Source: YouTube (stuffstuffandstuff)

The Simpsons is taking October off thanks to Fox's ongoing commitment to the baseball playoffs. The two episodes previewed in the video above, including this year's Treehouse Of Horror episode will air in November

Twentieth Century Fox and a bunch of retail giants have confirmed to TVShowsOnDVD that The Simpsons: The Complete Ninth Season will be released in North America on December 19, just in time for a last minute Christmas gift. The set is expected to be released in other regions in early 2007. Either Bart or Lisa will be featured on the cover and is once again likely to be released with an alternate box. Both box arts should hopefully be revealed soon. Rest assured we'll bring all the information to you as soon as it's announced.

This year's annual THOH Comic was released yesterday. Three Eisner Award-winning masters of humor comics team-up to tell some wildly wicked and devilishly delightful Halloween howlers. Join Kyle Baker (Why I Hate Saturn, Plastic Man) as he takes a gentle fairy tale and turns it into a bloody rampage in the hands of Bart Simpson. Then Terry Moore (Strangers in Paradise) revisits the biblical story of Noah's Ark, but in this tricked-out version Homer is encouraged to build an ark so that God can exterminate all the cockroaches. And finally, Eric Powell (The Goon) provides a harrowing tale of crazed Groundskeeper Willie, hellishly bent on avenging his prized emu

The Simpsons increased its ratings slightly from last week to begin the month-long break between new episodes. Please Homer, Don't Hammer 'Em scored 9.72 million viewers, impressive figures, but still short of the season premiere (11.5 million).

The Simpsons and American Dad (8.39 million) were in fourth place for the 8:00pm hour, behind EM: Home Edition, Football, and The Amazing Race. Overall, Fox were fourth for the night but its cartoon lineup including Family Guy (9.65 million) helped the network hit third place among adults 18 - 49. The next new episode, Treehouse Of Horror XVII, airs November 5.

Please Homer, Don't Hammer 'Em

Hoping to see a new side to Homer, Marge convinces him to buy a refined collectionof carpentry books. To Marge's dismay, the books only gather dust until she accidentally breaks a nightstand and uses the books to fix it herself. Soon Mage is hammering everything and decides to tansform her skills into a business. But the esidents of Springfeld don't tust her to make repairs so she hires Homer as a "front" while she handles the real work. Meanwhile peanuts are no longer allowed at Spingfield Elementry and Bart finds out Skinner has the allergy. You can view the Fox promo for this episode here.

Less than a week after Universal's chief executive called YouTube a "copyright infringer" for showing its music videos for free, News Corp.'s Fox Broadcasting unit is looking into whether clips from its popular TV show, "The Simpsons," are appearing on Googles video site in violation of a content-sharing agreement. There are now dozens of clips from The Simpsons, Family Guy, and other Fox programming available on Google Video -- each added to the site over the last two weeks or so, according to a review of the site. The Simpsons clip, along with scores of others that have found their way to Google Video this month, threaten to create problems between Google and its new partner, which owns Fox Broadcasting Co.

While Google viewers are no doubt enjoying the clips, they are all in violation of an existing, nonexclusive pact between Fox and Google. Under terms of that arrangement, Google Video can only distribute a few episodes of "Vanished" and "Prison Break." What you see on Family Guy and The Simpsons is not part of that agreement," the spokeswoman said Monday. She added that it's likely the company will soon ask Google to remove this and other clips pointed out to her by a reporter.

The Simpsons figures dropped a little from last week's season premiere, but the episode Jazzy & The Pussycats still managed to draw a healthy 8.94 million viewers on Sunday.

The Fox network finished fourth overall for the night and third among adults aged 18 - 49. Similarly, The Simpsons kept Fox in fourth place for the 8:00pm hour, beaten by Football, 60 Minutes, and The Amazing Race. The big winner for Fox was Family Guy, with 9.33 million viewers, while American Dad (7.70 million) proved a success in its new post-Simpsons timeslot. Fox has one more new episode of The Simpsons to air next week before their commitment to Baseball comes into play during October.

Bart Meets The White Stripes

Rush out to your comic book stands this Wednesday and you will be able to purchase the latest issue of Bongo's Simpsons Comics. In a blast from the past, Homer tells a tale of his teenage troubles, and the time he found himself caught in a three-way love triangle between Marge and a lovely young debutante — who also happened to be Mr. Burns’ niece.

If you're in the UK, here's this month's synopsis. Mister Burns is not happy. A new documentary has taken his name, dragged it through the mud, trampled it, then hung it up on the wall to wither in the sun. So, he decided to erect a museum as a monument to his own greatness.

When Bart turns a quiet funeral into a chaotic mess, his parents are faced with a mob of angry Springfieldians who have had enough. Homer and Marge desperately look to a child psychiatrist for help, who suggests that Bart take up drumming to channel his energy. Before long, Bart is laying down fills like a pro, getting into “drum-offs” with The White Stripes and jamming in a band with Lisa’s favorite jazz musicians. It doesn’t take long before Lisa’s encouragement turns to deep-seated jealousy, forcing the siblings to step in line and learn how to march to the beat of the same drum.

The highly anticipated season premiere of The Simpsons managed to gather 11.5 million viewers on Sunday night up against some stiff competition.

While coming fourth behind Sunday Night NFL on NBC, Path To 9/11 on ABC, and CBS's 9/11 documentary, The Simpsons still pulled healthy numbers, up on last year's season premiere Bonfire Of The Manatees (11.1 million). FOX finished third overall for the night, but was boosted to second position behind NBC among adults 18 - 49 with help from Family Guy (10 million) and American Dad (8.9 million).

As The Simpsons began its eighteenth season last night, fans will be glad to know that creator Matt Groening sees no end in sight for the show. "My attitude at this point is, as long as the people who work on the show are having a good time, let's keep doing it," he said. "We've always tried to entertain ourselves and figured that the outside world would be entertained if we were making ourselves laugh."

The key is to keep surprising the audience, which he acknowledged has become tougher because the show has "covered a lot of territory" through the years. "But there's a really good-natured spirit of competitiveness among the youngest writers on the staff who basically grew up watching the show and have a great memory for everything that's gone before."

After Lisa befriends Fat Tony's son Michael, Fat Tony invites the Simpsons over for dinner as a sign of gratitude. Shockingly, Fat Tony is shot by a rival family moments after Michael admits he would rather be a chef than take over the family business. Fat Tony's main thugs want Michael to be the new kingpin, but when he declines, Homer steps up and leads the family on a major mob spree.

Hello once again. Today marks our tenth major design change in our nine year history. This change is all about establishing and strengthening the site's role in providing you with Simpsons news, by giving you a more corporate, professional look that you would expect from a news-focused website. Since Simpsons Channel took an all-news focused format in 2002, the site has come from strength to strength and this design hopes to continue the tradition. As you can see we've kept things similar to before, but have given you more room to breathe. We're sure you'll love this design just as much as the last one even if you weren't tired of its colorful flavor; it's simply a directional change I needed to make. You can leave your comments and suggestions via the comment form attached to this post.

Fox has offered online sneak peaks of the first seven minutes of "The Simpsons" premiere "The Mook, The Chef, The Wife, and Her Homer" starting today, part of a promotional campaign for the 17-year-old animated comedy. The episode doesn't air on television until tomorrow night, but you can get a sneak peek at The Simpsons on Myspace.


The clip, sponsored by Burger King, is also available at Fox.com and IGNTV.com. The online offering also includes behind-the-scenes footage on the making of an upcoming episode. The "Simpsons" effort builds on Fox's aggressive approach to use its Web assets to promote new shows. The network is also offering for free the first three episodes of "Vanished" and "Prison Break".

IGN have interviewed Simpsons executive producer Al Jean on the eve of this Sunday's season premiere. In it, he talks about some upcoming episodes as well as the progression of the movie. Your best bet is to read the whole interview here; but i'll get you started.

IGN TV: I'm sure you get asked this a lot, but could you imagine this show would go this long at the beginning?

Al Jean: No, I was hoping for five years. I mean I'd worked on Alf, and that ran four [years]. And here we are. But now I don't even know. You know, I'm very sure they'll be a 19th season, and then I don't know. Still, the numbers are good.