“Asked why he wanted to record his voice as a character on The Simpsons, British Prime Minister Tony Blair turned to producer Al Jean and said, “I just want to do one thing that will impress my kids.” When he paid his visit to Homer Simpson, Blair followed in the footsteps of Michael Jackson, Mel Gibson, Sir Elton John and Dr. Stephen Hawking. Blair’s episode is set to air in November, and he will be the first politician to guest on the show. It used to be that the ultimate mark of celebrity was hosting NBC’s Saturday Night Live or appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. But somewhere along the line, Rolling Stone started putting pop-punks Good Charlotte and actress Asia Argento on the cover, and Saturday Night Live started asking U.S. Senator John McCain and skier Johnny Mosely to host. Now playing yourself on The Simpsons is the true measure of celebrity. It means you have become so important in the real world that you can transcend the fictional boundaries of the animated world.” Read More >>>
Author: Adam
Saxiness On The Web
Here’s what’s happening around the web! German fansite Sax On The Beach has been redesigned. Very crowded, but very nice all the same. Springfield Town Hall, a new site from one of the people behind Viva Los Simpsons has opened. Fills the void left by the defunt site quite nicely. The Simpsons: Unofficial Fansite is currently down for retooling. Insert Caption Here has moved to Just D’oh It. Simpsons Realities, That’s Unpossible, and Bart: The One And Only all have received new designs, while Springfield! Springfield! has been shut down by its owner. We couldn’t fit this into any other web update, but Destination: Springfield was slightly redesigned a couple of weeks ago.
Ratings: Old Yeller Belly
The overnight rankings for the Old Yeller Belly and I’m Spelling As Fast As I Can double have been posted by Zap2it, and it’s a similar result to last week. “The first hour of CBS’ Lucille Ball biopic opened strongly with an 8.2/13. ABC was second with the special ‘Tim Allen Presents: A User’s Guide to Home Improvement,’ which constructed a 6.6/11. FOX was third with a new episode of ‘The Simpsons’ (6.3/11) and a repeat of the yellow family (6.6/11).” Again, the rerun rated higher than the new episode. With this occuring last week as well as in February for the 300th episode double, could Fox be looking at moving The Simpsons to 8:30pm? Probably not, but always a possibility.
Old Yeller Belly Tonight
A new episode titled Old Yeller Belly airs in North America tonight, and already judging by the descrpition it looks as though it’ll be a good one. In the episode, “Santa’s Little Helper is shunned as a coward after opting to devour a roast turkey rather than pull Homer from a fire. Getting his nose stuck in a can of Duff Beer afterward, however, proves to be somewhat of a spirit-booster when it propells him to the status of Spuds McDuff: the Duff Brewery’s new mascott. But matters worsen when the the dog’s new-found fame cause his original race track owner to come forth and reclaim his “property” — leaving it up to the Simpsons to get their dog back by proving Santa’s Little Helper a coward unfit to hawk Duff beer.” The episode airs at 8pm on Fox/Global and will be followed by a rerun of I’m Spelling As Fast As I Can. You can review the episode at its conclusion on the No Homers Club Board.
Nickelodeon’s “Brit Simpsons”
“A ‘typical’ British family has been chosen from thousands of hopefuls to become the stars of a ground-breaking animation series for children’s channel Nickelodeon billed as an antidote to the ‘abnormal’ Simpsons. The trials and tribulations of family life in the Moores’ Leicestershire home will be shown every weekday evening on Nickelodeon from next week. The broadcaster, which began its search for a British family to act as the prototype for the cartoon in July last year, said the Moores had been chosen for their entertaining personalities and hectic lifestyle. Howard Litton, the Nickelodeon director of programmes, said the broadcaster had “searched high and low” to find the perfect family on which to base the cartoon, called Meet the Moores.” Read More >>>
Cowell Guest Spot Confirmed
Following our story on Saturday, Ananova has confirmed American Idol judge Simon Cowell’s Simpsons guest spot, complete with story details.
He will play a nursery school admissions officer who treats toddlers to the same withering putdowns as hapless Pop Idol hopefuls. Executive producer Al Jean says “We’re talking about a story where the Simpsons are having trouble getting Maggie into nursery school. And we thought it would be funny if he played the nursery school admissions officer. Simon’s very popular in the US. There’s a history in American television of people we love to hate – fun villains, such as JR Ewing in Dallas – and Simon’s a similar sort of character. But overall, I’d say he’s liked rather than loathed. He’s the only one who says what you’re thinking, which is that half the people on the show are terrible” Mr Jean said Cowell’s Simpsons incarnation may come complete with his trademark high-waisted trousers. “Simon has criticised other people’s appearances on his show, so I think he should be open to that himself,” he said. Read More >>>
Ratings: Dude, Where’s My Ranch? // Barting Over Rerun
Sunday’s double shot of The Simpsons with Dude, Where’s My Ranch? at 8pm and a rerun of Barting Over at 8:30pm has recorded some interesting figures in the Zap2it overnight ratings report. “At 8pm, the second part of the “Touched by an Angel” finale won with an 8.8/15. FOX was second with a new episode of “The Simpsons” (6.7/11) and a repeat of the yellow family (7.1/11), coming in just ahead of the finale part of ABC’s “Eloise at the Plaza.” On NBC, “American Dreams” was fourth with a 5.0/8.” It seems that the 8:30 rerun rated better than the new episode. It will be interesting to see if similar events happen in the coming weeks.
Update: CalendarLive confirms the rerun (12.4 million) outrated the new episode (11.71), coming in at 27th and 34th place respectively for the week.
Welcome To Toled’OH!
Russ Lemmon writes: “Has it come to this? We are having second thoughts about a new ‘Welcome to Toledo’ sign because of Homer Simpson? I can’t see the ‘ToledOH!’ sign being anything more than an inside joke to a relatively small percentage of the population. (Do the math: About 660,000 people live in Lucas, Wood, Ottawa, and Fulton counties; about 66,000 area residents watch The Simpsons on Sunday nights.) And even if Mayor Jack Ford decides to deep-six the sign, the joke is already ‘out there.'” Read More >>>
Jonathan Edwards Avoids OFF
Jonathan Edwards, the record-breaking triple jumper, spoke for the first time this weekend about the Christian principles that will guide him in his new role as a television watchdog, revealing amongst other things that he doesn’t watch the Simpsons.
The Simpsons Want Cowell
Mr Nasty Simon Cowell of American Idol and Pop Idol fame is in talks to star in The Simpsons. The millionaire talent spotter, famed for his barbed comments to wannabe singers, could have a cameo role turning idle pop Homer into a rock and roll sensation. Simpsons executive producer Al Jean admitted: “We thought it would be funny to include Simon in an episode. “I think he might do it. He’s hysterical!” After becoming one of the most popular judges on Britain’s Pop Idol, Cowell has also become a huge hit in the United States, judging acts on American Idol.
“D’oh!” Is My Epitaph
The Simpsons creator Matt Groening has picked a suitable epitaph for his gravestone – his cult cartoon character Homer’s catchphrase “D’oh!” Groening has accepted that the saying, which has become a world-wide catchphrase following its repeated use on the massively popular TV series, will follow him after his death – whether he likes it or not. He jokes, “Even if I don’t put it on my grave, some fan will spray it on.”
The Simpsons: Hit And Run
Vivendi Universal today announced their 2003-04 video games lineup to be showcased at next month’s E3 Expo. Amongst the titles is a new Simpsons game titled “Hit And Run”. The game will mostly feature driving missions, but players will also be required to complete some on-foot missions in a similar fashion to “Grand Theft Auto”. All up, there will be more than 70 missions across seven huge levels. The game will feature 17 different drivers from the show, and more than 40 vehicles will be included. While not much has been said about the missions, players will be able to explore a lot of Springfield, inside and out. There are over 2,500 lines of written dialogue from the show’s writers in addition to spoken dialogue from the original voice talent. The game will also feature a four-player multiplayer driving challenge mode, and will be released on Gamecube, Xbox, PS2, and PC in September this year.
The Futurama video game was also re-announced and is now said to include 30-minutes of new Futurama footage. It will release later this year.