Guest stars rocked 14th season premiere of The Simpsons. The episode featured a who’s who of music superstars, including Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Elvis Costello, Tom Petty, Lenny Kravitz and Brian Setzer. As the series closes in on 300 episodes, more than a hundred celebrity guest voices have been featured. Some, of course, work better than others. Many fans complain that celebrity-filled episodes are usually pretty lame. However, some celebs belong in Springfield. Setting aside semi-regulars Kelsey Grammer (as evil Sideshow Bob) and the late Phil Hartman, Jam! Showbiz has selected the top 10 guest stars in the show’s long history. Read The Article >>>
News
Like A Rolling Stone
The first time promoter David Fishof organized the Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp, Jay Leno suggested you could get a better return on your five thousand bucks by checking into the Betty Ford Center, where you’d be certain to meet a higher caliber of rock star.
News
Nation Of Homer Simpsons
“Britain is following America and becoming a nation of Homer Simpsons, guzzling fizzy drinks and stuffing our faces full of chocolate at astonishing rates. According to new figures, our little island consumes more chocolate and soft drinks than any of our healthier continental neighbours. In fact, the amount of chocolate stuffed into Britain’s waistline last year, represented 30% of that sold across Europe and experts say it’s an upward trend that is set to continue.”
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It’s Officially Unofficial
New sites are rolling in at the moment. The latest site which opened yesterday is simply titled The Simpsons: An Unofficial Site. Combining the efforts of Matty from The Simpsons Halloween Special Site and Chris from Duff’N Pretzels, “The Simpsons” contains an official-site-esque design and the best content from both of the sites. So far the site is only 50% complete, but it’s bound to get better as soon as more content is added.
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Homer, Conservative Hero
“America’s long, national nightmare is nearly over. After a painful, 169-day hiatus, new episodes of The Simpsons finally return to Fox TV Sundays at 8:00 P.M. Eastern. The characters who debuted in animated shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show in April 1987 launch their 14th season on November 10. The Simpsons now ties The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet as history’s longest-running comedy series. How has it flourished so long? The Simpsons’s knack for making viewers laugh out loud is obvious. However, among its secret ingredients, intellectual rigor is key. The uninitiated still assume The Simpsons is a children’s cartoon show. In reality, it is both incredibly adult and, I sincerely believe, television’s single most intelligent offering today.” Read More >>>
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Destination: Homerize.com
Another Simpsons website rises from the grave today. The long awaited return of Destination: Springfield has arrived. The site is now hosted at the domain ‘homerize.com’ and sports a brand new design/color scheme. For those who haven’t seen the site before, it focuses mainly on images. That includes pics, framegrabs, scenes, color-ins, and wallpaper. Good to see sites opening rather than closing lately.
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Jean Optimistic About Season 15
After creator Matt Groening’s conflicting comments earlier this year, the fate of The Simpsons looked unsure. Now, as Bart and his cartoon clan enter their 14th season — debuting Sunday at 8 pm/ET on Fox — the picture is clearer. “Realistically, the way it works, the actors are signed to do season 15, which starts a year from now,” exec producer Al Jean tells TV Guide Online. “I don’t see why that won’t happen.” Read More >>>
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Rock On, Simpsons
Canoe.ca: As any fan knows, Homer can’t get no satisfaction. The same can’t be said of Joel Cohen, the Calgary writer who has helped put the “Doh!” in the animated icon’s mouth for three years now. In Sunday’s official Simpsons season opener, the family encounter a who’s who of dinosaur rockers, including Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. For Cohen, that meant a chance to rub elbows with the aging music gods. “I kind of met Mick,” said Cohen. “You have the recording studio and next to it, the engineering room. So you’ll have people drop in to watch the stars record, depending on who they are. When Mick was there, the room was jam-packed. He didn’t shake hands or show pictures of his family or anything.” Read more on Joel’s experience >>>
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Simpsons Make Rock History!
Rolling Stone magazine is paying tribute to The Simpsons by featuring them on its cover. The magazine is marking the start of the show’s fourteenth series by releasing three different covers with the characters on famous album sleeves. The first one shows Bart as the baby on Nirvana’s Nevermind. The second features Homer as Bruce Springsteen on the cover of Born In The USA. The third shows The Simpsons as The Beatles on the cover of Abbey Road. All three covers have been designed by Simpsons creator Matt Groening himself. The covers can be seen below.
Ratings
D’oh! Homer’s Still A Hit
Another ratings report, this one sums it all up. E! Online has posted its Neilsen ratings summary, and The Simpsons cracked the top 10 for the prime-time week ended Sunday. The 14th season debut Treehouse Of Horror XIII was watched by 16.7 million diehard fans, landing the show in tenth position on Neilsen’s ratings meter. In contrast, NBC’s Scrubs and Will And Grace landed in eighth and ninth positions respectively. This definitely looks good for the future of the show, lets see if ratings can remain consistent next week. Go here for a full rundown of the week’s ratings.
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FOX Plays Scary Game
FOX’s broadcast of Sunday’s San Francisco-Oakland game came close to ticking off fans of “The Simpsons.” In endless commercials broadcast throughout the earlier Eagles-Bears game, Fox promoted the cartoon’s season-opening “Treehouse of Horrors XII” episode. The show was to begin at 7:30 p.m., right after the West Coast game. But choke-artist 49ers kicker Jose Cortez shanked a gimme at the end of regulation, and the game dragged into OT. Cortez eventually redeemed himself, winning the game with a 23-yarder. But by then, it was 7:35 p.m. Fox then filled the next five minutes with enough plugs to float the Titanic. And then, it joined “The Simpsons” in progress. Read More >>>
Ratings
FOX Wins Sunday Ratings Battle
Even without the World Series, FOX was able to handily win Sunday night in North America, thanks to a couple of series premieres and the Simpsons Halloween special. The Simpsons’ “Treehouse of Horror XIII,” 8.9/13, and the season premiere of King of the Hill, 7.0/10, were tops at 8 p.m. The rating numbers for The Simpsons was the best start for the series in five years. Overall, the network raked in a 7.8 rating/12 share, but its competitors weren’t far behind. Read More >>>