The Simpsons in Australia, March 1998

Network Ten Broadcasts in March

Perhaps someone at Ten finally came to their senses, because this month Ten finally caught up with Foxtel, plugging all the previously gaping omissions, and did a couple of other nice things besides. On Wednesday, 11th March, Ten finally screened The Secret War of Lisa Simpson (4F21), the last episode of Season Eight. Furthermore, the three missing episodes from Season Six (2F31, 2F32 and 2F33) were shown on the first three Sundays of the month, unfortunately sans closing credits. Now viewers without pay TV have at least had the opportunity to see every Simpsons episode to date. It's just a pity that Ten felt the need to blame the omission on some nameless, Hollywood distributor rather than biting the bullet and admitting their long-running mistake. But the bonanza was not to end there; in an unprecedented move, Hallowe'en came early this year, with Season Nine's Hallowe'en Special shown in its normal position in the screening order, on 25th March. In the past, Ten has always kept the Hallowe'en Specials until the end of the season, in October. But old habits die hard: the previous two Hallowe'en Specials were shown on the preceding weekend, as if to keep the new Special from getting lonely. Still, no-one's complaining about that! Apart from all this amazement, Season Nine episodes continued on Wednesdays and Season Eight and Seven repeats continued on Sundays, filling in after the Season Six episodes. Merging also continued. And stripping did not resume.

March was a quiet month on Foxtel, too, with the summer schedule well established and no changes to the four streams of Simpsons episodes. The weekday stream started early in Season Four and got as far as the start of Season Six; weekend mornings made short work of Seasons Two through Four; Saturday evenings saw episodes from the middle of Season Six; and Sunday evenings covered the first part of Season Seven. The only deviation occurred on the 24th March, when the 11:30pm repeat was preempted by the 1998 Academy Awards Special. Two additional episodes were shown in the early morning of Saturday, 29th March, when The Simpsons were selected to plug the gap left by the end of Daylight Saving (in affected states). The episodes were from the end of Season Six and screened from 3:00am ADST to 3:00am AEST. It's confusing enough to have to change one's clocks without also trying to figure out what's on TV at change-over time!

The Comedy Channel no longer has the rights to The Tracey Ullman Show. However, the ABC commenced screening Tracey's Emmy award-winning Tracey Takes On... on Friday nights at 9:30pm from 6th March. This show doesn't feature the Simpsons; rather, Tracey explores a different theme in each show, selecting from her considerable repertoire of humorous characters.

Date	Time	Episode	Code
Wed 4 Mar 1998	7:30pm	The Cartridge Family	5F01
Wed 11 Mar 1998	7:30pm	The Secret War of Lisa Simpson	4F21
Wed 18 Mar 1998	7:30pm	Bart Star	5F03
Wed 25 Mar 1998	7:30pm	"The Simpsons Halloween Special VIII"	5F02

Date	Time	Episode	Code
Sun 1 Mar 1998	7:30pm	A Star is Burns	2F31 M
Sun 1 Mar 1998	8:00pm	King-Size Homer	3F05 RM
Sun 8 Mar 1998	7:30pm	’Round Springfield	2F32 M
Sun 8 Mar 1998	8:00pm	Mother Simpson	3F06 RM
Sun 15 Mar 1998	7:30pm	Another Simpsons Clip Show	2F33 M
Sun 15 Mar 1998	8:00pm	Sideshow Bob’s Last Gleaming	3F08 RM
Sun 22 Mar 1998	7:30pm	"The Simpsons Halloween Special VII"	4F02 RM
Sun 22 Mar 1998	8:00pm	"The Simpsons Halloween Special VI"	3F04 RM
Sun 29 Mar 1998	7:30pm	A Milhouse Divided	4F04 RM
Sun 29 Mar 1998	8:00pm	Marge Be Not Proud	3F07 RM

Note that on 24th March, the 11:30pm repeat did not screen, preempted by the 1998 Academy Awards Special.

Date	Episode	Title
Mon 2/3	9F02 9F03	Lisa the Beauty Queen Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie
Tue 3/3	9F04 9F05	"The Simpsons Halloween Special III" Marge Gets a Job
Wed 4/3	9F06 9F07	New Kid on the Block Mr Plow
Thu 5/3	9F08 9F09	Lisa’s First Word Homer’s Triple Bypass
Fri 6/3	9F10 9F11	Marge vs the Monorail Selma’s Choice
Mon 9/3	9F12 9F13	Brother from the Same Planet I Love Lisa
Tue 10/3	9F14 9F15	Duffless Last Exit to Springfield
Wed 11/3	9F16 9F17	The Front So It’s Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show
Thu 12/3	9F18 9F20	Whacking Day Marge in Chains
Fri 13/3	9F21 9F22	Homer’s Barbershop Quartet Cape Feare
Mon 16/3	9F19 1F02	Krusty Gets Kancelled Homer Goes to College
Tue 17/3	1F01 1F04	Rosebud "The Simpsons Halloween Special IV"
Wed 18/3	1F03 1F05	Marge on the Lam Bart’s Inner Child
Thu 19/3	1F06 1F07	Boy-Scoutz N The Hood The Last Temptation of Homer
Fri 20/3	1F08 1F09	$pringfield Homer the Vigilante
Mon 23/3	1F11 1F10	Bart Gets Famous Homer and Apu
Tue 24/3	1F12 1F13	Lisa vs Malibu Stacey Deep Space Homer
Wed 25/3	1F14 1F15	Homer Loves Flanders Bart Gets An Elephant
Thu 26/3	1F16 1F17	Burns’ Heir Lisa’s Rival
Fri 27/3	1F18 1F19	Sweet Seymour Skinner’s Baddasssss Song The Boy Who Knew Too Much
Mon 30/3	1F21 1F22	Lady Bouvier’s Lover Bart of Darkness
Tue 31/3	1F20 2F33	Secrets of a Successful Marriage Another Simpsons Clip Show

Date	Episode	Title
Sun 1/3	7F05 7F08 7F07 7F06 7F09 7F10 7F11	Dancin’ Homer Dead Putting Society Bart vs Thanksgiving Bart the Daredevil Itchy & Scratchy & Marge "Episode 23: Bart Gets Hit By A Car" One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish
Sat 7/3	7F12 7F13 7F15 7F16 7F14 7F17 7F18	The Way We Was Homer vs Lisa and the 8th Commandment Principal Charming Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? Bart’s Dog Gets An F Old Money Brush with Greatness
Sun 8/3	7F19 7F20 7F21 7F22 7F23 7F24 8F01	Lisa’s Substitute War Of The Simpsons Three Men and a Comic Book Blood Feud When Flanders Failed Stark Raving Dad Mr Lisa Goes To Washington
Sat 14/3	8F03 8F04 8F05 8F02 8F06 8F07 8F08	Bart The Murderer Homer Defined Like Father, Like Clown "The Simpsons Halloween Special II" Lisa’s Pony Saturdays of Thunder Flaming Moe’s
Sun 15/3	8F09 8F10 8F11 8F12 8F14 8F16 8F13	Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk I Married Marge Radio Bart Lisa the Greek Homer Alone Bart the Lover Homer at the Bat
Sat 21/3	8F15 8F17 8F19 8F20 8F21 8F22 8F23	Separate Vocations Dog of Death Colonel Homer Black Widower The Otto Show Bart’s Friend Falls In Love Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?
Sun 22/3	8F24 8F18 9F01 9F02 9F03 9F04 9F05	Kamp Krusty A Streetcar Named Marge Homer the Heretic Lisa the Beauty Queen Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie "The Simpsons Halloween Special III" Marge Gets a Job
Sat 28/3	9F06 9F07 9F08 9F09 9F10 9F11 9F12	New Kid on the Block Mr Plow Lisa’s First Word Homer’s Triple Bypass Marge vs the Monorail Selma’s Choice Brother from the Same Planet
Sun 29/3	9F13 9F14 9F15 9F16 9F17 9F18 9F20	I Love Lisa Duffless Last Exit to Springfield The Front So It’s Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show Whacking Day Marge in Chains

Date	Episode	Title
Sat 7/3	2F12	Homie the Clown
Sat 14/3	2F13	Bart vs Australia
Sat 21/3	2F14	Homer vs Patty & Selma
Sat 28/3	2F31	A Star is Burns

Date	Episode	Title
Sun 1/3	2F20 2F17	Who Shot Mr Burns? — Part Two Radioactive Man
Sun 8/3	3F01 3F02	Home Sweet Home-Diddily-Dum-Doodily Bart Sells His Soul
Sun 15/3	3F03 3F04	Lisa the Vegetarian "The Simpsons Halloween Special VI"
Sun 22/3	3F05 3F06	King-Size Homer Mother Simpson
Sun 29/3	3F08 3F31	Sideshow Bob’s Last Gleaming "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular!"

29th March, 1998
3:00am ADST to 3:00am AEST

For those states that end Daylight Savings on the night following 28th March (and I've no idea which those are), the extra hour will be filled by the following Simpsons episodes:

Episode	Title
2F32	’Round Springfield
2F21	The Springfield Connection