The Simpsons has been named the best tv show ever imported from America in a British survey released today. Broadcast magazine's poll of about 20 program buyers from British terrestrial, cable and satellite channels named the ten best and worst US television show imports, and The Simpsons topped the best list. The show will become Britain’s longest continuously shown US series by next year - beating the 15 years of M*A*S*H. Dallas, M*A*S*H, 24, and The Larry Sanders Show rounded out the top 5, followed by Hill Street Blues, The X Files, I Love Lucy, Twin Peaks, and Star Trek/The Next Generation. As for the worst American television imports, Baywatch topped the list followed by shows including The Anna Nicole Show, Jerry Springer, Bold And The Beautiful, and Extreme Makeover.

Bandits snatched thousands of novelty Simpsons sets from the back of a lorry in an audacious daylight raid. The toys, which feature the popular cartoon family riding skateboards, were en route to Margate, where parent company Hornby is based. But raiders intercepted the toys, worth £30 each, at an M2 service station at around noon on Monday. Today investigators were drawing blanks on how the criminals entered the vehicle as clues leading to the culprits were sketchy. Nick Cole, operations director for Hornby, said: “I don’t know what Homer would say. Probably ‘Doh!’ “We’ve got a lot of stock in the market place, so hopefully there’s not going to be too many disappointed kids.” The 2,500 stolen Simpsons Micro Scalextrics are worth around £75,000. Kent police are appealing for information to track the raiders

Woo-hoo! Finally the time has come to crack open a Duff and let the celebrations begin, as The Simpsons Comics reach their 100th issue, in stores today! This special 100-page issue features a full-length story (and no ads) in which Bart discovers that he and all of Springfield have been the subjects of 100 comic books. When he tries to find as many issues as he can, he uncovers the greatest mystery in comic book collecting. And the fun doesn’t stop there – the story’s so big, one issue couldn’t contain it! Catch the second half of this Simpsons adventure in Issue #101, out 23rd December!

This week's figures for the episode Sleeping With The Enemy are quite disapponting as the show has taken its lowest ratings of the three episodes that have aired this season. The episode came fourth in its timeslot with 9.9 million viewers. The first four episodes of the previous season all fared 12 million or above so viewers seem to be dropping off quicker this year. These figures didn't help Fox's performance for the night, also in fourth place. In the key adult demographic Fox managed to come third behind ABC and NBC, which is equal to their performance in the last two weeks. Next week The Simpsons takes a break to make way for the premiere of the animated movie Ice Age. It'll be interesting to see how this compares to ratings for The Simpsons. The next new episode is 'She Used To Be My Girl' on December 5.

We're down to the third episode of Season 16 already. Tonight's episode is titled Sleeping With The Enemy, another holdover from the Season 15 production run and one we've known the details of for over a year now. Here's the description pieced together by various sources. "Feeling unappreciated by her own children, Marge takes in neglected son and Springfield Elementary School bully Nelson Muntz. Horrified his tormentor is now living under the same roof, Bart goes on a mission to find Nelson’s parents and reunite the Muntzes. Meanwhile, Lisa lets schoolyard teasing get to her physically when she starts to think the Simpsons weight problem is making its mark on her." As usual you can discuss the episode at its conclusion at No Homers Club and we'll bring you the ratings tomorrow.

Sharp-eyed reader Burak Haliloglu has given us this news. Are you ready for this? To coincide with the release of 'The Simpsons Complete 5th Season' DVD Box Set, 'The Simpsons - The Complete First Five Seasons' will also be released in a 19-disc set. It will retails for $239.90 although Amazon.com is selling it for the low price of $139.14. It features all of the goodies from the first five DVD sets, and there are no additional features to speak of at the moment. Amazon has the set listed for release on the same day as the Fifth Season on December 21st.

If you've been holding off with the DVDs this will make the perfect present. I've composed an awful mock cover above, I'm sure the official one will be sharper.

Winner of the third series of the successful FOX hit American Idol Fantasia Barrino may be set to appear in an upcoming episode of The Simpsons. If recent rumors are true, the 20 year old winner of the popular talent quest is to appear in an episode in which Lisa enters into an American Idol style television show. Fantasia told Entertainment Weekly recently that she plays a character called Clarissa who has entered into the competition but loses to Lisa Simpson. If true is sounds as if the appearance has already been recorded and so it should be expected to screen during the current season. If any more news regarding this appearance comes to light we'll let you know.

They mightn't be the best figures The Simpsons have pulled in their history but at least they're steady. Last night's official season premiere "All's Fair In Oven War" rated 11.5 million viewers, slightly up on last week's "Treehouse Of Horror XV" special, while 1 million down on last season's "My Mother The Carjacker" season opener. Fox came in at fourth for the night again, while CBS came first followed by the ABC. Among the adult demographic The Simpsons helped Fox to hit third position behind ABC and CBS. At 8:00pm, CBS's Cold Case was the winner, followed by ABC's American Music Awards, while FOX and NBC tied for third place with the new Simpsons and American Dreams. We'll see how "Sleeping With The Enemy" fares next week.

Despite last week's airing of Treehouse Of Horror XV, Fox is labelling tonight's episode "All's Fair In Oven War" the official Season 16 premiere. The episode airs across North America tonight. Here's a brief description thanks to snpp.com: "Thomas Pynchon and James Caan guest voice as themselves as Marge won't let a little thing like "not cheating" prevent her from winning a baking contest; Bart takes up a "swinging bachelor" lifestyle after finding Homer's discarded "Playdude" magazines". The episode can be discussed at the No Homers Club immediately following the episode, and we'll have the ratings for you in the next couple of days. Don't miss it!

Website Last Exit To Springfield has been given a new design to coincide with tonight's official season premiere. Things have been kept fairly similar to the previous design with an outdoors feel but it's a lot brighter and easier to navigate this time around. There's also a few new sections and some new content for its existing sections. Check it out!

As "The Simpsons" opens its 16th season on Sunday, pundits and Internet chat groups are bouncing around a pesky question: Is the show still TV's most brilliant comedy, or has it long-since passed its prime, degenerating (as a Slate commentary suggested last year) into a cartoon? List-makers suggest that the glory days are long gone. The first three episodes (and four of the Top 10) in Entertainment Weekly's list of the best "Simpsons" ever - issued to mark the 300th-episode landmark in 2002 - are from 1993. Three more are from 1994; the newest episode on the list (No. 4) is from 1997. Complaints on the Web site jumptheshark.com, which attempts to catalogue the moment at which a show went into decline, pinpoint the 1999 season (or perhaps 1997) as the time "The Simpsons" jumped. "The very funny episodes are few and far between" since 1997, one posting laments. Read More >>>

Opinion: "About four years ago, the first "cancel The Simpsons opinion articles were released onto online periodicals. Of course, at the time, I scoffed. That's not possible; this show is spectacular. I grew up with this show, quoting the lines from the previous night with such love and fervor, to a point where it became annoying. I steadfastly defended "Homerpalooza," one of the episodes sometimes touted as the beginning of the quality slip. As time went on, however, I came to see their point. One of the few hilarious jokes in the past few years was the song "They'll Never Stop 'The Simpsons,'" a parody of "We Didn't Start the Fire" which essentially states that the series will continue no matter how bad it becomes. As the series nears 350 episodes and sixteen seasons, I fear that they may have been more serious than they were letting on. Read More >>>

For a guy who claims to hate the limelight, New England Patriots QB/QT Tom Brady sure is hogging a lot of it lately! Forget the magazine covers, the pouty photo spreads, the Gap ads and the satellite radio commercials; this is REALLY big: Tom will appear as himself - only in four-fingered cartoon form - on the post-Super Bowl episode of ``The Simpsons.'' The Feb. 6 installment of the long-running Fox-TV comedy will spoof last year's infamous Super Bowl half-time show that starred Janet Jackson's left booby. In it, Homer's exotic dance routine wins him a gig as a choreographer for a chorus line of sports stars including Tom, Michelle Kwan, Yao Ming, LeBron James and Warren Sapp. Well! Judging by the last two Super Bowl parades, we know Tom could certainly use some help with his moves! Sadly though, Homie asks his evangelical neighbor, Ned Flanders, to help him put on the Super Bowl half-time show and it is so inoffensive, viewers revolt! Read More >>>

It was a poor start to the 16th season of The Simpsons ratings wise. In the 8:00pm slot in which the much publicised Treehouse Of Horror XV aired, Fox came third overall and second among the 18 - 49 age bracket. The episode scored 11.29 million viewers, a number which is generally expected during a mid-season slump in viewers. In comparison, last year's season premiere Treehouse Of Horror XIV attracted 16 million viewers and 2002's Treehouse special had 17 million. In a rare occurance, ABC won the night over CBS with Desperate Housewives and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition attracting some of its highest figures ever. Viewers also rejected Fox's "My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss"; altogether the network came fourth behind NBC for the night. The big test will be the "official premiere" next week, as last year's "My Mother The Carjacker" dropped 4 million viewers from THOH XIV the previous week. We'll bring you these ratings next Monday.

The Simpsons has delivered its Halloween special Sunday, a week late. But the series has been ahead of its time in just about every other respect. Ironic wit and inspired spoofs have carried the animated classic to its 16th season, making it the longest-running television comedy. "It's the most meaningful thing we've done," executive producer Al Jean said. "It's hard to surprise people week after week." That's the goal this season, especially for a Feb. 6 episode that will air after the Super Bowl. The writers will poke fun at last year's much-debated halftime show starring Janet Jackson. In the episode, Homer's exuberant dancing wins him work as a choreographer to star athletes Michelle Kwan, Yao Ming, LeBron James, Tom Brady and Warren Sapp. But Homer makes a misstep in asking neighbor Ned to help put together the Super Bowl halftime show. "Homer makes the halftime show too religious," Jean said. "The halftime show is so inoffensive that people get mad." Read More >>>

Charles Ragins and Eddie Rosas may live in Los Angeles now, but they really just traded one small town for another. That's because the two natives of Fairbanks spend their workdays drawing the characters and places that make up Springfield, the warped-yet-wholesome slice of Americana that's the setting of Fox TV's "The Simpsons." The two animators had never met before they landed jobs with the seminal cartoon sitcom but they've since bonded in the studio over their own small-town roots. "It's not only great to work with such a talented artist as Eddie, but we also share a lot of stories about Fairbanks," Ragins wrote in an e-mail. "Who we both know up there, what is going on now, who's beating who in hockey, when we plan to visit, and how lucky we both are having grown up in such a great place, a community that supported our artistic interests." Read More >>>

The 16th season of hit animated Fox comedy The Simpsons began on Sunday and Entertainment Weekly talked to executive producer Al Jean who revealed secrets about upcoming episodes while also giving an update on the possible movie. Jean says the show's writers are working on the long-promised feature film, with a targeted 2008 release date. They've even laid down some possible plotlines, but won't spoil anything this early. "There are a couple things on the show that I steered away from what might be in the movie," Jean says. "The biggest thing is you don't want to do a movie that's not reflective of the quality of the show, and you don't want the quality of the show to slip because you're doing the movie. So we're taking a little time." Read More >>>

The annual climb into the "Treehouse" is much anticipated by "Simpsons" fans because it lets the writers spoof their way through parts of our social and literary fabric they don't normally tear into. And it lets the writers abuse the characters much more than they normally do. After all, when was the last time Bart was an official ingredient of someone's barf? When before did Bart actually underplay in order to be Lisa's sidekick? And how were we to know Marge looked so hot in a bikini? First up is "The Ned Zone," a takeoff on "The Dead Zone," where a guy can see a person's future, but that future is not set in stone. Here, Simpsons' neighbor Ned Flanders' ability to see one's fate is set off by an accident. He sees Homer's doom - and Ned is responsible! Can fate be altered? "The Belly of the Boss" is a takeoff on "Fantastic Voyage," with Marge filling (and nicely, we might add) the Raquel Welch role. The Simpsons suit up, shrink down and sail through Mr. Burns. Read More >>>

What's coming up on ''The Simpsons.'' Guest stars, a gay marriage, and a movie. Just as Homer sometimes fails to properly appreciate Marge's buxom, blue-haired beauty, fans of The Simpsons tend to take the show for granted. The series, which begins its 16th season on Nov. 7 (with the annual ''Treehouse of Horror'' Halloween-themed episode), has been so funny for so long that it can feel like an inexhaustible natural resource, like comedic tap water. But as a conversation with longtime Simpsons executive producer Al Jean reveals, maintaining the quality of the longest-running sitcom in television history isn't easy. Here are six facts worth knowing about the new season — and beyond: Liam Neeson voices a priest who helps Bart and Homer consider converting to Catholicism (Homer likes the part with the wine); James Caan visits Bart's treehouse after he converts it to a junior Playboy Mansion; and Lucy Liu plays a bureaucrat when Homer pretends to be married to Marge's gravel-voiced sister Selma so she can adopt a Chinese baby. Read More >>>

I can prove my point with a single word: D'oh! That's an exclamation, to be more precise. Or a contraction. Or both. Whatever. My point is that Homer Simpson, star of the animated TV sitcom "The Simpsons," has become one of our most pervasive pop-culture icons. You can tell by the nearly universal recognition of "D'oh!" Perhaps Homer has become our truest, most sympathetic and successful American ambassador. You must have heard of "The Simpsons" by now. Its illustrious run on Fox stretches back to the first Bush presidency, in 1989. It's the longest-running prime-time animation series in history, as well as the longest-running sitcom currently on the tube. The main character, Homer, is the ultimate buffoon as a father figure. He's a cross between Archie Bunker and Chris Farley on LSD. He swills Duff beer, chows down on donuts and is prone to uttering profound blurbs of homespun wisdom that not even he understands. Read More >>>

This year's Irving Blum Memorial Seminar at Pikesville's Beth Tfiloh Synagogue was somewhat more animated than usual — in more ways than one. Mike Reiss, a producer on the long-running hit television show "The Simpsons," was the keynote speaker last Sunday morning, Oct. 31, at the annual event sponsored by the Young Adult Division of the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore. Mr. Reiss' speech was perhaps a little racier than the typical fare at a modern Orthodox synagogue, although anyone who has seen "The Simpsons" would not find this surprising. "We need a little mike Viagra. I mean this mike," he joked, gesturing toward a droopy microphone, "not this Mike!" The crowd of approximately 200 seemed packed with "Simpsons" fans, as raucous laughter followed nearly every one of Mr. Reiss' jokes. Read More >>>

It's not like ``D'oh!'' is going to replace ``Amen!'' at St. Mark's Episcopal Church. But a group at the Palo Alto church is meeting Mondays to examine the spiritual side of the Simpsons, America's favorite yellow family, in a 10-session Bible-study seminar. The Rev. Catie Greene sees so many Christians -- and herself -- reflected in the citizenry of Springfield, home to the irreverent animated TV series, which begins its 16th season Sunday. There's quietly faithful Marge, questioning Lisa, evangelical Ned Flanders. Homer's religious philosophy, she says, can be summed up this way: ``Is God all-loving? If he was, he'd make this doughnut appear in my hand right now.'' ``It's tongue-in-cheek,'' she says of the cartoon, ``but truth-telling.'' The seminar is aimed at a post-college, pre-baby crowd. In addition to being fun, organizers say, it might attract some new members. Read More >>>

Bart Simpson is acting like himself, which is to say naughty. And he sounds like himself, with that familiar mischievous lilt. But Bart’s voice is coming out of a petite blonde wearing a fluffy, bright-pink wrap. Dumpy Homer has morphed into a lanky fellow, and mom Marge’s towering purple hair is brown and tastefully cropped. The event was a “table read,” when the cast of “The Simpsons” gathered with a roomful of writers, producers and guests, using their imaginations to conjure up the animated family with the distinctive mustard hue. It was just one of the steps toward crafting an episode of the Fox series that begins its 16th season Sunday at 8 p.m. The run is remarkable for any show - but especially for one like this. Irreverent, witty and willing to take on anything from politics to religion to family values, “The Simpsons” has provided a rare bit of spice for the oatmeal-bland bowl of TV broadcasting. Read More >>>

The Simpsons: Christmas 2 DVD is now available in North American stores, retailing for a recommended price of $14.98 US and $16.98 in Canada. The set which was announced some months ago is a followup to the disc released at the same time last year, and includes the episodes Homer Vs. Dignity, Skinner's Sense Of Snow, Dude, Where's My Ranch? and 'Tis The Fifteenth Season. For ’Tis The 15th Season you can watch certain segments in animatic or storyboard format. Hopefully this release will keep you entertained until Season 5 arrives next month.

Channel 4 have dug deep to bag the rights to screen 'The Simpsons' which starts this Friday. There was a ferocious bidding war but Channel 4 beat both the BBC and 5 in a deal worth an estimated £700,000 per episode. Creator Matt Groening says they needed the cash after the actors went on strike demanding more pay and landed £4m a year contracts each for four years. Series twelve features guest appearances from The Who, Ed Norton, Drew Barrymore, Michael Keaton, Joshua Jackson and Serena and Venus Williams. Matt says there's a good reason they like to pepper the shows with big star names: "You know the real reason for doing that is not for ratings or attention, it's because it just amuses us and the writer want to meet various guest stars. When certain people show up the writers all crowd into the recording studio and get really excited." Friday is a themed night with two new episodes from series twelve, a documentary called the 'Ultimate Guide to The Simpsons' and a comedy quiz.