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]
Did Stephen King Steal The Plot of The Simpsons Movie? And Who Would Want To?
Celebrated Goosebumps author Stephen King churned out a new book, Under the Dome, which features a town encased in a giant dome (possible metaphor???), which The Internet immediately declared to be a rip-off of The Simpsons Movie, which was of course the first movie to feature a dome. King denied these grave charges of plagiarism, claiming to have come up with the plot when he started the story in the 1970s, which pre-dates The Simpsons by a week or two. He further attempted to prove his innocence by scanning the first 60 pages of his manuscript, typed out in their original IBM typescript, which should erase any lingering doubts because faking old typewriter fonts is impossible.
It should be noted that even if King ripped off The Simpsons Movie, The Simpsons Movie is itself a rip-off of Neon Genesis: Evangelion, so uhhhh double jeopardy?? [The Independent]
The Simpsons Goes Green
Al Gore would be proud: so far, Season 21 is the most environmentally-friendly season of The Simpsons yet. What makes this season so green? Each episode is made from a recycled plotline from an earlier episode:
Homer the Whopper: Radioactive Man but with Homer instead of Milhouse
Bart Gets A ‘Z’: Sweet Seymour Skinner’s Baadasssss Song but with Mrs. Krabappel instead of Principal Skinner
The Great Wife Hope: The Homer They Fall but with Marge instead of Homer
Congratulations on reducing your carbon footprint, Simpsons writers! 
[Simpsons Archive]
Simpsons Replaced With Infomercial
On November 8th, The Simpsons will be replaced by an episode of Family Guy, which will then be followed by a 30-minute “variety special” starring Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane and featuring integrated advertisements for the upcoming Windows 7 operating system. [Is There An O.J. Simpson Reference in Community‘s Credits?
Is it just us, or is there something a little weird about a knife stabbing deeply into the “Nicole Brown” part of actress Yvette Nicole Brown’s name? We don’t doubt that SAG naming rules have forced Brown to suffer enough when slating her name in auditions (“Yes, ‘Nicole Brown,’ like OJ’s murdered ex-wife”), but now that unfortunate comparison’s been enshrined in the opening credits of her big break.
[Moveline]
Nobody Wants To Hire Simpsons Writers
Newsarama tried to stealthily ask showrunner Al Jean why he’s been showrunner for the past nine years, and he answered that the writers haven’t been getting offers to work on other comedies and that comedy might finally be back on the upswing. I guess all those Judd Apatow-produced movies and animated comedies (some of them not created by Seth MacFarlane) and single-camera sitcoms like Arrested Development and The Office that have popped up in the past couple of years were actually part of a downswing?
Nrama: But haven’t you always had a philosophy of keeping the writers rotating? It kept new blood flowing.
Jean: Well, it was never a philosophy. There were two dynamics at work. In the 1990’s, there were a lot of comedies on the air. People who were on ‘The Simpsons’ got all these offers to work elsewhere. So they would leave, often to head their own projects. So we’d replace them.
This decade, unfortunately, comedy has not been doing so well. If people are doing a good job, then I keep them. So it doesn’t rotate as much. Still, I’m encouraged by this year’s ratings. Comedy might be back on the upswing. ‘American Family’ has started off really well.
BREAKING NEWS: CLOUDS LOOKED LIKE CARTOON CLOUDS
THERE WERE SOME CLOUDS AND THEY LOOKED LIKE SIMPSONS CLOUDS… DEVELOPING… [Boston Globe]Harry Shearer Joins Cult
Like fellow cast member Nancy Cartwright, Harry Shearer is also part of a cult – the cult of iPhone. [The Guardian]
The Simpsons is Four Times Better Than The Daily Show
After twenty years on the air, it should be hard to come up with fresh, new ideas for the show, right? Not so, says executive producer Al Jean:
If you look at The Daily Show, which is obviously on daily, I mean, they’re still hilarious after ten years. And we’re only on weekly, so we really have the liberty of picking and choosing the ideas that we turn into episodes. The world is a very interesting place and The Simpsons is a great way to view it.
See, The Daily Show comes on four times a week and it’s hilarious. Well, what if you took only the best parts of those four episodes and crammed them into one episode a week? That would be four times as hilarious, and that’s what The Simpsons is, supposedly. [TV Squad]
Harry Shearer Offered To Write An Episode Once
Fun factoid: According to his Twitter, Harry Shearer – the most vocal critic of the show amongst the cast – offered to write an episode a long time ago but was never taken up on it. [Twitter.com/letwits]