Australian Simpsons News
First Half, 2001


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28th June, 2001

Ten's strip does indeed go back to Season Two next week, though not quite as first predicted. Next Wednesday's 7:30pm episode, meanwhile, is pre-empted by a Big Brother special; instead, we get the M-rated Natural Born Kissers (5F18) at 9:00pm. And Fridays are going back to merged, double episodes as of next week.

FOX8 is also making a couple of changes. Okay, so there's only one change: The Simpsons is losing its 6:00am timeslot in July. Hence, the episode at 6:00pm will only screen once each day, while 7:00pm will continue to repeat 8:00am.



21st June, 2001

New episodes should return to Ten's Wednesday nights on the 18th July, there apparently being some delivery problems from the States. In the meantime, only the weekday strip is following any predictable pattern, jumping back to Season Two on Thursday, 5th July, and hopefully running through episodes in order (though that remains to be seen).

The Simpsons Archive has two news items of interest. First, Simpsons DVDs have been officially announced, the first season slated for the 25th September. The US package will comprise 3 discs, the third predominantly filled with bonus materials. The second season may come out before Christmas, with two seasons a year, thereafter. An Australian release, although likely planned, is not yet confirmed, and may differ wildly from the US version.

Update: The Australian release of The Simpsons Season One on DVD is slated for the 3rd October, just a week behind the US! No word on what extras will be included, though.

Also, the word, "d'oh", has been added to the updated online edition of The Oxford English Dictionary. The definition seems pretty right and contains some interesting accompanying information. I'm less impressed with the inclusion of the alternate spelling, "doh," as valid.



7th June, 2001

Ten seems a bit undecided about its Simpsons timeslots at the moment, cancelling last Friday's episode at the last minute, and showing a barely predictable pattern of repeats in both once-a-week timeslots. As a result, I've scrapped my Wednesday predictions for July. Hopefully, clearer patterns will develop in the next week or two.



31st May, 2001

June's not exactly a stable month for The Simpsons, it seems, with Ten making a bunch of changes, including moves away from the predictability of the last few months.

First up, tomorrow's second episode has been moved to 8:00pm to make room for a Big Brother one hour special (I guess something interesting actually happened). In two weeks' time, this (normally 7:30pm) timeslot will leave Season Ten, a few episodes short of the end, and move back to Season Five. However, it's not at all clear whether episodes will run in order, or even from the same season, so take my "predictions" with a grain of salt and watch for changes.

The Wednesday timeslot is also changing. Apparently, tapes aren't arriving quickly enough from the US, so Ten's decided to alternate new and repeat episodes (from Season Eleven, for starters), a curiously American practice. That starts Wednesday week. However, with school holidays also coming up, I don't expect a predictable pattern until the kids are back in the classroom.



28th May, 2001

For any readers living in Melbourne, I draw your attention to the Silver K Gallery (1092 High St, Armadale), which is exhibiting a large range of newly-released Simpsons animation cells. Most of the new cells are from Homer's Phobia (4F11), but there's also lots of cells from Thirty Minutes to Tokyo (AABF20), and a range from older episodes. Add to that some beautifully composed sericels and hand-painted limited edition cells, and this is your best chance yet to find that perfect bit of Simpsons memorabilia. Alternatively, it's great to just look (goggle at the prices) and relive great Simpsons moments. Silver K has a website, showing a selection of cells, but I'm not sure of the exact address. The exhibition finishes on Sunday, 17th June.

Meanwhile, on Foxtel in June, all three Simpsons streams continue on from May. Both the 6:00am & 6:00pm timeslot and the weekend morning timeslot wrap up Season Eleven in June, but while the latter returns to the start of Season One, the former goes to the beginning of Season Nine, instead.



10th May, 2001

Great news for those of us striving for the perfect Simpsons archive (excuse the pun): The Simpsons Archive reports that transfers of The Simpsons onto DVD are going full steam ahead, with a possible initial release in September. I'm not sure how much longer we may need to wait for a region 4 release, but I suppose they'd be keen to get in before Christmas.



3rd May, 2001

The Simpsons Archive reports that the principal voice actors on The Simpsons are about to close contracts for US$100,000 per episode during seasons 13 and 14. Apart from the monetary news, this also appears to guarantee two more seasons, with an option for another. With many people claiming a decline in the quality and freshness of the show, one has to hope the writers are also being looked after, as encouragement to produce better scripts. Of course, after watching over two hundred episodes of The Simpsons, I'm sure our perception of any new episode is going to be swayed by our memory of those previous. We inevitably set higher standards, that are harder than ever to meet. My advice if you're growing weary of The Simpsons? Relax. Don't judge; just sit back and watch.



26th April, 2001

No changes to the Simpsons schedule on Foxtel in May. However, there has been a big misprint. From Monday, 7th May, the printed Foxtel Guide lists the wrong episode names in the 6:00am timeslot. In fact, the same episode will air at 6:00am as is listed for 6:00pm the same day.



19th April, 2001

We're back to new episodes on Wednesdays next week, the school holidays being over in most states. Meanwhile, in the USA, Fox has dropped one episode from Season Twelve, so the season finale airs on the 20th May.

Apparently, Matt Groening is planning a Simpsons spin-off, featuring the same cast but revolving around other characters. It's too early to tell whether this project will go ahead, but it seems there's at least two or three seasons more to come of The Simpsons in its current incarnation (don't the animators ever get tired?!).



29th March, 2001

On Foxtel in April, all three streams continue on from March. However, Slayerfest over the Easter weekend (14th-15th April) will pre-empt the weekend morning timeslot. Note that the later, weekday timeslot has just wrapped around back to Season One.



22nd March, 2001

There's been no Simpsons news worth reporting for a while. But now Ten's added a bonus timeslot this weekend, Sunday, 25th March from 7:30pm. The second episode (hopefully not merged) at 8:00pm is a new one, probably screened here because of its PG rating. Interestingly, those of you with Foxtel may have noticed that every episode in Season Eleven scored a PG rating on FOX8, which suggests that, either Ten is censoring every episode, or the ratings system is more lenient on FTA.



22nd February, 2001

For The Simpsons on Foxtel, there's just two things worth noting in the first couple of weeks of March (I'll look at the remainder for next week). First, The Simpsons at 6:00pm on a Saturday officially moves five minutes later (although it's been airing even later due to E.T. running over time). Second, the 7:30pm Saturday timeslot concludes on the 10th March, at the end of Season Eleven.

Do you want to see The Simpsons released on DVD? If so, and you want to influence the release, fill in the poll at epoll.



15th February, 2001

We're back to just one new episode of The Simpsons from next week (7:30pm Wednesday). Gratifyingly, we get to see the Hallowe'en episode next week. Congratulations to Ten for not holding it to the end of the season!

Noting that I still haven't converted my notes into "reviews" for the last few episodes of Season Eleven, I've decided trying to write up each episode is too much work and interferes too much with my enjoyment of each new instalment. So this year, I'll just be making any comments that spring to mind, and not bothering to try and cover everything.

In that spirit, I really enjoyed the first of last night's episodes, A Tale of Two Springfields (BABF20). It restored my faith in new episodes, that the first of the season could be so good: fast-paced and funny. The second episode, Insane Clown Puppy (BABF17), was weaker, and somewhat contrived, but I think we can safely look forward to new laughs again this year!



8th February, 2001

Season Twelve of The Simpsons starts on Ten next Wednesday, 14th February, at 7:30pm. Two episodes will air. Sadly, they'll be merged, meaning we'll miss out on any special end-credits music from the first episode and the couch gag from the second. But at least they're back.

Relevant pages have been updated, although I haven't yet included the new season in the episode guide.



1st February, 2001

It turns out Lisa's Wedding (2F15) will not be skipped in Foxtel's 6:00pm timeslot, after all. Rather, it will air tomorrow night, with Bart vs Australia (2F13) being skipped yesterday, having aired on Australia Day.

Meanwhile, on Ten, the Saturday and Sunday repeat timeslots are being dropped, but the weekday strip returns at 6:00pm, featuring a sequential but non-consecutive scattering of episodes from Season Three (to start with).



30th January, 2001

I've updated Foxtel's February Simpsons schedule from the Foxtel Guide, along with predictions for March.

It turns out, the weekend evening stream is to be merged into the 6:00pm weekday stream, this stream also gaining a second timeslot at 6:00am weekdays only, the morning's episode repeated in the evening. Lisa's Wedding (2F15) will be skipped in the transition. The other three streams will continue as before.



25th January, 2001

I'm not quite back on top of things yet, so February information won't be available until next week. The biggest thing to note is the addition of a weekday 6:00am Simpsons timeslot from 1st February, airing the same episode as the 6:00pm timeslot that night.



15th January, 2001

I hope you all had a wonderful festive season. My own was spent in company with young Lithuanians from all over the world, in serious discussions and in the bar -- lots of fun! But now it's back to work and back to maintaining this website. Forgive me if it takes a few days to get things working smoothly again.

Today's update includes updated Foxtel listings from the January Foxtel Guide, along with the results of the "Simpsons by Request" polls (which incidentally conclude at the end of January). I've also updated Ten's screenings over Christmas.

Worthy of note on Foxtel is the appearance of Bart vs Australia at 8:00am on Australia Day, followed by Slayerfest 1, which pre-empts that day's remaining Simpsons timeslots. Next weekend features the majority of Season Eleven in the 9-12 timeslots, concluding the following week then jumping back to Season One. Just in case you missed any of these new episodes.

For reference, here are the "Simpsons by Request" candidates I missed, and for the rest of January ("Simpsons by Request" concludes at the end of the month):

30th-31st December, 2000

No.CodeTitle
17F16Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?
27F14Bart’s Dog Gets An F
37F17Old Money
47F18Brush with Greatness

6th-7th January, 2000

No.CodeTitle
17F19Lisa’s Substitute
27F20War Of The Simpsons
37F21Three Men and a Comic Book
47F22Blood Feud

13th-14th January, 2000

No.CodeTitle
17F23When Flanders Failed
27F24Stark Raving Dad
38F01Mr Lisa Goes To Washington
48F03Bart The Murderer

20th-21st January, 2000

No.CodeTitle
19F11Selma’s Choice
29F12Brother from the Same Planet
39F13I Love Lisa
49F14Duffless

27th-28th January, 2000

No.CodeTitle
19F15Last Exit to Springfield
29F16The Front
39F17So It’s Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show
49F18Whacking Day

Apologies for getting the last two weekends wrong. They have now been corrected.


Australian Simpsons News Archive: Second Half, 2000.



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Copyright ©2001 Paulius Stepanas. All Rights Reserved.

Last Updated: 23-August-2001