The Simpsons
The Simpsons has reached 500 episodes – and the show marked the occasion with a guest role for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. ‘At Long Last Leave’ saw the family exiled from Springfield after the town’s residents tired of their antics, ending up in a community of outsides with Assange as their neighbor. This isn’t the first time Homer et al have been forced out of their hometown: in 2007′s big-screen release The Simpsons Movie, for example, the clan had to make a speedy exit after Simpson père accidentally poisoned the water supply. But the 500-episode milestone has got the commentariat reminiscing about their favorite – and not-so-favourite – episodes.
Simpsons controversy. Writing at The Daily Beast, Shannon Donnelly gave a run-down of the animated show’s most controversial moments – and it seems there were plenty to choose from. “As it turns out, using a jaunty tune as a backdrop isn’t quite enough to mitigate calling an entire city ‘putrid, brackish, maggotty, foul’”, said Donnelly, flagging up a song in 1992 episode ‘A Streetcar Named Marge’ which slammed New Orleans. Donnelly pointed out that the show wasn’t averse to spoofing its own network, Fox: “Speaking of biting the hand that feeds them, 2010’s ‘The Fool Monty’ had a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it visual gag featuring a Fox News helicopter, which sported the phrase ‘Fox News: Not Racist, But #1 With Racists’.”
In honor of the 500th episode of The Simpsons, Slate came up with an interactive map of countries the characters have visited over the last 22 years.
Best episodes? Hank Azaria, who voices Moe, Apu, Chief Wiggum and Comic Book Guy, chose ‘Cape Feare’, when Sideshow Bob tries to kill Bart after escaping from prison, as the funniest Simpsons episode, according to Entertainment Weekly. But Azaria’s favorite episode is ‘Homer’s Enemy’ “I liked that it punched a hole not only in Homer but the whole tradition of: We just accept happy fat idiots in TV and film. They exist and they win. Why?” the actor told Entertainment Weekly.
In 2010 UK graffiti artist Banksy came up with a new title sequence for the show, which depicted sweatshop workers making Simpsons merchandise. Watch the ultra-bleak couch sequence below.
Reviewed: Every Simpsons series. “We thought about doing the four zillionth ‘greatest episodes ever’ list, but decided that with a series this long-lived, it’s more revealing to study entire seasons,” wrote Matt Zoller Seitz at New York Magazine’s Vulture. The middle seasons garnered particular praise from the Vulture team, but the quality of The Simpsons apparently dropped in later years: Season 12 saw the show “growing increasingly shameless, doing anything for a laugh”, while Season 9 was “perverse and substantial, with a deft mix of character-driven and concept-driven instalments”.
The show is known for the wide array of guest stars. Forbes published a round-up of the best voice cameos, including Ringo Starr, Rupert Murdoch and Stephen Hawking.
Why is the show so popular? “For 500 episodes, Homer has been our own Odysseus. He has the authentic Homeric nostos, the overriding need to get home and be safe,” wrote Michael Bywater in The Independent. According to Bywater, one of the strengths of The Simpsons is that the characters “are us, except more so”, and their preoccupations resonate with our own: “It’s a great comedy. But behind it all is that old nostos thing. The need to get back home. As Homer says: ‘I just try and make the day not hurt until I can crawl back in with you’.”