Simpsons Get 34th Emmy Thumbs-Up
By Don Del Grande (del_grande@netvista.net) - July 25, 2000
This year's Emmy Award nominations for the Animation Series or Special
category (one hour or less) include The Simpsons' “Behind the Laughter,”
the eleventh season's finale episode which took a candid peek “behind the
scenes” of our favorite family.
Competition in this category includes Family Guy (“The Road to Rhode
Island”), MTV Downtown (“Show #11”), The Powerpuff Girls (“Beat Your
Greens” and “Down 'n Dirty”), and South Park (“Chinpokomon”).
Elsewhere, Simpsons series creator Matt Groening was nominated in the
Animated Special (over one hour) category for “Olive, the Other Reindeer;”
former series writer Conan O'Brien received a nomination for Variety
Series Writing on “Late Nite with Conan O'Brien;” and Hank Azaria, the
voice of Apu, Chief Wiggum and other regular Simpsons characters, received
a nomination for his role in “Oprah Winfrey Presents: Tuesdays with Morrie.”
In addition to these, there are also the Voice-Over Performance Awards,
which do not involve prior nominations.
Throughout the span of it's eleven-year run as a half-hour television
series, The Simpsons has received 23 Emmy nominations and 10 Emmy awards.
Update (08/27) The Simpsons won the Outstanding
Animated Series/Special (One Hour Or Less) award for “Behind the Laughter.”.
However, Matt Groening's other show, “Olive the Other Reindeer,” lost the longer than one hour award to
“Walking with Dinosaurs.”
Simpsons Go Live in the UK
By Jouni Paakkinen (jouni@snpp.com) - June 22, 2000
They did it in Aspen, Colorado in February. Now they're traveling across
the Atlantic for an encore. In celebration of The Simpsons' 10th anniversary on British airwaves,
the show's voice cast will perform live Simpsons script readings in the UK this summer.
In addition to the regular voice cast, several of the show's key figures,
including series creator Matt Groening, Executive Producer Mike Scully, and various producers and
animators will also be in attendance.
"We are really looking forward to this tour and hope to do to England and Scotland
what The Simpsons have done to America," Groening said in a Sky Broadcasting press release. "I think the
most amazing thing is how the actors really look like the characters that they play."
Groening will also take part in a separate, one-day Simpsons event at
the National Film Theatre in London.
The live performances, taking place in Edinburgh on August 14 and London
on August 17 and 18, will be accompanied by a special weekend of programming on Sky Broadcasting's
Sky One satellite service. Said Sky One General Manager David
Bergg, "Like all Simpsons fans, I'm thrilled that the people behind one of the best television
programs in history are bringing some of the magic over to Britain for its 10th anniversary."
Venues and ticket information are forthcoming. Stay tuned!
Wrestle with Homer
By Jouni Paakkinen (jouni@snpp.com) - May 14, 2000 -
Thanks to Eric Wirtanen
Fox Interactive is working on
"The Simpsons Wrestling" game for PlayStation®, aiming at a Winter 2000 release.
The game is a humorous 3D wrestling and fighting game, featuring 22 characters
from the show, 13 of which are playable. Each character has exclusive power moves, such as Homer's
Strangulator and Barney's Duff Cloud Burp. Additionally, players can spice up their characters'
performance with 240 verbal punches to choose from.
"The Simpsons Wrestling" also contains detailed 3D locations from
Springfield, including the schoolyard, Power Plant, Simpson House, Krusty Lu Studios, Moe's Tavern,
Barney's Bowl-O-Rama, Kwik-E-Mart, Town Hall, Mr. Burns' Mansion, Alien Spaceship and Itchy and Scratchy
Land.
Whether Dr. Hillbilly, Iron Yuppie, Rasputin the Friendly Russian, Professor
Werner von Brawn and other wrestlers seen on the show will be featured in the game remains to be seen.
Update (05/26) See a video clip of the unfinished game
at Gamefan.
Screenshot by
DailyRadar.
MG on MS Mice
By Jouni Paakkinen (jouni@snpp.com) - April 28, 2000
Matt Groening and James L. Brooks are among the approximately 100 celebrities who
have decorated computer mice and donated them to the Tails of the City charity
auction, taking place May 18.
Proceeds from the auction will benefit
Destination Foundation, a non-profit organization
founded in 1998 to help gay men and women in the San Francisco Bay Area with life-threatening illnesses.
To vote or bid for the mice, visit
www.tailsofthecity.org.
Carding the Simpsons
By Jouni Paakkinen (jouni@snpp.com) - April 9, 2000 -
Thanks to Robert W. Getz
Inkworks has announced a new batch of official Simpsons trading cards,
set to hit shelves in early Fall of this year. The cards are being
produced as part of Fox's Simpsons Global Fanfest, a merchandising and
promotional frenzy scheduled to span much of 2000.
Senior Vice President of Licensing and Product Development for Inkworks
Greg Goldstein was delighted to be offered the opportunity. "The secondary
market for The Simpsons collectibles is incredibly hot."
The Inkworks series will be the fourth trading card set released in the
United States. The first series was released by Topps (88 cards)
in 1990, and the second and the third series (both 80 cards) by
Skybox in 1994.
Further details on the Inkworks series will be provided here as they become
available.
Simpsons to the Big Screen
By Jouni Paakkinen (jouni@snpp.com) - January 27, 2000
Several studios have teamed up with IMAX
to bring famous animated charactes, including The Simpsons, to the company's giant screens in a compilation
film called "Cyberworld."
"Cyberworld", which is to be comprised of eight animated sequences, will ultimately
include the computer-generated "Homer3" segment from "Treehouse of Horror VI,"
in which Homer is sucked into the third dimension. Also to be included are scenes from DreamWorks' "Antz,"
Sony's "Monkey Brain Sushi," and a new Pet Shop Boys video.
Dharma & Greg's Jenna Elfman will provide the voice of Phig, cyber-hostess
of the film, which takes place in a futuristic museum.
"Cyberworld" will be released to IMAX theaters worldwide in October of 2000.
