IN THE NEWS

The Worst Upcoming Episode

2012-05-10T20:40:02Z

Check out this sneak peek preview of an upcoming episode from next season:

When Bart's love life heats up again on The Simpsons, it will involve an old flame or two. Actually, make that five. Not only will Zooey Deschanel guest-star on the animated comedy by reprising her role as Mary Spuckler -- that adorable hillbilly daughter of Cleetus [sic.] whom Bart nearly married in season 19 -- four other former girlfriends, voiced by Natalie Portman, Anne Hathaway, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Sarah Silverman, make cameos in the same episode, EW has learned.

This episode has it all: a hackneyed plot ripped off from romantic comedies, a bunch of guest stars returning to voice some of the blandest characters in the show's history (Girlfriend #4, Girlfriend #7, et al.), a clip show-like premise that emphasizes not only how long the show's been on but how repetitive and assembly line-produced it's been, Bart having what sounds like a midlife crisis at the age of 10, and a country song performed by Zooey Deschanel, who apparently played one of Cletus the slack-jawed yokel's daughter in some horrible-sounding episode I managed to avoid. Please end this show. [Entertainment Weekly]

David Foster Wallace is Still Alive in the Simpsons Universe

2012-04-30T19:46:40Z

David Foster Wallace, the celebrated author of the novel Infinite Jest and seminal anti-cruise diatribe "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again," may be dead dead dead in real life, but apparently he's still alive and kickin' it in the Simpsons universe. Here's a framegrab of someone who strongly resembles him in the background of the latest Simpsons episode, cleverly entitled "A Totally Fun Thing That Bart Will Never Do Again," as spotted by No Homers Club poster Real Melvin:

]]> The character designer¹ deserves points for detail: in a footnote in the essay, Wallace mentions wearing a "tuxedo-design T-shirt" because he failed to heed the "brochure's instruction to bring a real tux on the Cruise" with the right amount of seriousness². But look closer at his face... is that a smile? Is he actually genuinely enjoying himself on this cruise instead of grappling with existential despair over the artificiality of it all, the pampering-paranoia, the agoraphobia, and other such neuroses? That's not the way I remember the essay. I suppose this alternate universe DFW doppelgänger is just a bit more cheerier about things, which might explain why he's still living while his prime universe self is not.³

Or... brace yourselves, folks... what if this is like the ending of Titanic, and this is heaven??? Maybe Homer died a long time ago, in the early 1990s or thereabouts⁴. That would explain why all these dead people are walking around and the World Trade Center is still standing here in the "present."⁵ It explains why his friends and family never age, because his memory of everyone preserved them at the age they were when he died. It would also explain why Homer never dies despite the many, many serious injuries he is subjected to on a regular basis. It's all coming together now!!!⁶

[No Homers Club]

^1. Joe Wack perhaps?^1a
^1a. Yes, there's footnotes.
^2. However, I'm a wee bit disappointed by the absence of a lobster on his plate.^2a There is something reddish there, but I can't tell what it's supposed to be... a napkin perhaps?
^2a.You see, because he also wrote an article about lobsters called "Consider the Lobster."^2b
^2b. Which was also used as the title for one of his essay collections, just like "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again."
^3. Could the absence of his trademark bandana have also played a role in alterna-Wallace's longevity?
^4. Suddenly the sequence in season one's "Homer's Odyssey" where Homer tries to off himself with a giant boulder takes on newfound resonance.
^5. Remember, everything that has ever happened in the series^5a is supposedly taking place over the course of one jam-packed year^5b, which is always "now."
^5a. Personally I reject the "everything is canon" theory and subscribe to a "multiverse theory" of my own devising, based on the multiverse DC Comics used to have^5c where the Golden Age versions of Batman and Superman live on "Earth-2" or whatever, while their Silver Age incarnations live on Earth-1. I still need to work out the details.
^5b.An incidental detail that gets acknowledged in the "Library of Wisdom" series of books but is conspicuously never mentioned elsewhere.
^5c. Before it got wiped out in the Infinite Crisis saga that gripped comic book readers in the 1980s.
^6. This theory regrettably does not explain why or how contemporary celebrities, technology, culture, etc. appear in the memory-afterlife of someone who died twenty years ago. Perhaps Homer's just in a really long coma and he can overhear people who come to visit his bedside talk about all those things, which then manifest themselves in his subconscious? Sure, let's go with that.

Feeble Jab at Fox News Garners Big Press

2012-04-24T23:19:45Z

The Simpsons appended this incredibly minor "jab" at Fox News to the rebroadcast of the first episode, Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire, which aired as part of Fox's twenty-fifth anniversary celebration Sunday night:

Despite its severe lameness (We don't like Fox News! LOL!), it still got a bunch of press coverage from places like the Huffington Post (takes shot!), Hollywood Reporter (skewered! blasted!), and Zap2It (trashes!) ... and that was before professional pinhead Bill O'Reilly weighed in.

I can only imagine what font size they'd use for the headlines if the scene featuring CEO Rupert Murdoch in jail had aired today.

No, The Simpsons Don't Live in Oregon

2012-04-12T00:11:53Z

Like a bunch of lemmings jumping off a cliff, just about every news outlet from CBS News to the E! network to the gadget blog Gizmodo to the New Yorker (!) to the Los Angeles Times to the FOX Network to local newscasts around the country has regurgitated the SHOCKING news that Simpsons creator Matt Groening had finally revealed the location of the fictional cartoon town of Springfield: his home state of Oregon. Except, uh, he didn't say that at all and you'd have to be severely incompetent at basic reading comprehension to think otherwise?

]]> Here's what he actually said in an interview with Smithsonian magazine:

OK, why do the Simpsons live in a town called Springfield? Isn't that a little generic?
Springfield was named after Springfield, Oregon. The only reason is that when I was a kid, the TV show "Father Knows Best" took place in the town of Springfield, and I was thrilled because I imagined that it was the town next to Portland, my hometown. When I grew up, I realized it was just a fictitious name. I also figured out that Springfield was one of the most common names for a city in the U.S. In anticipation of the success of the show, I thought, "This will be cool; everyone will think it's their Springfield." And they do.

You've never said it was named after Springfield, Oregon, before, have you?
I don't want to ruin it for people, you know? Whenever people say it's Springfield, Ohio, or Springfield, Massachusetts, or Springfield, wherever, I always go, "Yup, that's right."

Interviewer Claudia De La Roca is mistaken, Groening has said the name was partially inspired by Springfield, Oregon at least several times before - the earliest reference I can find is in a 1993 Washington Post article by Tom Shales that you have to pay to read - but he either forgot (he's been giving interviews about The Simpsons for a quarter of a century now) or chose not to correct her. Still, at no point does he say Oregon is where the Simpsons live. That didn't stop the Smithsonian from titling the article "Matt Groening Reveals the Location of the Real Springfield," which albeit technically accurate (he "revealed" the location of the real, physical, actually-existing Springfield that he named the fake, fictional, cartoon Springfield after) but still grossly misleading. Of course, the rest of the vaunted Fourth Estate failed to comprehend the nuance and reported it as "THE SIMPSONS LIVE IN OREGON" as if Springfield's state has been a LOST-like closely-guarded secret and not, you know, a long-running joke? The nerds at the Simpsons Archive have been keeping track for years, and if you look at "the evidence," you'll find that everything contradicts everything else, and every state is an impossibility. Also, there was a whole episode about Homer having to drive Bart all the way to Oregon after he misses a flight to Portland, which makes no sense if it's a neighboring town.

The media misinterpreting Groening is nothing new. Ten years ago when he said "I think we are closer to winding [the show] up" - in other words that he didn't think they were going to go on for another thirteen years - and it got reported, essentially, as "SIMPSONS TO END TOMORROW!!!" Maybe Groening and other TV show creators should just stop giving interviews altogether. Oh, and let's not forget about the time last October when AOL/Huffington Post had the headline "'The Simpsons' Definitely Ending For Good" on their homepage... until, you know, when it got renewed for two more years.

I'm still not totally sure if it's all just cynical sensationalism to pump up $$$PAGEVIEWS$$$, or just gross incompetence, or a mish-mash of both. Here's something to ponder: if we can't trust the media to fact-check a TV cartoon, how can we trust them to independently verify a government's claims that a Middle-Eastern country has weapons of mass destruction and poses an imminent threat? Hypothetically, of course.

Please join us next week when the media discovers the Simpsons are named after Matt Groening's family members (IDENTITY OF THE REAL HOMER SIMPSON REVEALED AT LAST!!!).

The Armenian Version of The Simpsons Is So Much Better Than Ours

2012-04-09T20:04:02Z

I don't want to oversell this, but I've seen a lot of weird Simpsons videos, and this Armenian parody is one of my favorites. It starts out with four lads morphing into the Simpsons singing "Yesterday" in Armenian atop Stonehenge and gets stranger from there.

]]>

It's better without context, but as far as I can figure out, it's a clip from a 2002 Yellow Submarine parody by the late Armenian animator Robert Sahakyants.

[YouTube via The No Homers Club]

Seth MacFarlane Branches Out

2012-04-03T21:42:49Z

Seth MacFarlane, beloved by millions around the globe as the voice of Stewie The Talking Baby Who Says Naughty Things and Brian The Talking Dog Who Says Naughty Things, is ready to branch out and tackle the next big challenge of his artistic career: directing, writing, producing and starring in a live-action movie about a Talking Teddy Bear Who Says Naughty Things.

]]> Take a look at this Red Band Trailer for the next masterpiece in his directorial oeuvre (if you're over 18 that is. We're on the honor system here.):

Ted: Restricted Trailer - watch more funny videos

Did you see the way the CGI animated bear smoked that weed, and said those cuss words? This is completely new territory for MacFarlane. But it is showcased with the full confidence of a mature auteur eager to show the world his cinematic chops. And what chops they are! The white trash joke that goes on for so long that it becomes the joke itself brings to mind the work of Béla Tarr, known for his illustrious long takes.

MacFarlane joins a prestigious list of animators who decided to stretch their wings and take a leap into the world of live-action filmmaking: Tim Burton, Mike Judge, Gabor Csupo, Brad Bird, Andrew Stanton. But as Stanton has demonstrated with the tepid reception to his film John Carter, MacFarlane faces an uphill challenge. Can he convince the legions of Family Guy fans to follow him as he sets forth on his quest to conquer the cinema? Could he become the next Tim Burton, one of the most commercially successful directors the medium has ever known, and leave the world of television animation behind? Only time will tell.

In the meantime, be sure to take a look at the film's official Twitter account as well, which is tweeting hilarious rape jokes. With a dry, cool wit like that, I wouldn't be surprised if it was the Sethster himself penning these bon mots.

[Ted Movie | Official Site for the Ted Film]

(By the way, this is pretty much just a rip-off of Neil Swaabe's comic strip Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles.)

EXCLUSIVE: Season 24 Plotlines Leaked!

2012-03-28T04:28:45Z

It seems a crafty teen tipster has managed to get ahold of a TOP-SECRET memo outlining the plotlines for the upcoming world-record 24th season of The Simpsons, purloined directly from the writers' room at FOX Studios! We've got the full memo after the jump.

]]>

As you can plainly see for yourself with your eyeballs, it looks like Season 24 is on track to becoming (Comic Book Man voice) The Best Season... Ever!!! I certainly can't wait to sit down and watch the finished project, on the TV or "telly" as they call it in England.

As always, we here at IN THE NEWS are always looking for the latest leaks, secrets, and gossip from Simpsons HQ. If you've got the inside scoop, give us the deets! We take the highest precautions to ensure your anonymity and personal safety is protected at all times.

[ryan dell blog]

Dana Gould Not A Murderer After All

2012-03-23T20:43:24Z

IN THE NEWS is happy to report that comedian and former Simpsons writer Dana Gould is not a murderer.

Here's the deal: a while ago I learned from Wikipedia that Gould had used the pseudonym "Lawrence Talbot" for a Simpsons episode he'd written, Goo Goo Gai Pan, wherein the Simpsons go to China to help Aunt Selma adopt a baby. Curious about this intriguing bit of trivia, I decided to ask him about it in what I hoped was a friendly, professional e-mail:

dear mr. gould
i have a press inquiry: why did u use a pseudonym for the simpsons episode "goo goo gai pan"? or is wikipedia got it's facts wrong.

thanx

urs in christ,
 adam
 http://rubbercat.net/simpsons/news

Alas, a few weeks passed and there was no response from Mr. Gould. Naturally, I assumed he was attempting to dodge the question because he was hiding something nefarious, hoping the scandal would blow over before it even started. Well, I wasn't going to give up so easily. Undaunted, I e-mailed him again a couple times, but each time I was rebuffed with his stonewalling silence. That's when things got personal. How dare this Hollywood Liberal refuse to answer questions from the press! How could he so callously disregard my joke Simpsons fansite as anything less than legitimate? But I didn't let my emotions compromise my professional integrity, no sir. I knew that as a member of the vaunted Fourth Estate, my responsibility was to shake out The Truth by any means necessary. So, I decided to take the upper hand in this escalating cat-and-mouse game between reporter and subject. and play a little hardball. Utilizing a journalism strategy I learned from an imaginary book, I took the story public and spread some venomous allegations about Mr. Gould, speculating perhaps he had "murdered a teenage girl" or "shot up an entire orphanage" and was hiding behind a phony name to escape culpability for his crimes. In short, I hoped to force his hand and get him to respond. Here's the original post about it, as I reported at the time.

]]> Well, I'm happy to report that my questionable journalism tactics actually worked! After more than two years after my original e-mail, Dana Gould finally caved in and set the record straight:

Adam,
I tell about the Lawrence Talbot pseudonym in my chat with Kevin Pollak: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnUyrll9-rA#t=1h37m10s
May Christ be with you always,
Dana

Click that YouTube link. It turns out the Gouldster actually had a very good reason for using a pseudonym. Around the time the episode was scheduled to air, Gould and his wife were in the process of adopting a second daughter from China. Fearing the potential ramifications from zealous Chinese overseers unhappy with the episode's less-than-flattering depiction of modern China that could jeopardize the adoption, Gould took his name off the episode and replaced with a pseudonym. He settled on Lawerence Talbot, the alter ego of filmdom's The Wolfman, a character that he seems to have an unhealthy obsession with. It worked, and the Goulds were able to add to their family without incident.

So, now that The Truth has finally come out at last, I can hereby recant all the aspersions I cast on his character. Dana Gould is a good man. He is a fine, upstanding citizen. He has never murdered anyone, nor would he ever even think about murdering anyone, not even for a second. He is an honest human being who should be commended for his commitment to decency and virtuousness.

Let this be a lesson to all you aspiring journalists out there: if a source won't talk to you, just spread a bunch of vicious rumors and innuendo about them. It gets results!

Radioactive Man Collection Coming Up and At Them in July

2012-03-21T23:39:07Z

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post's headline mistakenly said "atom" instead of "at them." IN THE NEWS regrets the error.

The most critically underrated component of the enormous Simpsons media empire is the Radioactive Man spin-off comic book series occasionally put out by creator Matt Groening's Bongo Comics, which after 18 years is finally being collected in a deluxe hardcover anthology.

First, a little backstory. The premise of Radioactive Man is simple but ingenious: each issue was purported to be a random issue from the fictional comic book series' nearly 50-history, satirizing different comic book eras (Golden Age, Silver Age, etc.) and all the superhero conventions and gimmicks that come with it. There was initially a six-issue run in 1994, starting with #1 (mostly consistent with what we saw of it in the Simpsons episode "Three Men and a Comic Book") and ending with a Spawn-tastic #1000, followed by an "80 page colossal" the following year. A second run debuted in 2000, this time written by the remarkable Batton Lash, with a noticeable improvement in the artwork. Each issue also featured faux ads from the Simpsons universe and letters from readers playing along with the joke (however, the letters in the second series were all fictional; i.e. #222 features a letter from a young Marge Bouvier). Everyone at Bongo is a giant comics nerd (the first issue of Simpsons Comics is a Fantastic Four reference, for example) and Radioactive Man really let them go hog-wild, sort of like how The Critic allowed Simpsons writers Al Jean and Mike Reiss do all the movie parodies they wanted.

]]> It was an incredibly clever series - maybe too clever for its own good. While most of the Simpsons comics are middling at best, Radioactive Man managed to sidestep the challenges inherent in trying to recreate a TV show in comics form simply by being made for the medium; it does for comics what The Simpsons did for television. While it was more successful than other Bongo series like Itchy & Scratchy Comics (4 issues), Krusty Comics (3 issues), and Lisa Comics (1 issue), one assumes it wasn't the massive hit Bongo was hoping for. Currently, Radioactive Man stories have been sidelined into the twice-yearly Simpsons Super Spectacular, which mostly focuses on Homer's guise as "Pie Man" from a horrible 2004 episode and Bart's alter ego "Bartman" (which used to be its own series).

The first-ever Radioactive Man collection, Radioactive Man: Radioactive Repository Volume 1, is due out in July and currently available for pre-order on Amazon. Based on the page count (288), Captain Squid over at the No Homers Club crunched the numbers and made the estimation that it will most likely include the first six issue run, the 80 page colossal, and #160, which was split up into four parts in Simpsons Comics. Presumably, the second series - and an adaptation of the ill-fated Radioactive Man movie that's worth checking out - will be collected in a second volume.

Hopefully this new collection will introduce new readers to Radioactive Man and help it garner the respect it deserves. While normally I would advise against purchasing Simpsons merchandise, because it probably helps fund the creation of new episodes among other things, I am making an exception for Radioactive Man. BUY THIS BOOK.

[Comics Continuum via No Homers Club]

Somebody Punched A Box

2012-03-12T20:18:06Z

Writer/producer Matt Selman and former writer/murderer Dana Gould are doing a "thing" this Thursday at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles. If you pay them 10 bucks, they will regale you with anecdotes about working for The Simpsons in the post-funny era, answer questions about wizard keys, as well as - and this is the important part - give you all the backstage dirt, like "Who punched a box?" If any of you readers out there end up going to this thing, please please please tell me who punched the box. I desperately need to know.

[NerdMelt]

Ten Simpsons Episodes That Never Were

2012-02-20T00:21:34Z

Bill Oakley has done it again. Last Friday on Twitter, the former Simpsons showrunner revealed his personal top ten Simpsons episodes that were "pitched, discussed, [and] written," but, for whatever reason, never produced and lost to the sands of time.

Now, most of our competition would just lazily copy & paste the list and call it a day, but we here at rubbercat.net/simpsons have much more respect for you, the reader. We have attempted to dig up as much information about these would-be episodes as possible, from audio commentaries, interviews, and story outlines, to bring you the most complete picture of these extra-bonus-non-episodes as possible. Let's run through the list, shall we?

]]> 10. Homer's Sexual Fantasy by Dan Greaney
I have no idea what this is about. Surely I'm not the first person to have typed "Dan Greaney sexual fantasy" into a search engine.

9. [Homer Privately Tells Bart He Loves Him Best] by Ken Keeler

No information on this one either. It's such a simple, organic idea that you've got to wonder why it didn't get produced.

8. Bart Gets 144 Jeeps by Bill Oakley & Josh Weinstein

This was among a list of potential plotlines from Oakley & Weinstein's list of "Leftover Story Ideas & Fragments" that Oakley wikileaked back in 2010, as was the style at the time. It's based on an old WWII-era urban legend. Supposedly advertisements in the back of magazines like Boy's Life and Popular Mechanics said you could buy surplus Army jeeps that had been packed in crates for only fifty bucks.

Here's all the notes about it from the list, as republished on Splitsider:

•Bart gets 144 Jeeps
-find old ads in Argosy or True
"WW2 Surplus Jeeps as Low as $1.00 each when bought in quantity!'
"Min. Order 1 Gross."
Gets kids to give him $, Homer buys 10, Grampa buys 50

Some young army guy doesn't know what to do, send jeeps
(maybe they're packed in grease and unassembled)

"Grampa, come over and pick up your 50 jeeps"

Everyone, including the kids, are driving around in jeeps. Homer wrecks his and just uses a new one.

7. Homer the Narcoleptic by David X. Cohen

This episode is mentioned a couple times in the audio commentaries, but never explained in any detail. In the last moments of the commentary for "Much Apu About Nothing," Oakley and Cohen hold this exchange:

Oakley: "Homer the Narcolpetic" was one story that David wanted to do over and over and kept pitching many, many, many times and never appeared and maybe in the future commentaries he'll tell you what would've happened... in "Homer the Narcoleptic."

Cohen: I think you've summed up the entire story already, with the title.

Oakley: That was why it never got done, I guess.

6. thirtysimpsons by David M. Stern

Oakley described this episode in a 2005 Q&A thread over at The No Homers Club, America's favorite Simpsons message board:

A "thirtysomething" style look at Homer and Marge's marriage, as contrasted by some yuppies who move in next door. It just wasn't the style of the show, and much of the material got put into other episodes.

In an audio commentary for "Stark Raving Dad," Mike Reiss, another former showrunner, described the plot of "thirtysimpsons" thusly: basically, Homer starts hanging out with a bunch of yuppies "and he loves their big screen TV, and that sort of thing." He also said it was really funny and they had Stern go through four or five different drafts, but "it just didn't click for us."

It could a coincidence, but a "hipster" couple from Portland (voiced by Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein from Portlandia) move next door to the Simpsons in an upcoming episode next season.

5. [Amusement Park] by Matt Groening

Absolutely no idea what this is. Surely Mt. Splashmore, Duff Gardens, Itchy & Scratchy Land, Storytown Village, and Krustyland all provided enough opportunity for amusement park jokes for one lifetime.

4. Homer vs. Dr. Hibbert on the Issue of Race by Greg Daniels

Some critics have noted that for all the satirization of American culture and modern society the show has done, The Simpsons has never really tackled race - which is admittedly not the funniest topic - in a big way. But it's not from lack of trying. In the audio commentary for "Bart Sells His Soul," Oakley mentions that writer Greg Daniels pitched a story exploring "the concept of race in Springfield" several times, but it was nixed because it was decided "The Simpsons may not be the right forum to deal with racism." Daniels himself doesn't seem to remember the story at all, asking "what was it?" when Oakley brings it up.

3. [Homer's $1000 Suit] - index card left on bulletin board by Sam Simon

Apparently, Homer nearly had a really expensive suit at least a decade before GOB Bluth. Come on!

2. Lisa the Scientopteran by George Meyer

Through the astounding process of deduction, one could make the reasonable inference that "Lisa the Scientopteran" just might be the episode Oakley cagily described in the aforementioned 2005 Q&A:

A hilarious and fully worked out story by George Meyer. I can't reveal the subject matter here but we never went forward with it because of 1) legal ramifications and 2) the fact that at least a couple of people on the staff/cast would've felt personally attacked by the episode and we just didn't want to deal with the fallout. But it was hilarious and George is the funniest writer to ever live.

Nancy Cartwright, voice of Bart Simpson, is an enthusiastic Scientologist who has donated more money to the Church of Scientology than poster boy Tom Cruise. A few years ago, she landed in a bit of hot water when she did a few "robo-calls" for the church using her Bart Simpson voice without permission. She is also rumored to have put the kibosh on a line of dialogue implicitly slamming Scientology. Needless to say, Cartwright would have been among the Simpsons staffers who'd have likely felt personally attacked by the episode had it gone into production.

As far as legal ramifications go, Mark I. Pinsky, author of The Gospel According to The Simpsons, mentions in his book that the show's producers had "vetoed an episode-length swat at Scientology in fear of the group's reputation for suing and harassing opponents."

Some elements of Meyer's story may have been watered down and used in Season 9's "The Joy of Sect," written by Steve O'Donnell. That episode focuses on a fictional cult, The Movementarians, which was inspired by a variety of cults and religions in addition to Scientology.

1. Prince Comes to Springfield by Conan O'Brien

In an audio commentary for "Stark Raving Dad," the famed Michael Jackson episode, Mike Reiss talked the plans for a never-produced sequel to the episode. Executive producer James L. Brooks had suggested the bring back the character of Leon Kompowsky, the portly mental patient who believed he was Michael Jackson, for an episode the following year, only "this time he thinks he's Prince." Here's Reiss's description of the plot:

He comes back, he's acting like Prince, he gets the whole town of Springfield to loosen up, become more flamboyant, everybody becomes more sexually open, and they're dressing in paisley, and that kind of thing.

According to Reiss, some freelancers wrote the script, then writer Conan O'Brien did a week-long revision of the script, and finally the other writers did another rewrite. They sent it to Prince, who sent back a list of wardrobe notes describing what his character would wear in each scene. The writers noticed Prince's notes didn't actually correspond to the script they had written and eventually discovered that a friend of his (I've heard it was his driver, but I don't remember the source) had apparently given him their own "The Simpsons meet Prince" fanfiction, which he'd mistakenly thought was genuine, or something. When the Simpsons writers discovered the mix-up, they re-sent the real script. Prince apparently hated that one, so that was that.

Well, that's all the information I have. Maybe someday in season 30 we'll finally discover the story behind Homer's $1000 suit. Much appreciation to Bill Oakley, who over the years has been a great friend to the online Simpsons community, providing us with a veritable treasure trove of trivia.

[@thatbilloakley on Twitter]

Now You Can Walk All Over Matt Groening

2012-02-15T02:23:27Z

Simpsons creator Matt Groening got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame today. According to KPCC, it's star #2,459 , located at 7021 Hollywood Blvd, in case you want to visit it and step all over it. Since The Simpsons themselves already have a star, you can consider this one a quiet acknowledgment of Futurama and Life in Hell.

It's been a banner couple of weeks for the Groenster - he's getting a toy modeled off of his likeness, he just celebrated the 500th episode of The Simpsons, he just created the Matt Groening Chair in Animation with a $500,000 donation to UCLA, and his birthday is tomorrow. Everything's coming up Groening!

[Huffington Post]

Mike Scully Wants To Die

2012-02-09T23:50:39Z

The Hollywood Reporter did a big cover story about The Simpsons in honor its meaningless milestone of having churned out a certain number of product. Former showrunner Mike Scully used the occasion to share his death wish with the nation:

"I think the show will outlive all of us," says former producer Mike Scully. "Nothing would make me happier than some episode in the future to end with a title card that reads, 'In memory of Mike Scully.'"

Yup, Mike Scully wants to die. Nothing would make him happier. There is no other way to interpret that quote. After years of death threats from Simpsons nerds, it seems Scully has decided to embrace the icy hand of death.

The rest of the article is mostly just a rehash of the same stories they've been telling for years in interviews and audio commentaries (did you know Michael Jackson didn't do his own singing???), but nonetheless there's a few interesting tidbits I haven't heard elsewhere, if you use a charitable interpretation of "interesting."

]]>

A small confirmation from creator Matt Groening that he didn't come up with the Simpsons on the spot: "I'd had them in mind for a while but had never drawn them." In fact, he'd come up with them in high school, a detail he never mentions anymore.

James L. Brooks claims director David Silverman gave him the idea of turning the original shorts into a series while drunk at a Christmas party. But basically everyone vaguely involved with the show, including Rupert Murdoch, says it was their idea, so who knows.

Future former Tonight Show host Conan O'Brien gave Johnny Carson the wrong directions out of the Fox lot.

Mike Scully's first day was the day NBC told Conan he was taking over Late Night from David Letterman. So, in a sense, he replaced Conan. That's a nice bit of symbolism for the contingent of Simpsons fans who think Conan was responsible for Everything Good about the show and Scully was responsible for Everything Bad.

Julie Kavner (voice of Marge) has some words of praise for the dreaded upcoming season finale starring Lady Gaga. I've always had her pegged as "not a fan" of the show in its current incarnation and a member of what Groening dubs "the sour wall," but maybe I was wrong.

Hank Azaria mentions - although not by name - Christopher "Cobra Commander" Collins, whom he replaced as the voice of Moe. Supposedly Collins was "difficult to work with." Azaria's also the only person to mention former producer Sam Simon.

Apparently, when rich people reminisce about their days in the 99%, they make sure to mention what kind of car they drove, as a class indicator. Groening drove a 1962 Ford Fairlane; Nancy Cartwright drove a Honda Prelude.

This photo gallery of the animation studio is kinda neat. However, they put the photos out of order, so character designer Joe Wack is referred to out of the blue as just "Wack" in photo 5 and introduced in photo 7. I sure hope somebody got fired for that blunder.

[The Hollywood Reporter]

يا إلهي! Iran Bans Simpsons Dolls

2012-02-06T19:39:28Z

The Country of Iran has taken the unprecedented step of banning the foreign import of Simpsons dolls, thereby throwing a wrench in peace negotiations and putting the entire international community in mortal jeopardy.

Oh, sure, the Iranian Secretary for Policy-making at the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults in Tehran (the Iranian equivalent of the IntelDevChiYA czar) claims they're doing it so as not to corrupt the morals of Iranian youth with Western depravity, but we all know the real reason: to strike back America for the tough economic sanctions we've been putting on them to get them to stop being so nuke-curious and weird. As we all know, the production of Simpsons crap is America's largest industry, and the loss of such a big market could really hamper our economic recovery and prolong the recession. This is Iran's way of letting us know they mean business. Diplomats are working around the clock trying to come up with an agreement, but have been met with resistance. Just yesterday, President Obama told NBC's Matt Lauer that "all options are on the table" with regards to the Simpsons ban; "I will not rest until every Iranian child has a Bart Simpson plush doll," the president vowed.

]]> The news doesn't state if the ban affects non-doll-based Simpsons merchandise, including aprons, board games, comic books, DVDs, energy drinks, fishing lures, GPS systems, hoodies, inhalers, jewelry, keychains, lamps, medicine, Nike shoes, ornaments, postage stamps, quizzes, ringtones, skateboards, T-shirts, underwear, video games, wall calendars, xylophones, yo-yos, zeppelins and fluffy, fluffy beach towels. Surely the Iranians aren't crazy enough to ban the beach towels. Right?

[Reuters]

So What Was Up With That Rag Episode?

2012-02-03T00:29:17Z

After failing to come up with any new ideas for Simpsons episodes, the writers decided to call it quits and throw in the towel... then, as they gazed upon the towel they threw, suddenly became struck with inspiration and wrote a whole episode around it. At least, that's how I imagine this rag episode came about.

I didn't see it, but I read the Wikisimpsons article about it, which is chock full of insane plot details like "Moe is part yeti," "Moe has a magical talking bar rag from the Middle Ages voiced by Jeremy Irons," "Milhouse's mom chokes on a rock and refuses the Heimlich maneuver," and "Moe is part yeti."

Judging from the feedback on the internet, "the rag episode" represents yet another low point for the series, like jockey gnomes, "the Israel episode," and whatever that Ke$ha thing was.

]]> Here's a sample of the response from people who actually did see it:

.@rubbrcatsimp Last night The Simpsons aired an episode about Moe's rag. It was the story of his rag. I am not joke. The rag could talk.
— bhlaab (@bhlaab) January 30, 2012

Hayden Childs, AV Club:

This episode, which tells the story of Moe's dishrag, has such an unconventional premise that it might well have been a surrealist masterpiece. Instead it is the most conventional type of story possible for The Simpsons, being mainly an excuse to drop the cast into various moments of history and capping it all with a treacly message about the power of friendship and the love of dogs.

Matt Garvey, alt.tv.simpsons:

Well that was remarkable from start to finish... for being ridiculous. I enjoy a good high concept, and I appreciate the "unlikely tale of an object" angle... but this episode just didn't know what to do with itself. [...] But the real problem is that it just wasn't all that funny (or touching) - full of obvious gags, you know? It could have been a lot better without much effort.

No, no, The Simpsons isn't out of ideas; they've always wanted to do an episode about a rag but never had the chance.
— Joe Schmitt (@joeschmitt) January 30, 2012

Charlie Sweatpants, Dead Homer Society:

This episode is such a patchwork of unrelated elements that it's difficult to discern a structure or theme. Oh sure, there's the rag, but the rag seems to move between kinda, sorta real history like Michelangelo and Vikings to fanciful tales like One Thousand and One Nights[...] Things made just as little sense back in Springfield, particularly when you remember that Milhouse produced Drederick Tatum from nowhere to punch Bart in the arm. I know things don't tend to make sense these days, but this did seem like an especially "Fuck you, audience" effort on their part.

FUN GAME: Take any statement regarding Terri Schiavo and substitute any instance of her name with "The Simpsons"
— whisman (@robwhisman) February 2, 2012

Jonah Flynn (former webmaster of The Springfield Shopper), No Homers Club:

The bar keeps getting lower. I never thought I'd ever become this disenchanted with the show after being one of its biggest defenders for twenty years.

Last but not least, here's a quote from Magnum at nerdgroupies that sums up the whole thing:

the next time you watch lisa saying goodbye to mr. bergstrom on the subway platform, or homer gazing at the stars reflecting on his life without a mother, remember that at those very moments horse jockey gnomes and sentient medieval bar rags were plotting their revenge on springfield

That really puts salt in the wound, doesn't it?