Upcoming Episodes - January 13-February 3

1/13 - A Test Before Trying (RABF03) Springfield Elementary will be closed for having low test scores unless Bart, who missed the test, does well enough on the makeup test to raise the school's average; Homer plants a discarded parking meter at various places around town to earn some additional income

1/20 - Penny-Wiseguys (PABF19) Homer's new bowling teammate is Fat Tony's accountant, whom Tony puts in charge of the Legitimate Businessmen's Club while on jury duty, but he wants Homer to stop him from killing other people; Lisa grows insects as a food source to combat iron deficiency

1/27 - The Changing of the Guardian (RABF04) A tornado leads Homer and Marge to look for potential guardians for their kids (including Homer's half-brother Herb) should something happen to them, but Marge has a problem with the couple that Bart and Lisa want them to choose

2/3 - Treehouse of Horror XXIII (PABF17) Springfield is under attack from a miniature black hole; a spoof of "Paranormal Activity"; Bart goes back in time to 1974 and ends up with Artie Ziff as his father...that is, unless the "Simp-Mayans" were right about their prediction that the world would end in 2012

THE SIMPSONS ARE GOING TO...THE OSCARS...FOR REAL, THIS TIME: "Maggie Simpson in: The Longest Daycare" has been nominated for an Oscar for Animated Short Film. The Oscars, unlike the Emmys, give out their animation awards on the "main telecast"; also, unlike the Emmys, no more than two people can accept an Oscar in this category (in this case, should it win, director David Silverman would probably accept alone, as there are five credited writers).

Projected/rumored upcoming episodes:

2/10 - Hardly Kirk-ing

2/17 - Love is a Many-Splintered Thing (a (late) Valentine's Day episode, where Mary Spuckler returns to Springfield)

2/24 - I wouldn't be surprised if they try to get "Angry Dad: The Movie" out of syndication to air it; anyway, since it is Oscar night, expect a repeat or a pre-emption

On Fri, 11 Jan 2013, Don Del Grande wrote:

I knew someone who has been nominated 2 or 3 times, worked for the NFB here in Canada at the time, it figures. The first time she lost to another NFB film, I forget the other times. So we didn't get an Oscar Winning Wendy that first time.

She told me they got to sit further back, which makes sense, not everyone can sit in the front rows, but also a reflection of the "lesser category".

Michael

Michael Black wrote:

I might be confusing this with the Emmys, but wasn't there one year where they gave out two or three of the "lesser category" Oscars by having the presenter in the aisle near the back rather than up on stage? (IIRC, among other reasons, it was supposed to speed up the program by not requiring the winner to go all the way up to the stage to accept the Oscar.)

-- Don

On Sat, 12 Jan 2013, Don Del Grande wrote:

I don['t remember that, but I can see it happening. I don't think they like those lesser categories, at least in terms of the broadcast. I'm sure they've tried to streamline it, I'm sure one year they did something quite different but I cant' remember what.

Michael