“Simpsons Did It” – Celebrating 25 Seasons
If you are a fan of South Park you will have undoubtedly seen the famous scene when Cartman tries to come up with a plot that The Simpsons haven’t done. This South Park episode (named ‘Simpsons Already Did It’) aired in 2002 but there were obviously still quite a few ideas in the Simpsons writing room because unbelievably the show is still going strong.
This year saw the celebration of their 25th season. The creators and PR machine behind the show stepped up their game to make The Simpsons once again relevant in everyone’s minds.
A perfect example of this celebration is the cross over episode between Family Guy and The Simpsons set to air on the 28th of September. This episode is officially a Family guy episode named ‘The Simpsons Guy’ so it will be interesting to see if the Simpsons creators allow the writers at Family Guy to put a bit more of an adult spin on our favourite yellow family. The director of the episode ‘Peter Shin’ has worked on both shows and has won an Annie Award for his direction on the Family Guy episode “North by North Quahog” which bodes well for the crossover. But how will fans react to this mixing of giants? From the four minute exert that’s been released (to entice people to watch) it seems a lot of the questions about the two shows similarities will be answered as well as lots of nods to the fans .
Apart from the family guy crossover it’s been announced that a Futurama cross over named ‘Simpsorama’ is due for release on the 9th of November. There have already been many nods to The Simpsons in Futurama episodes such as the pile of broken Bart Simpsons Dolls that Fry sees on the moon in the episode ‘ A Big Piece of Garbage’ or Apu’s head (as well as Matt Groening and Disco Stu) appearing in the head museum on different occasions. There has already been a version of a Simpson and Futurama crossover laid out by Matt Groenings comic book company ‘Bongo Comics’ back in 2003 and again in 2005 named ‘The Simpsons Futurama crossover crisis’ so it will be interesting to see if the writers re-use any jokes or references from these popular comics. The synopsis that has been released for ‘Simpsorama’ says that the episode will center on Bender who travels back in time to kill Bart to stop him from causing a nuclear blast.
If these two cross overs weren’t enough there is also a Halloween ‘Treehouse of Horrors’ special airing that will feature a bloody fight to the death between the modern day Simpsons and the old Tracy Ullman designed characters. The Tracy Ullman characters bear little resemblance to the faces we recognize today so it will be interesting to see both sets of families on screen to highlight this huge passing of time. The animation isn’t the only thing that has changed since the show began in 1987. Although most of the actors are the original cast, their characters voices have evolved quite a lot since the beginning. The actors will be battling with themselves on screen to remember how they originally brought these characters to life.
If you thought the Simpsons couldn’t pop up anywhere else, you’d be wrong. On the 12th of September some of the cast appeared live in the Hollywood Bowl singing a repertoire of favourite classic Simpson songs for three special weekend performances. If you, like a few of the writers here at Skwigly, were a big fan of the Simpsons back in 1997 you may have even bought their album ‘Simpsons in the key of Springfield’ and will know all the classics they are performing such as ‘The Monorail Song’, the 1990’s classic ‘Do the Bartman’ and of course the Mr Burns classic ‘See My Vest’ which will be sung by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles. Unfortunately the whole cast won’t be in attendance with Dan Castellaneta (Homer) and Julie Kravner (Marge) not set to make an appearance but there will be animation specially created for the show playing featuring the whole cast. Some guest stars are set to make an appearance such as Conan O’Brien who used to write and produce for the show in 1991.
So what else are the Simpsons up to? Well you may have heard about the recent record breaking TV marathon that aired on the American network FXX. The channel ran what it named an ‘ultramarathon’ and aired every episode of the show thus giving The Simpsons the record for the show that aired the longest TV marathon in history. It took 12 days to show all 552 episodes. The channel saw its best ratings since it began. As well as airing all of their episodes on the FXX channel the show is set to release an app in partnership with FX(The owner of the FXX channel) that allows you to stream all 522 episodes. Fans will be able to find out facts and tid – bits about the show. Unfortunately the bad news is that it looks like this app may only be available for Americans who subscribe to the FXNOW cable system so you may just have to blow the dust off your old Simpson VHS’s for now.
Since its beginnings this small TV show has set a great example of how to stay relevant in a changing world. It will be interesting to see what the next 25 seasons will bring and if there will ever be an end to our favourite four fingered, yellow family.