For twenty three years, longer than some of the readers of this site have been alive, one of the greatest mysteries on television has carried on with little to no hints as to the truth. Everyone knows who shot JR. Everyone found out the secret behind Twin Peaks.

The Cylons were revealed in Battlestar Galactica. We even all found out just where the survivors ended up in Lost. But no answer was harder to come by than which Springfield the Simpsons actually lived in.

For years, people tried to piece together the landmarks of Springfield and find out just where the Simpsons lived. Which city in the United States out of the 38 cities, towns and townships named Springfield had its own nuclear power plant, gorge, glacier and national forest that was also within driving distance to New York City? People quickly learned the answer is none, but that didn’t stop people from questioning where the Simpsons took place.

When talking to the Smithsonian Magazine, Groening was asked about the generic nature of the name Springfield. Groening replied that, “Springfield was named after Springfield, Oregon. The only reason is that when I was a kid, the TV show Father Knows Best took place in the town of Springfield, and I was thrilled because I imagined that it was the town next to Portland, my hometown.

When I grew up, I realized it was just a fictitious name. I also figured out that Springfield was one of the most common names for a city in the U.S. In anticipation of the success of the show, I thought, ‘This will be cool; everyone will think it’s their Springfield.’ And they do.”

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The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a lot like the Golden Globes. It is an honor in and of itself, but it is often awarded to someone whose project has a large advertising budget. This causes many cynics out there to feel it has no merit at all, but at the end of the day it is an honor and is part of the fabric of Hollywood.

The 2,459th star to adorn Hollywood Blvd is officially going to The Simpsons creator Matt Groening. Just in time for the 500th episode airing in two weeks, Groening will be honored with a star devoted entirely to him. A previous star honoring the Simpsons themselves already lines the famed street, close to where Groenings own star will soon be located.

Groening has forever left an indelible mark on society.   Voted the “Best Show of the 20^th Century” by Time Magazine, the [Simpsons] has left a path of catch-phrases (Homer’s “D’oh!” and Bart’s “Eat my shorts”) and societal commentary. It has also given birth to a theme park ride and United States postage stamps, personally designed by Groening. He served as producer and writer during the four-year process of the long-awaited hit feature film The Simpsons Movie, released in July 2007.  

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The Simpsons are the kings of prime time animation. Lasting an astounding twenty-three seasons and counting, The Simpsons is an institution that has spanned generations. So the collecting of these episodes is something that fans have enjoyed since the earliest days of TV on DVD. Fox has been releasing these sets for over a decade now and we find ourselves in an interesting era of the show.

Most people consider these early and mid 2000s seasons of the show to be the worst era during the impressive run. The show seemingly was stale and the spark was missing. At the end of the day the show survived and has since rebounded to become a relevant, often hilarious show.

One of the things I was most excited about when I dug into this set was the plethora of special features. The Simpsons sets have always set the standard for insightful and worthwhile special features, anchored by the amazing cast and crew commentaries that have accompanied every single episode since season one, making over 300 episodes worth of anecdotes, insights and inside knowledge of the creation of an institution.

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Join WallE and me, JC, once again for another episode of The Bitcast. This week has been loaded with news with the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Assassin’s Creed‘s Ezio making his way into the Soul Caliber ranks and the gigantic spike in the population of DC Universe Online going free to play.

In the Topic of the Week, WallE and JC debate whether the video game industry will ever be as big as the movie industry. They discuss the merits and weaknesses of both with JC saying games will surpass movies while WallE leans more on the side of cinema and end up coming to a surprising conclusion.

In their Now Playing section, WallE leads off with the PlayStation 3 release, the Simpsons Game from 2007. JC talks about his latest review title for The Flickcast with Goldeneye 007: Reloaded, much to WallE’s disapproval of the lack of Sean Bean in the game.

Check out the full show below and make sure to subscribe to The Flickcast feed in the iTunes podcast section to get The Bitcast automatically downloaded each week.

In a time when digital HD, cable, and satellite TV bring us thousands (that’s right: thousands) of different channels to choose from in our day-to-day viewing schedule, doesn’t it make sense that one of those channels should be dedicated to one of the most popular animated sitcoms in American TV history?

That’s what News Corp. is thinking, as they’re toying with the idea of bringing us an entire channel dedicated to The Simpsons. Here’s the speculative report from LA Times.

Noting that “The Simpsons” shows no sign of slowing down as it prepares to start its 23rd season on News Corp.’s Fox network, News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey said the company is starting to have internal discussions about how to create additional revenue streams for the animated hit that goes beyond reruns on TV stations and DVD sales.

Any effort at creating a platform just for “The Simpsons” may have to wait for the show to stop producing new episodes. Because the show is still in production after more than two decades, the rerun deals done years ago are still in effect. Once the show ends, so-called second cycle sales of repeat episodes can be sold. Although some shows might seem stale after 20 years, “The Simpsons” continues to be a solid performer.

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There’s nothing wrong with collecting action figures or sporting the classic “I’m Bart Simpson, who the hell are you?” T-shirt when you’re well into your 30s, right? Of course not. It’s just that now, instead of riding My Little Pony and making out with Barbie (or vice-versa), they maintain a silent vigil over your work cubicle…and your teacher won’t make your put a piece of tape over “hell.”

So cubicles and teachers everywhere will be excited to know that Fox has announced a line of limited-edition, Comic-Con-exclusive products based on their most popular franchises.

Executive Vice President of Fox Consumer Products, Robert Marick, says, “Comic-Con is a great place to engage our most passionate fans and we want to reward them with unique and special offerings that they won’t be able to acquire anywhere else.” What better way to make your co-workers jealous or finally impress Meg in accounting?

Toys, T-shirts, comics, and more will be featured at booth #4313, and a full list can be found below the fold.

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Starting with the cultural phenom that is The Simpsons in 1989, Fox has been the undisputed king of prime-time animation. They have given us King of the Hill, Futurama, Family Guy and American Dad, but they maintain a reputation of being corporate monsters who will kill any show that doesn’t meet their insane expectations. Even going as far as trying to murder two of those classic shows in their primes and snuffing out The Critic before it’s time.

So fans of the wonderful new show Bob’s Burgers have had the nagging fear in the back of their heads that Fox doesn’t quite get it. Well fear no more Bob’s Burger-philes (or is it Bob’s Burgonians?), Fox has renewed the show for a second season.

This is fantastic news because Bob’s Burgers is the best animated show currently running in the Animation Domination line-up on Sunday nights. Family Guy has lost it’s way, The Simpsons is solid, but has lost the spark that made it must watch TV in the 90′s, and the less said about The Cleveland Show the better. Only American Dad seems to be firing on all cylinders these days, and even that show doesn’t match the consistency Bob’s Burgers has shown in its short run thus far.

Until they gets off the Seth MacFarlane bandwagon, Bob’s Burgers is the last, best hope for Fox’s reign as prime-time animation king.

I was thinking about long running TV shows the other day and having a discussion with some colleagues. We were impressed to realize that The Simpsons has been on the air for 22 years. That’s longer than some staffers on this site have been alive. Amazing.

Well, the amazing can now continue because Fox has officially given the green light for a 23rd season of the venerable animated comedy featuring Homer, Marge, Lisa, Maggie, Bart and their host of friends and neighbors in beautiful Springfield. The 23rd season will get the show to the impressive 500th episode milestone and then beyond, bringing the total number of episodes to 515. That’s a lot of chalkboards and sofa gags.

“Like many 22-year-olds, The Simpsons is extremely happy remaining at home, on Fox, and hopes it doesn’t have to go out into the real world for many years to come,” said The Simpsons executive producer Al Jean. I’m sure that’s true because, really, what a great gig it must be for the people who make the show.

Sure, it might get a bit tiring doing the same thing for 22 years but in Hollywood, this kind of lengthy work doesn’t come along all that often — especially if your show happens to be on the Fox network. Just ask Joss Whedon.

As an added bonus, I dug up a video of The Simpsons first season opening credits. It’s fun to see how the characters and situations have changed but also stayed remarkably the same as well. Check it out after the jump.

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This week on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt do things a bit differently as they take the show on the road and record while driving to and from a secret location. Sure, it might be dangerous, but your two favorite hosts are always willing to go the extra mile to entertain and inform.

Some of the topics discussed during this special show include Spider-Man bad guy casting, the Thing prequel, Call of Duty: Black Ops, the new TV season and the state of the comic book industry. The boys also talked about the Banksy Simpsons opening credits, the new Captain America game and other movie franchise video games.

And, as always, picks were made with Matt picking a surprise you will have to listen to the show to find out and Chris’ pick of the terrific TiVo Premiere for all your home DVR needs.

As we’ve done in the past, we’ve got another video for you that we think you should see. Often we will make comments or provide context but in this case, we think the video speaks for itself.

Okay, maybe a little hint. It’s the title sequence for The Simpsons, one of Fox’s longest running shows ever. However, this particular one is a bit different. Really different, in fact. It was directed by noted street artist Banksy if that that help give you a clue to what you are going to see.

It takes you deeper and shows you more than any other one of these ever done for the show. And if you know the show and know how much work they put into the opening titles, that’s saying a lot.

So, click through to check out this amazing video. Let us know what you think in the comments.

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To the relief and delight of fans everywhere, Futurama finally returned to Comedy Central in June, with an anticipated season of 26 new episodes that will air through the rest of 2010 and into 2011. Riding the wave of elation and acclaim (what Comic-Con wouldn’t be complete without the presence of Groening) Matt Groening (Creator) and David X. Cohen (Executive Producer) shared their ideas for the future of Futurama and what they love most about being in San Diego for Comic-Con.

Groening thanked the fans who are devoted to the show and attributed Futurama‘s return to their persistence. He also teased fans with the vague spoiler of two characters kissing in an upcoming episode, but that it will be completely unexpected and the audience won’t see it coming (anyone want to start a betting pool?).

Fans who are patiently waiting for the early seasons of not only Futurama and The Simpsons to be released on Blu-Ray are going to be waiting for a while. There aren’t any current plans for their release, but they will be available on Laser-Disc very soon!

As for the future of the show, Groening stated that back when he was developing the show with David X. Cohen, they made a list of all the things they wanted to write about, and they still haven’t exhausted that list. Additionally, he revealed that there aren’t any current plans to do direct to DVD movies, but that the ultimate goal would be to develop and release a full-length film that will be released in theaters.

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Hard to believe it’s not even a month before San Diego Comic-Con, the annual pilgrimage to the city by the sea for all lovers of comics, movies, TV and everything in between. We’re going to be covering the show in a big way this year and have already started giving you some good information about it.

To continue that trend, we’ve got information about Fox TV’s plans for the event. The network will have a big presence at the Con bringing eleven shows and many of the stars stars from those shows for panels and press events.

Some of their talent scheduled to attend include David Boreanaz, Matt Groening, Seth MacFarlane, Molly Shannon, Katey Sagal, Ron Perlman, Patton Oswalt, Seth Green, Stars of Glee, Terra Nova, Futurama, Cleveland Show, American Dad, Bob’s Burgers and Neighbors From Hell. A pretty impressive list indeed.

Click through for the full press release detailing Fox TV’s schedule. Comic-Con in San Diego runs from July 22-26.

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