Posted Feb 7th 2010 11:22PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: The Simpsons, Video, Watercooler Talk, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
Look, I knew as soon as I saw the promo for '
The Late Show with David Letterman' that featured
Letterman, Oprah and Jay Leno, that nothing was going to top that. There was just no way anything could be better than that 15-second ad. While I was correct, there were some commercials for non-CBS products that put a smile on my face. Of course there were many others that made me groan, wince or sigh, but
Bob's handling those.
The videos below are from
Hulu, because they were the first ones available. If you can't view them due to location restrictions, they will all be up at
Fanhouse.
Continue reading The Super Bowl Commercials: The Best
Posted Feb 1st 2010 3:07AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, The Simpsons, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S21E11) This episode featured two surprises, though both rather short-lived. The band Coldplay appeared as themselves, and the winning character from the "Best. Character. Ever" contest was revealed. It's so much excitement, even a million dollars couldn't top it!
The animation looked a little more awkward than in most weeks for some reason. It's as if the characters were drawn in a slightly more abstract way, similar to Groening's 'Life in Hell' comic strip. There was a bit more distortion in their features than we're used to seeing. 'The Simpsons' has become a very crisp production.
The main plot this week involved Homer ditching Marge at a wedding because a fortune cookie told him he would be lucky that day. From there, things went into the realm of the absurd at a breakneck pace.
Continue reading Review: The Simpsons - Million Dollar Maybe
Posted Jan 31st 2010 5:06PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Sports, The Simpsons, Commercials, Reality-Free
Since I started writing for this site, I've had the pleasure of seeing episodes of shows like
Dexter and
Leverage before anyone else. I've had the pleasure of conversing with some of the industry's most
interesting characters. But now I know I've truly made it: I got to watch a Super Bowl ad before the rest of the world. Who wants to touch me?
This year's Super Bowl will, of course, feature new commercials for Coca-Cola including a rather interesting one featuring that mecca of brand advertising,
The Simpsons.
It actually takes quite an interesting turn from what you might expect. It's not all that silly. It's actually quite sad and even sullen, compared to ads featuring the show's characters in campaigns for
Butterfinger and
KFC. Watch it for during the game, even if you're like me and you actually watch the Super Bowl for the actual Super Bowl.
Posted Jan 11th 2010 9:00AM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: OpEd, The Simpsons, Animation, Documentary
Forgive me,
Simpsons, but I don't watch you as often as I used to. I'm not sure when it happened, but at some point, watching
The Simpsons slipped from an every-week ritual to catch as catch can.
I'm sure I'm not unusual in that respect. I'm sure there are people who were with
The Simpsons from those very first shaky frames, who saw them adopt No. 9 and laughed at Homer botching Christmas songs on the closing credits, and faithfully watched for several years, maybe even a decade before they dropped off.
But one of the best things about the show is, you can always come back.
The Simpsons never forget. Yesterday's episode and the
20th Anniversary Special that followed was a nice reminder of that. The episode wasn't the funniest I've seen, but I did realize there has never been an episode of the show that wasn't worth at least a few laughs.
Continue reading An apology to The Simpsons
Posted Jan 11th 2010 12:15AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, The Simpsons, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
A documentary film may not be the way most television shows would choose to spend their 20th anniversary hour-long special, but
The Simpsons isn't an ordinary show. It's easy to forget in 2010, with an entire lineup of animation on FOX, Adult Swim and several cable channels devoted to animation, that
The Simpsons was groundbreaking for its time.
While everything today is compared to
The Simpsons,
The Simpsons were being compared to
The Flintstones, a prime-time cartoon that lasted six seasons in the 1960s. Nobody was doing animation for adults when
The Simpsons came on the air, and they got a lot of grief for what they were doing. But
The Simpsons put FOX on the map, and made it okay to have a cartoon for grown-ups, too.
Continue reading Review: The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special: In 3-D! On Ice!
Posted Jan 10th 2010 11:44PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, The Simpsons, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S21E10) Touted as the 450th episode of the series, this episode was a Krusty-centric episode. Billed as part of
The Simpsons 20th anniversary celebration, "Once Upon a Time in Springfield" was followed by Morgan Spurlock's hour-long
Simpsons special, meaning that 75% of FOX's prime-time Sunday night lineup this week Matt Groening, instead of Seth MacFarlane; only
The Cleveland Show made the cut.
This week also featured the return of Anne Hathaway, playing the character of Princess Penelope, a sudden co-host to Krusty's television show in an attempt to appeal to a wider demographic. As you can imagine, a character inspired by the Disney Princesses line can't sit well with Krusty's core (Bart and Milhouse) type of audience.
Continue reading Review: The Simpsons - Once Upon a Time in Springfield
Posted Jan 7th 2010 2:02PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: The Simpsons, Interviews, Documentary, TCA Press Tour, Reality-Free
I've been holding this interview for almost six months, but I think it was worth it. When I was in Pasadena last summer for the TCA press tour (whose winter edition I'll be leaving for on Friday morning... eep!), I spoke to Morgan Spurlock about the 20th anniversary film he was making about
The Simpsons. FOX has finally decided to air that film, entitled
The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special -- In 3-D! On Ice!, on January 10, along with the venerable cartoon's 450th episode.
Spurlock was just in the initial stages of filming the documentary when I talked to him, but his views on the show, how it and the perception of it has changed over the years, and some of the interesting things he learned about the show made for a fun interview. Since I didn't know how long the movie was going to be, I start the talk by expressing some surprise about its length.
Continue reading Morgan Spurlock on the Simpsons 20th anniversary documentary
Posted Jan 4th 2010 12:30PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, The Simpsons, Animation, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S21E09) You can always count on
The Simpsons for a timely reference. Why it was only back in 1997 that Mitch Albom's
Tuesdays with Morrie book came out, so it's high time we riff on it. Wait, that TV movie with Hank Azaria they referenced? That's more recent. 1999 recent!
449 episodes later,
The Simpsons may no longer be the source for the most cutting edge humor, but at least they've reclaimed a lot of the heart this season that was missing early on. Next week is the big 450th episode celebration, which not-so-coincidentally is the week FOX has opted to celebrate officially the 20th anniversary of the stalwart comedy.
For those tired of Seth MacFarlane dominating the Sunday lineup, next week, it's a reversal of fortunes, as
The Simpsons is joined by an hour-long special and the only MacFarlane show to make the grade is his own version of a "traditional" family sitcom:
The Cleveland Show.
Continue reading Review: The Simpsons - Thursdays with Abie
Posted Dec 27th 2009 1:05PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, The Simpsons, Hardware, Software, Reality-Free
With the invention of the App Store, it should be no surprise that game versions of various television properties would appear on the iPhone and iPod Touch. I have managed to get my hands on two of them (
Family Feud and
The Simpsons) and offer a brief review of each.
Family Feud - This game is a wonderful recreation of the environment of the game show it's based on, right down to the camera pans. The big difference is that one has to type any of the top-however-many answers rather than speak them, so it's best if the player have excellent spelling skills. Currently the game is on sale for $2.99 in the
App Store.
Continue reading Family Feud and The Simpsons on the iPhone
Posted Dec 24th 2009 5:02PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Sports, The Simpsons, Festivus, Dexter, Reality-Free, British TV, Sons of Anarchy
I love Christmas. It is the best holiday. If all of the holidays grew asses, Christmas could kick every other holiday's ass by ripping off their ass and beating them to death with said ass.
It's perfect on every conceivable level. It aims to achieve total peace and tranquility of the human spirit and singularity of the soul through the selfless act of giving. Of course, in order for that to work, someone has to be on the receiving end and I'm more than willing to have my every dream fulfilled in the name of calming the cosmic waves.
So here's my wish list to Santa or Jesus or Buddha or whomever holds the universe in balance for things to suck less until the next holiday.
Continue reading All Danny wants for Festivus
Posted Dec 24th 2009 9:00AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: The Simpsons, Reality-Free
Who would have thought that the Pope and I could have been switched at birth, assuming I was born in some kind of time riff? It could happen.
The Vatican's newspaper,
L'Osservatore Romano, offered its congratulations to The Simpsons for reaching its 20th anniversary in an article titled "Aristotle's Virtues and Homer's Doughnut."
Why would the Vatican heap such praise on a show that has long made religion the butt of so many jokes? (My favorite is from
The Simpsons Movie when Grandpa flips out during church and Marge asks Homer to do something and all Homer can do is flip through a Bible and scream, "I would but this book doesn't have any answers!" ) The newspaper says that Homer's attitude toward religion are "a mirror of the indifference and the need that
modern man feels toward faith."
So I guess this means that the Protestant Church is going to give
Family Guy their annual Martin Luther Award.
Posted Dec 16th 2009 9:00PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: The Simpsons, Reality-Free
Think you can identify every
Simpsons character ever in the history of the known universe? Be our guest.
Fox has unveiled
a huge new poster of all of the show's characters in the last 20 years. You can see a bigger image of the breathtaking new poster
here.
It's actually quite detailed and goes well beyond the two decade long scope of the actual show. A quick scan of the characters turned up a shot of Marge and Homer from their short days on
The Tracey Ullman Show.
Posted Dec 16th 2009 3:03PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: The Simpsons, Reality-Free
More than most other shows, it's almost impossible to pick a favorite episode from
The Simpsons. When a show is around for 20 years, it's hard to narrow it down to the one episode that stands out among all the rest. Sure, there are episodes that stand out to me immediately (none from the past four or five years, that's for sure), but it would be hard to choose my favorite.
The new issue of
Emmy magazine asks several writers and producers from the show what their favorite episodes are, including creator Matt Groening. Can you guess which episode he picked?
Continue reading What is Matt Groening's favorite episode of The Simpsons?
Posted Dec 16th 2009 2:03PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, The Simpsons, Animation, Reality-Free
Ever wondered what Slurm, the highly addictive soft drink from
Futurama that's made from the colon of a space worm queen, actually tastes like?
If you simply must know, now you can find out. It's been turned into
an energy drink.
It's just one of a long line of pop culture themed energy drinks that you can use to that add that extra bit of pep to your day without having to start drinking before noon.
You can also buy a case of
Flaming Moe's (grape flavored kiddie cough syrup sold separately) and even a
Duff Beer, which I'm assured is an energy drink. Funny, that's what Daddy used to call his brand of beer, too.
Posted Dec 14th 2009 10:41AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, The Simpsons, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S21E08) The last episode of 2009 also has the distinction of being the 449th episode of
The Simpsons. The series will come back Sunday, January 10th for a 450th episode extravaganza, including a one-hour 20th anniversary special. It's certainly a big year for Tracey Ullman's one-time back-up series.
The beginning of the episode had an almost frantic pace, as it set up about four or five different possible plotlines, before finally settling on Bart's jealousy of Lisa and Maggie's relationship. His attempts to help his parents create a little brother for him were a little disturbing, but that was more than made up for by a fantasy sequence featuring many famous brothers.
Continue reading Review: The Simpsons - O Brother, Where Bart Thou?
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