age, “the viewer looks at it and says, ‘The show isn’t the show I loved 10 years ago,”‘ said Al Jean, the executive producer. “That doesn’t happen to us.” Since the writers long ago used up the obvious stories about the family, many plots now focus on the secondary characters who populate their hometown. Read More >>>
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Ratings
Ratings: Bart-Mangled Banner
The end of season ratings slump continued this week. A viewer figure was not available this week (story will be edited it one arrives) but the episode titled ‘Bart-Mangled Banner’ got beaten by most of its main competition.
NBC moved into first at 8pm with the 6.9/12 for the second hour of “Dateline.” ABC was up to second with the 6.3/11 for “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” CBS dropped to third with the first hour of “Helter Skelter.” FOX was fourth with “The Simpsons” (5.0/9) and “That ’70s Show” (4.7/8). The 9:30 Simpsons repeat also came in fourth place, which combined with other programming cemented Fox as the #4 network for the night. The season finale of The Simpsons airs this Sunday.
News
Simpsons / Friends Crossover
Warning: The following story originated from British tabloids, previously famous for spreading news of a David Beckham cameo that wasn’t to be, and are generally unreliable. The six actors from Friends are to reunite for an episode of The Simpsons, the Daily Star newspaper reports today. In the episode – which has been rushed into production for transmission early next year – the cast will provide voices of guests at a gay resort accidentally booked by the Simpsons family. “The writing team has worked overtime to produce the perfect script,” an unnamed source said (convincing, huh). “It’s funny but shocking, with all six playing gay characters.” The episode is said to be lined up for a possible post-Superbowl airing on FOX. Personally I wont believe a word of it until I hear it from a reliable source, and you should do the same.
News
Bart-Mangled Banner Airs Tonight
The Simpsons ratings will be put to the test tonight with the second-to-last episode of Season 15 airing on Fox. Its competition is nothing that should leave the show with a figure similar to last weeks disappointing effort. The episode titled Bart-Mangled Banner hasn’t shown huge promise in description and previews, but as last week displayed, a good episode doesn’t necessarily mean good ratings. In the episode, Bart really is a victim of circumstance when he appears to moon the flag, but Marge’s defense of him paints the whole family as un-American and they are thrown in jail. A repeat of The Wandering Juvie airs soon after at the special time of 9:30pm this week. Keep those figures up, don’t miss The Simpsons tonight.
News
Men Denied All They Could Eat
Remember when Homer seeked the assistance of Lionel Hutz after being thrown out of the Sea Captain’s All You Can Eat restaurant? When three tubby American tourists were thrown out of a Scotland ‘All You Can Eat’ restaurant after scoffing the buffet, one had to wonder if they’d got inspiration from the Season 4 episode ‘New Kid On The Block’. The greedy trio were asked to leave a Pizza Hut branch after mowing their way through a series of giant pizzas. Staff called a halt after the Americans demolished plate after plate of pizza, pasta and salad. The visitors had arrived at Pizza Hut and ordered the ?5.49-a-head All You Can Eat buffet special. Most people manage three or four slices as well as filling up on a selection of pasta dishes, breadsticks and salad. But the hungry golfers guzzled three 12-inch pizzas each along with countless helpings of side dishes the equivalent of 10 meals. Read More >>>
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