The Simpsons return with season 23!

D'Oh! Waiting some time for this, but 'The Simpsons' returned with the first episode of their 23rd season this sunday, Woohoo! The last episode, 'The Ned-liest Catch' aired May 22 on Fox.

As always, this season will see it's share of voice actors doing guest appearances. Among them Joan Rivers, Andy Garcia, Jeremy Irons, Michael Cera, Jane Lynch, and Bryan Craston of 'Breaking Bad'. Kiefer Sutherland appeared in the first episode this week, called 'The Falcon and the D'Ohman' (episode #NABF16). He did the voice of Wayne, the new security guard at the Nuclear power plant where Homer ehm...'works'. Unlike Larry (the previous guard who now resides at the 'crazy house') Wayne doesn't want to fist-bump, which makes Homer go out of his way to befriend him (as you can see from the scene above, Homer had his way in the end!). Wayne appears to have been a secret goverment agent who learned to many secrets, while doing dirty jobs for the powers that be. Something like that will kill your social life, of course. The climax had a nice reference to Robert de Niro's action hit film 'Ronin', in which Wayne and Homer rumble with some figure-skating Russian moguls on the nearby ice-skating rink. (well, it's in 'Little Ukraine'!)

'The Simpsons' is now the longest-running American animated program and since 2009, the longest-running American primetime scripted television series, winning 27 Emmy Awards. Time magazine even called it 'the best television series of the 20th century'!

This season we will also wittness the historic 500th episode, which will air on February 19, 2012! The first full episode aired on December 17, 1989, after creator Matt Groening had previously created a series of shorts, which became part of 'The Tracy Ullman show' for three seasons.

Matt Groening lives in Hell.

Before Matt went into cartoons, he had his own underground comic strip titled 'Life in Hell' in the alternative newspaper 'The L.A. Reader' in 1978. It was based on his day to day experiences in Los Angeles, after Groening had moved their from Portland the year before. Matt also had a music column in the paper, but his reviews were completely made up and included bands that didn't exist or records that were never released! Hilarious!!

Matt´s comic caught the attention of producer James L Brooks who wanted him to do some animation based on the strip for 'The Tracy Ullman show'. Groening decided to create some new characters instead, which became 'The Simpsons family'. Matt's father (called Homer, like the Bart's father on the show) was also a writer and cartoonist. Fifteen volumes have been published so far of his comic, the last one in 2007.

Futurama

Matt Groening also created and developed the animated sci-fi comedy series ´Futurama´ with David X. Cohen, which is set in the 31st century. The first four seasons aired from 1999 to 2003 on Fox after which the show was sadly cancelled.

However, between 2007 and 2009 four straight-to-dvd movies were released: 'Benders Big Score', 'The Beast with a Billion Backs', 'Benders Game' and 'Into the Wild Green Yonder', which were picked up by Comedy Central and chopped up into 16 episodes as 'season 5'. Fox decided to create 26 completely new episodes for a sixth season, which were broadcast in 2010/2011. The season recently ended with 'Reincarnation', the 26th episode that aired on September 8.

In March it was announced that a 7th season with 26 more episodes will be produced, thirteen of which will be broadcast in 2012, the second half will be broadcast in 2013. Fox will release the sixth season on Blu-ray and DVD just in time for Christmas, on December 20th. Check Matt Groening 'My wasted life' for a nice chat with Matt on watching TV all day (which he called 'doing research'!)

Digital animation

Since season 14 of 'The Simpsons', traditional cel animation was replaced with digital inks and paint, while season 20 in 2009 was the first in HD format. As of 2010 the series is produced by Film Roman with overseas production handled by Nelson Shin's AKOM productions in South Korea. The animation of the series is done using Toon Boom software. Click the images below to check out some of 'The Simpsons' model sheets!

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Want more? Check 'The Simpsons return for 24th season'.

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