‘Simpsons’ scores kudos from Guinness

By Lesley Goldberg

Drawing a jam-packed Ballroom 20 to its feet, creator Matt Groening said “no end is in sight” for “The Simpsons,” which received kudos from the Guinness Book of World Records following Saturday’s hourlong panel.

Tapped by Guinness as “the longest-running sitcom in history” for bypassing “Ozzie and Harriet,” Groening thanked fans of the show and all the scores of individuals who have been a part of the show’s 20 years.

Handing out “Simpsons” goodies to all who came to the mic with questions, Groening noted that he is a part of every episode of the animated hit.

“We had a chorus of women who came in and sang the long melody lyric Simpsons in the theme song,” he noted. Later, when reviewing the finished product, he realized that only “Simpson” stood out and along with theme composer Danny Elfman, the duo went into the studio and recorded a long “s” take, thus making him part of the show.

It’s not the first time, however, that Groening has been part of the “Simpsons.” He previously voiced Maggie’s pacifier when the toon was featured on “The Tracey Ullman Show.”

Look for “The Simpsons” to premiere on Fox on Sept. 27, where Homer is selected the next big-screen super hero.

Comments

[Jhn Davis]

OMGosh dude the SImpsons totally ROCK!

R
www.anon-tools.tk

[Johnny]

Booo-urns!

[Television Spy]

Love the show but hate what it's become. The storylines are getting weak and sometimes the first 15 minutes has no realation to the last 15 and serves only for a long drawn out way to get to the main plot point.

Now they also have problems filling up entire episodes and they fill it with dance scenes. In the episode where Lisa takes a competency test but panics because she thinks she'll fail - the episode ends with them dancing to foot loose for like 3 minutes just to eat up time. The next episode I can't remember what happens but there's another dance sequence.

But I can tolerate that what I don't like is that they used to allow celebrities only every 3-4 episodes in a season and the celebrity would rare ever play themselves. Now the celebrities are in every episode and they play themselves. It gets worse because the ratings are dropping they started getting really obscure niche celebrities to appeal to certain cult or niche groups to get them to tune in to an episode. Celebrities shouldn't be trotted into an episode just to get people to watch and a lot of times the celebrities are people that the majority have never heard of, like Thomas Pinchon or a myriad of other obscure celebrities you wouldn't necessarily know.

There's also too much slap stick now, which is one of the reasons why The simpsons was so great. They used to focus on dialogue based humor but now it's more about homer falling down a flight of stairs for 2 minutes followed with homer saying the mandatory "dohh" and then getting pummeled by some baseballs.

if only they could bring conan back to write for them..

[marcko]

And I thought Last of the Summer Wine was the longest running sitcom at only 36 years? And The Simpsons has passed that in only 20, well done them on that Prof Frinks time travel episode, 16 years early at least since LOTSW is still going!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_of_the_Summer_Wine

TBH, in jokes per episodes they probably have surpassed that.

[Ray]

Totally agree with Johnny.

[Derek]

Johnny, The Simpsons, has always been that way (regarding your first point about the first and last 15). Think back to the Tomacco episode. The first 15 minutes is about Homer going around glove slapping everyone. Then they move to the old farm and make tomacco.

[Ben May]

What happens when all the voice actors start dying off??

[Joe]

I agree with Johnny nearly 100%. I always thought that McBain should've been turned into an actual movie as the Simpsons movie. It really is time they turn back to the first 5 years and make moral stories again where they were great. Like when bart shoplifts, or Lisa takes up jazz, and its time to bring back some minor old players. Maybe make Milhouse less of a joke and more of a friend to Bart like he used to be.

Its not a bad show anymore, but for 3-4 years all they depended on to get by was celebrities and the current writers need to start working on their stuff because its pretty weak over all.

[Penis headd]

They'll clone the voice actors

[Slimming Pills]

I'm a huge Simpsons geek, proud to admit it, and I can honestly say that right when this aired I started text messaging people making sure they had just witnessed Simpsons history, because it really might have been the best couch gag ever.