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.

(S06E10) "Your mom needs help, and so does Mike." - Susan to Dylan

There we go, dear TV Squad readers, a few of our wishes and theories concerning Desperate Housewives have come true this week in the Christmas-themed installment of the show. I mentioned a few weeks back that I wanted Dylan, Katherine's daughter, to come back to Wisteria Lane and help her mother, and it came true. And two weeks ago, a few of you predicted the accurate turn of events concerning Katherine's stabbing.

But Katherine's crazy storyline wasn't the important event of the last episode of 2009. As teased for weeks, the lives of the Wisteria Lane citizens were rocked by a boom and a crunch.

I'm ashamed to admit this, but in the wake of Sen. Edward Kennedy's passing, a thought occurred to me: "I wonder what the late Senator and son of Camelot thought of The Simpsons' Mayor Quimby impression."

But what started as the nerdy thought of an overworked blogger also held a deep lesson in humility.

The late Sen. Kennedy, lampooned in the long-running Fox sitcom by actor Dan Castellaneta's voice-over caricature, actually embraced the animated politician as part of a contest held in conjunction with the theatrical release of The Simpsons Movie.

(S04E22) Carter Bays and Craig Thomas are a couple of clever guys, aren't they?

They're not only good at playing with time and space in their show -- something they did exceptionally well in this episode -- but they're also pretty good at tweaking the wording of an episode to make the audience feel like they're getting somewhere in the story when in fact things have only inched forward.

Just think about the words they used to describe the monumental outcome of Ted's day. Did they say everything you thought they said? Ruminate on it a second before you rejoin me after the jump.

I knew the Church of Scientology had a lot of reach in Hollywood to enlist big names like Tom Cruise, Edgar Winter and the guy from Taxi who keeps popping up on celebrity weight loss and rehab shows.

But now they have either grown too powerful or have completely lost whatever grip they had left on reality, which wasn't a whole hell of a lot to begin with. They have recruited a cartoon character.

Bart Simpson's voice appeared in a phone recording advertising a Scientologist gathering in Hollywood that was clearly voiced by Nancy Cartwright. Of course, the audio found its way to the Internet. 20th Century Fox has been scrambling to pull it off every corner of YouTube ever since Perez Hilton broke the story and Fox made him remove it. You can hear it here before Fox spoils the fun for the rest of us.

It took just a few weeks, but the trouble is over. The two sides have met and negotiated a fair arrangement. No, I'm not referring to the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama camps and the Florida and Michigan delegates. No, the news is more animated than that. The powers that be at 20th Century Fox TV have re-signed the actors who voice the The Simpsons.

The principals are signing new four-year deals in which the talent will receive substantial increases in salary. They had been getting $360,000 per episode and were looking for a bump up in that fee to $500,000 per. The negotiated compromise amount is about $400,000 per show. And as expected, instead of a 22 episode season commencing next fall, there'll be 20 shows in the year ahead.

Say it ain't so, Ho. Homey, that's is. According to Variety, even though Fox has given The Simpsons a renewal for season number 20, the voice talent that make the show have not been re-signed. Julie Kavner, Dan Castellaneta, Hank Azaria, Yeardley Smith, Nancy Cartwright and Harry Shearer -- the actors who are as integral to the success of The Simpsons as the writers and animators -- are looking for a new deal. The group make approximately $360,000 per episode. They want a raise to $500,000 per. While that sounds like a lot of money -- and it is! -- when you consider how much Fox and company are making off The Simpsons franchise, like the new ride at Universal Orlando, the talent have every right to expect their piece of the pie.

(S19E02) Mr. Burns: My boy, you are a star!

Homer: Whoo-Hoo!

Burns: An opera star!

Homer: Oh.

We're back to the silly in this week's episode of The Simpsons as another bodily injury gives Homer an advantage in life. I'm surprised that this is the second Homer-centric episode in a row. Usually, the producers are good at going around the Simpsons circuit to focus on another family member or the group as a whole from one week to the next. Maybe my surprise is due to the fact that I haven't been a regular on the Simpsons boat for the last few seasons.

Those of you who read my Simpsons reviews know I'm somewhat of an apologist for the series, defending it against those who say it's no longer a worthwhile show. I will say, however, that I don't think newer episodes always earn the emotional resonance they strive for. Many of the episodes from the first few seasons were genuinely heart-warming, but that emotional center isn't as prevalent in later episodes, though I hasten to add it's not gone completely.

In a brief interview on Rotten Tomatoes, voice actor Dan Castellaneta (Homer, Barney, Krusty the Clown, many others) talked about how doing voices for the movie was different than doing voices for the TV series. James L. Brooks, who has helmed such blockbusters as Terms of Endearment and As Good As It Gets, and has been an executive producer on the series from the very beginning, helped direct the voice actors to get them to enhance the emotional aspects of the characters. The result, says Castellaneta, is a movie that will be not unlike the TV series, but with levels of emotion reached that don't necessarily work on the small screen.

The movie comes out July 27.

Thanks to fellow Simpsons nut Wild Bill for the link.

(S01E09) In the DVD commentary for this episode, David Cohen, Matt Groening, and writer Eric Kaplan all agree that by this juncture, the writers were comfortable enough with the characters to take them in some far-out directions. What's interesting about this episode, though, is that as far out as Leela, Fry and Bender go here, they barely leave Earth (heck, they don't even leave the Northeast).

Oh, sure they go out to the mob planet Sicily 8, but we just see them go out and come back. But that scene is important, for plot forwarding purposes, and for one hell of a funny visual. More on that in a second.

I am going to ease you into this because the news may make you feel... old. FOX just renewed The Simpsons for two more seasons. What seasons, you ask? Seasons 18 and 19. Do you need a second to get your heart medication?

Seriously. It's been that long, folks. The Simpsons debuted way back in 1989. Remember all the media coverage and freaking out about how it was a cartoon but it wasn't meant for little kids? Adults just couldn't get their minds around that. And, remember when Barbara Bush told Time magazine that The Simpsons was the dumbest thing she'd ever seen? Of course, the writers got their revenge a few years later.

I'd like to think that The Simpsons is still edgy and socially relevant after all these years, it's just the viewing public that has changed. That's pretty remarkable. You know what's also remarkable? The fact that Maggie doesn't seem to be getting any bigger.

Oh yeah, FOX also renewed King of the Hill for an 11th season.