Portal:The Simpsons
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Arts · Biography · Geography · History · Mathematics · Philosophy · Science · Society · Technology
The Simpsons is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Network. It is a satirical parody of the "Middle American" lifestyle epitomized by its title family, consisting of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie. Set in the fictional town of Springfield, the show lampoons many aspects of the human condition, as well as American culture, society as a whole and even television itself.
The family was conceived by Groening shortly before a pitch for a series of animated shorts with James L. Brooks. He sketched out his version of a dysfunctional family, and named the characters after members of his own family, substituting Bart for his own name. The shorts became a part of The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987. After a three-season run, the sketch was developed into a half-hour prime time show.
The Simpsons was an early hit for Fox, and has won several major awards. In its 1998 issue celebrating the greatest achievements in arts and entertainment of the 20th century, Time magazine named The Simpsons the century's best television series. On January 14, 2000 the Simpsons was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It is the longest-running American sitcom, as well as the longest-running American animated program. The Simpsons has been influential on popular culture. Its catchphrases have been adopted into the English lexicon. The annoyed grunt "D'oh!" has entered the English dictionary. It was cited as an influence on many adult-oriented animated sitcoms of the late 1990s.
Since its debut on December 17, 1989, 400 episodes have aired over 18 seasons. As of March 20, 2006, the show has been renewed for a 19th season, due to be aired in 2007–2008. The 18th season finale was the 400th episode, and the 20th anniversary of The Simpsons franchise was celebrated in 2007. A feature-length movie was released on July 27, 2007.
For a list of former Simpsons Portal featured articles, see this page.
The Simpsons' eighth season originally aired between October 1996 and May 1997, beginning on October 27, 1996 with "Treehouse of Horror VII". In total, it includes 25 different episodes. The show runners for the eighth production season were Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein. The aired season contained two episodes which were hold-over episodes from season seven, which Oakley and Weinstein also ran. It also contained two episodes for which Al Jean and Mike Reiss were the show runners.
Season eight won multiple awards, including two Emmy Awards: "Homer's Phobia" won for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or Less) in 1997, and Alf Clausen and Ken Keeler won for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music and Lyrics" with the song "We Put The Spring In Springfield" from the episode "Bart After Dark". Clausen also received an Emmy nomination for "Outstanding Music Direction" for "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious". "Brother from Another Series" was nominated for the Emmy for "Sound Mixing For a Comedy Series or a Special". For "Homer's Phobia", Mike Anderson won the Annie Award for Best Individual Achievement: Directing in a TV Production, and the WAC Winner Best Director for Primetime Series at the 1998 World Animation Celebration. Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation awarded the episode the GLAAD Media Award for "Outstanding TV - Individual Episode".
The DVD box set was released in Region 1 on August 15, 2006, Region 2 on October 2, 2006, and Region 4 on September 27, 2006. The set was released in two different forms: a Maggie-shaped head to match the Homer and Marge shaped heads of the previous two sets and also a standard rectangular shaped box. Like the seventh season box set, both versions are available for sale separately.
For a list of Simpsons episodes that used to be featured, see this page.
| Episode no.: 154 |
| Prod. code: 4F02 |
| Airdate: October 27, 1996 |
| Writer(s): Ken Keeler Dan Greaney David S. Cohen |
| Director: Mike B. Anderson |
"Treehouse of Horror VII" is the first episode of The Simpsons' eighth season and originally aired October 27, 1996.[1] The seventh annual Treehouse of Horror episode containg three stories. In "The Thing and I" Bart discovers his long-lost twin in ", in "The Genesis Tub" Lisa grows a colony of small beings and in "Citizen Kang" Kang & Kodos take over the bodies of Bill Clinton and Bob Dole in order to win the 1996 election. It was written by Ken Keeler, Dan Greaney & David S. Cohen and directed by Mike B. Anderson.
Normally, the writers would come up with some sort of wrap around for Treehouse of Horror episodes, but because they had been cut the previous year, the writers didn't bother this year. "The Thing and I" was written by Ken Keeler, "The Genesis Tub" was written by Dan Greaney and "Citizen Kang" was written by David X. Cohen. The Genesis Tub was originally pitched by David Cohen and it was later referenced in the South Park episode Simpsons Already Did It, when they pointed out that The Simpsons had earlier gotten the idea from the 1962 Twilight Zone episode called "The Little People." The 1996 Presidential election occurred a few days after the airing of this episode. According to Cohen, the Citizen Kang short violated every rule of The Simpsons as it locked the episode in one time and named specific candidates. The sequence where tiny spaceships attack Bart marks one of the first uses of computers in Simpsons animation. The computer was used to build models for reference and the animators later retraced it.
In 2006, IGN.com voted "Citizen Kang" as the seventh best segment of the Treehouse of Horror episodes. In a 2000 Entertainment Weekly article, Matt Groening ranked it as his seventh favorite in the history of the show.
The Simpsons - Episodes - Characters - Albums - Video games - Stubs
- The Simpsons Wikiproject
- SimpsonsWiki.com
- Wikisimpsons
- The Simpsons Archive - Episode Capsules, interviews, lists
- The Simpsons Party Items - Party Items, Cups, Plates, Nakpins, life size cutouts etc. for the UK
- August 5, 2007, The Simpsons tenth season is released on DVD.
- July 23, 2007, Numerous details about Season 19 are revealed, including guest spots from Jon Stewart and Topher Grace.
- July 27, The Simpsons Movie opens worldwide, to high critical acclaim.
November 4, 2007: "Treehouse of Horror XVIII"
Season 19's edition of the annual trio of Halloween stories.
"Mr. and Mrs. Simpson" - Homer secretly lives a double life as a secret agent and is assigned to eliminate Kent Brockman, discovering that Marge is also an agent with the same mission. "E.T. Go Home" - Bart and Lisa find Kodos, who is hiding from the government, and help him obtain devices that he can use to contact his home planet, but Kodos's intentions prove to be less than friendly. "Heck House" - Bart, Lisa and some other kids pull pranks on Halloween night and, after they go too far, Ned Flanders turns the church into a Hell house. Gaining supernatural powers from God, he subjects the kids to his wrath.
- ... that The Simpsons has been nominated in the "Outstanding Animated Program" for every year except 1993 and 1994. In 1993, "A Streetcar Named Marge" and "Mr. Plow" were submitted in the "Outstanding Comedy Series" category. However, the Emmy voters were hesitant to pit cartoons against live action programs, and The Simpsons did not receive a nomination. The Simpsons' crew again submitted episodes for "Outstanding Comedy Series" the next season, but these again were not nominated. Since then, the show has submitted episodes in the animation category.
