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In the "The Simpsons" episode "Lisa's Substitute" the second-grade teacher at Springfield Elementary, Miss Hoover (Maggie Roswell), takes a leave of absence to heal from a bout of Lyme disease, and she is replaced by a substitute teacher named Mr. Bergstrom. Mr. Bergstrom is an amazing teacher, far better than the cynical and detached Miss Hoover. On his first day, he strides into the classroom dressed as a cowboy, and encourages the students to find mistakes or anachronisms in his outfit. The hyper-intelligent Lisa (Yeardley Smith) spots four mistakes, immediately causing the child and the teacher to bond. 

Lisa, as "The Simpsons" repeatedly points out, rarely receives the intellectual stimulation she requires. She's tenacious and alert, but has to live with a flippant, underachieving brother and doltish, incurious father. In the show's most persistent streak of cynicism, the bright-eyed Lisa will always go unacknowledged and underappreciated. When she has a conversation with Mr.

Halloween is almost upon us, which means that The Simpsons’ beloved annual special “Treehouse of Horror” is only lagging behind the holiday by a couple of days.

Thanks to Fox’s annoying insistence that broadcasting the World Series is more important than airing a Halloween-themed, EC Comics Horror tales-inspired Simpsons episode within a timeframe that makes any amount of sense, “Treehouse of Horror Xxxv” will not air until November 3, 2024, meaning that the we won’t get to see which Twitter trend got the satirical, supernatural, alternate reality treatment until all the tricks and treats have concluded and even the most intense Halloween bender has crusted over into a near-fatal hangover.

Thankfully, the most hallowed annual tradition in adult animation has a healthy backlog of 34 (or Xxxiv) total “Treehouse of Horror” episodes for the fandom to compare, contrast and complain about how the old episodes were so much better than this new crap.

Matt Groening's animated series "The Simpsons" hasn't been good since season [fill in the blank]. 

That seems to be a common discussion within "Simpsons" circles, anyway. There seems to be a general, unrecorded consensus that the glory days of "The Simpsons" are behind it, and that the show has been spinning its wheels since those glory days. There is no consensus, however, when those glory days were exactly. Some older "Simpsons" fans feel that the series peaked somewhere around season five or six. Other, younger viewers feel that the show was just fine up until the release of "The Simpsons Movie" in 2007. Just like "Saturday Night Live," however, the present always seems to be the worst time for the show. 

The fact of the matter is that "The Simpsons" has been running consistently since 1989, having made 768 episodes over 35 seasons. It is a cultural presence that once spearheaded the very tone of all popular culture,...

After the surprising rise and appallingly steady excellence of The Simpsons’ first decade, many long-time supporters felt the show would have gone out on top if it ended around 2001-2002. The late 1990s era was hit with a traumatic loss with the death of comic genius Phil Hartman. After a pay dispute, voice actress Maggie Roswell left from 1999 to 2002, resulting in the death of the Maude Flanders in the episode “Alone Again, Natura-Diddily.” But the first cracks in the series’ “Golden Age” appeared when Principal Skinner was redacted and retrofitted for “The Principal and the Pauper,” from season 9. It was seen as a major copout.

With Beavis and Butt-Head amping up cartoons on MTV, Fox had a new dangerous animated show on the block, Family Guy. But with every breakthrough, South Park would point out how “The Simpsons already did it.” Knowing this, The Simpsons softened the sharp-edged animation (moving...

Disney+ has announced that its next Simpsons short, “The Simpsons in Plusaversary,” will premiere on the streamer on Disney+ Day, which this year will take place on Friday, November 12.

In the new short, The Simpsons host a Disney+ Day party and everyone is on the list… except Homer. With friends from across the service and music fit for a Disney princess, Plusaversary is Springfield’s event of the year.

Disney+ Day is a global celebration of all things Disney, which will offer up new content releases, fan experiences, exclusive offers and more across The Walt Disney Company.

“The Simpsons in Plusaversary” is the third in a series of Simpsons shorts from Disney+, highlighting the streamer’s marquee brands and titles. The animated short most recently released by the service was “The Good, The Bart, and The Loki”, a Marvel-themed piece featuring Tom Hiddleston’s God of Mischief, Loki, which debuted in July.

Creatives behind The Simpsons shared new details about Season 33 on Saturday, revealing that it will feature a musical premiere, an expanded “Treehouse of Horror” episode and more.

During a Comic-Con@Home panel teasing the new season, executive producer Matt Selman described premiere episode “The Star of the Backstage” as the “most musical episode we’ve ever done”—”like a Broadway musical of an episode with wall to wall music.”

The season’s first episode will feature an assortment of original songs. Actress Kristen Bell (Frozen) will handle singing for Marge, the Simpsons matriarch played by Julie Kavner.

EP Al Jean later announced that this year’s “Treehouse of Horror Xxxii” episode will feature five segments, rather than the traditional set of three, presenting one of the five to the virtual Comic-Con audience.

He subsequently touched on two other upcoming episodes. One may see romance come to stick in the life...

As “The Simpsons” marks another milestone this Sunday with its 700th episode, fans can be rest assured that there are many more to come beyond that. Fox recently renewed the animated institution for another two seasons, bringing the show to Season 34 (and a grand total of 757 episodes) in 2023. But what happens after that?

“We’re going to definitely do 757,” said executive producer Al Jean. “I wouldn’t say that’s the end but I don’t know how much further we can go.”

He laughs at the idea of making it to an even 1,000 episodes, noting that it would take another 12 years to pull off that feat. But it’s not out of the question, and Jean notes that with virtually every classic series being rebooted — including animated entries like “Beavis & Butt-Head” — he doesn’t think “The Simpsons” would stay dormant for long even if production stopped. “As soon as they cancel us,...

Update 7/7: Several weeks after Harry Shearer, voice of Mr. Burns, Principal Skinner, Otto and many other iconic characters on The Simpsons, announced his departure from the legacy show on Twitter, EW has learned he has now signed a deal and will return to the show for its 27th season.

Shearer has reportedly signed the same deal as his counterparts on the show. The show will remain on schedule ahead of Season 27’s September 27 premiere, as they’ve previously reserved seven episodes filmed during the previous season that do include Shearer’s voice work. Read the original story below, along with a round-up of Shearer’s best non-Simpsons moments.

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The Simpsons recently got picked up for an additional two seasons, which will bring the show through its 28th season. But one cast member who has been with the show from the beginning, Harry Shearer, will not be joining it.

The...

Feature James Peckham 25 Feb 2014 - 07:00

From Mrs Krabappel to Troy McClure, James salutes a selection of Springfield's finest departed citizens...

Contains plot details for The Simpsons seasons one to twenty-five.

During 2014, The Simpsons is celebrating the big quarter of a century benchmark and airing its 25th season. Not half bad for a couple of brief sketches originally airing as part of The Tracy Ullman Show. With such a large ensemble cast and hundreds of characters to animate you don’t last quarter of a century without losing a few along the way. Actors dying, leaving for personal reasons, awkward pay disputes and unknown circumstances are all responsible.

The Simpsons has stuck to a rule of retiring characters after an actor’s death, mainly out of respect but also to ensure the voice acting talent is top notch. After the sad death of Marcia Wallace in 2013, best known as the...

For years now, TV shows have been spicing up their programming by throwing unexpected plot twists at the viewers. Whether it’s the forbidden love affair of countless soap operas, or the long arm of the law snatching at our favourite anti-hero, writers aren’t the sort to shy away from the controversial to get a response from their audience.

Of course, nothing is more shocking than the sudden death of one of their characters, but then what’s more controversial than that character being one of the main players in the show? The characters we all thought were either too important, untouchable or simply played by someone too high profile to snuff it in a TV show, they’ve all shocked us down the years, but here are what I’d consider some of the most unexpected.

And yes…there are definitely spoilers ahead, so beware.

7. Maude Flanders (The Simpsons...

What do SpongeBob and a host of other current shows have in common with Mighty Mouse? Without that particular rodent they might not exist. Ralph Bakshi produced the adventures of the robust rodent for Saturday morning, but it was the talent behind the camera that would usher in a new standard for cartoons. Here he comes to save the day! Mike Mouse (Patrick Pinney) works in a factory for his day job, but when duty calls he sloughs off his everyday identity and takes to the skies as the superhero Mighty Mouse. He.s got his hands full keeping his girlfriend Pearl Pureheart (Maggie Roswell) and orphan sidekick Scrappy (Dana Hill) out of trouble from the...