The Simpsons in Australia, February 1998

Network Ten Broadcasts in February

February saw the return of the ratings season, heralded by the arrival of new shows, and new episodes for last year's successes. Inevitably, prominent amongst the tide, came a new season of The Simpsons. The arrival of Season Nine warranted the introduction of a new timeslot, with our favourite family returning to their 1995 timeslot at 7:30pm on Wednesday, 11th February. The last episode of Season Eight (4F21), which was held over in July last year, was delayed yet again. The Sunday Simpsons hour, meanwhile, was relegated to the role of showing repeats. Although the first Sunday of the month continued on from January in showing Season Three and Four repeats, these were subsequently replaced with Season Eight and Seven repeats for the rest of the month. Each pair of episodes continued to be merged. Finally, stripping ceased on 6th February, all of Season Six having been stripped for the first time. The timeslot was then taken over by repeats of The Nanny.

The schedule for The Simpsons appeared to have settled down on FOX8, with no changes or anomalies in February. All four of the streams established in January continued to screen, although no special Monday screenings took place (all the kids having returned to school). The weekday stream took us from the middle of Season Two to the start of Season Four. Weekend mornings went from the middle of Season Seven through to the end of Season Eight, then recommenced at the beginning, getting as far as the start of Season Two. Despite protests, the Fox Kids logo continued to be used in the weekend sessions. Saturday evenings showed odd episodes from Season Six (the even episodes were skipped because the Sunday evening scheduling was changed too late to be reflected in the Foxtel Guide). Sunday evenings showed the latter half of Season Six. In a cheeky advertising move, Foxtel began promoting Sunday evening Simpsons with, "See it here, before anywhere else." As Lisa said in the ad (sound byte from 7F18), "This is a rather shameless promotion." But potentially quite effective, as Channel Ten's Sunday Simpsons followed directly after FOX8's new timeslot.

Date	Time	Episode	Code
Wed 11 Feb 1998	7:30pm	The City of New York vs Homer Simpson	4F22
Wed 18 Feb 1998	7:30pm	The Principal and the Pauper	4F23
Wed 25 Feb 1998	7:30pm	Lisa’s Sax	3G02

Date	Time	Episode	Code
Sun 1 Feb 1998	7:30pm	Radio Bart	8F11 RM
Sun 1 Feb 1998	8:00pm	Whacking Day	9F18 RM
Sun 8 Feb 1998	7:30pm	The Homer They Fall	4F03 RM
Sun 8 Feb 1998	8:00pm	Home Sweet Home-Diddily-Dum-Doodily	3F01 RM
Sun 15 Feb 1998	7:30pm	Burns, Baby Burns	4F05 RM
Sun 15 Feb 1998	8:00pm	Bart Sells His Soul	3F02 RM
Sun 22 Feb 1998	7:30pm	Bart After Dark	4F06 RM
Sun 22 Feb 1998	8:00pm	Lisa the Vegetarian	3F03 RM

Week Starting		Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
2/2/98		2F19	2F21	2F22	2F16	2F20

The evening timeslots repeat the morning's episodes.

Date	Episode	Title
Mon 2/2	7F10 7F11	"Episode 23: Bart Gets Hit By A Car" One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish
Tue 3/2	7F12 7F13	The Way We Was Homer vs Lisa and the 8th Commandment
Wed 4/2	7F15 7F16	Principal Charming Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?
Thu 5/2	7F14 7F17	Bart’s Dog Gets An F Old Money
Fri 6/2	7F18 7F19	Brush with Greatness Lisa’s Substitute
Mon 9/2	7F20 7F21	War Of The Simpsons Three Men and a Comic Book
Tue 10/2	7F22 7F23	Blood Feud When Flanders Failed
Wed 11/2	7F24 8F01	Stark Raving Dad Mr Lisa Goes To Washington
Thu 12/2	8F03 8F04	Bart The Murderer Homer Defined
Fri 13/2	8F05 8F02	Like Father, Like Clown "The Simpsons Halloween Special II"
Mon 16/2	8F06 8F07	Lisa’s Pony Saturdays of Thunder
Tue 17/2	8F08 8F09	Flaming Moe’s Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk
Wed 18/2	8F10 8F11	I Married Marge Radio Bart
Thu 19/2	8F12 8F14	Lisa the Greek Homer Alone
Fri 20/2	8F16 8F13	Bart the Lover Homer at the Bat
Mon 23/2	8F15 8F17	Separate Vocations Dog of Death
Tue 24/2	8F19 8F20	Colonel Homer Black Widower
Wed 25/2	8F21 8F22	The Otto Show Bart’s Friend Falls In Love
Thu 26/2	8F23 8F24	Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes? Kamp Krusty
Fri 27/2	8F18 9F01	A Streetcar Named Marge Homer the Heretic

Date	Episode	Title
Sun 1/2	3F10 3F09 3F11 3F12 3F13 3F14 3F16	Team Homer Two Bad Neighbors Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield Bart the Fink Lisa the Iconoclast Homer the Smithers The Day the Violence Died
Sat 7/2	3F15 3F17 3F18 3F19 3F20 3F21 3F22	A Fish Called Selma Bart on the Road 22 Short Films About Springfield "The Curse of the Flying Hellfish" Much Apu About Nothing Homerpalooza Summer of 4 Ft. 2
Sun 8/2	4F02 3F23 4F03 4F05 4F06 4F04 4F01	"The Simpsons Halloween Special VII" You Only Move Twice The Homer They Fall Burns, Baby Burns Bart After Dark A Milhouse Divided Lisa’s Date with Density
Sat 14/2	4F07 3F24 3G01 4F08 4F10 3G03 4F12	Hurricane Neddy El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Homer The Springfield Files The Twisted World of Marge Simpson Mountain of Madness Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala-D’oh-cious The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show
Sun 15/2	4F11 4F14 4F13 4F15 4F09 4F16 4F17	Homer’s Phobia The Brother From Another Series My Sister, My Sitter Homer vs the Eighteenth Amendment Grade School Confidential The Canine Mutiny The Old Man and the Lisa
Sat 21/2	4F18 4F19 4F20 4F21 7G08 7G02 7G03	In Marge We Trust Homer’s Enemy The Simpsons Spin-off Showcase The Secret War of Lisa Simpson "The Simpsons Christmas Special" Bart the Genius Homer’s Odyssey
Sun 22/2	7G04 7G05 7G06 7G09 7G07 7G11 7G10	There’s No Disgrace Like Home Bart the General Moaning Lisa Call of the Simpsons "The Telltale Head" Jacques to be Wild Homer’s Night Out
Sat 28/2	7G13 7G12 7G01 7F03 7F02 7F04 7F01	The Crepes of Wrath Krusty Gets Busted Some Enchanted Evening Bart Gets An F Simpson and Delilah "The Simpsons Halloween Special" Two Cars in Every Garage, Three Eyes on Every Fish

Date	Episode	Title
Sat 7/2	2F05	Lisa on Ice
Sat 14/2	2F07	Grampa vs Sexual Inadequacy
Sat 21/2	2F09	Homer the Great
Sat 28/2	2F11	Bart’s Comet

Date	Episode	Title
Sun 1/2	2F31 2F15	A Star is Burns Lisa’s Wedding
Sun 8/2	2F18 2F19	Two Dozen and One Greyhounds The PTA Disbands
Sun 15/2	2F32 2F21	’Round Springfield The Springfield Connection
Sun 22/2	2F22 2F16	Lemon of Troy Who Shot Mr Burns? — Part One