FOX considering "Simpsons" TV channel?

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/09/could-homer-simpson-get-his-own-channel.html

Could Homer Simpson get his own channel? -- Joe Flint

Ready for a channel devoted to nothing but "The Simpsons?"

Don't laugh, it is one idea News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey threw out when speaking Tuesday at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media Communications & Entertainment Conference in Beverly Hills.

Noting that "The Simpsons" shows no sign of slowing down as it prepares to start its 23rd season on News Corp.'s Fox network, Carey said the company is starting to have internal discussions about how to create additional revenue streams for the animated hit that goes beyond reruns on TV stations and DVD sales.

Any effort at creating a platform just for "The Simpsons" may have to wait for the show to stop producing new episodes. Because the show is still in production after more than two decades, the rerun deals done years ago are still in effect. Once the show ends, so-called second cycle sales of repeat episodes can be sold. Although some shows might seem stale after 20 years, "The Simpsons" continues to be a solid performer.

Carey said there have been a "number of meetings" to determine how to capitalize on its library of episodes of "The Simpsons" and he mentioned a digital channel featuring nothing but Homer and the gang as being a possibility. Carey said it is incumbent on the company to take advantage of a show that is "unique in television with a volume too that is unprecedented."

The rest of the session with Carey offered little in new headlines. He again reiterated that Fox News is undervalued compared to most other cable networks and said that after ESPN, it has the most value to distributors.

The topic of the phone hacking scandal at News Corp., which led to the closing of the company's News of the World tabloid and has put a cloud over company Chairman Rupert Murdoch and his son, deputy chief operating officer James Murdoch, did not come up for discussion, at least in the portion that was streamed on the Internet.

And on day 12 they just restart from the beginning?

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David wrote:

What would it air?

Even with 500 episodes, and even if you limit it to 10 different episodes a day, you would repeat the cycle every two months.

-- Don

In article , Don Del Grande wrote:

No single viewer will watch it all hours of the day. So perhaps it could be something like this:

Day 1: Eps 1-12 Day 2: Eps 3-14 Day 3: Eps 5-16 and so on

There's overlap, but if you tune in the same hour each day, you'll see all the episodes in order. So that hour will take 8 months to finish its cycle. But they'll probably do something different on weekends, so it will take almost a year.

I remember when I was a teenager and watched Star Trek reruns every night. There were only 79 episodes, so it cycled every 4 months, yet there were millions of fans watch those reruns over and over. That's how I ended up knowing practically all the dialogue by heart.

They'd probably do something like

Day 1: episodes 1-4, 101-104, 201-204, 301-304 Day 2: episodes 5-8 and so on

They could also mix in other shows with "Simpsons" ties, like "The Critic" and "Mission Hill," and "Tracey Ullman" would be the most obvious one. And they could do theme days. Or run it like a music video channel and have the more popular episodes in heavier rotation.

In article , David wrote:

Right. It would probably be as much an "all Simpsons" channel as A&E is just arts and entertainment and AMC is classic movies.

It might end up being a 24-hour version of Adult Swim, with a concentration of Simpsons episodes.

On Fri, 16 Sep 2011 23:18:54 -0400, Barry Margolin wrote:

For some of us, that would be enough....

They'd probably do something like

Day 1: episodes 1-4, 101-104, 201-204, 301-304 Day 2: episodes 5-8 and so on

They could also mix in other shows with "Simpsons" ties, like "The Critic" and "Mission Hill," and "Tracey Ullman" would be the most obvious one. And they could do theme days. Or run it like a music video channel and have the more popular episodes in heavier rotation.

It'd be a stupid channel, but airing the episodes will depend on how many times they'll repeat the same ones throughout a 24-hour day. It can be anywhere from 3 to 8 airings in that period of time, depending on whether they'd want to do it in 3-hour blocks (6 episodes followed by 7 repeat airings each day) or 8 hour blocks (16 episodes followed by 2 repeat airings each day) or somewhere in between.

At the minimum they could stretch it to about 2 1/2 years before repeating everything from start all over again, and at the maximum, it would last about 6 months.

Don Del Grande wrote in news:[email]:

Don't forget the movie every now and then. And the Sunday morning informercials...with Simpsons merchandise.

Wiseguy wrote:

The infomercials run every night from 4 to 10 AM, like on GSN.

-- Don

Don Del Grande wrote

All I know is that every actor and actress at the Toronto film festival recently would kill for an easy job like those people who do the voices on The Simpsons. It's a 4 hour week and they get paid very well.

I saw a CBC show on the Montreal Comedy Festival where they had the crew up on stage and the guy who does Homer mubles into the mic and without a microphone, would probably be unintelligible. His Homer isn't something that you can "yell".

And to think, one of the creators who left the show back in '93, is paid $10 million a year! Talk about living the good life! CBS 60 Minutes did a segment on him.

Don Del Grande wrote in news:[email]:

ho

And documentaries.

The Making of the Simpsons The Making of the Simpsons Movie The Making of the Episode "fill in the blank" Biographies of all the voice actors

Christmas episodes repeated all day Dec 24-25 Treehouse of Horror episodes repeated all day Oct 25-31

Though Kyle is a popular name with children whose mothers watched soap operas, I have noticed that Bartholomew (Bart) remains less than popular.

It must be a Simpsons thing.

Hey, we can finally get to see all of the episodes of Wiggim, PI and The Love-Matic Grandpa! And the Itchy & Scratchy & Friends Hour on Saturday mornings! B^)

On Sat, 17 Sep 2011 06:46:56 GMT, Wiseguy wrote:

If nothing else, they could also drag out the old Ullman clips that haven't been seen in years and maybe run some of the episodes with the DVD commentary playing.

-lugnut

lugnut wrote

I don't think that people would get into the primitive animation that the Simpsons had back in the Tracy Ullman era.

On the other hand, when asked at work what to do about the horrible webinar system we had at work, the President of my company asked "What's wrong with it?" "It's cheap".

And I said "That's right! Check out South Park! It's that bad!"

And the analogy hit home. Suddenly he knew what I was talking about.

Kenny wrote

When I took over the idea of Webinars at my company and sought a better solution, my President asked me why.

I used a perfect analogy.

"We look like a bad South Park show Ray!" "Jittery and stupid"

Then he said "But I like South Park!"

I said, you don't matter. It's what others see.

Adding that I like South Park as well.

Funny now South Park's shitty animation is acceptable, but if you watched a 1990 vintage Simpsons, it sucks.

TROLL-O-METER

           5*    6*   *7
      4*                  *8
   3*                        *9
  2*                          *10
 1*              |             *stuporous
 0*             -*-            *catatonic
  *              |\            *comatose
   *               \          *clinical death
    *               \        *biological death
      *             _\/    *demonic apparition
          *     *     *damned for all eternity

On 09/16/2011 03:10 PM, David wrote:

That's been my position for the last several years.

How bad can it stretch? Conan O'Brien reruns, James L. Brooks shows, a reality show on what?

On Sun, 18 Sep 2011, Remysun wrote:

"Who Wants to Be The Simpsons?", a reality/talent show to choose people to play The Simpsons in a live action spin-off.

They can resurrect that old Don Adams show where contestants played out old movie scenes, except this time it would be strictly episodes of The Simpsons. Rick Miller could host, aunt Julia would be so pleased.

Some sort of game show where the winner wins a guest spot on The Simpsons. Maybe that one would be trying to find someone who is outrageous or has some unusual job, so they'd bring that to the show.

"The Simpsons Trivia Show", set it up like Hollywood Squares, or $10,000 Pyramid. But every question was related to The Simpsons.

"The Simpsons Variety Show Weekly", where the cartoon family would host a variety show of real life talent. This would not only spread the brand out further, but bring variety back to tv.

Michael

On Sun, 18 Sep 2011 12:30:45 -0400, Michael Black wrote:

If they can get the license "Simpsons Jeopardy" can be a reality.

VH1-type countdown shows - top 100 episodes, top 100 moments, top 100 guest stars, top 100 d'ohs. And there's three seasons' worth of "Herman's Head" reruns no one is using.

fratermus wrote:

Damn right. Way to kill the franchise, guys. Al, I'm looking at YOU...

On Fri, 16 Sep 2011 16:10:03 -0400, David wrote:

I smell a spin-off.

David wrote in news:[email]:

I'm in. For as long as The Simpsons has been in syndication, it's always been scheduled opposite the local news or the national news, so I've never been able to watch it. I'd love to see some of those really old episodes again.

Tony Calguire wrote in news:j5c0b0$2r4$[email]:

Too bad there aren't recording devices available.

On Wed, 21 Sep 2011 10:56:08 GMT, Wiseguy wrote:

Oh no! Beta!