A documentary film may not be the way most television shows would choose to spend their 20th anniversary hour-long special, but The Simpsons isn't an ordinary show. It's easy to forget in 2010, with an entire lineup of animation on FOX, Adult Swim and several cable channels devoted to animation, that The Simpsons was groundbreaking for its time.

While everything today is compared to The Simpsons, The Simpsons were being compared to The Flintstones, a prime-time cartoon that lasted six seasons in the 1960s. Nobody was doing animation for adults when The Simpsons came on the air, and they got a lot of grief for what they were doing. But The Simpsons put FOX on the map, and made it okay to have a cartoon for grown-ups, too.

(S21E10) Touted as the 450th episode of the series, this episode was a Krusty-centric episode. Billed as part of The Simpsons 20th anniversary celebration, "Once Upon a Time in Springfield" was followed by Morgan Spurlock's hour-long Simpsons special, meaning that 75% of FOX's prime-time Sunday night lineup this week Matt Groening, instead of Seth MacFarlane; only The Cleveland Show made the cut.

This week also featured the return of Anne Hathaway, playing the character of Princess Penelope, a sudden co-host to Krusty's television show in an attempt to appeal to a wider demographic. As you can imagine, a character inspired by the Disney Princesses line can't sit well with Krusty's core (Bart and Milhouse) type of audience.

As part of the 20th anniversary celebrations, Fox is holding a contest in which fans can create a character online that will appear in an upcoming episode of The Simpsons. Entries can be submitted on The Simpsons website (although apparently not yet) and should include such information as name, age, appearance, occupation and catchphrase ("D'oh!").

I suspect that all entries will be the property of Fox upon submission. Since the show has been around for so long, it must be tough to invent new, unique and interesting characters so Fox is having the fans do it.

Of course, everyone could always just submit themselves as a candidate. It would be a little like that "Simpsonize yourself" craze from not too long ago. So many celebrities have made appearances on the show over the years, it would be nice if a non-celebrity, the sort that kept the show in business, would have a cameo.

Nick at Nite has given us yet another reason to rev up our Tivos and VCRs.

It turns 20 on July 1, and all this week they are celebrating by showing episodes of shows that they've had on the schedule over the years. Some of the shows:

• Kate and Allie (damn, I wish this show was on DVD)
• Moonlighting
• Who's The Boss
• Family Ties
• Night Court
• Dragnet
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents
• Growing Pains
• Get Smart

Great shows all, but it illustrates a point: why aren't these shows on the network right now? As Noel Holston says in the Detroit News/Newsday piece below, "...while Nick at Nite - and TV Land, for that matter - have never been more successful, it's nostalgia isn't what it used to be."