"Mike Reiss, a producer for The Simpsons and creator of The Critic, visited Drexel's campus May 23. After spending the day meeting with students and professors, his visit culminated with an hour-long lecture in the Patten Auditorium. At the event, Reiss shared information about his career while keeping the audience in stitches. He talked about his Harvard roots, his experience working on The Critic, and his 15 years of writing for The Simpsons." Read More >>>

How does a V.I.P. trip for four to Hollywood to visit a recording session of The Simpsons sound? If you are a resident of Canada and have a father that reminds you of Homer Simpson, then it can be yours. Global and Zeller's Father's Day promotion in conjunction with canada.com asks kids and adults to explain in 50 words or less, why their old man is a Duff beer-drinking, doughnut-eating doofus just like Homer. The best entries will then be judged by readers of the website in order to find the most deserving winner. The contest starts tomorrow and ends on June 27th. To enter, you can pick up a form at your local Zellers or at Canada.com. Runners up can receive 1 of 22 limited edition Simpsons animation cells or 1 of 314 inflatable Homer Simpson pool chairs. Further details are available at the official contest website.

Earlier this month we reported about a change in release date for the US release of the Season 3 DVD. TVShowsOnDVD.com have revealed that the new date released by Amazon.com was incorrect, so fans should not get too excited. From their comments, we can assume they have contacts at Fox who can back up their claims. "Fans of "The Simpsons" got excited recently when Amazon.com changed the release date of the set to July 30th (a Wednesday) and then to July 29th. All other retailers still listed August 26th as the release date, which is the proper date. We're not sure why Amazon.com changed the release date of the set from the proper date to July 29th, but they are WRONG. Fox is going to contact them once again to have it straightened out. Bad Amazon, bad!" We have amended the date on our stickynotes box. Should there be any further developments we'll be here to let you know.

"City hall is about to honour television's most beloved and buffoonish dad for being a real homer -- just in time for Father's Day. Homer Simpson will be made an official honorary citizen of the city this Friday -- a follow-up to last year's revelation that the main character of TV's longest-running animated sitcom is based on a real-life Winnipeg native, The Simpsons creator Matt Groening's father. "Homer is coming to TD Centre," Heather McIntyre, CanWest Global's local manager of production and operations, said yesterday of the honour to be bestowed outside the city's tallest tower. Coun. Jenny Gerbasi will make the tribute official at 1pm as CanWest Global Communications Corp. launches a national Father's Day contest as a promotion for its TV channels. "We're giving him a giant certificate, and there's going to be an eight-foot-tall Homer Simpson there to receive it," said Gerbasi, who will join CanWest officials Leonard and Gail Asper for the ceremony." Read More >>>

"Matt Groening, the creator of "The Simpsons," received the top award from the National Cartoonists Society this weekend. Groening won the Reuben award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year Saturday (May 24) at the society's annual awards ceremony, the AP reports. The award is named after Rube Goldberg, the first president of the society. Also nominated for cartoonist of the year were comic-strip artists Pat Brady ("Rose Is Rose" ), Greg Evans ("Luann" ) and Dan Piraro ("Bizarro" ). Among the other awards, Darby Conley won in the newspaper comic-strip division for his "Get Fuzzy." Groening created the comic "Life in Hell," which appears in alternative newspapers across the country, before going on to "The Simpsons." The cartoon started as a series of shorts on "The Tracey Ullman Show" before becoming its own series."

Former Simpsons writer/producer Mike Scully's series "The Pitts" was cancelled on Thursday, so where does he go from here? "We are definitely planning on shopping the show to other networks," Mike said. "The way 'The Pitts' was handled by Fox has been disappointing and frustrating, but we believe passionately that there is room for a family comedy that's unlike any other show on TV." Mike said he will now join the staff of "Everybody Loves Raymond" and return to "The Simpsons" as a consultant. Fans of The Simpsons wont be too quick to rejoice, after all, this is the man responsible for some of the family's darkest moments. The Pitts proved to live up to it's namesake, but in Scully's mind, "We think the target audience for this show is pretty much 'The Simpsons' audience but we thought initially the fan base of the show would be formed by kids, and then the parents would follow pretty much the same way that 'The Simpsons' found its audience." Read More >>>

God Bless Canada, er America, for The Simpsons. TV's longest-running and most fearless sitcom signed off for another season Sunday with a jaw-dropping finale. In the first of a double-episode ender, best friends Bart and Milhouse ended up battling on a baseball field where the boys have gathered to sing the national anthem. To stop the fisticuffs spilling into the stands, they all decide to sing a "peace anthem," not the stirring war chant that is the U.S.'s Star Spangled Banner. O Canada was sung, and -- naturally -- all fighting stopped. "Well Bart, we've learned that war is not the answer," said Milhouse. "Except to all of America's problems," said Bart. End of episode. Whoa! If this had been a Canadian show there'd be sanctions. Our softwood lumber would be banned. Our helicopters would be mocked. How did The Simpsons get away with this much cheek? Read More >>>

For the final time until November we present to you the ratings report (unless a rerun rates the socks off its competition). The "60 Minutes" special held strong for CBS at 8 p.m. with a 9.9/17. FOX was second with two new episodes of "The Simpsons" earning a 6.4/11 and a 7.0/11 for Bart Of War and Moe Baby Blues respecitvely. NBC was third with "American Dreams" at 5.9/10 and ABC again trailed with their Adam Sandler effort. For the night, among adults 18-49, ABC was able to pull ahead, with a 4.7. FOX was second at 4.2 and NBC was a tight third at 4.1.

Neilsen's weekly data is now available. Moe Baby Blues came in at #20 for the week, with 13.44 million viewers tuning in, while The Bart Of War appears slightly further down the list #27 with 12.10 million.

What's happening around the net? Read on and I'll tell you. Springfield Message Board today has been given a new color scheme and graphics, which are similar to that of a few years ago and The Simpsons Top 100. A brand new site titled A Little Slice Of Springfield has opened, focusing on pictures in the form of grabpics, wallpapers, and scenes. Meanwhile, Seven Forty-Two has been redesigned and tweaked based on user feedback, but currently looks nice as a whole.

Season 14, arguably one of the better seasons in The Simpsons' recent years ends tonight with a double serving of new episodes. Bart Of War airs first at 8pm. "After his latest bout of mischief results in another encounter with the Springfield police department, Marge and Homer elect to place Bart into a program of supervised afternoon activities in the form of a quasi- Native American tribe dubbed "The Pre-Teen Braves." But tribal war ensues when his clan is forced into a game of community service one-upsmanship with Milhouse's opposing group of do-gooders: "The Calvary Kids."

Moe Baby Blues kicks off at 8:30. "When the entire town shows up at the Springfield Botanical Gardens to watch the blooming of the Sumatran Century Flower, there is room for everyone but Moe. The event causes a panic and during the ensuing traffic jam Maggie is thrown from the Simpsons' car into the arms of a suicidal Moe - who is dubbed a hero by the city. Maggie accepts him unconditionally as her new babysitter and surrogate father, while Moe's new reason to live starts to turn into an obsession that proves useful when Maggie gets in the middle of a mafia gang war between Fat Tony and Don Castellaneta." Lets hope we leave the season with a good impression. Episodes can be reviewed at the No Homers Club following their airing.

Reportedly, the producers of The Simpsons dropped plans for Beckham to feature in an episode on the grounds that he wasn't famous enough in the US. They may soon be amending their guest list, after his name is getting exposure as part of the movie title 'Bend It Like Beckham', released in America recently. "This is the 'tipping point' for David Beckham in the United States," says Marc Ganis, the president of SportsCorp, a Chicago consultancy. He was echoing the title of a recent book about that indefinable moment when a fad turns into a mega-trend. "He won't achieve the sporting status of a Michael Jordan or a Namath, but he's poised to become part of the popular culture of the US." Read More >>>

We like to be as accurate as possible with our news, but in today's story we're unsure whether it's fact or error that is involved. Amazon.com have changed their Season 3 DVD release date to July 30th, more or less a month earlier than its originally planned date. This is great news if it's true. It'd be a hard error to make, being that it would require effort to change this date, so maybe Fox has pushed the release date forward due to demand or an unexpected earlier completion date. If anybody knows of other sites reporting a July 30th release, please let us know. Remember it was Amazon.com that first released official box art, so they've been nothing but reliable.

The two-hour finale of "Survivor: The Amazon" gave CBS a runaway victory on Sunday night, both overall and among the advertiser-coveted younger set. CBS averaged a 10.5 rating/18 share in primetime, nearly four points ahead of second-place NBC, 6.7/11. FOX, 4.7/8, edged ABC, 4.5/8, for third place. Among adults 18-49, CBS led with a 7.0 rating. FOX avergaged 3.9, NBC 3.4 and ABC 2.5. CBS began the night with "60 Minutes," 8.1/16. NBC was second with "Dateline," 4.0/8. ABC aired the movie "E.T." (4.5/8 average from 7 to 10 p.m.), while FOX averaged 3.7/7 with a rerun of "The Simpsons" and "King of the Hill." At 8 p.m., the first hour of "Survivor" scored a 10.8/18. FOX moved up to second with "The Simpsons," 5.7/10, and "Malcolm in the Middle," 5.4/9.

CalendarLive reports the 7pm rerun came in at 74th position for the week with 6.38 million viewers, while Break My Wife, Please got 10.56 million viewers and came in at #36.

"Jackson Browne becomes a badly drawn boy this Sunday when he debuts as a character on The Simpsons. In the episode 'Brake My Wife, Please' Homers loses his drivers licence and discovers the joys of walking. As he walks around the neighborhood he meets people he didn't know lived in the area including Jackson Browne and actor Steve Buscemi. However, with Homer grounded, Marge is needed for additional driving duties but the stress causes her to lose concentration and she runs over him. Marge then has even more duties on top of playing 'mum's taxi' she also now has to nurse Homer back to health." Thanks to Undercover Music News for this description. You can review this episode at its conclusion on Sunday at the No Homers Club.

"Asked why he wanted to record his voice as a character on The Simpsons, British Prime Minister Tony Blair turned to producer Al Jean and said, "I just want to do one thing that will impress my kids." When he paid his visit to Homer Simpson, Blair followed in the footsteps of Michael Jackson, Mel Gibson, Sir Elton John and Dr. Stephen Hawking. Blair's episode is set to air in November, and he will be the first politician to guest on the show. It used to be that the ultimate mark of celebrity was hosting NBC's Saturday Night Live or appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. But somewhere along the line, Rolling Stone started putting pop-punks Good Charlotte and actress Asia Argento on the cover, and Saturday Night Live started asking U.S. Senator John McCain and skier Johnny Mosely to host. Now playing yourself on The Simpsons is the true measure of celebrity. It means you have become so important in the real world that you can transcend the fictional boundaries of the animated world." Read More >>>

Here's what's happening around the web! German fansite Sax On The Beach has been redesigned. Very crowded, but very nice all the same. Springfield Town Hall, a new site from one of the people behind Viva Los Simpsons has opened. Fills the void left by the defunt site quite nicely. The Simpsons: Unofficial Fansite is currently down for retooling. Insert Caption Here has moved to Just D'oh It. Simpsons Realities, That's Unpossible, and Bart: The One And Only all have received new designs, while Springfield! Springfield! has been shut down by its owner. We couldn't fit this into any other web update, but Destination: Springfield was slightly redesigned a couple of weeks ago.

The overnight rankings for the Old Yeller Belly and I'm Spelling As Fast As I Can double have been posted by Zap2it, and it's a similar result to last week. "The first hour of CBS' Lucille Ball biopic opened strongly with an 8.2/13. ABC was second with the special 'Tim Allen Presents: A User's Guide to Home Improvement,' which constructed a 6.6/11. FOX was third with a new episode of 'The Simpsons' (6.3/11) and a repeat of the yellow family (6.6/11)." Again, the rerun rated higher than the new episode. With this occuring last week as well as in February for the 300th episode double, could Fox be looking at moving The Simpsons to 8:30pm? Probably not, but always a possibility.

Update: CalendarLive reports "Lucy" came in at #21 for the week, with 12.91 million viewers. At #24 was the Simpsons rerun (12.45 million) and Old Yeller Belly came in at #32 (11.59 million). Both episodes actually beat out "Tim Allen Presents.." which came in at #34 for the week.

A new episode titled Old Yeller Belly airs in North America tonight, and already judging by the descrpition it looks as though it'll be a good one. In the episode, "Santa's Little Helper is shunned as a coward after opting to devour a roast turkey rather than pull Homer from a fire. Getting his nose stuck in a can of Duff Beer afterward, however, proves to be somewhat of a spirit-booster when it propells him to the status of Spuds McDuff: the Duff Brewery's new mascott. But matters worsen when the the dog's new-found fame cause his original race track owner to come forth and reclaim his "property" -- leaving it up to the Simpsons to get their dog back by proving Santa's Little Helper a coward unfit to hawk Duff beer." The episode airs at 8pm on Fox/Global and will be followed by a rerun of I'm Spelling As Fast As I Can. You can review the episode at its conclusion on the No Homers Club Board.

"A 'typical' British family has been chosen from thousands of hopefuls to become the stars of a ground-breaking animation series for children's channel Nickelodeon billed as an antidote to the 'abnormal' Simpsons. The trials and tribulations of family life in the Moores' Leicestershire home will be shown every weekday evening on Nickelodeon from next week. The broadcaster, which began its search for a British family to act as the prototype for the cartoon in July last year, said the Moores had been chosen for their entertaining personalities and hectic lifestyle. Howard Litton, the Nickelodeon director of programmes, said the broadcaster had "searched high and low" to find the perfect family on which to base the cartoon, called Meet the Moores." Read More >>>