What’s happening around the net? Read on and I’ll tell you. Springfield Message Board today has been given a new color scheme and graphics, which are similar to that of a few years ago and The Simpsons Top 100. A brand new site titled A Little Slice Of Springfield has opened, focusing on pictures in the form of grabpics, wallpapers, and scenes. Meanwhile, Seven Forty-Two has been redesigned and tweaked based on user feedback, but currently looks nice as a whole.
News
Season 14 Concludes Tonight
Season 14, arguably one of the better seasons in The Simpsons’ recent years ends tonight with a double serving of new episodes. Bart Of War airs first at 8pm. “After his latest bout of mischief results in another encounter with the Springfield police department, Marge and Homer elect to place Bart into a program of supervised afternoon activities in the form of a quasi- Native American tribe dubbed “The Pre-Teen Braves.” But tribal war ensues when his clan is forced into a game of community service one-upsmanship with Milhouse’s opposing group of do-gooders: “The Calvary Kids.”
News
Second Chance For Becks?
Reportedly, the producers of The Simpsons dropped plans for Beckham to feature in an episode on the grounds that he wasn’t famous enough in the US. They may soon be amending their guest list, after his name is getting exposure as part of the movie title ‘Bend It Like Beckham’, released in America recently. “This is the ‘tipping point’ for David Beckham in the United States,” says Marc Ganis, the president of SportsCorp, a Chicago consultancy. He was echoing the title of a recent book about that indefinable moment when a fad turns into a mega-trend. “He won’t achieve the sporting status of a Michael Jordan or a Namath, but he’s poised to become part of the popular culture of the US.” Read More >>>
News
Season 3 Pushed Forward?
We like to be as accurate as possible with our news, but in today’s story we’re unsure whether it’s fact or error that is involved. Amazon.com have changed their Season 3 DVD release date to July 30th, more or less a month earlier than its originally planned date. This is great news if it’s true. It’d be a hard error to make, being that it would require effort to change this date, so maybe Fox has pushed the release date forward due to demand or an unexpected earlier completion date. If anybody knows of other sites reporting a July 30th release, please let us know. Remember it was Amazon.com that first released official box art, so they’ve been nothing but reliable.
Ratings
CBS Wins Sunday Ratings
The two-hour finale of “Survivor: The Amazon” gave CBS a runaway victory on Sunday night, both overall and among the advertiser-coveted younger set. CBS averaged a 10.5 rating/18 share in primetime, nearly four points ahead of second-place NBC, 6.7/11. FOX, 4.7/8, edged ABC, 4.5/8, for third place. Among adults 18-49, CBS led with a 7.0 rating. FOX avergaged 3.9, NBC 3.4 and ABC 2.5. CBS began the night with “60 Minutes,” 8.1/16. NBC was second with “Dateline,” 4.0/8. ABC aired the movie “E.T.” (4.5/8 average from 7 to 10 p.m.), while FOX averaged 3.7/7 with a rerun of “The Simpsons” and “King of the Hill.” At 8 p.m., the first hour of “Survivor” scored a 10.8/18. FOX moved up to second with “The Simpsons,” 5.7/10, and “Malcolm in the Middle,” 5.4/9.
News
Jackson Browne Animated
“Jackson Browne becomes a badly drawn boy this Sunday when he debuts as a character on The Simpsons. In the episode ‘Brake My Wife, Please’ Homers loses his drivers licence and discovers the joys of walking. As he walks around the neighborhood he meets people he didn’t know lived in the area including Jackson Browne and actor Steve Buscemi. However, with Homer grounded, Marge is needed for additional driving duties but the stress causes her to lose concentration and she runs over him. Marge then has even more duties on top of playing ‘mum’s taxi’ she also now has to nurse Homer back to health.” Thanks to Undercover Music News for this description. You can review this episode at its conclusion on Sunday at the No Homers Club.
News
Hangin’ With Homer
“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 >>>
News
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
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.
News
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.
News
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 >>>
News
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 >>>