The Simpsons in Australia, April 1998

Network Ten Broadcasts in April

On the surface, nothing extraordinary happened on Ten in April: Season Nine episodes continued on Wednesdays, and merged Season Eight-and-Seven episodes continued on Sundays. Digging a little deeper, however, revealed all was not well. It turns out that the two weeks of Easter holidays in April are a non-ratings period. So someone at Ten had the bright idea of replacing all first-run episodes with repeats from the same series for the two weeks. Naturally, viewers were not happy, once they'd overcome their initial confusion. Ten's justification ran to blaming the other networks ("Everyone does it."), but their arguments did not stand up to scrutiny: no other network pulled first-run episodes over this period. The whole thing justifies a fair dash of cynicism, methinks.

All four streams continued to screen in April: weekday viewers experienced Seasons Six and Seven; weekend early-birds saw Seasons Five and Six, and part of Seven; Saturday evenings featured episodes from near the end of Season Six; and Sunday nights covered the middle of Season Seven. So anyone interested in early episodes would have been disappointed, while the newer episodes began to sink into our consciousness. The lone break to this pattern came on Wednesday, 15th April, when Part One of Who Shot Mr Burns? was shown at 7:00pm in the evening rather than at the later time, as it should. This was done so anyone unable to watch the later timeslot would still get to see both parts of the two-parter. It's nice to see programmers thinking of the viewers, for a change.

Date	Time	Episode	Code
Wed 1 Apr 1998	7:30pm	The Two Mrs Nahasapeemapetilons	5F04
Wed 8 Apr 1998	7:30pm	Marge in Chains	9F20 R
Wed 15 Apr 1998	7:30pm	Cape Feare	9F22 R
Wed 22 Apr 1998	7:30pm	Lisa the Skeptic	5F05
Wed 29 Apr 1998	7:30pm	Realty Bites	5F06

Date	Time	Episode	Code
Sun 5 Apr 1998	7:30pm	Lisa’s Date with Density	4F01 RM
Sun 5 Apr 1998	8:00pm	Team Homer	3F10 RM
Sun 12 Apr 1998	7:30pm	Hurricane Neddy	4F07 RM
Sun 12 Apr 1998	8:00pm	Two Bad Neighbors	3F09 RM
Sun 19 Apr 1998	7:30pm	The Twisted World of Marge Simpson	4F08 RM
Sun 19 Apr 1998	8:00pm	Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield	3F11 RM
Sun 26 Apr 1998	7:30pm	The Springfield Files	3G01 RM
Sun 26 Apr 1998	8:00pm	Bart the Fink	3F12 RM

Date	Episode	Title
Wed 1/4	2F01 2F02	Itchy & Scratchy Land Sideshow Bob Roberts
Thu 2/4	2F03 2F04	"The Simpsons Halloween Special V" Bart’s Girlfriend
Fri 3/4	2F05 2F06	Lisa on Ice Homer: Bad Man
Mon 6/4	2F07 2F08	Grampa vs Sexual Inadequacy Fear of Flying
Tue 7/4	2F09 2F10	Homer the Great And Maggie Makes Three
Wed 8/4	2F11 2F12	Bart’s Comet Homie the Clown
Thu 9/4	2F13 2F14	Bart vs Australia Homer vs Patty & Selma
Fri 10/4	2F31 2F15	A Star is Burns Lisa’s Wedding
Mon 13/4	2F18 2F19	Two Dozen and One Greyhounds The PTA Disbands
Tue 14/4	2F32 2F21	’Round Springfield The Springfield Connection
Wed 15/4	2F22 2F16	Lemon of Troy Who Shot Mr Burns? — Part One
Thu 16/4	2F20 2F17	Who Shot Mr Burns? — Part Two Radioactive Man
Fri 17/4	3F01 3F02	Home Sweet Home-Diddily-Dum-Doodily Bart Sells His Soul
Mon 20/4	3F03 3F04	Lisa the Vegetarian "The Simpsons Halloween Special VI"
Tue 21/4	3F05 3F06	King-Size Homer Mother Simpson
Wed 22/4	3F08 3F31	Sideshow Bob’s Last Gleaming "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular!"
Thu 23/4	3F07 3F10	Marge Be Not Proud Team Homer
Fri 24/4	3F09 3F11	Two Bad Neighbors Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield
Mon 27/4	3F12 3F13	Bart the Fink Lisa the Iconoclast
Tue 28/4	3F14 3F16	Homer the Smithers The Day the Violence Died
Wed 29/4	3F15 3F17	A Fish Called Selma Bart on the Road
Thu 30/4	3F18 3F19	22 Short Films About Springfield "The Curse of the Flying Hellfish"

Date	Episode	Title
Sat 4/4	9F21 9F22 9F19 1F02 1F01 1F04 1F03	Homer’s Barbershop Quartet Cape Feare Krusty Gets Kancelled Homer Goes to College Rosebud "The Simpsons Halloween Special IV" Marge on the Lam
Sun 5/4	1F05 1F06 1F07 1F08 1F09 1F11 1F10	Bart’s Inner Child Boy-Scoutz N The Hood The Last Temptation of Homer $pringfield Homer the Vigilante Bart Gets Famous Homer and Apu
Sat 11/4	1F12 1F13 1F14 1F15 1F16 1F17 1F18	Lisa vs Malibu Stacey Deep Space Homer Homer Loves Flanders Bart Gets An Elephant Burns’ Heir Lisa’s Rival Sweet Seymour Skinner’s Baddasssss Song
Sun 12/4	1F19 1F21 1F22 1F20 2F33 2F01 2F02	The Boy Who Knew Too Much Lady Bouvier’s Lover Bart of Darkness Secrets of a Successful Marriage Another Simpsons Clip Show Itchy & Scratchy Land Sideshow Bob Roberts
Sat 18/4	2F03 2F04 2F05 2F06 2F07 2F08 2F09	"The Simpsons Halloween Special V" Bart’s Girlfriend Lisa on Ice Homer: Bad Man Grampa vs Sexual Inadequacy Fear of Flying Homer the Great
Sun 19/4	2F10 2F11 2F12 2F13 2F14 2F31 2F15	And Maggie Makes Three Bart’s Comet Homie the Clown Bart vs Australia Homer vs Patty & Selma A Star is Burns Lisa’s Wedding
Sat 25/4	2F18 2F19 2F32 2F21 2F22 2F16 2F20	Two Dozen and One Greyhounds The PTA Disbands ’Round Springfield The Springfield Connection Lemon of Troy Who Shot Mr Burns? — Part One Who Shot Mr Burns? — Part Two
Sun 26/4	2F17 3F01 3F02 3F03 3F04 3F05 3F06	Radioactive Man Home Sweet Home-Diddily-Dum-Doodily Bart Sells His Soul Lisa the Vegetarian "The Simpsons Halloween Special VI" King-Size Homer Mother Simpson

Date	Episode	Title
Sat 4/4	2F15	Lisa’s Wedding
Sat 11/4	2F18	Two Dozen and One Greyhounds
Sat 18/4	2F19	The PTA Disbands
Sat 25/4	2F32	’Round Springfield

Date	Episode	Title
Sun 5/4	3F07 3F10	Marge Be Not Proud Team Homer
Sun 12/4	3F09 3F11	Two Bad Neighbors Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield
Sun 19/4	3F12 3F13	Bart the Fink Lisa the Iconoclast
Sun 26/4	3F14 3F16	Homer the Smithers The Day the Violence Died