springfield

Springfields across the USA are competing with each other for the right to premiere The Simpsons movie this summer. 20th Century Fox is holding the contest, in which 16 Springfields are competing. Springfields each have to submit short films about their town and somehow link it to The Simpsons (anyone with a mountain of burning tires must have an advantage, right?). Whichever city is chosen for the premiere also gets to be in the credits of the movie.

People in Springfield, Oregon think their town has an advantage because it is very close to The Simpsons creator Matt Groening's boyhood home in Portland. But, do you really want to be that Springfield? It's supposed to be an everytown with pollution, bad schools, nuclear meltdowns, the aforementioned mountain of burning tires, etc., etc.

The movie comes out in July and Groening is promising "a really good joke" revealing which state Springfield is in.

(S18E13) I didn't love it, and I didn't hate it -- for the most part, this week's episode was "just okay" in my opinion. It was nice to see Eric Idle return as the snooty muck-raking journalist Declan Desmond (first seen in the episode "Scuse Me While I Miss the Sky"), but the episode felt like two different episodes battling for the same thirty-minute space.

I always enjoy it when the writers come up with ways to incorporate all the secondary and tertiary characters into an episode ("22 Short Films About A Springfield" is a good example), but this one tried to tack on the bit about Homer being depressed with what he's become in life, leading he and his family to take over Burns' summer home and pretend it's their own.

As Joel told you earlier, The Simpsons reaches 400 episodes this May. But who should be in the 400th ep, Keifer Sutherland or The FCC?

There are two episodes in the running: one is a spoof of 24 that will feature the voice of Sutherland, and the other will be a satire about the FCC (Kent Brockman gets in trouble for saying something on television). I vote for the FCC ep. A good satire of that organization would be a nice way to celebrate the milestone. Hopefully, like recent episodes of Studio 60, the episode gets in some really good jabs at the FCC.

Other Simpsons news: guest voices for the rest of this season will include Stephen Colbert, Andy Dick, Meg Ryan, and Natalie Portman. The big screen movie opens on July 27 and will be rated PG-13.

So what episode would you vote for? It doesn't say that this episode is the season-ender, even though it's in May. Maybe they can run the FCC ep as the 400th and the 24 episode as the season-ender, maybe have a nuclear bomb go off in Springfield and leave a cliffhanger for next season.

Remember that crossover between Marvel Comics and the CBS soap Guiding Light that I told you about recently? The episode airs next Wednesday, November 1, and CBS.com has a sneak peek video.

Of course, I can't get the video to work at all. Can anyone else get it to work? I've tried both IE and Firefox and it doesn't load for some reason.

Anyway, the superhero is actually regular GL character Harley Cooper, who is zapped by lightning (oh, original) and gets superpowers. But will she will good or evil? Not sure, but it looks like her superhero-ness is comprised of colored contact lenses and the kind of hat that newsboys used to wear in the 1940s.

Marvel will have a special comic book featuring the superhero inserted into several other comic books in the coming weeks (a full list is at the site above).

I've been watching Guiding Light for almost three decades, and this might be the most bizarre news I've heard yet.

Our friends over at TMZ.com are reporting that the CBS soap has made an agreement with Marvel Comics, and Marvel will actually introduce a new superhero on the show!

Not only that, but Marvel is actually creating a comic book based on the new superhero, and the comic book will feature several characters from the soap along with Wolverine and Spiderman.

Now this is new synergy, eh? I can understand NBC having an online comic to cross-promote Heroes, but a new superhero on a soap opera and a comic book?

The superhero will make his (her?) debut on the soap on November 1.

(S06E24)

Bart: Mom, you won't believe this, but something you said the other day really got through to me. And now, I'm going to teach some kids a lesson.

Marge: I choose to take that literally.

Bart (from outside): Death to Shelbyville!

Homer: Yes, Bart's a tutor, now. Toot on, son! Toot on!