Tag: miscellaneous

“Double, double, toil and d’oh? Doughnuts and beer may go hand in hand in Springfield, but one performer will test whether Shakespeare and the Simpsons are as appropriate a match Wednesday night at 7:30 in the Bama Theatre. Rick Miller’s “MacHomer” will present a one-man show featuring an 85 percent “Macbeth” script with more than 50 different Simpson voices. University Programs performing arts director Leslie Hines lucked out when she snatched up a cancellation date and booked the Toronto-based actor/writer to perform in Tuscaloosa. “We haven’t sold out yet, but I hope we don’t break his six-year streak of sellout shows,” Hines said. “We suggest that everyone get there early. Miller’s “MacHomer: The Simpsons Do Macbeth” features Homer as Macbeth and Marge as Lady Macbeth. The Toronto Star praised the show, giving it five stars and calling it, “truly awesome. A one-man, comic tour de force. … This is Shakespeare done just the way he’d like it.” Read More >>>

“Watching Fox honor the 300th episode of ‘The Simpsons’ Sunday night was like watching the American Film Institute honor Jack Nicholson in 1994 for lifetime achievement. Both celebrations were heartfelt, to an extent, but both also were heavy with the implication that careers were entering a twilight, that a prime had been passed, and that a look backward was better than a glance into the beyond.” Read More >>>

“When our generation thinks of The Simpsons, there are mixed reactions. One cannot deny the essence of this animated sitcom: Social satire reaching new peaks of intelligence. The Simpsons episodes constantly analyze and create comedy from societal blunders. Sometimes the parodies exceed our knowledge (considering the fact that most of the writers of the show are Harvard and Yale alumni).

“Although everyone would agree that some shows are better than others, The Simpsons has not grown stale; it continues to add to the pop culture lexicon. Homer’s description of the appeasing French as “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” is currently being tossed about on various Internet blogs. Naturally, there are some overly involved Comic Book Guy-like viewers who have misty, water-colored memories of the early Simpsons years. Groening once predicted rather wearily that The Simpsons will still be on in the year 3000, but there will be “fans on the Internet complaining that the last 500 shows haven’t been as good.” Current show runner Al Jean says “One of the things that’s kept the show on for 14 years is you have a universe of about 50 or 60 characters,” explaining that the writers therefore don’t have to worry about creating new story arcs and characters to keep the show fresh. Read More >>>

“With alcohol prohibited in Springfield, Homer Simpson becomes a booze-supplying vigilante named Beer Baron. He is pursued by an Elliot Ness-like detective who, after a failed raid, mutters, ‘I’ll get you, Beer Baron.’

‘No, you won’t,’ Homer’s disembodied voice quips back. Drew Hanley laughs whenever he thinks about the scene, which he said is his favorite moment from his favorite TV show, The Simpsons. ‘I don’t know why that one’s so goofy, but it’s great,’ said Hanley, 17, a Memphis High School senior. Hanley and other local fans are looking forward to the show’s 300th episode, which airs at 8 p.m. today on Fox.” Read More >>>

“Yellow skin, goldfish eyes and three-fingered hands aside, it’s no coincidence television’s most enduring family – the gleefully animated Simpsons – is also its most human. Compared to the truly stale antics of live-action TV dads John Ritter and Jim Belushi, beer-guzzling family man Homer Simpson is wholly flesh and blood, the suburban patriarch as misguided bonehead, yes, but also as long-suffering, well-intended husband and father.

If you were to count the episodes on your hand, you’d run through your fingers 60 times. Homer would need 75 rounds. Such is life with four fingers. Other than the digit difference, the Simpsons may as well live down the street. Few families in television have been so unabashedly imperfect. And judging from the show’s longevity, plenty of Americans can accept such a flawed family.

In the journey that we call life, it would be swell to be able to take two or three steps without tripping over a certain animated show that has embedded itself so deeply into popular culture that all of us are expected to get every conversational reference its fans throw at us. You know what I’m talking about: Homer and Marge and their kids and his evil boss and her hostile sisters and the pious next-door neighbor and the four dozen others. Don’t you get tired of the assumption that you should know these characters? Aren’t you sick of the way so many people use a moment from “The Simpsons” as a metaphor for real life? Isn’t it like living in a society that adopted Esperanto without letting you vote? Have we lost so many vestiges of mass culture that a TV show – a cartoon! – has to be the glue that holds postmodern society together? And whom should we blame? Read More >>>

“Rick Miller is still unsure exactly how he went from a geek as a school kid to a career rooted in Homeresque parody of Shakespearian proportions. Miller is the mastermind behind “MacHomer: The Simpsons Do MacBeth.” The one-man show entails 50 Simpsons characters acting out “MacBeth” with a script that is 85 percent Shakespeare and 15 percent Simpsons. “MacHomer” is a fast-paced adventure, fraught with sensory overload for the audience.

“The characters may be yellow but The Simpsons hasn’t mellowed as it marks its 300th episode Sunday. If anything, the Fox animated comedy born in 1989 is more boldly iconoclastic in the 21st century. Given that timidity is programmed into television’s very DNA, how does “The Simpsons” thrive? By being very good at being naughty, so much so that Fox simply can’t afford to tinker with success. In its 14th season, the series can still field top 20 episodes and is the heart of a merchandising empire. “There were many reasons the show was successful, one of which was we were in the right place at the right time,” said series creator Matt Groening. “I don’t think ‘The Simpsons’ could be on any other network, even today.” Read More >>>

For more than a decade they have reigned as television’s favorite dysfunctional family, and creator Matt Groening says eternal youth is a key ingredient of the show’s success. “I didn’t expect to be on the air this long,” Groening said. “One of the great things about doing an animated show is your characters don’t age. So your show stays fresh.” One thing is certain. It isn’t big bucks that keeps the ensemble coming back year after year. “Altogether, we still don’t make as much as one ‘Friend,”‘ joked Dan Castellaneta. The actors clearly enjoy their work, even if they have to suffer silly questions from fans at public appearances.

And the quote of the week goes to Yeardley Smith. “The strangest question I ever got is: Do I sound like Lisa Simpson when I’m having sex? And the answer is no.” Read More >>>