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Who is this really? Is it Lenny? It sounds like Lenny.
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"Chris Fewer" wrote in message news:b0kvmn$8da$[email]...
Tue,
lol! In my opinion, the people at 'The Simpsons" actually do read (or atleast skim through) all of the e-mails they get through Homer's e-mail address, and then have a variety of predefined messages that they send back to each person. It takes normally a few days to get a response. I think this was a clever, cool way for the developers to get in touch with the viewers and perhaps gain some feedback. If it was simply an automated response, why would they have made the e-mail address such a big deal in the episode it was released on (remember, Homer spelled it out and everything). Either way, its cool!
Because announcing something begs the audience to see if it works. I've read that in the early days of TV, they would just use a random phone number, and people would call it, causing trouble for the person there. So they moved to a number that couldn't possibly be legit. I'd think the same thing with addresses; they make one up so it won't bother someone who lives at a real address.
Because email addresse formats aren't as consistent as phone numbers, the only way to ensure that they don't give out a legit email address is to get a real one. It's also not the same as giving out a network phone number, because that needs equipment or people to answer, while they can just let an email box get clogged up.
Actually, I think they did this to see what kinds of fools would email.
But since this is likely to get nonsense email, it's not like an email address on an official website for contacting the show, they could have some fun with it. WIth computers, it's easy to have a program that automatically responds, either with a random response, or one of a number of responses based on some keywords in the email. For that matter, the program could watch for certain things in the incoming email, to get a concept of what silliness people are sending in.
But they don't have to read it, and I suspect they don't want to. If they wanted feedback, they'd go about it in normal fashion.
What people ought to try is sending real mail to the show, address it to one of the characters, and see what happens. I suspect that is a less likely occurance. I once wrote "Larry, Darryl and Darryl" on the Newhart show (the credits went by too fast to get their complete names), commenting on one of the episodes that they were prominent in, as if they were real people. They sent back a photo of themselves in costume, and each had written a litle bit that responded to my letter. Another time I wrote Henson Associates about a PSA some of the Muppets had done, and got back an autographed photo of Fozzie Bear (the autograph had to be legit, since it was before Jim Henson died). It would be interesting to know what would happen if someone actually wrote Lisa, or Ralph.
Like in the movie "The Last Action Hero" when Austin O'Brien tries to convince Arnold Schwarzenegger that they must be in a movie because it is physically impossible for every phone in L.A. to begin "555". . .
----- Richard Schultz [email] Department of Chemistry, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel Opinions expressed are mine alone, and not those of Bar-Ilan University ----- If you can keep your expectations tiny You'll go through life without being so whiny. -- Matt Groening