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Showing posts with label FOX. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FOX. Show all posts

The Simpsons: Bart Vs. The World (NES)

The game is based on the animated television series The Simpsons. On the Krusty the Clown Show, Bart Simpson wins the opportunity to participate in a Round-the-World scavenger hunt. However, the contest has been rigged by Mr. Burns' assistant, Smithers, in order for Burns to rid himself of the Simpson family for all the trouble they have caused him over the years. Burns sends his agents and fellow family members to take care of the Simpsons during the scavenger hunt. Bart travels through various real-world locations collecting items, with occasional cameos from the other Simpsons family members.

"The Simpsons": Homer Was Originally Going To Krusty The Clown

There was originally supposed to be a twist on The Simpsons: Krusty the Clown was meant to be Homer Simpson in disguise, but that's not what happened in the end. All 30 seasons of TV's longest-running scripted primetime animated series will be available on Disney+ at launch. This means generations of Simpsons fans can experience one of the greatest TV shows ever from the very beginning - and they'll see just how much The Simpsons has changed since its awkward first season.

Of course, Krusty (voiced by Dan Castellaneta, who is also the voice of Homer) is one of The Simpsons' greatest characters and he's arguably the town of Springfield's biggest celebrity. Krusty hosts The Krusty the Clown Show, the favorite weekday program of Springfield's children. Krusty's show is the home of Itchy & Scratchy cartoons and, as Krusty once bragged, "It's the tightest three hours and ten minutes on TV". Krusty is also Bart Simpson's personal hero; Bart's pure-hearted worship of Krusty defies the realities and many failings of the narcissistic clown. Krusty never seems to remember all the things Bart has done for him like re-ignite his career with Krusty's Komeback Special, serving as his assistant, the "I Didn't Do It! Boy", and reuniting Krusty with his estranged father, Rabbi Krustofsky (Jackie Mason).

The Simpsons' Homer/Krusty Twist Explained

Krusty's first appearance was in The Simpsons short "The Krusty the Clown Show", which aired on The Tracy Ullman Show. Bart attends a taping of Krusty's show but he suspects the clown host isn't the real deal; Simpson yanks off his nose and it's revealed Krusty is an imposter - before a smash cut shows Homer and Marge watching the debacle on TV. But originally, Matt Groening planned for Bart to discover that Homer was Krusty before it was changed. As Groening told EW:

”The original idea behind Krusty the Clown was that he was Homer in disguise, but Homer still couldn’t get any respect from his son, who worshiped Krusty. If you look at Krusty, it’s just Homer with extended hair and a tuft on his head.

This explains the obvious physical resemblance between Homer and Krusty. Groening also said that it was too complicated a story to do during The Simpsons' tumultuous beginnings so they (wisely) dropped the idea and kept Homer and Krusty as separate characters. The Simpsons later did a hilarious spin on Homer being Krusty in season 6 episode, "Homie the Clown", where Homer enrolled in Krusty's Clown College but then the two identical harlequins ended up as targets of Springfield's Mafia because of Krusty's $48 debt to the mob.

The Simpsons Did Something Much Better With Krusty

Dropping the Homer-as-Krusty plot allowed Krusty to become a fan-favorite recurring character. The famous clown went on to become one of The Simpsons' best supporting cast members who has been featured in many great episodes. Moreso, Krusty fulfills an invaluable function in the series by encapsulating every negative stereotype about celebrities, thanks to Krusty's improbable 61 years in show business. This includes Krusty's penchant for slapping his image on any substandard product to support his lavish lifestyle of eating dodo eggs and lighting his cigars with $100 bills.

Krusty's venal nature has also been mined for laughs: In "Bart the Fink", the Clown once faked his death because of his IRS debts and posed as "Rory B. Bellows" until Bart and Lisa goaded him back to bring Krusty because he couldn't stand the idea of not being admired for being famous. When his outdated (and racist) comedy bombs in "The Last Temptation of Krust", Krusty stages a comeback by "telling it like it is", only to immediately sell out when he's offered the chance to be the spokes-clown for the Canyonero. While Homer secretly being Krusty would have been an interesting twist, it can't compare to the dividends reaped by Krusty's many hysterical adventures on The Simpsons over the decades.

Credits: Screenrants

The Simpson's History With The Gameboy With Game Included

Acclaim Entertainment teamed with Imagineering to release Bart Simpson's Escapes From Camp Deadly in 1991. The summer camp horror story was notable released before the show's intake of this idea in the season 4 episode titled Camp Krusty.

Acclaim Entertainment then also rushed out the continuation of Bart's handheld conflict in 1992 with The Simpsons: Bart Vs. The Juggernauts. The game's designers pulled out the idea from the most sacred of institutions which was American Gladiators.

Later that year, the handled Krusty's Funhouse also by Acclaim Entertainment was shipped on Gameboy. It was an impressively huge puzzle game featuring as many brain twisting levels as the console and computer versions.

It took a short break when the Bart mark started a waver and came back in 1993 with Itchy & Scratchy In Miniature Golf Madness. Surely these kids were clambering to have these two violent characters to play in an orderly game.

Itchy And Scratchy In Miniature Golf doesn't end with a bang but a whimper as Acclaim Entertainment exits the Gameboy with Bart And The Beanstalk in 1993. The game merges the existing universe of The Simpsons television series with the fairy tale of Jack and the Beanstalk.

Uncovered by Bartmania, THQ and Software Developer released what is the most memorable games in the Simpsons franchise titled The Night Of The Living Treehouse Of Horror in 2001. In colour and featuring the entire family released too late to make much of a splash.

The Simpsons made a leap to the Gameboy Advance courtesy of the THQ and Voltron with The Simpson's Road Rage in 2003. Based on the fun and fully 3D, the console game developed by Radical Entertainment plays like the paper craft taxi racing game you never wanted.

In total, The Simpsons managed to immense amount of 7 handheld games which is impressive for any handheld series.

Credits: Noiselandco

The Simpsons Brings An End To Strangulation

Nothing lasts forever. In time, the continents will crash into each other once more, the sun will swallow the planet and, at some point long after that, The Simpsons will end. But that isn’t to say that it’s incapable of moving with the times before then. Because, in yet another nod to shifting tastes, Homer Simpson has revealed that he will no longer attempt to strangle his son to death.

In the third episode of the current 35th season, Homer greets his new neighbour by shaking his hand. When the neighbour comments that he wasn’t expecting such a firm grip, Homer replies: “See Marge, strangling the boy paid off,” before acknowledging that he doesn’t actually do that any more. “Times have changed,” he adds.

The move has, inevitably, riled a number of feathers. The famously tolerant GB News shrieked that The Simpsons had gone woke by refusing to depict any more scenes of an adult human repeatedly gripping a 10-year-old child by the throat so hard that he struggles for breath and his eyes bulge. Twitter has similarly been ablaze at the snowflakes in charge of their show and their apparent disdain for child abuse.

However, it’s worth pointing out that the episode wasn’t about Homer reaching a point of realisation about never strangling Bart again. It was him pointing out that he doesn’t do it any more. And he really doesn’t. Homer hasn’t strangled Bart since season 31. An entire global pandemic has come and gone in the time since Homer last strangled Bart. The fact that nobody noticed until Homer verbally acknowledged it is either a sign that the outrage machine often operates outside the realms of basic human context, or that people don’t really watch The Simpsons any more.

Either way, despite the howls of the naysayers, this is probably the right thing to do. Homer strangling Bart never sat particularly well in the bigger picture of The Simpsons. Back in 1992, when the show was in its infancy, president George HW Bush publicly remarked that American families needed to be “a lot more like the Waltons and a lot less like the Simpsons”. The line went down badly, because it only demonstrated that Bush didn’t understand The Simpsons. Yes, they were dysfunctional and often at loggerheads with one another, but the Simpson family was bonded together by a tight and permanent love. If you watched the show, you understood this perfectly.

However, it was nevertheless a loving family where the patriarch routinely punished his son by strangling him. I basically came of age with The Simpsons – I was Bart’s age when it first started airing – and the strangulation gag always seemed a bit too near the knuckle to me. I couldn’t properly verbalise at the time, but to me it undermined the basic premise of the entire show.

What’s more, it was never actually funny. The strangulation gag was unyielding in its rigidity. Other running gags, like the prank calls to Moe, could evolve and change over the years. And yet, with staggeringly few exceptions, Homer always strangled Bart in the exact same way. It was an overdone catchphrase. Even if times hadn’t changed, it would still be the weakest part of any episode.

But times have changed, and this is a sign that The Simpsons is doing its best to keep up. It wasn’t always like this. By sticking to its guns when Hari Kondabolu made his documentary The Problem with Apu, keeping Hank Azaria as the voice of Apu Nahasapeemapetilon in the face of growing criticism, The Simpsons was dragged into a long and ugly public spat. Compare this to its quiet recasting of Black characters like Carl, Lou and Dr Hibbert, replacing Azaria with Alex Désert and Kevin Michael Richardson three years ago, and you’ll see a show that doesn’t want to get its fingers burned again. Also, it might just be coincidence, but since doing this, The Simpsons has regained a lot of its old form.

And there are always workarounds. I mentioned the strangulation development to my children, who hoover up episodes of The Simpsons in vast quantities on Disney+. At first, they were just as appalled as the worst recesses of Twitter. “It’s a classic gag!” my eight-year-old wailed. “Why are they taking this away from us?” I explained that it might not be very good for a TV show to depict scenes of a father strangling his children. Eventually they agreed. And then they suggested that Homer could punch Bart instead, or maybe throw him around a bit. So, if Matt Groening happens to be reading, maybe this could be an acceptable way forward.

The Simpsons: Bartman Meets Radioactive Man (NES)

At the beginning of Bartman Meets Radioactive Man, Bart Simpson is at home reading a Radioactive Man comic book only to be shocked as Radioactive Man's sidekick, Fallout Boy, jumps out of it. Fallout Boy tells Bart that he must venture into the comic book universe in order to save Radioactive Man, who is being held captive at the black hole -orbiting prison Limbo Zone. Once inside the comic book world, Bart transforms into his superhero alter ego Bartman and has to defeat three super villains that have stolen Radioactive Man's powers: Swamp Hag, Dr. Crab, and Lava Man. After collecting these powers, Bartman must find Radioactive Man and team up with him to defeat Brain-O the Magnificent, the mastermind behind the evil plot.

Tragic Details About Married...With Children

The following article contains references to suicide, addiction, and death.

Love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage: such was the ironic mantra of irreverent '80s and '90s sitcom "Married...With Children," one that was pivotal in popularizing cynicism within mainstream comedy narratives. While a show like "The Simpsons" was renowned for sardonic observations in its '90s heyday, the storylines still relied heavily on sentimentality and traditional family values (both shows came out on the fledgling Fox Network). "Married... With Children," on the other hand, omitted all sentiment and pathos from the plot. The show dispelled notions of the idealized all-American nuclear family and each week gave its viewers a glaring message: the Protestant work ethic doesn't, well, work.

Proving extremely popular with the public, it remained one of Fox's highest rated shows. As a result, the series made stars out of the Bundy family's four main players: Ed O'Neill, Katey Sagal, Christina Applegate, and David Faustino. But the entertainment industry is nothing if not fickle and while a number of the aforementioned stars have enjoyed prosperous post-"Married... With Children" careers, fame and riches were not everlasting for others.

Some of the show's actors struggled with financial woes and drug misuse, while others faced harrowing loss. These beloved stars are resilient to say the least. Get the hankies ready as we delve into tragic details about the cast of "Married... With Children."

Katey Sagal's dad died in a tragic accident

Peg Bundy was arguably the ultimate challenge to the domestic goddess trope. The veritable character was always quick to dish out the barbed jibes at her chauvinistic husband as she enjoyed a life of leisure. Katey Sagal embodied Peg with panache and zeal. But behind the snazzy leopard print outfits and outrageous bouffant lay a deep sadness.

Katey is the daughter of director Boris Sagal. In 1981, he was tragically killed in a helicopter accident when filming the TV movie "World War III," per UPI. At one point, he turned towards the rear of the helicopter, where he was caught up in its blades and severely injured. He died several hours later, aged 57.

Reflecting on the loss, Katey told ABC News that she was shocked when she heard of her father's death, as she had only spoken to him the day before. She details her dad's horrific last moments in her memoir, "Grace Notes." Tragically, she did not get to see him in hospital before he died; by the time she had arrived in Oregon, where he was hospitalized, he succumbed to his injuries. "The whole thing was surreal," she wrote. "Just like that, he was gone, just as he and I were starting to get to know each other." Despite the magnitude of the loss, Sagal has been able to find comfort through the realization that her father is always with her. "I have become him in so many ways. Truly, daddy's girl," she reflected.

Christina Applegate had cancer

As Kelly Bundy, Christina Applegate personified peroxide blond '90s chic, becoming one of many it-girls of the era. Every episode, she garnered rapturous applause from the studio audience (and perhaps one too many instances of sexist hooting). Applegate played Kelly with aplomb, even when faced with some of the cruder put-downs directed at the character.

In 2008, eleven years after "Married...With Children" ended, a then 36-year-old Applegate was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy. "It can be very painful," she told Oprah Winfrey. "It's also a part of you that's gone, so you go through a grieving process and a mourning process." Applegate's mom, actor Nancy Priddy, is also a breast cancer survivor and a carrier of the BRCA gene. Poignantly, Applegate decided to take some nude photos prior to having her breasts removed. "[S]o I can kind of remember them," she said.

Unfortunately, the invasive surgery did not end there for Applegate. In 2017, she revealed to Today that she'd elected to have her fallopian tubes and ovaries removed, noting that her cousin died of ovarian cancer. She told the outlet that she fears for her daughter's future; due to the BRCA gene, Applegate revealed, "The chances that my daughter is BRCA positive are very high... It breaks my heart to think that's a possibility." Applegate is now cancer-free and raising awareness of the disease via Right Action for Women, per Elle.

David Faustino's money woes

Poor Bud was always the butt of the joke on "Married...With Children." Despite his intelligence, the perennially single teen just couldn't catch a break. Since playing Bud, David Faustino's career has ebbed and flowed, appearing in bit parts on TV shows, and truly cementing his typecast status with a stint on series "Celebrity Boot Camp" in 2002. In the reality show, he was frequently referred to as "Bud Bundy" by mocking drill instructors.

One might assume Faustino would be set for life thanks to the sitcom, but that isn't exactly the case. He told Access in 2009 that he receives zero residuals from "Married...With Children." "We got really screwed over," Faustino said. "I mean, the show... was on for 11 years, and we all made really good money while we were doing it... But residuals — we all got screwed over." This was due to the fact that Fox, then being a cable channel and thus under a cable contract, was not obliged to pay residuals. "'Married... With Children' has made over a billion dollars, and we didn't really get a piece of that," Faustino conceded.

Though he hasn't landed any other megahit sitcoms since "Married...With Children," Faustino has kept working. He has a number of voice acting credits, he hosted a radio show called "Old Scratch Radio," and per The New York Times, he and fellow TV star Corin Nemec star in the "Curb Your Enthusiasm"-esque web series, "Star-ving."

Ed O'Neill's family struggled financially

There's perhaps no sitcom character who encapsulates the misery of working a job you hate better than Al Bundy. While Ed O'Neill earned big bucks for the role, and later raked in more dollars for "Modern Family," his early life was anything but prosperous. As O'Neill explained to Wealth Simple, he was raised in a working class family in Ohio. "We lived in a ramshackle apartment building... between the train tracks and public housing projects," he said. Both of his parents worked, but money was tight, and as O'Neill said in Wealth Simple, it wasn't always a given that they'd be able to afford basic necessities like utilities. 

His father worked in his hometown's steel mill, and O'Neill eventually began working there, too. The gig was tough; the conditions in the mill were hazardous at best. "You could only stay inside a furnace for five minutes at a stretch, because you'd literally catch on fire," he divulged. "You could feel the graphite in the air singeing your lungs."

Discussing his upbringing in an interview with Capital and Main, O'Neill revealed that his time on the mill highlighted to him the importance of unionization. Having faced unemployment after a brief stint as a footballer, he decided to join the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. "You had to assert yourself, because otherwise they weren't gonna give anything to you... So, I've always been, in my heart of hearts, a teamster, a union guy," he mused.

Katey Sagal overcame drug and alcohol addiction

In her memoir, "Grace Notes," Katey Sagal opened up about her history of alcohol and drug use. She recalled befriending Lorna Luft, daughter of Judy Garland, when she was a kid, and claimed that the two of them would take their mothers' prescription pills. It was not long before she didn't have to swipe someone else's meds. "When I was fourteen, our family doctor prescribed me diet pills, and so I had pills of my own," she wrote. "I got the message: if you feel bad, take a pill."

Of course, this lifestyle was unsustainable and Sagal soon came to terms with her struggles with addiction. As she recalled to ABC News, it was thanks to an encounter with someone in recovery on a TV set that she decided to get sober. Suddenly, she realized that sobriety, something she had long deemed an impossibility, was a reality entirely within her grasp.

Speaking with Bustle, Sagal revealed that the death of her father motivated her to try to quit drugs and alcohol. Then, just two months after getting clean, she scored the role of Peg Bundy on "Married... With Children." "I stayed sober, and watched all the people around me, and I learned how to do what I do now," she told the outlet. She has now been sober for over 30 years.

If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

Katey Sagal's mom died young

Katey Sagal's mother lived with heart disease for many years and these health struggles would be the cause of immense pain for both herself and her daughter. In her memoir, Sagal reflected on the agony of witnessing her mother, Sara Zwilling, suffer from the disease. "Even then as a teenager, I knew there was only so much I could do; that hers was a fragile life, and that it was only a matter of time before there would be an exit," she wrote in a harrowing admission. Tragically, Zwilling's health struggles led to her attempting suicide on more than one occasion. Then, when Sagal was just 21 years old, her adolescent sisters discovered that Zwilling had died in her sleep from a heart attack. However, Sagal believes that her mom actually died by suicide, hypothesizing that the family doctor may have claimed Zwilling's heart condition was the cause of death as a way of sparing her and her sisters' feelings. 

According to Find A Grave, Zwilling was just 48 when she died. Sagal told ABC News that since her mom had been sick for a long time, her death, while devastating, wasn't that surprising. Just six years later, she would lose her father, too.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Sagal said that writing her memoir was beneficial to re-evaluating her relationship with her parents and learning to truly appreciate them. "It allowed me to miss them...To revisit them is just a way for me to acknowledge how much I love and miss them," she reflected.

Christina Applegate has a chronic illness

There once was a time when pervasive disability discrimination meant that stars had to keep their health diagnoses secret. For instance, Michael J. Fox attempted to disguise his Parkinson's disease for seven years, out of fear of losing work, per The Guardian. Due to widespread efforts to destigmatize disabilities, many celebs are opening up about living with chronic illnesses.

Having survived cancer, Christina Applegate was faced with yet another illness over a decade later. In 2021, she revealed that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which is a neurological disease usually diagnosed in young adults, according to a 2018 study. The illness causes pain and mobility problems, though severity varies. On Twitter, Applegate reflected on her diagnosis with good humor. "It's been a strange journey," she shared. "But I have been so supported by people that I know who also have this condition. It's been a tough road. But as we all know, the road keeps going. Unless some a**hole blocks it."

She sought comfort in another actor living with MS: Selma Blair. "Loving you always. Always here," Blair wrote to Applegate. "As are our kids. Beating us up with love." During a twitter Q&A with fans, Applegate opened up about her illness and pondered the fact that both she and Blair, her co-star in 2002 comedy "The Sweetest Thing," have MS. Recalling the great time she had on set with Blair, she conceded that it was "Sad both of us have Ms."

Katey Sagal had a stillbirth during filming

In Season 6 of "Married...With Children," both Peg and her neighbor Marcy announced they were pregnant, much to everyone's surprise. The writers decided on this storyline for Peg because Katey Sagal became pregnant in 1991. However, the plotline was soon revealed to be a dream in the episode "Al Bundy, Shoe Dick," per the Los Angeles Times. This decision was due to the writers paying respect to Sagal, who ended up suffering a stillbirth during filming.

During an appearance on "The View," she opened up about the intense guilt she felt after the tragedy. "It was a very difficult thing. I lost a child at almost eight months ... I just couldn't let go of the control, of somehow I had done something wrong," she said. She revealed that the loss took a toll on her mental health and she struggled to leave the house afterwards. A year later, she was able to regain control over her life thanks to some wise words offered by a Buddhist friend. "Sometimes we have these little souls that come in and out," the friend philosophized, "and that their mission is completed."

When Sagal released her debut album, "Well..." in 1994, she paid tribute to the baby she lost on the song "Can't Hurry the Harvest," per the book "Stillborn: Celebrities Who Have Suffered Infant Loss." The song contains the tear-jerking lyrics, "You took so much of me/ Oh my darling, my little one/ Did it have to be this way?"

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

Some of the supporting actors died from cancer

Tragically, a number of "Married...With Children's" wacky ensemble players died before their time. Buck the dog was always the sagacious voice of reason amid the chaos and dysfunction of the Bundy household. Although sometimes voiced by Cheech Marin of Cheech and Chong fame, he was usually voiced by show writer Kevin Curran, per The New York Times. In addition to "Married... With Children," Curran wrote for another irreverent sitcom that poked fun at the American Dream: "The Simpsons." Sadly, Curran died of complications from cancer in 2016. He was 59.

Likewise, Diana Bellamy, who depicted frequent shoe store customer Shirley, played a pivotal role on the series. While the character was often mocked by the disgruntled shoe salesman, Shirley gave the sexist protagonist a run for his money, throwing the barbs back as quickly as he dished them out. In 2001, Bellamy died of cancer at the age of 57, per the Los Angeles Times. Prior to her death, she had been living with blindness, a complication of the cancer, though she viewed her disability with optimism. "I had tried crying and being in a snit about [blindness]," the character actor quipped, "but that was real boring."

Per USA Today, one of the show's most memorable guest stars, original "Glow" wrestler Beckie Mullen, died in 2020, again from cancer. She was just 55. Famously, Mullen appeared in Al's dream sequence wrestling a young Pamela Anderson in Season 5's "Al...with Kelly."

David Faustino was arrested on drug charges

Much of Bud Bundy's comedic escapades were based around the hapless teen's attempts to be a "bad boy," despite his high achievement at school and a clean-cut reputation (he famously rebranded himself as self-styled rap god Grandmaster B). While Bud was a (usually) law-abiding citizen, David Faustino found himself on the wrong side of the law in 2007.

Per Access, Faustino and his wife were pulled over by cops, and the officers found marijuana in his possession. He was also believed to have been driving under the influence. CBS News offered further information into the arrest. Reportedly, Faustino attempted to evade capture by the police by jumping out of his car, but was eventually caught and sent to jail. His charges included disorderly intoxication.

As reported by Fox News, the charges were dropped once Faustino completed a drug treatment program. "He received no special treatment from the State Attorney's Office," Faustino's attorney said. "He did what was asked of him, and he fulfilled all of his conditions." In an interview with The New York Times two years after his arrest, Faustino said he still smoked weed, but that's the long and short of it. "They just offered me 'Celebrity Rehab...' I don't want to go on TV and spill my guts," he told the outlet, noting that the offer made little sense since he did not struggle with addiction.

Katey Sagal was devastated by the death of her friend

After "Married...With Children," Katey Sagal enjoyed further sitcom fame on "8 Simple Rules." Soon, however, tragedy would strike. In 2003, Sagal's onscreen husband, comedy mainstay John Ritter, began feeling unwell while rehearsing on set, per Today. After vomiting profusely, he was sent to the emergency room and died soon after, at the age of 54. 

Although his death was deemed a heart attack, the actor's widow, Amy Yasbeck, believed that it could have been prevented. Yasbeck claimed that doctors had misinterpreted Ritter's medical results, leading to his untimely death. Accordingly, she filed a lawsuit. As reported by People, Sagal was devastated by Ritter's passing and testified in his wrongful death trial. "I loved John," she told the jury as she wept. Per E! News, the doctors were ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing.

Thereafter, Ritter's death was poignantly written into "8 Simple Rules," showing both the cast and the Hennessy family dealing in real time with the tragic loss. Opening up about her friend's passing, Sagal told EW that she was grateful for being given the opportunity to grieve onscreen, stating that it wouldn't have felt right to continue with the show without addressing the tragedy. "What I loved about that job was John Ritter. John was an amazing person," she reflected. "I'll never forget when I had to audition for that job... John whispered to me while I was in there, 'You're my favorite. You're the one I want.' Which was so, so sweet."

The Simpsons: A Tribute To Hollywood's Finest Actors, Phil Hartman


Later episodes of The Simpsons tend to unfold like Radiohead songs, starting off one way before taking an abrupt left turn. In stark contrast to this style, the plot of Season 2 gem “Bart Gets Hit By a Car” is thrust into motion within its first minute… when Bart gets hit by a car. Immediately afterward, the boy’s soul sheds its mortal shell and ascends the escalator to heaven, guided by a voice that is both pleasant and firm. It’s the kind of voice designed to convey trust during a commercial, and also the kind used during a fake commercial to mock such naked appeals for trust, perhaps on Saturday Night Live. If this hauntingly familiar voice wasn’t one that viewers recognized at the time of the original airing, it was one they would soon know very well: this was the first Simpsons appearance of Phil Hartman.

It is an honor to be invited as a guest voice on The Simpsons. Only after you’ve “made it” in some way within your chosen field will this gesture be extended. Athletes, actors, artists, and architects alike have been written in as guests over the 22-season run of the show, all contributing to its Guinness Book world record for Most Guest Stars. Only a fraction of these people, however, have been asked back a second time. In that regard, Phil Hartman is in an elite class with Albert Brooks, Jon Lovitz, Kelsey Grammer, and Joe Mantegna as frequent guests. (Coincidentally, this is also my Murderer’s Row dream-cast for a Glengarry Glen Ross stage revival.) As a frequent-frequent guest, though, Phil Hartman was in a class all his own: he was featured in 52 episodes over a period of eight years. To this day, that’s over a tenth of the total output of a show that also holds the world record for Longest-Running Sitcom of all time.

It’s no secret why The Simpsons producers and writers kept wanting to bring Phil Hartman back: the man was a comedic powerhouse. Hartman’s career in comedy began at the age of 27, when he spontaneously climbed onstage during a Groundlings show. In 1975, he would officially join the troupe as a performer. (Try jumping onstage during a show now, though, and see what happens.) As part of The Groundlings, Hartman helped Paul Reubens develop the concept of his Peewee Herman character, co-writing Peewee’s Big Adventure and performing as Captain Carl. Later, the two had a falling out, though, and Hartman went on to bigger and better things at Saturday Night Live. This is perhaps where he is best known, and rightfully so. His star turns on SNL were legendary, but so was his gracious willingness to take smaller roles and allow others to shine. Across eight seasons, Phil Hartman made an indelible mark on that show’s storied history as the ultimate utility player – although his range and talent were obvious even on his audition tape. Hartman Impressions of Bill Clinton and Frank Sinatra co-existed on Saturday Night Live with original characters like Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer, and he was always up for any bit of weirdness that called for a stentorian tone. Perhaps the key to his success, in fact, was his voice.

There a certain quality to this voice that was both high-voltage and velvety, a sonic cocktail that was everything you needed it to be. The fact that Phil Hartman’s voice could sound so unctuous and slimy at times meant that he usually portrayed a villainous rival in family-friendly movies like Small Soldiers, Jingle All the Way, and Greedy. But he could also do heroic too, and in animated form, he was able to explore these types of characters on The Simpsons. There he played Moses on the mountain, Bart’s adopted father, Tom, and Charlton Heston’s likeness in the musical, Stop the Planet of the Apes, I Want to Get Off (featuring the showstopper, “Dr. Zaius, Dr. Zaius”.) He even got the chance to bring his Bill Clinton impression over from Saturday Night Live for a Halloween episode appearance. Mostly, though, Phil Hartman’s contribution to The Simpsons consisted of two characters, and these were anything but biblical, heroic, or presidential.

In the episode mentioned earlier, “Bart Gets Hit By a Car”, Homer hires bargain basement attorney Lionel Hutz to represent him. “Here’s my card,” Hutz says. “It turns into a sponge if you hold it underwater!” What started off as a barely embellished caricature of an ambulance-chasing shyster eventually devolved into a down-and-out drunken hobo who also happened to be an attorney. In that first episode, though, Lionel Hutz would have actually won his case against Mr. Burns if Homer Simpson wasn’t in fact Homer Simpson, and therefore physically incapable of allowing such an outcome to occur. Hutz was meant to be a one-time role, but the staff loved Hartman and wanted to use him again. Their next chance came just a couple episodes later, in the form of another new character in the Simpsons universe.

We are introduced to Troy McClure as he hosts the TV show, I Can’t Believe They Invented That. This show-within-a-show would frequently pop up in brief bits featuring washed up actor McClure and quack Dr. Nick Riviera hawking ridiculous products like Spiffy, a cleaning solvent strong enough to clean the grime off of Edgar Allen Poe’s tombstone. More often than infomercials, though, Troy McClure would be glimpsed starring in random educational videos filmed at various points in his career. Whenever there was an opportunity to include an instructional video of any kind, the Simpsons producers could always plug in Phil Hartman and get a laugh out of his perpetually changing catchphrase. “Hi, I’m Troy McClure,” he would always start. “You might remember me from such educational films as ‘Lead Paint: Delicious But Deadly’, and ‘Here Comes the Metric System.’” According to interviews, Troy McClure was Hartman’s favorite character, and he used to entertain the crew on the set of his post-SNL show, NewsRadio, by doing the Troy McClure voice in-between takes.

As with Saturday Night Live, Phil Hartman played the background a lot on The Simpsons, but he also had a couple of moments in the spotlight, including one of the widely agreed-upon greatest episodes of all time – the Conan O’Brien-scripted “Marge vs. The Monorail” – where he played Lyle Lanley, the colorful singing swindler based on The Music Man. Another starring performance of his came in the “Fish Called Selma” episode, which was developed to give Troy McClure more of a back story, albeit one in which his character has fallen on hard times due to an embarrassing sexual proclivity involving marine life. On the DVD commentary for this episode, the producers mention that Phil Hartman was interested in doing a live-action Troy McClure movie, an intriguing proposition which could have either been a star-making role or gone the way of MacGruber.

After Phil Hartman’s untimely death in May of 1998, the producers on The Simpsons wisely decided not to find a replacement for the characters of Troy McClure or Lionel Hutz. This move was both a display of respect to the actor, and an admission that he was impossible to replace. Although he was nicknamed The Glue for his work on Saturday Night Live, perhaps Hartman was also the secret weapon that kept The Simpsons together too. In order to maximize Hartman’s limited availability, nearly every episode that featured Lionel Hutz also featured Troy McClure and vice versa, thus guaranteeing at least a couple bankable extra laughs in every other episode. That may not seem like a lot, but it adds up. Phil Hartman was undoubtedly part of the reason why seasons 2-9 of The Simpsons are roundly thought to be the show’s best years.

The Simpsons: Night Of The Living Treehouse Of Horror (GBC)


The Simpsons: Night of the Living Treehouse of Horror is a side-scrolling platformer. The game features seven levels, each one of which re-creates a tale from the annual Treehouse of Horror episodes of the American animated television series The Simpsons. All five members of the Simpson family have their own level, with the exception of Homer , who has three. The levels include Marge in a zombie tale, Maggie as a fly, Lisa fighting cannibalistic teachers, Bart rescuing Santa's Little Helper in a haunted house, and Homer as a vampire killer, a robot, and the large ape King Homer.

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Bart Simpson's Escape From Camp Deadly (GBC)

Bart and Lisa go to spend the summer at a camp, which turns out to be the dangerous Camp Deadly run by Mr. Burns's nephew, Ironfist Burns. His intentions are to make sure that the children suffer and have as little fun as possible, refusing to allow them to leave until they are thoroughly miserable. In the first stage of the game, Bart and the other children play capture the flag in a forest, as part of the camp's morning activity. Bart is harassed by camp counselors and bullies Blindside Bill and Rebound Rodney, and must make his way through nests of angry bees and other obstacles.

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The Simpsons: Bart Vs. The Juggernauts (GBC)

The plot stars Bart from The Simpsons in a game show based on American Gladiators, in which he has to compete in challenges to earn money.

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Itchy & Scratchy in Miniature Golf Madness (GBC)

In the game, the player controls Scratchy as he plays through a miniature golf course of nine holes while at the same time avoiding Itchy's attacks. It received generally mixed to positive reviews from critics.

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Family Guy 2 (JAR)

Here is the 2nd part of a funny java-game based on the famous cartoon studio named Fox. Play for Stewie,the sadistic baby and other characters in the mini-java-games based on the funny situations. Preserving the unforgettable moments and humor, this java-game recreates the scenes of the popular cartoon series in detail.

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Family Guy Uncensored (JAR)

Freakin’ sweet! Come spend some time with the Griffins in this outrageously funny game based on the hit Fox TV show. Play as the eccentric Peter Griffin, the brilliantly sadistic baby Stewie, and other favourite characters in mini-game episodes based on hilarious situations. Re-visit Peter’s Quahog, including Spooner Street, Goldman's Pharmacy, The Drunken Clam, and City Hall. Take on the mysterious Giant Chicken, fulfil Quagmire's jungle fantasy, and blast into a space-age adventure as ROBO-Stewie. Capturing memorable moments and non stop humour, this game accurately represents the TV show you love. It’s funny, it’s uncensored, it’s just plain wrong!

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The Simpsons: A Look At Proposed Spinoffs That Never Got Time Of Day

When The Simpsons debuted 35 years ago as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, it was hard to expect that it would become one of the most successful and longest-running franchises in movie and TV history. While The Simpsons spun off from (and quickly eclipsed) The Tracey Ullman Show, it seems a little odd that, given the show’s rampant popularity, we have yet to see a spin-off from The Simpsons, itself. The show has occasionally mocked the concept of TV spin-offs – most notably in the Troy McClure-hosted “Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase” – but that doesn’t mean Fox and the Simpsons creative team haven’t attempted to use the show as a springboard to launch another series. Let’s take a look now at some proposed spin-offs of The Simpsons, all of which sound infinitely better than The Cleveland Show.


A Krusty the Clown Series (1994)


One of the first side characters the Simpsons writers fleshed out was Krusty the Clown, so it makes perfect sense that he was the first one Matt Groening tried to develop a series around. With The Simpsons at its creative zenith as well as the peak of its cultural relevance in the 90s, it would have been the perfect time to launch a second series, but the plans for the Krusty show sound a little out there. Groening wanted it to be a live-action series starring Dan Castellaneta, who voices Krusty, Homer, and a solid 1/3 of Springfield’s male residents, as Krusty the Clown. Matt Groening, with King of Queens creator Michael Weithorn, wrote a pilot script about Krusty moving to L.A. to host a talk show. Several visual jokes that seemed a better fit for animation caused trouble with the network. Here’s Groening describing the difficulties:


“We had this running joke in the script that Krusty was living in a house on stilts and there were beavers gnawing their way through the stilts. But somebody at the network pointed out how expensive it was to hire trained beavers – and an equally prohibitive cost would be to get mechanical beavers – so I said, ‘If we animated this, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.’”




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Matt Groening and Fox then began to work on an animated Krusty spin-off, but contract negotiations stalled, and Groening moved on to developing Futurama, a series that does not require the use of beavers – mechanical or trained.


Tales from Springfield (1996)


The greatest strength of The Simpsons has always been its deep bench of supporting characters. While many of these tertiary Springfieldians seem like broad cartoonish characters on the outside, they’re often revealed to be rich, three-dimensional figures underneath who are capable of carrying their own episodes of the show. After the success of the 1996 episode “22 Short Films About Springfield,” an episode composed of nearly two dozen vignettes centering on the show’s recurring characters, the writers began batting around the idea of developing a new series following these lesser-known Springfieldians. Tales from Springfield would have told three different short stories each week, focusing on secondary characters and occasionally telling stories about the Simpsons family members’ past and future.


Matt Groening concluded that the show didn’t have enough writers to script two simultaneous series, so the idea was shelved. The Simpsons has enough wonderful recurring characters to fill several additional series, and this seems like it would have been a logical and worthwhile spin-off at the time, but it wasn’t meant to be.



A live-action Troy McClure movie (mid-90s)


Prior to his tragic death, Phil Hartman, who voiced recurring Simpsons characters Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz, amongst others, expressed an interest in starring in a live-action film based on McClure. While Matt Groening has said that this was only an idea and no script was ever written, several of the writers were fond of Hartman’s idea. While the Krusty spin-off seems a little harder to pull off, Phil Hartman has proven he’s adept at playing smug, superficial guys like McClure in live-action roles, and it’s a shame we never got to see him play Troy McClure in non-animated form.


Credits: Bradford Evans


Game Gear: The Simpson's Bart Vs. The World

The game is based on the animated television series The Simpsons. On the Krusty the Clown Show, Bart Simpson wins the opportunity to participate in a Round-the-World scavenger hunt. However, the contest has been rigged by Mr. Burns' assistant, Smithers, in order for Burns to rid himself of the Simpson family for all the trouble they have caused him over the years. Burns sends his agents and fellow family members to take care of the Simpsons during the scavenger hunt. Bart travels through various real-world locations collecting items, with occasional cameos from the other Simpsons family members.

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Family Guy Stewie 2.0 JAR Download + APK Download With Java Emulator

Developer: Electronic Arts
Genre: Action

Battle a robot army and help Stewie liberate the Griffins from the clutches of his evil clone! Victory shall be yours! Stewie's diabolical clone has kidnapped the entire Griffin clan and whisked them away to a hidden fortress. Help him save Peter, Lois, Chris, Meg and Brian by infiltrating enemy lines and battling an evil robot army in this exhilarating turn-based game. Victory shall be yours!

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The Itchy And Scratchy Game APK Download


Developer: SEGA
Genre: Adventure

They fight! and fight! and fight, and fight, and fight!... Itchy & Scratchy, from The Simpsons, are a cat and mouse cartoon duo. Itchy the mouse and Scratchy the cat exist only to find new and creative ways to attack and kill one another. As the latest cartoon adventures appear on the television, the violence spreads to brand new places.

Itchy & Scratchy is a single player platform side-scroller. The player controls Itchy, the mouse, and must defeat Scratchy, the cat, with a variety of weapons. Itchy caries a default mallet, but can pick up additional weapons on particular levels. Each of the seven levels takes place in a different fictional location and is designed as a maze of doors and platforms. After defeating Scratchy, he usually will return with a special contraption to attack Itchy, and must therefore be defeated again.

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Krusty's Super Funhouse APK Download

Developer: SEGA
Genre: Adventure

Krusty's Fun House is infested with rats. Krusty's gotta nail the vermin or it's sayonara Fun House. Although he gets a little help from Bart, who mans the traps, Krusty's gotta rely on you in this one-player action/puzzler.

There are five garish sections in the Fun House, some with as many as 14 different levels. In each level, you must figure out how to lure the rampaging rodents to traps so that Bart can squash, zap, or otherwise exterminate them. You can tackle the levels in each section in any order you like, but you can't move on to the next section until you've finished all of the levels. Although the challenge gets tougher with each section, advanced gamers won't bust too many brain cells.


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The Simpsons 2 JAR Download + APK Download With Java Emulator

Developer: Electronic Arts
Genre: Arcade

Run For Your Lives! It's The Simpsons Itchy & Scratchy Land! Just like in the classic Simpsons episode, Our Favorite Family's theme park outing is ruined by Itchy & Scratchy 'bots. Play as Homer, Bart, Lisa and Marge as they survive Explosion Land, Unnecessary Surgery Land, Torture Land and Searing Gas Pain Land. Kill the Kill 'bots with Bart's stink bomb slingshot. Build Bomb 'bots with Lisa's Robo-Generator. Blow 'bots to bits with Marge's vacuum gun. Life is a thrill ride with The Simpsons.

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The Simpsons: Bart Vs. The Space Mutants APK Download

Developer: SEGA
Genre: Action

An fun platform game that doesn't quite live up to Konami's classic The Simpsons, Bart vs. The Space Mutants is a solid conversion of the NES port of the same name, starring once again TV's most famous cartoon boy.

Bart is the only person in Springfield who knows that aliens have landed and are possessing the bodies of the townspeople. Though the space mutants look like humans, Bart is able to see them with the help of a pair of X-ray glasses. The space mutants, naturally, plan to invade the earth. To do that, the aliens need different items for their "miraculous machine".

The object of the game is for you, Bart, to either spray these objects with your trusty can of red spray paint, or to collect them before the aliens can grab them. These items differ from level to level (i.e. Level one, purple objects, Level 3 Blue balloons). While you are collecting or destroying the objects, you have to be on the lookout for aliens disguised as townspeople. This is where the fun comes in: if you see an alien, you have to bop him on the head and the alien will fly away to space leaving behind a letter.

You can collect as many letters as you can to spell the names of the rest of the family. If you succeed, that member will help you defeat the "boss" enemy at the end of each level, who are very difficult to defeat on your own. You will also run into other characters from the show, including Moe, Sideshow Bob, Jebediah Springfield, Itchy and Scratchy, Nelson, Adil (Albanian spy), Krusty the Clown, and many others.

Overall, Bart vs. The Space Mutants is a fun game that isn't as varied or creative as Konami's earlier games based on the show, but it is still very entertaining. Recommended!


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