The Simpsons in Australia, October 1997

Network Ten Broadcasts in October

Ten continued to screen Season Four and Season Seven repeats on Sundays at 7:00pm and 7:30pm, respectively. The intervening credits and opening sequence continued to be cut. That is, except on the last Sunday of the month, when the Season Seven Hallowe'en special was shown in full. Weekday stripping at 7:00pm completed Season Five in the first week of October, but rather than continuing to Season Six, Ten jumped back to the start of Season Two. However, October is the month ending in Hallowe'en, and such a timely opportunity could not be easily passed up: in the last week of October, the first six Simpsons Hallowe'en Specials were shown: the first five stripped during the week; the sixth shown the previous Sunday. Strangely, the seventh special (from this year's Australian season) was held off for another time.

Although all three streams of Simpsons episodes continued throughout October, cracks were beginning to show: late night weekday episodes (at 11:00pm) ceased on the 17th October, relegated to just the weekend timeslot. The late night stream reached the end of Season Four, while the other weekday stream concluded Season Three and then was jumped forward nine episodes on the last day of the month. Apart from this minor hiccup, all three streams behaved as predicted. But the big news was Foxtel's acquisition of Seasons Six through Eight of The Simpsons. These new episodes started airing on Saturday and Sunday mornings from the 18th October, completing Season Six by the end of the month. Apart from being able to see these episodes uncensored and uncut, Australian viewers were treated to three episodes never before seen in this country (see my note on Censorship and Other Matters), namely 2F31, 2F32 and 2F33. Finally, Foxtel arranged a special Simpsons event for the last day of October: a Simpsons Hallowe'en marathon. All seven Hallowe'en specials, from Seasons Two through Eight were shown, in reverse order (ie: starting with the newest episode). One up on Network Ten. October was also the first full month for which I was able to get complete screening information from Foxtel in advance, removing much of the guess-work from my predictions. My thanks to the people involved.

October was the month the Comedy Channel retired The Tracey Ullman Show. Enough timeslots (3:30pm, Tuesday to Friday) were allocated to nearly complete Season Four, but no more. The last episode was shown on the 10th October (another was scheduled for the following Tuesday, but not shown). Unfortunately, Tracey will not be returning to the Comedy Channel, as their rights to the show have expired.

Date	Time	Episode	Code
Sun 5 Oct 1997	7:00pm	Lisa the Beauty Queen	9F02 RM
Sun 5 Oct 1997	7:30pm	Lisa the Iconoclast	3F13 RM
Sun 12 Oct 1997	7:00pm	Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie	9F03 RM
Sun 12 Oct 1997	7:30pm	Homer the Smithers	3F14 RM
Sun 19 Oct 1997	7:00pm	Marge Gets a Job	9F05 RM
Sun 19 Oct 1997	7:30pm	The Day the Violence Died	3F16 RM
Sun 26 Oct 1997	7:00pm	New Kid on the Block	9F06 R
Sun 26 Oct 1997	7:30pm	Treehouse of Horror VI	3F04 R

Week Starting		Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
29/9/97		1F13	1F14	1F15	1F16	1F18
6/10/97		1F19	1F21	1F20	1F22	1F17
13/10/97		7F03	7F02	7F01	7F05	7F08
20/10/97		7F07	7F06	7F09	7F10	7F11
27/10/97		7F04	8F02	9F04	1F04	2F03

The evening timeslot repeats the morning's episodes.

Date	Episode	Title
Wed 1/10	7F01 7F05	Two Cars in Every Garage, Three Eyes on Every Fish Dancin’ Homer
Thu 2/10	7F08 7F07	Dead Putting Society Bart vs Thanksgiving
Fri 3/10	7F06 7F09	Bart the Daredevil Itchy & Scratchy & Marge
Mon 6/10	7F10 7F11	"Episode 23: Bart Gets Hit By A Car" One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish
Tue 7/10	7F12 7F13	The Way We Was Homer vs Lisa and the 8th Commandment
Wed 8/10	7F15 7F16	Principal Charming Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?
Thu 9/10	7F14 7F17	Bart’s Dog Gets An F Old Money
Fri 10/10	7F18 7F19	Brush with Greatness Lisa’s Substitute
Mon 13/10	7F20 7F21	War Of The Simpsons Three Men and a Comic Book
Tue 14/10	7F22 7F23	Blood Feud When Flanders Failed
Wed 15/10	7F24 8F01	Stark Raving Dad Mr Lisa Goes To Washington
Thu 16/10	8F03 8F04	Bart The Murderer Homer Defined
Fri 17/10	8F05 8F02	Like Father, Like Clown "The Simpsons Halloween Special II"
Mon 20/10	8F06 8F07	Lisa’s Pony Saturdays of Thunder
Tue 21/10	8F08 8F09	Flaming Moe’s Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk
Wed 22/10	8F10 8F11	I Married Marge Radio Bart
Thu 23/10	8F12 8F14	Lisa the Greek Homer Alone
Fri 24/10	8F16 8F13	Bart the Lover Homer at the Bat
Mon 27/10	8F15 8F17	Separate Vocations Dog of Death
Tue 28/10	8F19 8F20	Colonel Homer Black Widower
Wed 29/10	8F21 8F22	The Otto Show Bart’s Friend Falls In Love
Thu 30/10	8F23 8F24	Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes? Kamp Krusty
Fri 31/10	9F09 9F10	Homer’s Triple Bypass Marge vs the Monorail

Date	Episode	Title
Sat 4/10	9F16 9F17 9F18 9F20 9F21 9F22 9F19	The Front So It’s Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show Whacking Day Marge in Chains Homer’s Barbershop Quartet Cape Feare Krusty Gets Kancelled
Sun 5/10	1F02 1F01 1F04 1F03 1F05 1F06 1F07	Homer Goes to College Rosebud Treehouse of Horror IV Marge on the Lam Bart’s Inner Child Boy-Scoutz N The Hood The Last Temptation of Homer
Sat 11/10	1F08 1F09 1F11 1F10 1F12 1F13 1F14	$pringfield Homer the Vigilante Bart Gets Famous Homer and Apu Lisa vs Malibu Stacey Deep Space Homer Homer Loves Flanders
Sun 12/10	1F15 1F16 1F17 1F18 1F19 1F21 1F22	Bart Gets An Elephant Burns’ Heir Lisa’s Rival Sweet Seymour Skinner’s Baddasssss Song The Boy Who Knew Too Much Lady Bouvier’s Lover Bart of Darkness
Sat 18/10	1F20 2F33 2F01 2F02 2F03 2F04 2F05	Secrets of a Successful Marriage Another Simpsons Clip Show Itchy & Scratchy Land Sideshow Bob Roberts Treehouse of Horror V Bart’s Girlfriend Lisa on Ice
Sun 19/10	2F06 2F07 2F08 2F09 2F10 2F11 2F12	Homer: Bad Man Grampa vs Sexual Inadequacy Fear of Flying Homer the Great And Maggie Makes Three Bart’s Comet Homie the Clown
Sat 25/10	2F13 2F14 2F31 2F15 2F18 2F19 2F32	Bart vs Australia Homer vs Patty & Selma A Star is Burns Lisa’s Wedding Two Dozen and One Greyhounds The PTA Disbands ’Round Springfield
Sun 26/10	2F21 2F22 2F16 2F20 2F17 3F01 3F02	The Springfield Connection Lemon of Troy Who Shot Mr Burns? — Part One Who Shot Mr Burns? — Part Two Radioactive Man Home Sweet Home-Diddily-Dum-Doodily Bart Sells His Soul

Date	Episode	Title
Mon 29/9	8F24	Kamp Krusty
Tue 30/9	8F18	A Streetcar Named Marge
Wed 1/10	9F01	Homer the Heretic
Thu 2/10	9F02	Lisa the Beauty Queen
Fri 3/10	9F03	Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie
Sat 4/10	9F04	Treehouse of Horror III
Sun 5/10	9F05	Marge Gets a Job
Mon 6/10	9F06	New Kid on the Block
Tue 7/10	9F07	Mr Plow
Wed 8/10	9F08	Lisa’s First Word
Thu 9/10	9F09	Homer’s Triple Bypass
Fri 10/10	9F10	Marge vs the Monorail
Sat 11/10	9F11	Selma’s Choice
Sun 12/10	9F12	Brother from the Same Planet
Mon 13/10	9F13	I Love Lisa
Tue 14/10	9F14	Duffless
Wed 15/10	9F15	Last Exit to Springfield
Thu 16/10	9F16	The Front
Fri 17/10	9F17	So It’s Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show
Sat 18/10	9F18	Whacking Day
Sun 19/10	9F20	Marge in Chains
Sat 25/10	9F21	Homer’s Barbershop Quartet
Sun 26/10	9F22	Cape Feare

Episode	Title
4F02	Treehouse of Horror VII
3F04	Treehouse of Horror VI
2F03	Treehouse of Horror V
1F04	Treehouse of Horror IV
9F04	Treehouse of Horror III
8F02	"The Simpsons Halloween Special II"
7F04	"The Simpsons Halloween Special"

Week Starting		Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
29/9/97			7W14	7W14	7W15	7W16
6/10/97			7W17	7W18	7W19	7W20
13/10/97		No further episodes.