Upcoming Episodes plus STUFF for "Marge and Homer Turn a Couple Play" (HABF16)

5/28 - PRE-EMPTED for the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race (western stations will air local programming after the race)

6/4 - Million Dollar Abie (HABF09) Thanks to Grampa, the new "professional football" (don't call it NFL) team won't be in Springfield, so the town takes it out on him, but when his attempt at assisted suicide is stopped by Chief Wiggum, he decides to make the most of his remaining life, starting with becoming a bullfighter - and by coincidence, there's a bullring in Springfield that was going to be a football stadium.

HEY, WHO CHANGED THE OPENING: The first time HABF08 aired on Fox, the live-action opening was used; however, when it aired on 5/21, an animated opening was used with changed blackboard and couch openings: Blackboard: I WILL NOT LAMINATE DOG DOO Couch: A roasting spit comes out of the wall and through the couch, while the floor opens up to reveal fire; the spit rotates the couch, and everyone on it, over the flames (repeat of GABF08)

Fox announced on Saturday that "The War at Home" has been renewed for a second season, but did not say what its time slot would be; this will be known when Fox announces its full fall schedule on Thursday. (Then again, remember what happened last year, when Fox announced that Sundays at 7:00 would be "animation repeats", only for Fox to put Malcolm in the Middle into the time slot once football season ended (not only that, but on Fox NFL doubleheader Sundays, they aired Malcolm reruns in the west at that time.)

OOPS! Twenty minutes into "Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story", HABF06 ran for about four minutes - getting rid of the entire Stewie and Brian in the bar scene (at least on the San Francisco FOX station). Something tells me that was not a coincidence.

STUFF for "Marge and Homer Turn a Couple Play" (HABF16) ------------------------------------------------------- Written by Joel H. Cohen Directed by Bob Anderson Special Guest Voices: Staecy Keach, Mandy Moore, Marcia Wallace Also Starring: Tress MacNeille, Russi Taylor, Karl Wiedergott Blackboard: HAVE A GREAT SUMMER, EVERYONE Couch: Everybody runs as couches and bar stools attack (repeat of GABF20) Overseas Animation: Rough Draft TV Rating: TV-PG-SV

REFERENCES Jumbotron, Diamond Vision (Jumbo-Vision scoreboard) 1F20 (Homer as a marriage counselor) AABF07 (Isotopes doing well)

REVIEW: B-minus - it's hard to find something good about a re-used plot, and throwing a baseball player and his wife into the story doesn't make "Secrets of a Successful Marriage" any better.

DYNs ...KBBL is 970 on the AM dial? ...when the national anthem ends, it's 7:20 PM? ...Lisa's "2nd Grade Spelling Bee Champion" award is signed by "principal/judge" Seymour Skinner and "judge" Edna Krabappel?

GOOFS / FREEZE FRAME / WHATNOT When Homer emptied the bag full of baseballs, more baseballs ended up on the floor than could have possibly been in the bag.

The national anthem ended at 7:20 PM; by the time Buck came up to bat later in the game, it should have been dark, but there is still light in the sky.

The "Hutch" credits: Hunch - Tony Huncharella Written by J.D. Salinger Gloria Huncharella - Gwyneth Paltrow City of New York - City of Lethbridge, Alberta Bystander #2 - Sir Anthony Hopkins Furious Bowler - The Late George C. Scott Guy Who Turned Out To Be That Other Guy - Heidi Klum

-- Don S1.1 MAG+++ LIS++ BAR+ SKI+ MrsK+ MissH+ P&S# FLA- (heresy!) f+++ n+++ Ilps(w) $+++ M44 Not much of a cliffhanger, if you ask me...

In alt.tv.simpsons, on the "Upcoming Episodes plus STUFF for "Marge and Homer Turn a Couple Play" (HABF16)" thread, Don Del Grande wrote:

Fox's proposed schedule was printed in Friday's paper where I live. Here's the Sunday lineup:

Fall:

7:00 -- Comedy rerun 7:30 -- Another comedy rerun 8:00 -- The Simpsons 8:30 -- American Dad 9:00 -- Family Guy 9:30 -- The War at Home

January: (Fox is keeping with its split-season approach, apparently)

7:00 -- Reruns, reruns, reruns! 7:30 -- King of the Hill 8:00 -- The Simpsons 8:30 -- American Dad 9:00 -- Family Guy 9:30 -- The War at Home

Something tells me that this was a West Coast phenomenon. I was in and out of the living room at the time, so it's possible that I missed it, but I don't remember "The Seemingly Never-Ending Story" interrupting "Family Guy." In fact, I do remember a bar scene. It's the one where Stewie and Brian get wasted, stumble out of the bar, only do barrel back into it again with their car, right? I even remember a few lines of the dialogue:

Barkeep: [indicating Stewie] Is he eighteen? Brian: You realize the drinking age is twenty-one, right?

In article , Benjamin Robinson wrote:

Sounds like it might have been a San Francisco-only phenomenon: the bar scene ran uninterrupted on KTTV in Los Angeles.

Benjamin Robinson wrote:

Note that on Fox NFL doubleheader days (that aren't also postseason baseball days), "The O.T." (the Fox postgame show) airs until 8 PM in the Eastern and Central time zones. I'm also a little surprised they don't list "King of the Hill" by name for 7:30.

Makes sense - "American Idol" and "24" don't start until "the second half of the season". (Also note that Fox said they would air comedy reruns - and animated ones at that - on Sundays at 7:00 in the second half of the current season, only to start airing new episodes of "Malcolm in the Middle" there.)

And here's an upcoming episode addition: 6/11 will be "Kiss Kiss Bang Bangalore" (the power plant in India / Richard Dean Anderson episode).

-- Don