It is true. The twentieth series of the Simpsons could be coming to DVD and BluRay as soon as Christmas.
I have included a picture of two possible versions, but I am almost definate the official one is on the left. After lots of demands from viewers to release HD DVDs of the Simpsons, FOX listened and decided to release.
As for Season 13 to Season 19, they will be released in six monthly spots, instead of the recent yearly spots. Only the HD episodes will be in HD, the others in SD.
I will keep you updated with more news of the new DVD soon.
The ratings are in and a total of 9.32 million viewers watched last night’s new episode “Bart Gets A ‘Z’”. That is an increase on the season premiere. The Cleveland Show stayed strong with 8.70 million viewers, a 2 million viewer improvement on last year’s King Of The Hill. Family Guy was the winner of the night with 9.67 million viewers, while American Dad had 7.06 million at 9.30.
Fox was third overall for the night and second among adults 18 – 49. NBC was the total and target demo winner for the night.
The British Government’s healthy eating scheme is now sponsoring the Simpsons on Channel 4.
The deal cost £640,000 and is meant improve fitness by advertising on a show which is not the healthiest show on TV, but with that said that with the exception of Homer, OFF are quite healthy, with Bart doing lots of exercising and Lisa being a vegetarian. The advert, a ripoff of the show’s couch gags, with the animation done by Wallace and Gromit animators Aardman Animation.
Change 4Life said “We are serious about tackling obesity and supporting people to improve their health, and always look for new and innovative ways of doing this with our target audience. The Simpsons are a much-loved, close-knit family facing some of the everyday challenges that modern-day families go through.
They provide a popular and engaging way to get the message to real-life families about simple ways of improving their diet and activity for a healthier lifestyle.”
They have temporialy replaced direct enquiries service 118 118, from 4th October to 25th December. Sky1’s coverage was sponsored by Dominos until January 2009, replaced by Sky Broadband til September 2009. Now electrical retailer Currys sponsors Simpsons on Sky1.
A chewing gum ad shown during an episode of The Simpsons was deemed ‘inappropriate’ by the Advertising Standards Authority.
A viewer whose seven-year-old child was frightened by the chewing gum advert – featuring a moving mouth which detaches itself from a man’s face and races around a restaurant – complained that it was distressing to young children.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled it was ‘inappropriate’ for Sky to screen the advert for Nicorette Icy White chewing gum during an episode of The Simpsons.
But the watchdog added that the advert was ‘unlikely to frighten young children or cause them distress’.
The advert showed the mouth trying to escape the Nicorette gum, sticking out its tongue, saying ‘Bleeuurrgghh’, and cheekily blowing it a kiss before eventually returning to its normal position on his face.
A voice-over said: ‘In the past you might not have loved the taste of our nicotine gum. Quit with new Nicorette Icy White, the first Nicorette gum that tastes like gum should.’
The ASA found the advert was ‘unlikely to distress young children’ but said an ‘ex-kids’ restriction was required, because Nicorette gum was a licensed product, which meant that it should not be shown in or around programmes made for, or specifically targeted at, children Figures from the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB) showed a high proportion of children aged four to nine watched The Simpsons, the ASA said.
It said: ‘We considered that it was inappropriate to show an ad with an ex-kids restriction, which was intended to keep it away from young children, in a programme likely to be seen by significant numbers of young children.’
Sky, also known as British Sky Broadcasting, told the ASA the advert was unlikely to cause distress to children, because it had a light-hearted tone and ended with the mouth returning to the man’s face, which showed that no harm was permanently done.
The broadcaster added that The Simpsons was not a children’s programme.
Johnson & Johnson, the advertiser, said it recognised the advert might be distressing to younger children and had therefore tried to make the moving mouth appear ‘as characterful and friendly as possible’.
The firm added that the advert featured playful music to give it a cartoon-like feel, and the reactions to the mouth running around the restaurant were muted and calm. It also said it had no control over broadcasters’ scheduling of the ad.
We have the aftermath of season premier episode, Homer The Whopper.
The episode has been dubbed a bit “predictable” by sources like SimpsonFever. For its ratings it came 3rd out of all the Animation Domination shows, with Road To Multiverse (Family Guy) getting 10.17m and the Pilot of Cleveland Show getting 9.42m.
So onto Bart Gets A Z, which airs this Sunday at 20:00 (EST).
We have a preview of Treehouse Of Horror XX. And FOX have also moved the date closer to the 18th October.
We can confirm all of the three segments, the first which was spilt last year, is similar to film 28 Days Later (and Children of Men) where Krusty the clown serves burger with mad cow disease. The diease turns everyone who eats it into zombies. Yummy. In the second one Bart and Lisa plan a murder scheme, probably similar to Season 19’s Dial N for Nerder. The last but not least is one where Moe uses the blood of loyal customer, Homer in a new beer. The opening sequence will be a parody of the 1960 film Pyshco.
There are more pictures here, here and here; those these pictures are in the main one above. More information about episodes here.
