Latest news with #BartSimpson
Daily Mirror
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Iconic The Simpsons scene could have been very different if problem hadn't occurred
An all-time great joke from The Simpsons could have been very different, with showrunner and writer Bill Oakley sharing what the original end to the moment was meant to be An iconic scene in hit animated comedy series The Simpsons was meant to be very different, but one thing changed it. The legendary programme has been running since December 1989 and shows no signs of stopping, although fans would be the first to admit the quality has dropped off since the glory days. Even then, the show receives millions of views on each broadcast. Former writers for The Simpsons have since shared some behind the scenes bits and pieces, with one writer sharing a different ending was planned for an all-time great moment. Costs behind the scenes led to the joke being rewritten, and the scene is arguably better off without the original plan. Former showrunner and Simpsons writer Bill Oakley confirmed the show's use of the Iron Butterfly song, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, was because of song pricing. Another song had been in mind for the Season 7, Episode 4 release, Bart Sells His Soul, but the first choice was simply too expensive to warrant using. The hilarious scene where Bart Simpson switches the church organ music to the Iron Butterfly song was originally meant to feature a classic song from British rock band Led Zeppelin. Clearing the song would have been too expensive, and so the team opted for Iron Butterfly. Taking to X, Oakley wrote: "It was originally 'Stairway to Heaven' by Led Zeppelin but the music was too expensive so we had to go with this more obscure track." Fans believe the scene is better with the Iron Butterfly track and say it fits the moment perfectly. One user wrote: "Much better with Iron Butterfly." Another added: "This ended up being much better for comedy purposes." A third wrote: "This was the better choice. The song name is still biblical but not as obvious and the fact the real song is 17 minutes makes it way funnier than an 8 minute one. "Also for the longest time, I thought the song was called In the Garden of Eden until I looked it up." Other users have credited The Simpsons with keeping the Iron Butterfly song in popular culture. One user suggested: "I feel like I grew up thinking this song was more popular than it was because of this scene specifically." Another shared: "I never knew it was a real song until this moment." A third user suggested it added new depths to Bart Simpson, with many fans praising the writers for the last-minute switch. One fan wrote: "The fact that Bart seems so cultured in Rock Music to orchestrate such a stunt in the first place." Another added: "I think the alternative was for the best because having it be a 17 minute song makes the prank more hilarious."
Belfast Telegraph
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Belfast Telegraph
Famous east Belfast home covered in art sold to new owner
The eclectic style on display at 9 Ardenvohr Street Bart Simpson features on the exterior of 9 Ardenvohr Street The exterior of 9 Ardenvohr Street in east Belfast is lavishly decorated A famous east Belfast home covered in art may soon have a new owner after a sale was agreed on the property. The house at 9 Ardenvohr Street, which has extravagant artwork adorning its exterior walls and gardens, has had its online listing updated to say 'sale agreed'. When it was initially listed in May, it was inviting offers of around £119,950. The exterior of 9 Ardenvohr Street in east Belfast is lavishly decorated Ardenvohr Street is located between the Woodstock and Ravenhill Roads, a short walk from Ormeau Park. Watson Property, which is handling the sale, said it was an 'opportunity to purchase an artistic and iconic home' which has the 'potential to modernise to suit your needs'. The art, which has 'changed and evolved' over time includes letters and patterning painted in blue, navy and white on the outside walls, a picture of Bart Simpson, an analogue clock, a statue of cartoon character Betty Boop and mannequin legs. Bart Simpson features on the exterior of 9 Ardenvohr Street There are also hedges which have been trimmed into the names 'Joe' and 'Floyd'. The back garden features wooden decking and other garden furniture alongside sofas and a range of plants. 9 Ardenvohr Street in east Belfast Watch: Firefighters battle to keep homes cool as thousands attend Corcrain bonfire The house is well-known in the east of the city, and its sale has attracted interest. The PropertyPal listing of the house records over 133,000 views since it was first listed.
The Guardian
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Did The Simpsons really just kill off a major character?
The Simpsons is getting experimental in its old age. With 36 seasons complete and a renewal through a 40th secured, the show has entered territory previously occupied mostly by non-prime-time stalwarts like Saturday Night Live and Meet the Press – television institutions that run for much longer than the typical sitcom or drama. Perhaps conscious that the animated comedy has now lasted five to 10 times longer than a normal sitcom, the 36th season has repeatedly toyed with the idea of what a series finale might look like, even though no such thing is anywhere in sight. For the season's premiere back in the fall, it created a fake series finale, hosted by Conan O'Brien, that featured forever-10-year-old Bart turning 11 and reacting badly to a number of finale-style abrupt changes to the status quo. And in the last episode of season 36, Estranger Things, the show flashed forward to a future where family matriarch Marge has passed away and a gradual estrangement has developed between now-adult Bart and Lisa. (Homer remains alive, with the show repeatedly underlining how unlikely it seems that he would outlive his patient, cautious and seemingly healthy spouse.) As fans caught up with the season on streaming, the finale has created a mild headline-generating controversy over whether Marge is 'really' dead, most likely among less consistent viewers who might dip back in occasionally (or get their news about the show from the internet, rather than watching it). Of course, she's not; Estranger Things is one of many flash-forward episodes the show has done over the years, generally understood to be alternate versions of the future, not pieces of a vast and interconnected timeline. The show's flashbacks are similarly intentionally contradictory; early on, Marge and Homer were young parents in the 1980s; as the show got older and they stayed the same age, subsequent flashbacks were brought further and further into the timeline. None of this makes headline news, even on a slow entertainment day. But one reason 'Marge is dead' has seemingly caught fire as an internet curiosity may have to do with the unexpectedly mortality creeping in around the edge of the show. Anyone who has watched The Simpsons in recent years, especially if they've seen a new episode juxtaposed with an older one, would have to take note of how different the characters sound. Animation may be able to preserve a character's basic look and inure them from ageing (apart from the shifts in animation technique that present subtle changes in design or movement). Animation still can't defeat, however, what the show once called the ravages of time. The Simpsons has employed a core of voice actors for nearly four decades, and who among us sound precisely the same as we did 40 years ago, if we're so lucky to have that comparison point? Marge is the character where this is most noticeable – more so than characters whose voices have been replaced by new actors for reasons of racial sensitivity. (This just means that Black actors now play Black characters, and so on.) Those newer performers bring their own style to the character, however subtle the change. But Julie Kavner, the distinctive actor who has given one of the great long-term voiceover performances of TV history, turns 75 this year, while Marge is forever on the cusp of 40. Certain line readings will sound very close to the 'original' Marge voice. More often, though, we're getting a raspier, scratchier version that sounds more like Marge's occasionally seen mother (also voiced by Kavner in a more whispery register). Harry Shearer, who voices more than a dozen major supporting characters including Mr Burns, Principal Skinner and Ned Flanders, also sounds deeper and older in recent years. That's all on top of the show's creative changes – some of which have been quite good. Under showrunner Matt Selman, the show has upped its game in recent years, actively pursuing more ambitious, format-challenging and emotionally resonant stories. Not all of them are golden-years-level funny. (Few episodes of anything are.) But the creators feel engaged with their institution, and sometimes they've even taken advantage of the modified vocals; in one recent holiday episode, Ned Flanders sounded genuinely grief-stricken in part due to Shearer's inability to hit the higher range of his usual tone. Even when the actors' changes do sound jarring, obviously it's not anyone's fault. People age – and IP, at least lately, seems to insist on defying that process, creating a difficult-to-resolve conflict. The show obviously isn't ever going to permanently kill off any of the family members, but at some point, they may be in the position of hiring someone new to voice Marge, or augmenting the performance with AI. The finale already introduced a new voice for Bart's best friend Milhouse, following the retirement of longtime voice artist Pamela Hayden. She reasonably concluded that continuing to play a 10-year-old boy well into her 70s wouldn't make much sense. Maybe that's why the most poignant element of Estranger Things isn't the death of Marge, which is handled lightly, avoiding the immediate devastation of grief with just a brief cursory shot of her funeral, and ending the episode with a short scene of her happily looking down upon her family from heaven, where she clinches with longtime crush Ringo Starr. Rather, the emotional core of the episode is the sequence in which Bart and Lisa abruptly grow out of their beloved Itchy and Scratchy cartoons after realizing the show is now also marketed toward babies, with cutesy versions of the characters adorning little sister Maggie's pyjamas. In true Simpsons fashion, this is also the funniest passage of the episode, with spot-on observations about marketing, kids' shifting tastes in popular culture and defensiveness about liking stuff that's for 'babies', complete with a spoof of a memorably emotional scene from Toy Story 2. Despite the show's jokes, the idea of the Bart/Lisa bond breaking over Itchy and Scratchy, and Marge's distress over it, is a potent one, maybe because it's precisely the kind of uncharacteristic change alluded to in the season premiere. The Simpsons has been lampshading its ability to reset its characters for decades at this point; that's the connective tissue between its heritage as a sitcom from another age, and as a cartoon across the ages. In Estranger Things, it's depicting a natural process less seismic but no less constant than death: letting go of once-beloved media and the real-world habits that accompany it. Plenty of fans will have the opportunity to let go of The Simpsons, whether by chance or by choice. The show itself, good as it sometimes is, can only play at that farewell process, experimenting with what-ifs typically subsumed into the status quo. I'm not personally eager for the show to end; my daughter still eagerly watches it, and that brought me back into the newer episodes. But there does seem to be a denial of impermanence, maybe even some frustration with that, under the show's surface. The real question isn't whether Marge Simpson will live on, but how long the show will keep contemplating endings it can't have.
National Post
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- National Post
Marge Simpson lives to die another day
Marge Simpson is dead. Kind of. Well, technically she kind of died a month ago — but fans of The Simpsons are still outraged at the prospect. In the Season 36 finale of The Simpsons, titled 'Estranger Things,' a sequence set 35 years into the future reveals that the blue-haired matriarch has died. A funeral scene shows the family at Marge's grave, and we hear a parody song from Sarah McLachlan reveal that Bart and Lisa have grown apart — despite their mother's efforts. Article content Article content Lisa is the NBA commissioner, and Bart is running an unlicensed retirement home, where his father lives. Marge, meanwhile, is in heaven and married to her longtime crush, Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, who evidently has a fondness for a buffet with a shrimp tower. Article content Article content The flash-forward sequence, which aired in May on Fox and continues to stream on Disney+, went viral again on social media this past week. Article content 'OMG THEY KILLED MARGE it's a sad day for us Simpsons lovers,' one person, who goes by @DecruzJemma, posted on X. Article content 'I haven't even watched The Simpsons in 10+ years but they really killed MARGE?!' another person, who uses the handle @jenniferx30, wrote on the platform. Article content A third person raged, 'WHY DIDN'T SOMEBODY TELL ME THAT MARGE WAS DEAD?!?!?' Article content It was apparently all quite distressing. Article content But since Marge's death happens in a storyline set 35 years from now, upcoming episodes — and seasons — won't likely be affected. Marge and her towering blue beehive will probably be around for plenty more Springfield-based hijinks. Article content Article content Julie Kavner, who has voiced the character since the show debuted in 1989, remains very much alive. And Fox has renewed The Simpsons for four more years, bringing the animated series up to its 40th season. Article content In an interview with People magazine, showrunner and executive producer Matt Selman addressed the 'Estranger Things' episode and what would happen to the show if any of the main cast members were to die. Article content 'That I'm in super denial about,' he said. Article content He added: 'I just hope it's just a regular episode with no winky-winky stuff at all. Just a great family story, just like a classic story that's just funny and involves the whole family and doesn't feel like it needs to wrap up anything or change anything or tie anything up or be magic or talk to the audience directly.'
CTV News
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Marge Simpson isn't dead yet, so everyone can calm down
Marge feels an overwhelming dread of the empty nest in the "A Mid-Childhood Night's Dream" episode of "The Simpsons." (FOX via CNN Newsource) There was a death of a beloved character on the Season 36 finale of 'The Simpsons' last month that people are still grieving. But in the colorfully animated world of Springfield, it's probably safe to save our tears for now. In an episode titled 'Estranger Things,' the fate of matriarch Marge Simpson is foreshadowed. A flash-forward 35 years in the future shows a successful Lisa working as the commissioner of the NBA. Bart is running an unlicensed retirement home, where their father Homer lives, paid for by Lisa. The siblings have drifted apart after they stop watching 'The Itchy & Scratchy Show' together. A funeral scene reveals that Marge has passed away. The now-adult Simpson kids stand by her grave site with a tombstone that reads, 'Beloved wife, mother and pork-chop seasoner.' After Lisa finds a video from the past in which her mother advises her children to remain close to each other. Lisa and Bart reunite and their mother looks on from heaven. 'I'm so happy my kids are close again,' Marge says in her afterlife, where it is revealed that she has married her longtime crush, Beatle Ringo Starr. 'Love, we'll be late for the Heaven Buffett,' Starr tells her. 'There's a shrimp tower.' 'Okay, Ringo,' Marge tells him. 'I'm just so glad that we're allowed to marry different people in Heaven.' The internet was not happy. 'OMG THEY KILLED MARGE 😭 it's a sad day for us Simpsons lovers,' one person posted on X. The show - and Marge - aren't going anywhere anytime soon. 'The Simpsons,' the longest running animated series in television history, has been renewed for four more years. By Lisa Respers France.
