Australian Simpsons News
Second Half, 2002

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29th December, 2002 Sorry for the late update. Unfortunately, next week's update will be missed entirely. I've updated the Foxtel information for January and predictions for February (at long last). The New Year's Day Marathon is worth a look. Also, be aware that the schedules are listing a pre-emption on the 5th January at 8:00pm that also results in that episode being skipped. I expect the episode will actually air the following week, bumping back the schedule. On a technical note, I've finally had time to set up some JavaScript across most pages. Unfortunately, that means that if your browser doesn't support JavaScript, you won't be able to see most of the navigation links. If there's any problems, please let me know at my new email address: . The old address still exists on some pages (eg: monthly archives), but won't work any more. That's all for now. I'll have more in a week and a half or so. In the meantime, I hope you all had a happy Christmas and enjoy a fun New Year!

19th December, 2002 A few Christmas episodes in the strip and pre-emptions on Sunday and Monday are the main changes in Ten's Simpsons next week.

12th December, 2002 The December page has been updated with details of FOX8's Simpsons Summerfest (and The Simpsons Christmas Special on Christmas Day). The Simpsons will also feature on New Year's Day, from noon to midnight. I'll put up the schedule soon.

7th December, 2002 Looks like there's more going on in December on FOX8 than I thought. There's all sorts of pre-emptions, season rearrangements and new timeslots. The new morning timeslot, screening five episodes each weekday morning from 8:00am, doesn't start until the 16th. That's just as well, as I don't have time to figure it all out today. But I have updated the existing timeslots. The 8:00am & 7:00pm timeslot has already inexplicably skipped over Season Eleven and moved straight to Season Twelve. It loses its 7:00am timeslot on the 16th, is pre-empted on the 25th, concludes on the 31st, then becomes a repeat for the first episode from the morning, from the 2nd January. The 7:00am & 6:00pm timeslot bumps forward Who Shot Mr Burns? one day on the 12th, moves The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular (3F31) to Christmas Day and drops Marge Be Not Proud (3F07) (which moves into the Christmas special timeslot). Both Christmas and New Year's specials pre-empt this timeslot's repeat episodes. The 9:00am weekend timeslot skips Seasons Nine and Eleven, screening the end of Season Eight, Season Ten, Season Twelve, then back to Season Nine and Season Eleven. The reason is probably related to rights issues, even though at first glance it might seem that someone's been drinking too much coffee. Meanwhile, on Ten, the Friday timeslot seems to have disappeared.

29th November, 2002 On Monday, 16th, Simpsons Summerfest kicks off on FOX8, 8:00am to 10:30am, Monday to Friday, screening 5 episodes each day. That's followed by even more Simpsons on Christmas Day, with five Christmas episodes in The Simpsons Christmas Special (7:00pm to 9:30pm, repeated 3:30am to 6:00am). Unfortunately, I haven't had time to update the website to reflect this information yet, but look for it soon.

10th November, 2002 As a couple of people pointed out to me (my thanks), the "missing" episode from Season Thirteen initiated the short-lived, 10:00pm timeslot on Monday, 8th July. I was overseas at the time, but luckily it won't be long before FOX8 screens this one.

1st November, 2002 Season Thirteen officially wrapped on Ten last Monday, though there still seems to be one episode missing. I'll see if I can find out what happened to it. Meanwhile, Mondays and Wednesdays seem to be combining into a single stream, showing Season Ten episodes.

29th October, 2002 I finally received my November Foxtel Guide. I'm hoping it's been late the last two months only because of the change in style. The Guide tells me there's a couple of changes in November. The first is the addition of a 1:00am repeat timeslot on Saturdays, so the daily stream now airs at 6:00pm every day, 7:00am weekdays and 1:00am weekends. Other than that, Treehouse of Horror IX (AABF01) has been shifted to this Thursday (Hallowe'en, appropriately enough) and hence won't appear next Wednesday as well (in its normal place in the order). Finally, confirmation that Season Thirteen is coming to Foxtel, starting this Sunday at 8:00pm (and 3:00am).

25th October, 2002 Huge news for FOX8 viewers: the watermark's been fixed! After nearly 3 years of colour clashes and obscured detail, FOX8 has gone back to a colourless, nearly see-through watermark! (You can see Lisa's expression again in Lisa the Vegetarian!) I know many people don't care or don't notice, but for those of us who do, this is a very big deal, as the watermark can be very obtrusive. If you're one of those people, call up Foxtel and thank them for the change! Looks like FOX8 has resynchronised the 1:00am Sunday night timeslot with the 6:00pm timeslot, so only two weekends were affected (as far as I know). Ten, meanwhile, hasn't added any new timeslots next week, but they are using a lot of the existing ones for Hallowe'en episodes.

18th October, 2002 Whoops. Missed one thing: this Sunday, FOX8 actually gives us a double dose of The Simpsons, pre-empting Grosse Pointe. The result is New Kids on the Blecch (CABF12) at 7:30pm and 2:30am, followed by The Computer Wore Menace Shoes (CABF02) at 8:00pm and 3:00am. That gets us to Season Thirteen a week early, on the 3rd November (so the Hallowe'en season premiere airs the same week as October ends).

17th October, 2002 Quite a lot to report today. For starters, dates across the website have now been fully updated. In particular, that includes all free-to-air episodes since June, Season Thirteen in Australia and the US, Season Fourteen in the US, and the Episode List. Sundays have been a bit confusing on FOX8 in October, but I think I've got it sussed, now. Basically, the 1:00am Sunday night repeat timeslot split off from the strip, forming a new stream that's airing just one episode each week, continuing on almost seemlessly from where it was as a repeat timeslot. In other words, this timeslot has aired, throughout October, four of the five episodes that aired in the first week of the month in the strip. It seems to reclaim its repeat timeslot status in November. This Sunday in the 8:00pm & 3:00am timeslot, we get New Kids on the Blecch (CABF12). This was switched with Children of a Lesser Clod (CABF16) on the weekend before the 11th September for purposes of sensitivity. More importantly, this same timeslot seems set to move into Season Thirteen on the 3rd November, airing this season for the first time on FOX8.

13th October, 2002 My apologies for not updating the last two weeks. A computer upgrade turned into something of a nightmare and I only recovered my Internet access a few days ago. I haven't quite figured out all the upcoming changes to The Simpsons, but here's what I know now. Last weekend, just six episodes did indeed air both Saturday and Sunday, just as the Foxtel Guide suggested (I'll update this shortly). The reason turned out to be that Craig Wing (NRL player) was hosting, inserting his little tidbits between episodes. This week, we were back to seven a day. There's some strange changes looming for the other weekend episodes of The Simpsons that I hope to figure out by next weekend. Nothing serious, though.

27th September, 2002 Foxtel information has now been updated from July through to November. There's a couple of things to note, though they're not exactly news by now. First, FOX8 has regained the rights to Seasons One and Two of The Simpsons. Second, the 6:00pm strip gained a weekday repeat timeslot at 7:00am in July. Hence, this strip now airs at 7:00am and 6:00pm weekdays, 6:00pm only on Saturdays, and 6:00pm and 1:00am on Sundays. Third, Hallowe'en episodes will be moved forward to the 31st October, but no new timeslots will be added for that day. Finally, on Sunday, 11th August, the episode The City of New York vs Homer Simpson (4F22) aired on FOX8 for the first time since the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre in New York. Although the episode contains nothing truly offensive -- admittedly in the same spirit as the episode Bart vs Australia (2F13), which generated some criticism here in Oz -- FOX8 decided not to screen this episode following the attack. The episode is one of the funniest of this period in The Simpsons' history, and I would like to think that it serves as a memorial of sorts: a reminder of less fearful days.

26th September, 2002 Welcome back! I'm now back up and running, and I've resumed weekly updates for Channel Ten. There's still a pretty big backlog of information for the period I was away, so I hope you'll be patient. The Foxtel stuff will also be updated soon: my October Foxtel Guide is annoyingly late. For next week on Ten, another new episode on Monday (only four more to go), and Wednesdays jump back to Season Ten. Fridays and the 6:00pm strip continue with their usual patterns.

Australian Simpsons News Archive: First Half, 2002.