“Hey, listen! Now, my story begins in nineteen-dickety-two. We had to say ‘dickety’ ’cause the Kaiser had stolen our word ‘twenty’. I chased that rascal to get it back, but gave up after dickety-six miles.” – Abe “Grampa” Simpson
After all of this week’s twisting and ill sourced hoopla, the end came during the media dead time of Friday evening. Zombie Simpsons may only occasionally be capable of a decent joke, but there is an undeniable humor to that.
As for the deal itself, the true numbers haven’t been released, and in all likelihood they never will be. The last deal resulted in the $400,000 per episode/$8,000,000 per season salary that has been in almost every story about the negotiations this week, but that number was never really confirmed. As far as I know, the six voice actors themselves were forbidden as part of the contract from discussing the actual total, which means their salary number was only ever leaked, never verifiably reported. We can expect something similar here. Some number about this extension will eventually be repeated enough to seem credible, but all dollar signs should be regarded as questionable when it comes to FOX.
What we do know about the deal (thanks – again – to @rubbrcatsimp) is that it will bring the episode total to 559, which is a smooth 44 more than the 515 of the previous deal. That means it’s not just two more “seasons”, it’s two more full, 22 episode production runs, presumably designated Q-ABF and R-ABF.
This is essentially Scenario #4 from my post about the future of the show back in August. FOX has ordered two complete sets of episodes, which means that the overhang between the production runs and the broadcast seasons will persist. A full Season 25 is now guaranteed to happen, but they will also have enough episodes to get Season 26 started in the fall of 2014.
So the reset button has been pushed and the timer starts again. Under the current deal, the deadline is roughly October 2013 for when they have to decide if they want to produce a series finale. Despite what you may read elsewhere, there is absolutely nothing in this deal to indicate that Season 25 will be the last season. I’m going to repeat that with bold and italics because, given the “one more season only” horseshit that flew around all week, it is certain to be the most overlooked aspect of this story. There is nothing in this deal to indicate that Season 25 will be the last one. As a number, “25” is mathematically nice and psychologically pleasing, but those concerns don’t matter in the least during contract negotiations that involve seven or eight digits. Season 26 is all but assured by this contract.
charliesweatpants.com
(The crotch really does wear out too fast.)
Dead Homer Society 
Stop stop he’s already dead!
On a different topic, the map behind Grampa is oddly-rendered. Usually contiguous states have different colours, no? But look at Florida and Alabama. Even stranger is that the Great Lakes have different colours.
It could be worse. In the episode where (sigh) Ralph runs for President, there’s a US map with Michigan’s two peninsulas in different colors.
That’s the problem with poorly funded public schools. Maybe they can fix those maps while they’re buying math books that don’t have that base 6 crap in them…
Well they have to learn about Tek War at some point.
Always a Simpsons quote for everything :D
Boy, I really hope somebody got fired for that blunder.
I think it’s got to the stage now where it doesn’t matter if they go on for 2 more seasons or 10 more seasons. Zombie Simpsons episodes already outnumber the classic episodes, but I have confidence in the idea that when it finally ends, the classics will still stand head and shoulders over their cheap imitations, at least insofar as the fans are concerned. And this blog will be around to show people why!
Longest Running Scripted Series on Television is Renewed Through Season 25 FOX has renewed THE SIMPSONS, the longest-running comedy in television history, for an incredible 24th and 25th season, bringing the series total to an astonishing 559 episodes.
http://liveoncampus.com/wire/show/3114354?user=The-Simpsons&utm_source=Blog&utm_medium=Seeding&utm_campaign=Abhishek
Bravo to whoever did the editing on that video. Ending with mention of the pay cut right as they cut to Banksy’s sweatshop was a nice touch.
And it only gets worse:
http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/10/08/simpsons-al-jean-renewal/
Go to 50 seconds and drink in the irony.