LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bart and Lisa Simpson, Chief Wiggum and son Ralph, bartender Moe and Apu from Kwik-E-Mart celebrated 25 years of “The Simpsons” in Hollywood on Friday. Those […]
PTC President Tim Winter calls on The Simpsons’ creator Matt Groening to not let the show perpetuate rape jokes during the crossover episode with Family Guy slated to air in the fall. A preview of the episode is available on YouTube and includes a “joke” about the rape of a character’s sister.
SPRINGFIELD, Ore. (AP) — A new mural featuring “The Simpsons” is coming to Springfield. The real Springfield. Series creator Matt Groening, who grew up in Portland, Ore., told Smithsonian magazine […]
Exclusives
NEW YORK (AP) — The FXX network plans a marathon telecast this summer of episodes of “The Simpsons” — all 552 of them consecutively. The network said Wednesday the marathon […]
That was quick. News of David Letterman’s announcement of his 2015 retirement broke only late Thursday afternoon, but Fox and the writers and animators behind The Simpsons already have an animated tribute to him, complete with a cameo performance by Letterman himself.
The Simpsons paid tribute to Ellen DeGeneres’ most-retweeted photo of all time on Tuesday, recreating the group shot with the actors replaced by their yellow cartoon doppelgängers.
Homer and Co. are in rolling in dough: Fox’s Twentieth Century Fox TV and Twentieth TV have set a massive first-ever cable syndication and VOD sale of The Simpsons to FX Networks’ new outlet FXX that is worth more than the Gross Domestic Product of some small nations. With 530 episodes and counting, the sale is valued at upwards of $750 million over the life of the deal.
It was only two years ago that 20th Century Fox started taking consumer products a little more seriously, tapping Jeffrey Godsick to expand the way the company exploits its films and TV shows through theme park rides, live events, T-shirts, toys and other merchandise. Animated hit The Simpsons has easily been 20th’s biggest moneymaker, with the yellow characters minting a lot of green — more than $4.6 billion from the sale of consumer products alone during the series’ 25-year run. As Bart Simpson would say: Holy cash cow, man!
Fox has renewed The Simpsons for at 26th season, the network said on Friday. The premiere of the 25th season of the series, which aired Sunday, was the night’s top-rated entertainment program of the night among the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic with a 2.8 rating/8 share — down 28% from the previous season’s premiere, but up 12% from last season’s average.
For the animated series’ premiere, the show pokes fun at Showtime’s Homeland with an episdoe called ‘Homerland’ “Never in a million years did any of us think this would become as wildly successful as it has,” says Al Jean, EP of The Simpsons.
The Simpsons are finally headed to cable. Gary Newman, chairman-CEO of 20th Century Fox TV, told an investor confab Thursday that the studio is poised to shop a mammoth package of rerun rights to the enduring toon’s nearly 600 episodes.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Don Payne, an Emmy-winning writer and producer for “The Simpsons” who also wrote the hit movie “Thor,” has died. He was 48. His friend and former […]
Others taking home trophies include Portlandia, The Simpsons, Mad Men, Modern Family, Hatfields and McCoys, Game Change, The Tony Awards, The Young & the Restless, Frontline and Nova.
The latest TV celebrity to come out in support of a presidential candidate.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — One of the best-kept secrets in television history has been unmasked when “The Simpsons” creator Matt Groening revealed the Springfield in Oregon as the basis for […]
Limp Debut For Fox’s ‘Allen Gregory’
The Simpsons “Treehouse of Horror” episode drew its usual strong ratings, but they didn’t carry over to new lead-out Allen Gregory. Gregory averaged a 2.4 adults 18-49 rating at 8:30 p.m. last night, losing 40% of Simpsons‘ 4.0 rating. The new animated show about a child genius was down 23 percent from the show that followed last year’s “Treehouse” episode, The Cleveland Show, which averaged a 3.1 last fall.
A contract dispute with the show’s voice cast had threatened to end the series, but Fox announced it will air through seasons 24 and 25.
The Simpsons voice actors have commissioned a study estimating the show has made $1 billion in profits as ammunition in their negotiations with 20th Century Fox TV over its demand that they agree to have their salaries cut nearly in half. The study projected that the studio will eventually make about $2.8 billion from the show through 23 seasons.
It looks like The Simpsons—20th Century Fox Television’s multibillion-dollar cash cow, the anchor of the Fox network’s Sunday primetime schedule and the longest-running sitcom in the history of television—might stop production after the current 23rd season ends next spring. The reason is a negotiating impasse between the studio and the six principal actors who voice the characters.
