The Simpsons in Australia, December 1997

Network Ten Broadcasts in December

With ratings well and truly over for the year, The Simpsons was a beacon in a sea of mediocre television, even cut back to Sunday repeats alone. Stripping ceased at the end of November, but Season Four and Seven repeats continued from 7:30pm each Sunday, despite misleading advertising proclaiming "The Simpsons by Request." The Sunday before Christmas inevitably saw the rescreening of The Simpsons Christmas Special, strangely paired with 9F21, from the start of Season Five. I would have thought 3F07, the Simpsons' other Christmas episode, would have been more appropriate. But at least the two episodes were shown in full, rather than merged.

On Foxtel, too, summer scheduling had well and truly kicked in, all three streams continuing in their allotted timeslots. The weekday stream screened all of Seasons Six and Seven through to the beginning of Season Eight. Nearly all episode names were given in the Foxtel Guide, yet a couple of mistakes snuck through. Foxtel did, indeed, screen both Christmas episodes (7G08 and 3F07) on the 25th December, but the Foxtel Guide failed to notice the absence of 3F07 from its usual spot in the episode order. Cross-checking with the usual running order and an informative phone-call shed light on both this and another minor error. Weekend mornings continued to screen Seasons Two, Three and Four, amongst heavy promotion on FOX8. The only anomaly was a one hour time shift on the 20th December, repositioning the timeslot from 9:00am to 12:00pm. The change was related to some other adjustments made at the last minute, long after the Foxtel Guide was printed. (One was the introduction of early Highlander episodes at 5:00pm on weekends.) The weekend evening timeslot continued with Season Five episodes at 6:00pm.

Sundays from 7:30pm

Date	Time	Episode	Code
Sun 7 Dec 1997	7:30pm	Selma’s Choice	9F11 RM
Sun 7 Dec 1997	8:00pm	Much Apu About Nothing	3F20 RM
Sun 14 Dec 1997	7:30pm	Brother from the Same Planet	9F12 RM
Sun 14 Dec 1997	8:00pm	Homerpalooza	3F21 RM
Sun 21 Dec 1997	7:30pm	"The Simpsons Christmas Special"	7G08 R
Sun 21 Dec 1997	8:00pm	Homer’s Barbershop Quartet	9F21 R
Sun 28 Dec 1997	7:30pm	I Love Lisa	9F13 RM
Sun 28 Dec 1997	8:00pm	Summer of 4 Ft. 2	3F22 RM

The evening timeslots repeat the morning's episodes.

Date	Episode	Title
Mon 1/12	2F06 2F07	Homer: Bad Man Grampa vs Sexual Inadequacy
Tue 2/12	2F08 2F09	Fear of Flying Homer the Great
Wed 3/12	2F10 2F11	And Maggie Makes Three Bart’s Comet
Thu 4/12	2F12 2F13	Homie the Clown Bart vs Australia
Fri 5/12	2F14 2F31	Homer vs Patty & Selma A Star is Burns
Mon 8/12	2F15 2F18	Lisa’s Wedding Two Dozen and One Greyhounds
Tue 9/12	2F19 2F32	The PTA Disbands ’Round Springfield
Wed 10/12	2F21 2F22	The Springfield Connection Lemon of Troy
Thu 11/12	2F16 2F20	Who Shot Mr Burns? — Part One Who Shot Mr Burns? — Part Two
Fri 12/12	2F17 3F01	Radioactive Man Home Sweet Home-Diddily-Dum-Doodily
Mon 15/12	3F02 3F03	Bart Sells His Soul Lisa the Vegetarian
Tue 16/12	3F04 3F05	Treehouse of Horror VI King-Size Homer
Wed 17/12	3F06 3F08	Mother Simpson Sideshow Bob’s Last Gleaming
Thu 18/12	3F31 3F10	"The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular!" Team Homer
Fri 19/12	3F09 3F11	Two Bad Neighbors Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield
Mon 22/12	3F12 3F13	Bart the Fink Lisa the Iconoclast
Tue 23/12	3F14 3F16	Homer the Smithers The Day the Violence Died
Wed 24/12	3F15 3F17	A Fish Called Selma Bart on the Road
Thu 25/12	3F07 7G08	Marge Be Not Proud "The Simpsons Christmas Special"
Fri 26/12	3F18 3F19	22 Short Films About Springfield "The Curse of the Flying Hellfish"
Mon 29/12	3F20 3F21	Much Apu About Nothing Homerpalooza
Tue 30/12	3F22 4F02	Summer of 4 Ft. 2 Treehouse of Horror VII
Wed 31/12	3F23 4F03	You Only Move Twice The Homer They Fall

From the 20th December, Super Simpsons Saturday (and Sunday) have been moved to one hour later (9:00am to 12:00pm).

Date	Episode	Title
Sat 6/12	7F06 7F09 7F10 7F11 7F12 7F13 7F15	Bart the Daredevil Itchy & Scratchy & Marge "Episode 23: Bart Gets Hit By A Car" One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish The Way We Was Homer vs Lisa and the 8th Commandment Principal Charming
Sun 7/12	7F16 7F14 7F17 7F18 7F19 7F20 7F21	Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? Bart’s Dog Gets An F Old Money Brush with Greatness Lisa’s Substitute War Of The Simpsons Three Men and a Comic Book
Sat 13/12	7F22 7F23 7F24 8F01 8F03 8F04 8F05	Blood Feud When Flanders Failed Stark Raving Dad Mr Lisa Goes To Washington Bart The Murderer Homer Defined Like Father, Like Clown
Sun 14/12	8F02 8F06 8F07 8F08 8F09 8F10 8F11	"The Simpsons Halloween Special II" Lisa’s Pony Saturdays of Thunder Flaming Moe’s Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk I Married Marge Radio Bart
Sat 20/12	8F12 8F14 8F16 8F13 8F15 8F17 8F19	Lisa the Greek Homer Alone Bart the Lover Homer at the Bat Separate Vocations Dog of Death Colonel Homer
Sun 21/12	8F20 8F21 8F22 8F23 8F24 8F18 9F01	Black Widower The Otto Show Bart’s Friend Falls In Love Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes? Kamp Krusty A Streetcar Named Marge Homer the Heretic
Sat 27/12	9F02 9F03 9F04 9F05 9F06 9F07 9F08	Lisa the Beauty Queen Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie Treehouse of Horror III Marge Gets a Job New Kid on the Block Mr Plow Lisa’s First Word
Sun 28/12	9F09 9F10 9F11 9F12 9F13 9F14 9F15	Homer’s Triple Bypass Marge vs the Monorail Selma’s Choice Brother from the Same Planet I Love Lisa Duffless Last Exit to Springfield

Date	Episode	Title
Sat 6/12	1F11	Bart Gets Famous
Sun 7/12	1F10	Homer and Apu
Sat 13/12	1F12	Lisa vs Malibu Stacey
Sun 14/12	1F13	Deep Space Homer
Sat 20/12	1F14	Homer Loves Flanders
Sun 21/12	1F15	Bart Gets An Elephant
Sat 27/12	1F16	Burns’ Heir
Sun 28/12	1F17	Lisa’s Rival