Season 17 Information

[Anthinator]

FOX Details its May Sweeps!

Lisa finds out what it's like to be a part of the "boys' club" in the "Girls Just Want to Have Sums" episode OF THE SIMPSONS Sunday, April 30 (8:00-8:30 PM ET/PT), the first of four all-new May Sweeps installments. Springfield is in an uproar after Principal Skinner makes a sexist comment at the end of an Itchy and Scratchy musical. He's soon replaced by Melanie Upfoot (guest voice Frances McDormand), a women's educational expert, who decides to divide the school into two: one for boys and one for girls. Frustrated that she isn't learning anything at the girls' school, studious Lisa decides to dress up as a boy to get a better education.

After a spring-cleaning frenzy and inhaling too many fumes, Marge suffers from retrograde amnesia in the all-new "Regarding Margie" episode of THE SIMPSONS Sunday, May 7 (8:00-8:30 PM ET/PT). In an effort to bring back her memory, Homer takes Marge around town to re-familiarize her with her surroundings. She still has no recollection of who Homer is and puts herself back on the singles market. Will Marge ever remember her beloved Homey?

Larry Hagman and Melanie Griffith guest-voice in "The Monkey Suit" episode of THE SIMPSONS Sunday, May 14 (8:00-8:30 PM ET/PT). After visiting an evolution exhibit narrated by guest voice Griffith, Flanders pushes Mayor Quimby to appoint Reverend Lovejoy as a "Mortality Czar" in charge of spreading the theory of creationism. Darwin's theories are quickly outlawed, and Lisa finds herself as the only supporter of the scientific theory. After holding secret evolution classes, Lisa is arrested and retains Southern lawyer Wallace Brady (guest voice Hagman) to help defend her beliefs in front of a judge. While Flanders is on the stand in court, Homer's antics cause him to crack under pressure and he calls Homer an ape, which leads the judge to believe Homer resembles the missing link – putting a monkey wrench in the prosecutors' case.

In the 17th season finale of THE SIMPSONS Sunday, May 21 (8:00-8:30 PM ET/PT), entitled "Homer and Marge Turn a Couple Play," Mandy Moore and Stacy Keach guest-voice. After a passionate kiss between Marge and Homer airs on the Isotope Jumbotron, struggling second baseman Buck Mitchell turns to the couple for marital advice. The Simpsons are able to get Buck and his sexy singing wife, Fiona (guest voice Moore), on track, and the Isotopes' season turns for the better. Things seem to be coming up aces for the Simpsons until Buck catches Homer giving Fiona a post-show neck massage, which results in both couples separating.

[DotheBartman]

In the 17th season finale of THE SIMPSONS Sunday, May 21 (8:00-8:30 PM ET/PT), entitled "Homer and Marge Turn a Couple Play," Mandy Moore and Stacy Keach guest-voice. After a passionate kiss between Marge and Homer airs on the Isotope Jumbotron, struggling second baseman Buck Mitchell turns to the couple for marital advice. The Simpsons are able to get Buck and his sexy singing wife, Fiona (guest voice Moore), on track, and the Isotopes' season turns for the better. Things seem to be coming up aces for the Simpsons until Buck catches Homer giving Fiona a post-show neck massage, which results in both couples separating.

Oh Jesus Christ....

[garret]

"Homer and Marge Turn a Couple Play" sounds horrible... The rest sound pretty good though.

[freehat704]

Well, I guess FOX has confirmed that metallica will be on the simpsons next season. Oh well.

[Corkus]

Aw shit. Another marriage-on-the-rocks episode with Homer and Marge splitting up. This sounds far too similar to "Milhouse of Sand and Fog" and "This is Your Wife" (both of which aired this season, for crying out loud), and these guest characters do not sound too interesting in the least bit. And Mandy Moore? Is that the best they could do?

While I have no idea what "The Mook, the Chef, the Wife, and Her Homer" is about, there's no doubt in my mind it'd make a better finale than this. "The Monkey Suit" is really the only episode left this season I'm looking forward to.

[Tomacco]

I won't lie, I think all of those episodes look great.

[bluemoose]

I think they all sound good except for the season finale. I'm looking forward to all them except for that one.

[Nameless]

Ehh...doesn't sound too great to me.

Is Stacy Keach going to be voicing Howard Duff again?

[Imperciph]

In the 17th season finale of THE SIMPSONS Sunday, May 21 (8:00-8:30 PM ET/PT), entitled "Homer and Marge Turn a Couple Play," Mandy Moore and Stacy Keach guest-voice. After a passionate kiss between Marge and Homer airs on the Isotope Jumbotron, struggling second baseman Buck Mitchell turns to the couple for marital advice. The Simpsons are able to get Buck and his sexy singing wife, Fiona (guest voice Moore), on track, and the Isotopes' season turns for the better. Things seem to be coming up aces for the Simpsons until Buck catches Homer giving Fiona a post-show neck massage, which results in both couples separating.

.....it began with a marriage crisis plot and it's gonna end with a marriage crisis plot. And there's the amnesia one too. Me thinks this show has hired a tank full of manatees which has balls having generic plots written on them.

On a more serious note, I am looking forward to Girls Just Want To Have Sums and the Monkey Suit because currently I want the show to go in-depth into some social issues and I am interested in how Lisa and Flanders are portrayed in those episodes. Social commentary on this show is always a positive.

[Veryjammy]

Fox press release intituled FOX BLOWS THE LID OFF OF MAY SWEEPS


In the 17th season finale of THE SIMPSONS Sunday, May 21 (8:00-8:30 PM ET/PT), entitled "Homer and Marge Turn a Couple Play," Mandy Moore and Stacy Keach guest-voice. After a passionate kiss between Marge and Homer airs on the Isotope Jumbotron, struggling second baseman Buck Mitchell turns to the couple for marital advice. The Simpsons are able to get Buck and his sexy singing wife, Fiona (guest voice Moore), on track, and the Isotopes' season turns for the better. Things seem to be coming up aces for the Simpsons until Buck catches Homer giving Fiona a post-show neck massage, which results in both couples separating.

Sounds dreadful. Although I think people are harsh saying that HSTIYW and Regarding Margie are 'marriage crisis' episodes because HSTIYW really didn't play on that at all, and Regarding Margie sounds like a sweet story rather than them splitting up yet again. But yeah, that synopsis sounds shit. Boring in fact.

[Simpsons Forever!]

Oh no! We do not need another Homer/Marge break-up episode, especially as the Season Finale! Whoever picked the Season 17 premiere and finale should be fired. I cannot seriously think of an episode I would not rather watch.

[Postmaster]

Agreed with everyone's complaints, have they gone completley insane? How could they possibly have thought this was a good idea. Am I right in thinking this is a Joel H Cohen episode? That's the one thing now that gives me any hope at all for this episode.
Honestly I thought it' would be a nice episoode about Homer and Marge writing a play, and it would be funny and kind of sweet to see them writing together and to see what they would write about. that would be far better than another marriage crisis episode, and once again the conflict seems to be happening for a completley stupid reason.

Maybe Regarding Margie is sort of autobiographical, and it's a sort of thearpy for the staff to deal with their own problems with amnesia. Because I can only think they forgot about the huge amount of other marriage crisis episodes they've done in the last 2 seasons.

Oh no! We do not need another Homer/Marge break-up episode, especially as the Season Finale! Whoever picked the Season 17 premiere and finale should be fired. I cannot seriously think of an episode I would not rather watch.

Al jean isn't it?
Well yeah he should leave since he can't seem to do much fresh or intresting with the show anymore. and he seems to think it's a good idea to have the the most formulaic episodes of all as the premier and finale.

Also just to pre empt Tomacco or anyone so he doesn't feel the need to say the negativity is overblown and you can't judge an episode by it's description.
Bonfire of the Manatees sounded boring and stupid and was boring and stupid, even though it was a by a good writer. and this is pretty much the same.

[DotheBartman]

Al jean isn't it?
Well yeah he should leave since he can't seem to do much fresh or intresting with the show anymore. and he seems to think it's a good idea to have the the most formulaic episodes of all as the premier and finale.

Technically speaking, I think that's Fox's decision. From the commentaries it sounds like the producers have input on it and have certain intentions about what episodes will be the premieres and finales, but that Fox ultimately decides it and can override those intentions. So we don't know for sure if Jean and Co. actually intended this.

Still, agreed with the rest of the comments....thankfully I'm looking forward to "Monkey Suit" and "Sums", but these other two just sound horrible. And I agree that Homer and Marge writing a play (which I never assumed and didn't really think about) would be an interesting idea...a good bonding thing without there being some huge conflict again. It could be really sweet. But since apparently every Homer and Marge episode now somehow has to involve some sort of marital crisis, it'll never happen.

[Homer Jay]

I actually like part of the description for Homer and Marge turn a Couple Play. I like the idea of them as marriage counselors even if it had been done before in Secrets of a Successful Marriage, but having them break up again just seems pointless

[Adam R]

In the 17th season finale of THE SIMPSONS Sunday, May 21 (8:00-8:30 PM ET/PT), entitled "Homer and Marge Turn a Couple Play," Mandy Moore and Stacy Keach guest-voice. After a passionate kiss between Marge and Homer airs on the Isotope Jumbotron, struggling second baseman Buck Mitchell turns to the couple for marital advice. The Simpsons are able to get Buck and his sexy singing wife, Fiona (guest voice Moore), on track, and the Isotopes' season turns for the better. Things seem to be coming up aces for the Simpsons until Buck catches Homer giving Fiona a post-show neck massage, which results in both couples separating.

Sounds good, up to about the last three words or so. I agree with everyone else's comments. I'd rather see Homer and Marge split up permenantly then sit through more of these countless 'marriage on the rocks' episodes.

[Simpsons Forever!]

I'd rather see Homer and Marge split up permenantly then sit through more of these countless 'marriage on the rocks' episodes.

You know what the icing on the cake would be now? If The Simpsons Movie plot was that Homer and Marge get a divorce - that would be tragic. ...I'd still go to see it, though.

[Cartoonnetwork]

The Monkey Suit sounds very original to me and it could be pretty funny too. We'll see.

I don't think Homer and Marge Turn A Couple Play sounds bad BEFORE the marriage crisis. I think the new characters could be interesting . But I hate they are doing another marriage crisis episode, even if it finally turns out good, it's gonna be ANOTHER MARRIAGE CRISIS anyway. I wouldn't mind if that Buck would misunderstand Homer's actions and that new couple separates, but please, let Homer and Marge marriage intact.

I am not mad about the idea of Regarding Margie right now, but it could go either way and it's at least somewhat fresher.

[Zilla]

Homer and Marge seperating again? Awful.

[Flimpson Tide]

Girls Just Want to Have Sums, Regarding Margie and The Monkey Suit all sound great. From what I was reading about them helping the baseball player it sounded really good...until the freaking split-up. I mean, they wouldn't do 5 episodes in a season about the Simpsons getting a horse, so why do five episodes about Marge and Homer splitting up? This May lineup doesn't sound nearly as promising (and non-marital problems) as last May's:

Lisa enters a singing competition.
Flanders moves out of town.
Bart has a heart attack as a result of his junkfood habit.
Homer thinks the rapture is coming and tries to convince everyone.
Homer gets a new friend that seems to be imaginary.
Bart and Homer convert to Catholics.

[grissom]

Everything sounds good except for the last episode. Christ, why more marriage problems? That sounds absolutely horrendous

[HOMR]

Why has Galalimit edited all of his posts on the first pages?

[Postmaster]

Because he's switched from unquestioning love to unquestioning hate of new episodes. And he wants to stop people seeing the time when he blindly worshipped the show.

[TriforceBun]

Agreed about the finale...sounded fine until the break-up thing. GAH, AGAIN!

[Stackhouse]

The worst thing is the reason the break up happens - homer caught giving the girl a back massage. that is one of the worst, most cliched plot devices, and if it's played like it's written, it's very lazy. it'll be homer giving the girl a back rub, the baseball player walking in and seeing it and misunderstanding, homer says "no, it's not what you think". nevertheless, itll continue to progress and become more and more painful. i really hope they have something in store for that.

[Simpsons Forever!]

A few UK sources are reporting that Ricky Gervais has already been invited back to The Simpsons to write another episode sometime in the future. I'm not sure how credible these sources are, however, so don't take it as set in stone.

http://www.funny.co.uk/news/art_72-4...Homer-Run.html

Also, is Homer and Marge Turn a Couple Play HABF15 or 16? SNPP has left it open and the futon critic is listing it as 15, even though they list The Monkey Suit as HABF11. Anyone know?

[Nameless]

It's HABF16.

[McClure]

So has it been confirmed that Metallica and Hugh Jackman won't be appearing this season? They could still, but as "surprise" guests, however that's unlikely Metallica is HUGE and would be good publicity, and reports have told us that Jackman would appear before X3 came out and Metallica would be in an episode in May.

So we'll have to wait and see. Maybe they're in HABF15 and it'll be a "special" summer episode or bonus episode or something.

[alt.nerd.obsessive]

On a more serious note, I am looking forward to Girls Just Want To Have Sums and the Monkey Suit because currently I want the show to go in-depth into some social issues and I am interested in how Lisa and Flanders are portrayed in those episodes. Social commentary on this show is always a positive.

I must agree with you on this issue - these intelligent-sounding episodes have the chance to be memorable and hopefully Lisa will show her confident and intellectual side, as opposed to being an occassional story-pusher-alonger.

I'd also like to think that Flanders had become even more religious, if that's possible, after the death of Maude.

It's how the writers now have to make Ned spout some kind of rhyme or religious-based pun ("You mean all this time I've been worshipping false eyeballs?") that I liken to his behaviour seen in "Hurricane Neddy" where he completely went over the edge with his ding-dang-doodilyness.

It could just be a lazy device by current writers to have Ned say such predictable dialogue but I always like to think of some logical reason why the character does what they do.

However, I did enjoy the Rod/Todd storyline in "Bart Has Two Mommies" and happily it became more prominent than the money kidnap plot. Ned was given some nice characterisation in this episode, I feel, and I hope that a permanent change will be seen with the Flanders boys with them becoming slightly more confident, but no doubt this was a one-episode character change only.

I'll try and reserve judgment once more about the less appealing episodes - as I said, I really enjoyed "Bart Has Two Mommies" after it received some disapproving clucks when the press release was first issued.

[Semaj]

The synopsis for the season finale don't sound too promising. The only marriage story really worth watching this season was Homer Simpson, This is Your Wife.

[Snack Related Mishap]

You know what, why the fuck don't Homer and Marge just get divorced if they have seperated this many times? These episodes have really brought down this season. All I have to say is uhhck, even if it is Joel H. Cohen.