(S21E17) A pleasant enough episode of 'The Simpsons' made better by the presence of C. Montgomery Burns. Even Smithers upped his game, bringing the funny this week. The usual set-up of nonsense events leading to the real point of the episode involved the factory workers putting on a stage production for Mr. Burns' amusement at his mansion, followed by the boys getting drunk in his wine cellar and wrecking his art gallery.

What followed was an unexpected trip to jail, and a completely random side story involving Lisa, Bart and an ant farm. Oh, and lest we forget, Santa's Little Helper had a huge role to play in this particular bonding experience.

Hasn't The Simpsons already spoofed It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown on one of its many "Treehouse of Horror" episodes? You would think it would be a natural for them and it would have been done years ago.

The classic Peanuts show is one of the segments spoofed (it's called "It's The Great Pumpkin, Milhouse") on the annual Halloween episode of the show. The other segments include a Transformers spoof (the robots try to destroy Springfield, of course), and the segment I'm most looking forward to, a Mad Men takeoff. Seems that advertising agencies hire Homer to kill celebrities so they can make a bunch of money off of their likenesses. It's called "How To Get Ahead In Deadvertising." We'll see Homer falling off of a building a la Mad Men's opening credits.

As is often the case, the Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror" episode will actually air after Halloween, on November 2. After the jump, a video retrospective of the show's Halloween episodes and a sneak peek at one of the scenes from the new one.

We've entered Week Two of the WGA Strike, and although we're not getting any closer to a resolution, there's still plenty of WGA Strike news to report:

• The WGA-East declares that "Ellen DeGeneres Not Welcome in NY."
• Lost's co-creator Damon Lindelof announces, "Television is dying" in the New York Times.
• Some soap writers are crossing the picket line to resume work.
• Today (Tuesday) was dubbed "Picketing with the Stars" as 100 actors from 30 TV shows joined the picket line at Universal Studios in a show of solidarity.
• Seventeen entertainment blogs went dark for a day in support of the writer's strike.
• Peter Chernin (president of Fox's parent company, News Corp) bragged that the strike is "probably a positive" for the company as it will most likely save them money.
• CBS News is preparing for a possible strike by 500 of their news writers.
• The Simpson's Mr. Burns tells striking writers they can't have the internet: "It's Mine!"

(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.

Creating a show for a secondary character can be a tricky thing. For every Frasier there are five A Man Called Hawks. It usually just doesn't work, because a character that is brilliant as a supporting character can completely fail in the lead role (all the things that make a secondary character great often disappear when they are thrust into the lead). But here are some characters on current shows I wouldn't mind seeing in their own shows. If the writing is good (and the new supporting cast supports them like they supported the people on their show), it could be worth doing:

A nurse once employed by Aaron Spelling is suing the multi-millionaire for sexual harrasment, claiming he made advances toward her during her time at his home. She's also claiming he was performing some other, er, "inappropriate behavior." Inappropriate behavior? Oh dear God, please don't tell me he's thinking of doing something like bringing back 90210!

And as far as the image to the right goes . . . is it just me?