In other news I created a new site which is still in its Beta stages. For any fans of Family Guy out there, please check out, Family Guy Wired. A website devoted to reporting news on Family Guy, American Dad, and The Cleveland Show.

Thank you guys for supporting the site while it was down, I’m going to try my best to build it up again!

- Jay L.

PS – For updates on the site, please follow SF’s official Twitter Feed.

The film will examine the “cultural phenomenon” of The Simpsons and will include interviews with both the cast and fans of the show. Morgan Spurlock says that despite the title, it “most likely will not be in 3-D nor on ice.
Production

Background

Director Morgan Spurlock was a fan of The Simpsons in his college days
In 2009, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the premiere of The Simpsons, Fox announced that a year-long celebration of the show titled “Best. 20 Years. Ever.” would run from January 14, 2009 to January 14, 2010. Morgan Spurlock, an Academy Award nominated documentary film maker (Best Documentary Feature for Super Size Me in 2004) and fan of The Simpsons since his college days, was asked to direct the special in February 2009. The producers of The Simpsons were impressed with an animated sequence in Spurlock’s 2008 film Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? and decided to ask him to direct the special. Spurlock immediately accepted the offer, describing the opportunity as “the coolest thing I could ever get to do in my career.” The special was later announced in July 2009. The producers spent several months deciding on the content and format of the film. Spurlock believes “the reason [the producers] called [him] to begin with was to not have a show that would be a glad-hand, pat-everyone-on-the-back special, that’s why rooting it in the people who kept this show on the air for the last 20 years is important.” It was originally scheduled to air on January 14, 2010, exactly twenty years after the first broadcast of “Bart the Genius”. However it has since been re-scheduled to January 10, 2010 alongside “Once Upon a Time in Springfield”, promoted as the 450th episode of the series.

Filming

Plans for the special include interviews with fans from ten to fifteen countries. Filming of the special began at Comic-Con 2009 in San Diego. A casting call for fans was held on July 25, 2009, with the hopes of finding “some of the most incredible super-fans that the world has ever seen.” Spurlock has filmed interviews with a man who grew real life “Tomacco” (a mix of Tobacco and tomato, based on the episode “E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)”), the man with the most Simpsons tattoos and a couple that had a Simpsons-themed wedding.
On August 12, 2009, Spurlock attended a Pacific Coast League baseball game between the Albuquerque Isotopes and Tacoma Rainiers at Isotopes Park in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Isotopes’ name was inspired by the season 12 episode “Hungry Hungry Homer”, where Homer attempts to thwart the Springfield Isotopes’ plan to move to Albuquerque. Subsequently, when an Albuquerque Tribune online survey helped the team decide its new name, “Isotopes” received 67 percent of the 120,000 votes.
Spurlock filmed several scenes in both Glasgow and Aberdeen, Scotland. Both cities have claimed to be the home of character Groundskeeper Willie, based on various bits of dialogue from the series. He also conducted tongue-in-cheek interviews with former Lord Provost of Glasgow Liz Cameron and Aberdeen FC manager Mark McGhee.

Plot
Grampa Simpson tells stories about his life to a man named Marshall Goldman. Goldman, a newspaper journalist, begins writing human interest columns about Grampa’s life. Homer starts to become jealous of Grampa’s fame, and seeks a surrogate father. However, Homer finds a draft of one of Goldman’s future columns and races to find Grampa before it is published.

Plot

After Bart is apprehended for playing pranks on the teachers of Springfield Elementary, Principal Skinner reveals to Bart that he is not the greatest prankster to ever walk the halls of that school. Bart is shocked by this revelation and sets out to discover the identity of this prankster. After sifting through countless back issues of the school paper, he discovers that there is a two week gap in its publication dating back 10 years, and that there is a substantial change in Principal Skinner’s demeanor and appearance before and after the gap. Groundskeeper Willie tells Bart that he was once the school swim instructor, and that Principal Skinner was once fun-loving and laid-back until an incident dubbed “Night of the Wigglers.” Here, a prankster locked Skinner in a pool full of earthworms for an entire weekend. This experience changed Skinner’s personality for the worst. Willie then tells Bart that the prankster was named Andy Hamilton.

Meanwhile, Marge is harshly criticized by other Springfield mothers for serving unhealthy snacks at their “Midday Mommies” meeting. She burns the family’s junkfood, to Homer’s horror. The family purchases organic food, which is very expensive and has a short shelf life (much to Homer’s chargin), at a local market. Unfortunately, Marge meets with more criticism when she uses non-stick bakeware and plastic drinking bottles. The other mothers storm away and Marge realizes that she misses eating junk food. Homer catches Marge eating from his stash of candy and the two of them indulge in junk food together. They then agree to only make the kids eat healthy.

still acts like a nine year old, and the two become friends.

This episode airs November 22nd, 2009

Ratings

The Simpsons- 9.04 million viewers                                                                                  Family Guy- 8.28 million viewers                                                                                             The Cleveland Show- 7.01 million viewers                                                              American Dad!- 5.99 million viewers

Plot

Marge and a group called the “Charity-Chicks” pose for a calendar in hopes of raising money for charity, but Marge’s racy poses becomes the talk of the town. Elsewhere, Carl becomes Homer supervisor at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant after the old supervisor retired, and Carl hires Homer as his assistant. Homer’s new job takes a big part in his life, preventing him from fulfilling his relationship with Marge. When he and Marge take a vacation to a romantic hotel, they are interrupted as Carl calls Homer and tells him to make reservations for a nuclear power plant convention in Paris. While Homer travels to Paris with Carl, Marge gets seduced by her neighbour Ned Flanders, after she invites him for dinner. Eventually, Homer becomes overworked with his new job and wants to go back to Springfield, but Carl threatens to fire him if he does not stay. Homer, however, blackmails Carl by threatening to tell the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, about Carl’s tryst with Sarkozy’s wife, Carla Bruni. Because of this, Carl lets Homer go. At the end of the episode, he is back to his house in Springfield and is finally able to have sex with Marge.

Marge and a group called the “Philanthro-Chicks” pose for a calendar in hopes of raising money for charity. Marge’s poses soon become much talked about.

This episode airs November 15, 2009 on FOX. Check out the episode review right here on Simpson Fever on November 16, 2009.

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