Charlie Sweatpants of the sycophantic Simpsons blog Dead Homer Society nicely asked the Vatican’s newspaper (The Vatican Plain-Dealer) for an unabridged copy of the story where Pope Ratzinger personally declared himself to be the world’s biggest Bart fan and they tried to charge him eight whole euros ($800 American) for the privilege of reading an untranslated article. Has the Catholic Church adopted Rupert Murdoch’s pay-for-news business model? [Dead Homer Society]
Month: December 2009
Producers Not Hiding Any Terrible Secrets, Tried To Stop Tell-All Book Anyway
Al Jean, executive producer and current showrunner:
“Nobody’s perfect,” Mr. Jean said in a telephone interview. “But I don’t think we have terrible secrets to hide.”
John Ortved, author of The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History:
The story ran in the August 2007 issue, and by the fall I’d signed on with Faber and Faber to expand the material into a book. When word of this got out, [executive producer James L.] Brooks sent a letter to every current Simpsons employee, and all the former ones he thought mattered, asking them not to speak to me. The writers’ agents sent denial after denial for interview requests and eventually stopped responding altogether. When I asked a mutual acquaintance to put in a query with Ari Emanuel, chief of the Endeavor agency (now WME Entertainment) – where many of the Simpsons writers were represented – Emanuel told my friend he couldn’t even begin to talk about it. James L. Brooks was on the warpath.
Pope Praises Simpsons…?!?
VATICAN CITY (AP) – To put it as the devout Ned Flanders would, the Vatican’s newspaper thinks “The Simpsons” are an okely dokely bunch.
L’Osservatore Romano on Tuesday congratulated the show on its 20th anniversary, praising its philosophical leanings as well as its stinging and often irreverent take on religion.
If you’re making a supposedly subversive show and the Vatican praises it, you are doing something wrong [Chicago Tribune]
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David Letterman Influences The Simpsons From The Future
What’s wrong with the graphic from this CNN article about The Simpsons? Well, although Late Night with David Letterman started in 1982, featured many future Simpsons writers (including George Meyer & Jeff Martin), and most assuredly influenced The Simpsons, The Late Show with David Letterman began in 1993, well after The Simpsons‘ fourth season. [CNN]Animation Outsourced To Georgia
Due to Film Roman’s inability to meet their demands for “faster, better, cheaper” animation, Simpsons producers have switched animation studios for the first time since 1992. Starting next season, The Simpsons will be primarily animated by a small animation studio in post-Soviet Georgia. Here’s a preview clip:
Special Features For Season 20 DVD Announced
Fox has released an official press release about the upcoming Season 20 DVD/Blu-ray, detailing the many bonus features that will come included with the $50 set:
- No audio commentaries
- A “sneak preview” for a Simpsons documentary scheduled to air 2 days before the DVD is released
Fictional Band Nominated For Fictional Award
Harry Shearer has yet to win an Emmy for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance, but his alter ego Derek Smalls, along with the rest of Spinal Tap, have been nominated for a Grammy for their latest album, Back From The Dead. [Twitter.com/letwits]