Watching Simpsons

This Sunday, the 20th, we’ll get to see two Simpsons episodes, the latter of the two bringing The Simpsons to 400 episodes. Ludacris makes his cameo as Luda-Crest, and Keifer Sutherland contributes to the 24 spoof in 24 Minutes. Below are some links to videos provided by IESB.net.

You Kent Always Say What You Want
Clip- Luda-Crest attacks bacteris
Clip- Krusty does his version of Itchy and Scratchy

24 Minutes
Clip- Bart Prank calls Jack Bauer

InsideBayArea.com had a few things to say about this milestone in Simpson’s history as did Al Jean, the producer.

Those 400 episodes means 50 pages per script or 20,000 pages of material. Executive producer Al Jean, who has been with the series from the start, talks about how “The Simpsons” keeps it fresh year after year.

“Even I have to admit there were a couple of times I was doing DVD commentaries and I’d do an ‘Oh, my God, we just did that joke on an episode ten years later,’” Jean says in a phone interview. “It was the one where Homer was having a picnic with Marge and they were watching fireworks and he said, ‘Let’s make some fireworks of our own,’ …we did that joke in ‘Kamp Krusty’ and then in ‘Special Edna.’ We try to avoid that, but sometimes we forget.”

But that’s nit-picking a series that has given us such wonderful devices as the “freeze frame” jokes, from the intro scanning little Maggie with different things popping up on the price to quick jokes you only catch on a second or third viewing.

Have to pay attention

“We throw in things like that, smart and impossible to read in the time that you watch the show,” Jean says. “Because we know people are actually out there who are going to go back and catch it.”

Jean says he is most proud of how “The Simpsons” changed animation on television.

“I love animation,” Jean says. “And one of the best things about ‘The Simpsons’ is how much more animation and how much more adult animation, by which I mean intelligent, satirical animation, there is on TV (now).”

Well that’s it for me. This is my last post on Watching Simpsons. I’ll be passing on this responsibility to whomever 451 Press deems worthy. Hopefully they do a good job.

The Simpsons, 24, Jack Bauer, Simpsons 400th Episode

-Anna