The Simpsons And Radio

Hi folks and welcome to another Simpsons Sunday. Before I get into the meat of this post, I would like to wish my American friends a happy belated Thanksgiving Thursday. Did you watch Lisa With An ‘S’ last Sunday? What got my attention was a couple of things: the Broadway call back to the season 17 episode My Fair Laddie and the song Indoors All Night, as well as referencing one of the signature songs by Ethel Merman. Other than that, this episode didn’t do anything for me but you may have your own opinions on it, when you get a chance to watch it.

This week I’m going to talk about things that I have a strong interest in, that The Simpsons haven’t poked fun at so far. One of them, which is a North American thing that I have a real interest in is Weather Radio. I’m curious if any of the writing or production staff know what NOAA Weather Radio is and if they even have one or two around the house. The voice actors can surely do the voices justus and as for Paul, well, they can use a similar robotic voice. After all, they’ve made fun of Siri in the past and even GPS navigation. I wonder what the reaction would be if the sound of the Emergency Alert came over the TV, as a part of a Simpsons story.

Okay, one of the things that Weather Radio in both the US and Canada has been using to alert listeners of severe weather is something called Specific Area Message Encoding or SAME. It consists of 3 long beeps then a either a warning message or canned voice message. Then there are 3 shorter beeps, known as the EOM. This newish alert protocol allows for text to be sent to Weather Alert Radios with SAME capability and you can program these radios to only alert you for your local area and in some cases, for only watches and warnings you wish to be warned about.

Another thing that I hope they can get into at some point is Ham Radio. They have mentioned it in passing with various characters but nobody has ever really tried it out in a story, throughout an episode. This could be a chance for Principal Skinner and Selma to finally get together as a couple of hams and talk on their radios together, despite Skinner’s Mother’s objections. This also makes me wonder about using CB radio in a story or even a police scanner. Some people use them to their advantage in many ways and I am a listener as well. All though, I mainly listen to rail or weather frequencies most of all. All though sometimes I listen to the VHF aircraft band too, among other things.

back to ham radio for a second, I think it would be cool if Tim Allen would guess star at some point. I like his comedy and I think a character he voices would get along great with Homer. Don’t you think?

Well that’s about it for my post on what I would like to see or hear on The Simpsons in the future. On the birthday front, Pamela Hayden, who voices Milhouse Van Houten, Jimbo Jones and other characters turned another year older yesterday. What I like about her is that she can voice a wide range of characters: from Milhouse to Jimbo Jones, to Sarah Wiggum and many other minor or one time characters so seamlessly. It is a real pleasure to have her voice on The Simpsons and I’m just happy that I know what she really sounds like, from searching on Youtube a couple of years ago.

Well that’s about it for this Simpsons Sunday post. In the mean time, I recommend checking out Chris Ladesma’s blog. He is the Music Editor for The Simpsons and has been since day 1.
http://simpsonsmusic500.wordpress.com/author/simpsonsmusic500/
Also, check out Yeardley Smith’s blog at http://gobbingoff.tumblr.com
Don’t forget about Marchez Vous, which is her women’s shoe designer company, which she started earlier in the decade. You can check out their website at
http://www.marchesvous.com
Additionally, for more news on The Simpsons, you can go to http://news.simpsonswiki.com/
You can also comment here or you can email me at blindgordie@gmail.com and I will reply as soon as I can to all messages I receive. If you follow me on Twitter or are my friend on Facebook you can comment directly to me that way too.
You can follow Simpsons Executive Producer Al Jean on Twitter and his Twitter handle is @AlJean.
He has ran the show since Season 13 and has ran it during Seasons 3 and 4.
Anyway, that is it for this weeks post. Talk to you again on Weather Wednesday.

Happy Birthday To The Blog.

Hi folks. Today is the second anniversary of the first post in the blog and now I’ve gone from saying goo goo Da Da to writing in plain english. Hahahaha!

But seriously, it has been fun so far putting together each post for you almost every week, for what ever I wish to talk about on a particular day. If you know how I roll, I save my Simpsons posts on Sundays because the show airs new episodes on Sundays. Simple… Isn’t it? Everything else I talk about is saved for other days. The only exception is my posts on weather and Weather Radio on Wednesdays, I call Weather Wednesday. I haven’t had much to talk about because nothing really new has come up for me to sink my teeth into and bring to the worlds attention, about a rather unknown part of the VHF band for many people.

I guess that is the reason I talk about what I talk about when I decide to post in here about something. I can’t really do that with myself so I talk about things that interest me and bring new information to all who read the blog, through social media and or, by simply following it.

On another note, this is also the 24th anniversary of the death of my favourite singer in rock, Freddie Mercury from Queen. I have always liked him and he stood out from every other rock vocalist in technicallity and emotion. Others just wailed but Freddie sang the song with his voice and brought operatic influences that most heavy metal singers tried to bring to their own vocal style. Some have succeeded in that more than others but you can’t deny how influencial Freddie has been on a generation of singers, with his own array of influences: from Aretha Franklin to Liza Minnelli.

Anyway, I just wanted to acknowledge both anniversaries here and not dwell on one or the other. As for the future of the blog, as long as I can post I will continue doing so until I can’t anymore. Thanks to all who have replied and followed me through the blog or Twitter and Facebook. I always wanted to be remembered for doing something and this is it.

A Nice Couple Of Guys

Hi folks and welcome to another Simpsons Sunday. It’s past the halfway point in November and almost at the point of old man winter returning for another year. I wish that Homer and Barney would team up with each other again, so the weather would become suddenly a few degrees warmer, feeling like spring in January.

This week I’m going to talk about a couple of nice guys on The Simpsons. By which I don’t mean any of the staff… All though I believe most if not all of the writers, production staff and voice actors are nice human beings. I haven’t met any of them yet but it’s just a feeling I have, from hearing them during interviews and as I follow most of them on Twitter. I’m talking about the characters who have been a part of the series over the years. In this weeks post I’m going to focus on two such one time characters who were voiced by Albert Brooks, during the first 8 seasons: Brad Goodman and Hank Scorpio.

In the Season 5 episode Bart’s inner Child, Brad Goodman shows up as a self-help guru on TV, recommended to Marge by her sisters Patty and Selma, after she has been nagging constantly. Brad helps Troy McClure with his alcohol problem and then, he comes to Springfield with his self-help seminar. He finds out that Bart just does what he feels like and mistakingly convinces the citizens of Springfield to adopt Bart’s “do as you feel “attitude. Then one day, they do and as usual, all hell breaks loose.

At the Do As You Feel festival James Brown shows up to find that the bandstand was not double bolted and the workers who were supposed to do that simply didn’t feel like it. Then, well, you can see where this is going right? This complete fire of idiocy is lit, unintentionally by Mr. Goodman and eventually all the blame for the violence and chaos all falls on one Bart Simpson for his inspiring Mr. Goodman to convince them to adopt his free-spirited attitude.

I liked Brad Goodman simply for not getting mad at Bart for his Random comments and sarcasm, while his mother told him to be quiet, after Brad said “you’re not a human being, you’re a human doing. Then what comes next?” Bart replied “a human going” and everyone laughed at his comment. Even Brad didn’t mind Bart and even had him and his parents come up on stage with him. He said that they had raised an emotionally healthy son, despite what he saw as their own foibles. Namely, Marge’s hairstyle and Homer’s eating disorder, as he saw it. I think it would have been cool if the character had been further developed and we would have learned more about him, like we eventually did with Troy McClure, when he married Selma Bouvier.

In the Season 8 episode You Only Move Twice, Homer is offered a better paying job at the Globex Corporation, along with free healthcare in Cypress Creek and of course, he takes it. After the Simpsons family move they meet Homer’s new boss… A very nice man named Hank Scorpio. Homer is very happy with his job, motivating his fellow coworkers to do more and does a great job. Meanwhile, The rest of his family don’t like Cypress Creek for various reasons. Lisa discovers that she is allergic to all the plants around her, after she takes a nature walk. Bart is put into a remedial class, After he finds out he can’t grasp cursive writing. Marge discovers that the house they live in, does all the work around the house for her and with nothing to do, she starts drinking wine, in the morning. All this time, Homer is doing great at his job and with his new boss being so helpful as to help Homer find hammocks for his fellow workers so they can relax. Unbeknownst to Homer, Hank Scorpio is a super villain with a doomsday device, looking to take control of the East Coast. To make this clear, he blows up the ninth Street bridge.

Eventually, the family tells Homer of their woes and convince him that they should move back to Springfield. Homer is reluctant because of his new job and his great relationship with his boss. However, he talks with Hank and Hank tells him that he should do what is best for his family. Homer decided to do just that and well, they move back to Springfield.

Despite the fact we find out that Hank Scorpio is a super villain, I like the man because much like Homer’s half-brother Herb Powell, he doesn’t seem to like formality and asks homer to call him Hank, as opposed to Mr. Scorpio. The other cool thing is that he is very helpful to Homer in anyway he can be, unlike Mr. Burns, who is a tyrant and a miser at best and at worst. For example: when Homer asks for sugar for his coffee, Hank gives it to him but not in packages and he apologizes for that.

I believe that if both Brad Goodman and Hank Scorpio were further developed we would see that they are not just nice guys but individuals who are just as flawed as the rest of Springfield and the surrounding towns in the Simpsons universe. In the case of Hank Scorpio, we find out that he is not just a nice guy but a super villain. As for Brad Goodman, well, he’s just a motivational speaker trying to do some good in the world. But is there more to him than that? I left out some aspects of both episodes, in order to focus on the two characters and their nice guy personas so, no comments on Homer owning the Denver Broncos or wanting to own the Dallas Cowboys here. Also, no trampolines or Bart sitting on an ice cream sandwich. By the way, I like ice cream sandwiches as long as they don’t melt and fall apart.

On the birthday front, Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett turned another year older last Wednesday. The entire current lineup of Metallica guest starred in the premiere of season 18: The Mook, The Chef, The Wife And Her Homer. It really was not surprising that the band did this because they are funny and sarcastic and they don’t mind poking fun at themselves once in a while. By the way, isn’t it almost time for a new Metallica album? It’s been almost 8 years since their last studio album Death Magnetic and almost two years since their last single Lords Of Summer. I can’t wait to hear what they do this time, after all the changes in musical direction they have gone through and will continue to go through, as they continue to evolve.

Well that’s about it for this Simpsons Sunday post. In the mean time, I recommend checking out Chris Ladesma’s blog. He is the Music Editor for The Simpsons and has been since day 1.
http://simpsonsmusic500.wordpress.com/author/simpsonsmusic500/
Also, check out Yeardley Smith’s blog at http://gobbingoff.tumblr.com
Don’t forget about Marchez Vous, which is her women’s shoe designer company, which she started earlier in the decade. You can check out their website at
http://www.marchesvous.com
Additionally, for more news on The Simpsons, you can go to http://news.simpsonswiki.com/
You can also comment here or you can email me at blindgordie@gmail.com and I will reply as soon as I can to all messages I receive. If you follow me on Twitter or are my friend on Facebook you can comment directly to me that way too.
You can follow Simpsons Executive Producer Al Jean on Twitter and his Twitter handle is @AlJean.
He has ran the show since Season 13 and has ran it during Seasons 3 and 4.
Anyway, that is it for this weeks post. Talk to you again on Weather Wednesday.

Queen: A Night At The Odeon

Hi folks and here is another post in the blog. Today it is all about Queen and their new live album A Night At The Odeon. I am so happy it has finally come out and I will explain why I just said that in this post, as well as talk about my favourite parts of the album.

First of all, I said that I had been waiting a long time for this album to be released and that is because I had heard most of the tracks on the radio years ago. This was when rock radio stations would fill up time on Sundays or Saturdays with live music from bands which they play in their rotation and Queen was one of them. I had heard: Ogre Battle, The medley of Bohemian Rhapsody, Killer Queen, March Of The Black Queen and the reprise of Bohemian Rhapsody back in the summer of 1991. This was back in the day when all the Queen albums were being issued on compact disk for the first time in North America. I had thought it had been taken from Live Killers but I found out later that wasn’t the case at all.

Four years later, I had heard it again on a show called from The Volts, which was hosted by a well-known radio personality and Canada named Larry Leblanc. He played the same medley and I actually thought that it was available as an import. However, surprise surprise, it wasn’t even out there for me to consume as a fan of Queen. In 2013 I went on Youtube and found the entire concert and I took a listen to it and here we get to my personal highlights from that show.

Obviously the songs Ogre Battle and the Bohemian Rhapsody are things I had been looking forward to ever since then. Another highlight for me is Brian May’s guitar solo on Brighten Rock. As a guitar player I have always admired Brian for playing along with himself like that and to actually figure out the math of how to play and when to play, must have taken a long time to do. Let’s not forget that he has done this at every Queen show and on his solo tours too. Even figuring out what Freddie was going to sing in the vocal cannon section of The Profit Song must’ve been a real trial and error session. I wish I was that patient but I would have just wnated to play, regardless of what the hell I was doing up there.

I also liked the version of White Queen from the concert and if you have the deluxe version of Queen ii it is one of the bonus tracks. Now I’m Here is also on the deluxe version of Sheer Heart Attack and now that I mention it, it makes me wonder how much archival audio and footage has yet to come out in the future. After all, there is that free concert in London’s Hyde Park in 1976 and other rare tracks and remixes which have yet to come out.

As for the album itself, I give it 10 out of 10 for finally coming out. I’m just so happy it is finally in our hands, legitimately and we can finally enjoy it either audio only or as a video. I can’t wait to find what the next Queen project will be. Will it be a new studio album with Adam Lambert? Another compilation or a rerelease of an old compilation? I’m sure there are many live albums yet to come out in the coming years and I will hopefully be ready to buy them, when they come out.

Happy Birthday To You Two

Hi folks and welcome to another Simpsons Sunday. For those who may be reading this blog for the first time, it is called as such because I am in fact blind since birth. I do all the writing using my iPhone with a Bluetooth keyboard and I use dictation. However, there are sometimes when I have to use the screen and I also use the iPhones built in screen reading software called voice over. If you don’t know what that is and you have an iPhone: go to settings, general, accessibility then look for voiceover. Tap on that. Turn voiceover on and if you want to know more, just ask. Especially, if you use your eyesight to navigate the phone.

Well, did you watch Friend With Benefit? Lisa indeed did meet her new friend Harper, voice by Kristen Bell. She is spoiled and really, that’s all you need to know about her and her father. I’m glad that Homer stood up for himself and Lisa, despite the reaction from Harper’s father. I certainly felt sorry for Lisa when Harper would always interrupt her when she tried to say something and that really bug me.😠

This week there are two birthdays to talk about, for two supporting cast members: Joe Mantegna and Maggie Roswell. They voice reoccurring characters on The Simpsons and have their own careers outside the series.

Joe Mantegna of course, voices the mob boss in the Springfield mafia Fat Toney and or Fit Fat Toney. Fat Toney first appeared in the Season 3 episode Bart The Murderer and last appeared in the Season 22 episode Donnie Fatso, where he was killed off and replaced by his cousin Fit Toney, now known as Fit Fat Toney. Some people have said that Fat Toney may have inspired the character Tony Soprano from the TV show The Sopranos, portrayed by James Gandolfini. I think maybe that’s true in a sense but it could also be a coincidence because The two characters sound so much alike, if you pay attension to the voices. All though, Tony soprano’s voice was a bit deeper because James Gandolfini’s voice is a bit lower then Joe Mantegna’s voice. Otherwise, they sound almost alike.

Joe turned 68 on Friday and besides The Simpsons he has a starring roll as FBI Special Agent David Rossi on the CBS show criminal minds. I used to watch it as much as I could and my favourite episode was from Season 4. It is about a serial killer portrayed by Alex O’Loughlin as Vincent, who would kill people with a knife. This includes his 24-year-old friend, which promps him to ask for help in stopping his homicidal tendencies via video tape. For the record, the episode is called the big wheel. The exception to his killing spree was a blind boy named Stanley he became close with, after murdering the boy’s Mother. My guess is that she is the first victim in the episode, as she is at work and she mistakingly refers to him as Robert.

For more about Joe Mantegna check out his website. http://joemantegna.com/ and you can also follow him on Twitter @JoeMantegna. I think there is a lot to learn about him, through both his Twitter page and other internet sources. Keep up all the great work on The Simpsons and with other TV shows and movies you are involved in and thanks for all the years of continued entertainment.

Maggie Roswell turned another year older yesterday and for her part, she voices a few recurring characters on The Simpsons. They include: Luann Van Houten, Mary Bailey, Helen Lovejoy, Elizabeth Hoover, Shary Bobbins and Maude Flanders to name a few. Of course, the last two I mentioned are deceased characters. Although Maude has reappeared in flashbacks and as her own ghost. I actually liked Maude because Maggie was able to make her sound the most normal and sweet out of all the characters she voices on The Simpsons. I guess that’s why she was chosen to be one of the supporting cast members, along with Pamela Hayden.

Let us not forget that she is also able to voice such a character as Helen Lovejoy, who is actually one of my least favorite characters of all on the show. This is because of her rather annoying way of saying the following phrase, which is her catch phrase “won’t someone please think of the children. “If you hear it once you’ll understand why I cannot stand that character. However, I don’t hold it against anybody for her existence. Like it or not, she’s important to the show and its cast of characters, as they all are to each other in Springfield.

Back to Maude flanders for a moment… I think if she was still alive she would have probably become one of the most loved characters, along with her husband at the time, Ned. I like her because she called him Nedy when other characters called him Ned. Once again, I don’t hold it against any of the Simpsons staff for killing off Maude when they did. Really, the only one who could have voiced Maude and given her her signature sound is Maggie, along with all her characters she voices.

Something else about Maude I have read and found to be untrue is that she never showed any emotion such as anger. Well, maybe she never got angry but she did show worry about Ned when he was missing in the episode In Marge We Trust. A list on the internet of the Top 15 most annoying characters, made her a part of the list along with Helen Lovejoy. The former, I can understand but the latter, no. Here is the link to the list. http://whatculture.com/tv/simpsons-15-annoying-characters-ever.php This list also included Lisa Simpson too and I disagree with that too. Also, if you take out the fact that Maude was Ned Flanders’s wife she would be just a nice lady next door but that wouldn’t have been as funny. She would have just been this nice lady who Marge would get along with and Homer would longingly lust after. Maybe she would have babysat Bart Lisa and Maggie. I’m just saying it could have been a possibility too but the character has turned out fine the way she has been.

Check out her website http://www.maggieroswell.com/. I took a brief look and I had no idea what she did outside The Simpsons and outside of her other work as an actress, before finding it on her Twitter page @MaggieRoswell. She is also a great singer and of course, she has show’n this talent off on The Simpsons especially during the first few seasons. Remember Shary Bobbins? You know? it was the episode where Homer and the kids were being especially lazy and Marge lost her hair? Okay, if that doesn’t ring a bell, it was the episode in which she shows up as the new nanny and encourages Bart and Lisa that household chores can be fun. She also changes the other citizens of Springfield to be less fat lazy and stupid, thanks to her gental nature. Albeit, but briefly.. It would be nice if she wasn’t killed at the end too and her and Groundskeeper Willie kissed and made up! 😞

Thanks for all the work you do, inside and outside The Simpsons and keep singing. That is also one of my favourite things to do too, as most of my Twitter followers and Facebook friends know. I also like voices and imitating different Voice timbers and dialects. I wish there was a way that I could tweet out my voice on Twitter using the iPhone or any iOS device! Maybe there is but I haven’t found it yet. I’d be tweeting out my impressions of varius Simpsons characters to many people, for fun and so I could show off my own voice talents.
Well that’s about it for this Simpsons Sunday post. In the mean time, I recommend checking out Chris Ladesma’s blog. He is the Music Editor for The Simpsons and has been since day 1.
http://simpsonsmusic500.wordpress.com/author/simpsonsmusic500/
Also, check out Yeardley Smith’s blog at http://gobbingoff.tumblr.com
Don’t forget about Marchez Vous, which is her women’s shoe designer company, which she started earlier in the decade. You can check out their website at
http://www.marchesvous.com
Additionally, for more news on The Simpsons, you can go to http://news.simpsonswiki.com/
You can also comment here or you can email me at blindgordie@gmail.com and I will reply as soon as I can to all messages I receive. If you follow me on Twitter or are my friend on Facebook you can comment directly to me that way too.
You can follow Simpsons Executive Producer Al Jean on Twitter and his Twitter handle is @AlJean.
He has ran the show since Season 13 and has ran it during Seasons 3 and 4.
Anyway, that is it for this weeks post. Talk to you again on Weather Wednesday.

The Music Teacher I’m Glad I Never Had

Hi folks and welcome to another Simpsons Sunday. The Simpsons are back tonight with a new episode entitled Friend With Benefit. I can’t wait to watch it because I have read about the plot in which Lisa meets someone new, who is entitled to a lot. You can see where this is going… Right?

This week it’s all about Mr. Largo, the music teacher at Springfield Elementary School. Most of you who are reading this know how much I loved taking music and music related classes at school. Really, that is one of the few talents I have that I really did well in, besides writing. Unfortunately, my spelling was less than desirable at times. Of course, with what I have now I can almost write any words I want using dictation and I can pretend to be the greatest writer in the world.

Of course, the main source of comedy with Mr. Largo is that he’s not very helpful to his students and ruins music class for everybody, including Lisa because he sucks at his job that he hates anyway. To be honest, I wish that he was a much nicer man than he is but it wouldn’t be as funny. Then again, I actually enjoyed music class and music in general and I still do today. I guess the only thing I hated was trying to actually read music using braille, which I couldn’t and still don’t really get the gist of. My problem is I couldn’t really transfer what I was reading using my fingers to my brain. I did and still do much better learning by ear, yet, I have retain some of my limited musical theory which I have learned. For example: I know basically 1/8 notes, quarter notes, half notes, etc and I can tell you what Key a song is in. The only thing that was a downfall was having to tell other musicians what the notes are because I wasn’t that patient and just wanted to get on with playing tunes on guitar and whale.

I’m glad the show has such good people like Alf Clausen and Chris Ladesma as music composers and editors respectively. My only question is do they have perfect pitch? I have always wondered about this with all musicians who don’t play drums or other tuneless percussion instruments. I wish I could be at a music spotting session one day, just so I could be there to hear how everything is put together for an episode. I’m sure I could talk music with some of the voice actors and maybe I could have a jam with them, if it is possible.

Other than that, not much I can say about Mr. Largo, other than he is the music teacher I’m glad I never had. Sometimes I cringe at hearing the kids playing their instruments because they are out of tune, with the exception of Lisa. This story will make why I just said what I said even clearer and I’ve told it before. But, I think it is worht repeating again, especially in this post about Mr. Largo.

when I was nine years old I and the rest of my homeroom class took recorder as our secondary musical instrument besides piano. Remember the recorder? You know… That little toy plastic instrument which sounds like a muffled flute but isn’t?

One of the songs we were tought to play that year was Claire de Lune, which is in the key of F natural but we were told to play f sharp as the root note in the melody. I found and still find this to be wrong and completely out of order in music education and I spoke up about this and was basically told to shut up and play it as I was told. Really? If I had sang like that I would be singled out as being out of tune and I knew better than that. The worst thing about it was that the lady who was teaching us recorder was also our piano teacher and a very nice lady. I think she knew I was right but she probably had to tow the line. If I was able to tell my nine-year-old self to talk to the Music Director of the school, I would have and I’m sure he would’ve understood. Of course, if Lisa Simpson was in a similar situation she would have also suffered the same reaction of shut up and do as you’re told. That is why I almost throw up when I hear any Mr. Largo directed musical presentation and at the same time, feel really sorry for Lisa because she has to also Grin and bear it, like I had to.

On another and sad note, it is the second anniversary of the death of Iron Mike Bensson. If you don’t know who he is, he worked mostly in the Western New York and for the last 18 years of his life at 97.7 HTZFM. He had been doing the afternoon drive and the morning show and during his shows he would play novelty songs at certain points. He even played It Was A Very Good Beer from the episode Duffless and Songs In The Key Of Springfield. He even did a segment called The Teaser, where he would play 3 songs and you had to guess what the common thread was that brought them together. Sometimes he would play a Homer Simpson drop or two then as well.

Unfortunately, he died on November 7th 2013, aged 60 of esophageal cancer just after his 60th birthday on October 17. I can say with all certainty that I and other listeners and friends all miss him equally. Maybe some of the Simpsons staff might have heard him somewhere in the northern US, mostly in Buffalo at 103.3 WPHD and later at 97.7 HTZFM, among other gigs. We miss you, you turd burglar, monkey slapper, poop shoot, Keagle beak, etc. Oh yeah, he encouraged his listeners to call him a funny name and he would respond with one back and he had a load of them and I just included his most common names. For some reason, I don’t remember him calling me any funny names but I know he loved all of his listeners equally! “AMF, stay off the pipe, don’t forget to wipe, peace, out.”
Well that’s about it for this Simpsons Sunday post. In the mean time, I recommend checking out Chris Ladesma’s blog. He is the Music Editor for The Simpsons and has been since day 1.
http://simpsonsmusic500.wordpress.com/author/simpsonsmusic500/
Also, check out Yeardley Smith’s blog at http://gobbingoff.tumblr.com
Don’t forget about Marchez Vous, which is her women’s shoe designer company, which she started earlier in the decade. You can check out their website at
http://www.marchesvous.com
Additionally, for more news on The Simpsons, you can go to http://news.simpsonswiki.com/
You can also comment here or you can email me at blindgordie@gmail.com and I will reply as soon as I can to all messages I receive. If you follow me on Twitter or are my friend on Facebook you can comment directly to me that way too.
You can follow Simpsons Executive Producer Al Jean on Twitter and his Twitter handle is @AlJean.
He has ran the show since Season 13 and has ran it during Seasons 3 and 4.
Anyway, that is it for this weeks post. Talk to you again on Weather Wednesday.

Favourite Mrs. Krabappel Moments

Hi folks and welcome to another Simpsons Sunday. It is the first of November and we have changed the clocks back an hour so, winter is coming and it blows. I watched some of the latest Treehouse Of Horror and I expected more of a dramatic killing of Bart, from Sideshow Bob. However, I’m glad the little guy is still with us and entertaining us, along with his Dad, Homer.

This week I’m going to list my favourite moments from Mrs. Krabappel’s time on The Simpsons. They are mainly from the first few seasons and I do not count any of the Treehouse Of Horror in any of my list because they stand on their own.

The first one is where she comforts Bart, after he makes an effort to pass the fourth grade and cries when he is failed, again. She passes him, after he makes a reference to something that happened in 1754 and he kisses her and then regrets it.

The next one is when she is stood up by Woodrow and she cries. This is of course, after she makes Bart stay for detention and he writes a fake love letter as her potential lover, Woodrow. Of course, he feels bad about it and the family write her a goodbye letter and she and Bart make it a date, with detention outside.

My next favourite moment is actually from Season 21, when the class spike her coffee, in order to get her layed back. She gets wild and then gets fired. After this, Bart is the only one who actually comes to see her, because he didn’t mean for it to turn out that way.

My final favourite moment in her life is when her and Ned Flanders meet and then become a couple and marry. Unfortunately, Marcia Wallace’s death in 2013 ended that nice relationship for them both. It’s a shame that her death occurred because I’m sure there could have been many funny plots for her and Ned to play a central roll in. There are many more great moments which involve her but I just came up with these ones as I wrote this.

On the birthday front, Dan Castellaneta turned another year older on Thursday. He is of course, the voice of Homer, Krusty The Clown, Sideshow Mel, Barney, Abe Simpson and many others. There are times when you can hear his real voice come out as minor characters. For example: in the episode New Kid On The Block his character says to Homer “please don’t take the steam tray… Sir.” Nancy Cartwright describes him as an incredibly nice guy and I believe it, from his interviews I have heard and not from his character portrayals or voices. For example: I don’t think that he is anything like Homer or Krusty. Those two characters can be impatient and pushy at times and I can’t see Dan being like that at all.

Another birthday of note is Seth MacFarlane, who guest starred in the Season 24 finale Dangers On A Train as Ben. Of course, he also created and voices many characters on Family Guy too.

Finally, Marcia Wallace, would have been 73 today. Need I say more? I still believe it when those who tweeted about her being very kind, around the day she passed away are spot on. I’ve never met her but I can tell mostly from how she speaks during her interviews and how she answers questions. It’s a ral shame that we have been robbed of her wonderful character Edna Krabappel by her unfortunate death, 2 years ago October 25th. We miss you Marcia!
Well that’s about it for this Simpsons Sunday post. In the mean time, I recommend checking out Chris Ladesma’s blog. He is the Music Editor for The Simpsons and has been since day 1.
http://simpsonsmusic500.wordpress.com/author/simpsonsmusic500/
Also, check out Yeardley Smith’s blog at http://gobbingoff.tumblr.com
Don’t forget about Marchez Vous, which is her women’s shoe designer company, which she started earlier in the decade. You can check out their website at
http://www.marchesvous.com
Additionally, for more news on The Simpsons, you can go to http://news.simpsonswiki.com/
You can also comment here or you can email me at blindgordie@gmail.com and I will reply as soon as I can to all messages I receive. If you follow me on Twitter or are my friend on Facebook you can comment directly to me that way too.
You can follow Simpsons Executive Producer Al Jean on Twitter and his Twitter handle is @AlJean.
He has ran the show since Season 13 and has ran it during Seasons 3 and 4.
Anyway, that is it for this weeks post. Talk to you again on Weather Wednesday.