After Moe is heckled for not having any real companions, Moe’s best friend and beloved bar rag narrates his incredible thousand-year journey to Springfield. Beginning in the Middle Ages, the bar rag was loomed into a beautiful and ornate medieval tapestry and traveled around the globe through the hands of royalty before finding himself found himself at Moe’s Tavern. When the bar rag goes missing, Moe realizes that he has more friends than he thought. Meanwhile, Bart begs Milhouse for forgiveness after the two friends get into a tiff.

Krusty the Clown is stuck in a rut when the television network pulls his show from the air and his talent agency drops him as a client. But when the Simpsons introduce him to seasoned agent Annie (guest voice Joan Rivers), they are surprised to learn that Annie was Krusty’s very first agent. Despite their rocky relationship, Annie is convinced to re-sign Krusty and craft his career comeback. But when Krusty’s retro comedyshow reboot is deemed a critical success, Krusty must decide to stay with his agent or side with the network executives.

The episode was written by husband and wife team Dan Castellaneta & Deb Lacusta. It’s not the first episode written by the voice of Homer, Krusty, Barney, Grampa, and others. Dan & Deb were behind episodes like “The Ziff Who Came to Dinner”, “Days of Wines & D’oh’ses”, “Gump Roast” and several others.

I had the opportunity to meet Joan Rivers after one of her shows and I asked her how she liked doing The Simpsons. I’m not sure if she had recorded yet, but she told me how exciting it was to play a character that had nothing to do with her and how much she enjoyed the show and the experience.

Joan did an interview with E! Online about appearing on The Simpsons. Check it out: HERE

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and the Simpsons flash-forward thirty years to find themselves in a tech-savvy, futuristic Springfield. Bart and Lisa have children of their own and decide to spend the holidays as one big family at Homer and Marge’s house. Lisa and Bart turn to Homer and Marge for parenting advice and begin to realize that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Lisa becomes disheartened when she learns the shocking truth behind the ‘tween lit’ industry and her beloved fantasy novel characters. But Homer decides to cash in on the craze and forms a team to group-write the next ‘tween lit’ hit, with the king of fantasy, Neil Gaiman (guest-voicing as himself), lending his expertise to the effort. After catching the eye of a slick industry publisher (guest-voice Andy Garcia) at the Springfield Book Fair, the team gets an advanced copy of their work and discovers that the corporate lit business is a bigger operation than they imagined.

Airing this Sunday night is an all new episode titled ‘Replaceable You’.

Bart’s science fair project, a mechanical baby seal, outshines Lisa’s brainy asteroid model and becomes a popular pet among the retirement home patrons. Meanwhile, Homer gets a new and eager assistant Roz (guest voiced by Glee’s Jane Lynch), but when Homer quickly loses his job to her and discovers her evil past, he and Flanders team up to reveal her true dark colors.

Marge takes Bart and Lisa on a weekend excursion, but when an unexpected restaurant detour awakens their taste buds, fellow foodies Amuse Bruce and Fois Garth (guest voices Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim) inspire them to start their own food blog, “The Three Mouthketeers.” They score an exclusive reservation at Springfield’s premiere modern restaurant, but Marge has an unsettling dream during which Anthony Bourdain, Gordon Ramsay, and Mario Batali (guest voicing as themselves) lead her to reconsider extending the invite to Homer. Later, Marge directs Homer to a different type of cooking lab where he gets into a bind with law enforcement authorities .

Homer takes a dangerous dive into an isolated canyon on Candy Peak, but when a crashing boulder traps his arm, he channels Aron Ralston (guest voicing as himself) to save himself. In “The Diving Bell and Butterball,” the first of three hair-raising Halloween tales, a venomous spider bite leaves Homer paralyzed, but when Lisa discovers Homer’s ability to communicate through natural gases, he is able to express his love for Marge. The killer spells continue in “Dial D for Diddly,” when Ned Flanders, devout preacher by day, transforms into a cold-blooded vigilante by night. In the final terrifying tale, “In the Na’Vi,” Bart and Milhouse are assigned on a mission to access a sacred extract on a distant planet. They morph into the land’s indigenous one-eyed avatars, but when Bart finds love and an eternal mate abroad, he is caught in planet warfare.

It all starts this Sunday at 8/7c, on FOX.

Homer takes a dangerous dive into an isolated canyon on Candy Peak, but when a crashing boulder traps his arm, he channels Aron Ralston (guest voicing as himself) to save himself. In “The Diving Bell and Butterball,” the first of three hair-raising Halloween tales, a venomous spider bite leaves Homer paralyzed, but when Lisa discovers Homer’s ability to communicate through natural gases, he is able to express his love for Marge. The killer spells continue in “Dial D for Diddly,” when Ned Flanders, devout preacher by day, transforms into a cold-blooded vigilante by night. In the final terrifying tale, “In the Na’Vi,” Bart and Milhouse are assigned on a mission to access a sacred extract on a distant planet. They morph into the land’s indigenous one-eyed avatars, but when Bart finds love and an eternal mate abroad, he is caught in planet warfare

An introduction is in order; my name is Graham McMorrow and I’ve been granted the privilege to share my love for all things Simpsons here on the Simpsons Channel.  The question now is am I deserving of this opportunity?  Well, I leave it to the readers to decide, and might I add what a lovely bunch of readers you are, just all kinds of sexy… yes, that’ll do.

Ladies and gentlemen, I can say without hyperbole that this upcoming season of The Simpsons is going to be a million times better than all past seasons put together.  How’s that for optimism?  All half-joking aside, the 23rd season is upon us and it’s shaping up to be something special.

If proof was ever needed to show just how strong our favorite cartoon family is, just know that the 500th episode is set to air in February 2012, a landmark in television history.  I’m sure this excites all of us who have grown up watching the show and still do to this day; for better or worse – through great episodes and bad, we support The Simpsons and welcome them back.

Here are just a few stories I look forward to this season:

• In the season premiere, the voting results from “The Ned-liest Catch” will be revealed so we find out if Ned and Edna will be a couple, I voted YES.
• In the 500th episode, airing February 19, 2012, the Simpsons find out that everyone in town has become sick of their antics and have come together to decide whether or not they should be exiled.
• Homer and Bart write a fantasy novel, hoping to capitalize on the Tween culture.
• A Christmas episode called “Holidays of Future Passed” will be set 30 years in the future and will depict Bart as a deadbeat dad who lives in the school, which is now a condominium, and Skinner is his landlord.

What are you looking forward to seeing this season?

Marge fantasizes about being a contestant on Top Chef hosted by Tom Colicchio, guest-voicing as himself.  Meanwhile, Homer befriends Wayne (voiced by Kiefer Sutherland), a reserved security guard recently hired by the nuclear power plant.