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.

As the mastermind and creator of the online social networking phenomenon SpringFace, Lisa is called to trial when Springfield’s obsession with the site becomes chaotic and dysfunctional. Lisa recounts her story and explains that she created the site after realizing she had no real friends. But as SpringFace expands and Springfield’s fixation with the site causes mass hysteria, Lisa begins to realize that adding thousands of friends online did not compare to having real friendships. Later, Patty and Selma compete against the Winklevoss Twins in the rowing event at the 2012 Olympic Games.

The Simpsons continues with an all new episode this Sunday January 8, titled ‘Politically Inept, with Homer Simpson.’ Homer lands his own political talk show after a video featuring his impassioned rant on poor treatment at the airport goes viral. As his talk show quickly gains popularity nationwide, Homer becomes the spokesperson for the Gravy Movement and the voice of America’s newest political party. But when ill-informed Homer is asked to select the next Republican nominee for President and officially endorses right-wing rock star Ted Nugent (guest voicing as himself), Marge and Lisa worry that Homer’s opinion and influence might be more powerful than he realizes.

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.

The episode is set in Christmas 30 years in the future, where Homer and Marge are empty nesters and Bart, Lisa and Maggie bring their own kids over to see Homer and Marge for Christmas. Bart is now a lousy, deadbeat dad who actually lives in the school, which is now condos, and Skinner is his landlord. Bart has had two kids and is divorced and Lisa is married to Milhouse. Adult Bart and Lisa get drunk in the Treehouse, talking about their family.

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

A new episode titled “The Man in the Blue Flannel Pants” airs tomorrow night on FOX!

THE SIMPSONS host a tastemaker party at their home to promote Absolut Krusty, Krusty the Clown’s own brand of liquor. Mr. Burns takes notice of the party’s success and decides to promote Homer to “Account Man” for the Springfield Nuclear Plant. Robert Marlow (guest voice John Slattery), a seasoned account veteran, takes Homer under his wing and shows Homer what the high life is like in the corner office. Meanwhile, Lisa introduces Bart to a new literary world which sparks his interest in reading classic novels, and when Homer’s long hours at the office become the norm, a family vacation with Marge and the kids help him realize that family always comes before work.

For those who are counting, this is episode 493 – getting closer to 500!

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.

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 .

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.

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.