“The Simpsons” is Primetime TV’s longest-running scripted series. Now in its 26th season on FOX, the 31-time Emmy-winning animated comedy shows no signs of slowing down, since the showrunners have made 2014 one of the most memorable years in “Simpsons” history by crossing over…A LOT:
To celebrate the 550th Episode in May, “The Simpsons” crossed-over into the world of LEGOs with a mix of the traditional, hand-drawn animation and a CGI LEGO look for “Brick Like Me”, a clever episode with a smart script that even poked-fun at “The LEGO Movie”.
For the one-hour Season Premiere of fellow FOX animated series “Family Guy”, Peter Griffin and Co. traveled to Springfield and interacted with The Simpsons and other townspeople. This episode attracted over 8 million viewers on a crowded Sunday night. There were some funny moments, but the crossover went on far too long, and the overall negative tone that the “Family Guy” is all about dominated the story. The script treated these two families/franchises equally when, obviously, that’s not the case.
Last month, on this year’s very strong “Treehouse of Horror XXV”, The Simpsons crossed-over with themselves by having the “Tracy Ullman Show”-looking Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie interact with the present-day Simpsons.
And they’re not done yet. Creator Matt Groening will be crossing over one of his other shows, the twice-cancelled “Futurama”, into Springfield with “Simpsorama”, airing November 9th.
Diehard fans seem to be appreciating these “Event Episodes”, which are keeping “The Simpsons” one of the most buzzed-about and respected shows on TV, even after all these years.
Lights Camera Jackson (a.k.a. Jackson Murphy) began his career as a film critic in 2006 at the age of 7. To date, Jackson has written nearly 1,000 reviews of new releases and, in total, has seen more than 1,500 films. In 2010, Jackson became the youngest person to win a NY Emmy Award, for his on-air movie reviews on Time Warner TV station, Capital News 9. And in 2011, Jackson was inducted into the Broadcast Film Critics Association as their youngest member. The BFCA’s annual Critics Choice Awards is one of the industry’s most recognized and prestigious awards shows. Jackson is also a member of SAG-AFTRA and votes annually for the Screen Actors Guild Awards.