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!!!!!Holy Freaking Cow… bombshell tonight ladies & gentlemen. Bleeding Cool just uncovered evidence that “The Simpsons” is being renamed after 25 long seasons on the broadcast airwaves. The new name… “Bart & Co.” As Maggie would say: “What the deuce???”

“It was time for change,” said a guy I made up just now. “There was a feeling that the ‘The Simpsons’ name was no longer relevant to today’s tweens so the big boys on the top floor demanded a name change to spice things up.”

Will renaming the quarter-century show prove to be a major misstep for Fox and the franchise, or will it be the opposite of that. Those are the questions we’re asking.

No word yet on when the namechange will be made official.

Developing…

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!!!!! It’s not everyday that a big scoop lands right in your lap, but sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time. Someone… or something… threw a brick through the window of our offices (why people can’t just deliver bricks to the door I’ll never know). Tied to the brick was an Iomega Zip disk. Immediately I knew this was big, and not just because the disk has about 100 times more storage capacity than a normal floppy disk. A week later, after having secured an Iomega Zip drive from eBay, I looked at the disk’s files, or should I say file, because there was only one file: a single JPEG, which you can see below…
There it is. Solid, rock-hard confirmation that Simpsons Studio, the studio that makes The Simpsons, is abandoning the second dimension behind and going Full 3-D CGI for the next few seasons. Needless to say, this will definitely prove controversial… we haven’t heard anything about this until now, so therefore logistically the producers must be trying to keep things under wraps, afraid of what the bad people on the internet will say on the computer at them.

Personally I don’t think they have anything to worry about. Sure, some “purists” out there will whine about how it’s different from Old Simpsons, but I for one applaud the show-makers for taking such a bold leap into the future, and at great expense too. I await the upcoming Simpsons Season 24 with baited breath, and not just because I ate a bunch of fried worms.

No response from FOX or the producers as of yet, probably because I’ve made no attempt to contact them… Developing…

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drudge sirenBreaking news out of California… it looks like the sequel to The Simpsons Game has finally been officially cancelled… can’t say this was all that surprising… but apparently they’d been working really hard on it and now all that hard work will never be seen… Developing…

[MTV Multiplayer]

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joanna!!!!!Popular songstress and harpy Joanna Newsom is reportedly appearing in an upcoming Simpsons episode. It’s being described as a “guest appearance,” but I have reason to believe this is merely a smokescreen for the real truth: the producers are secretly bringing in Newsom to replace Yeardley Smith as the voice of Lisa Simpson.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: hey, the Yeardster’s voiced America’s favorite starfish-haired feminist for nearly 25 years! They’re not just going to throw her under the bus! Well, let’s take a look at the evidence:

FACT: Newsom’s voice is often compared to that of Lisa Simpson’s.

FACT: The voice actors are not getting any younger.

Just look at what happened to Frank Welker, who used to voice the dog: the producers discovered Dan Castelleneta could voice the dog just as good, so they gave Frankie the boot. Could history repeat itself again when Newsom comes in to record what she believes is a cameo? Let’s say, hypothetically, a director slides her a script and asks her, just for funsies, to read some of Lisa’s lines. And what if, that night, the producers get together, in secret, and compare her vocal track with Smith’s… and decide Newsom’s is better?

If I were Yeardley Smith, I’d be looking over my shoulder at all times. And I were Joanna Newsom, I’d leave the harp at home, in order to prevent any Nancy Kerrigan-type shenanigans… Developing… [TwentyFourBit ]

UPDATE (10/20/2010): IN THE NEWS has successfully shamed the producers from going through with their plan, and Joanna Newsom’s cameo is definitely not happening. Yeardley Smith, you’re welcome. [Pitchfork]

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A little birdie named wolf puppy has leaked what appears to be a pre-production test shot for the long-awaited sequel to The Simpsons Movie:

ralp

It appears Fox has scrapped the traditional 2-D look of the show in favor of slicker 3-D CGI. Now, many misguided Simpsons purists will surely decry the change in dimensions, but keep in mind that The Simpsons Ride was CGI and many Simpsons directors (David Silverman, Brad Bird, Jim Reardon) have plenty of Pixar experience, so this was inevitable. Developing…

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!!!!!Back in 1993, when David Letterman headed over to CBS to start The Late Show, The Simpsons paid tribute with a not-very-funny couch gag (see screenshot here). Why didn’t they do a similar tribute when famous Simpsons alum Conan O’Brien took over The Tonight Show??? And don’t give me that “they couldn’t because it started in June” B.S. excuse. Also why did they choose Letterman over Conan for a not-funny-at-all segment last night?? (Don’t give me that “because Letterman has the Top 10 list” crap.) These two things add up to one conclusion: The Simpsons is snubbing Conan!!! What is the reason? A source tells rubbercat.net/simpsons that producer Al Jean has had it in for Conan ever since Conan gave him a wedgie during a staff meeting in ’92… No denial from Jean as of yet… Developing…