That’s right kids, we did it again. It’s a brand new episode of The Flickcast just for you. And you. And you too. We’ll try to keep it going next week.

In the meantime on this week’s episode, Chris and Joe are still angry, but a bit less angry this time. Topics this week include Mad Max: Fury Road, Agents of SHIELD finale, the Arrow and Flash finales, the end of Mad Men, Twin Peaks coming back for really real this time, DC Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl and a whole lot more. Yep. More. It’s a big show.

Picks this week include Chris’ pick of the Darth Vader comic from Marvel and Joe’s pick of the new Simpsons LEGO minifigures.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship, or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook, Google+ or via email.

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LEGOs are a slippery slope. You see a cool Star Wars pack by the checkout at Target. It only costs five bucks. You tell yourself it would look cool on your desk. Then next time you see the Daily Bugle and think it’ll look great on your shelf. Six months later you have a replica of the Death Star and Batman’s Bat Cave taking up a quarter of your living room. And then, the sick bastards decide this isn’t enough and make something you’ve been waiting for since you were 5… the Simpsons in LEGO form.

Luckily I have the self control (lack of funds) to spend $270 on the Simpsons house even though it is pretty epic to say the least. Because of that, it’ll be easier to hold back purchasing Moe’s Tavern or the Quik-E Mart when they are inevitably released. But LEGO still knows how to stick it to you. They make a set of 16 blind bag minifigures of all of the top Simpsons characters and charge a “mere” $4 each. So just to get the entire set with no duplicates, it’s going to take $64 bucks, plus tax.

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.”

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.  

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.

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.

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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.

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.

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.