• Notes for 37ABF05 (Homer? A Cracker Bro?)

    From Matt Garvey@3:633/10 to All on Sun Feb 15 22:25:00 2026
    (...not 37ABF08)

    Is it season finale time already? APPARENTLY! Is Fox ordering too many animated shows without anywhere to put them? YES! And with this weird
    half year split, and more shows (including the return of one Fox dropped
    over a decade ago and then TBS dropped), I guess this is where we are.
    More thoughts below.

    How was the episode? Fine, a little weird for Kirk but OK as satire. The
    very specific format of the title must mean something but it's eluding
    me. Another new co-EP credit for the new production season in Tim Long.
    I was enjoying the subtle joke that the "CNBC" ticker was abbreviations
    for all types of crackers until Kirk went and noticed it himself
    somehow. And if I did the math right this was actually about 10 seconds
    above the nominal episode length for these days. At least something's
    not falling short...

    Yeah, I guess it's back to schedule ranting. This is the season finale.
    In mid-February. Fifteenth episode of the season. Some real BS. Does Fox
    even like the show at this point? If not, why did it renew it for FOUR
    more seasons? And are these going to be 22-episode production runs?
    Because although the strike a few years ago really threw off the
    numbers, you'd think it would be building BACK, instead of treading
    water briefly and then falling further behind. We began this (air)
    season with an 11-episode (HALF SEASON) holdover count, up from the 7
    that's been typical for the last few decades. Tonight, the 37th air
    season contains 7 season 36 episodes and 8 season 37 episodes (with 4
    more season 36 episodes yet to materialize - one assumes they're
    destined for streaming-only nonsense like the last tail end but if so
    WHEN?), so by my math that leaves 4+14=18 holdovers, almost a full
    season of its own. After this long, is The Simpsons going to get lapped
    like Family Guy, American Dad!, and Bob's Burgers (though not,
    technically, King of the Hill)?? Just after its production codes finally started looking intuitive, too! Oh yeah, let's have 38ABF01 kick off
    season 39, that makes sense. Maybe the next few production seasons will
    be dialed back significantly and the air seasons will catch up. Or Fox
    could just go back to airing 26 or 27 episodes a year as it did once
    upon a time.
    And as I mentioned before this early finale (and other extremely sparse episode scheduling in the last month) means that even though 1/18, 2/1,
    and 4/12 are the only three REALLY NORMAL dates that have never seen
    episodes premiere on Fox and they're all Sundays this year, they all get passed up AGAIN. Great.
    Till next time!

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Ant@3:633/10 to All on Tue Feb 17 00:45:30 2026
    Also, Fox did those special short episodes on Hulu like Fortnite. Maybe
    that is where the resources went.

    Matt Garvey <mxg77@po.cwru.edu> wrote:
    (...not 37ABF08)

    Is it season finale time already? APPARENTLY! Is Fox ordering too many animated shows without anywhere to put them? YES! And with this weird
    half year split, and more shows (including the return of one Fox dropped over a decade ago and then TBS dropped), I guess this is where we are.
    More thoughts below.

    How was the episode? Fine, a little weird for Kirk but OK as satire. The very specific format of the title must mean something but it's eluding
    me. Another new co-EP credit for the new production season in Tim Long.
    I was enjoying the subtle joke that the "CNBC" ticker was abbreviations
    for all types of crackers until Kirk went and noticed it himself
    somehow. And if I did the math right this was actually about 10 seconds above the nominal episode length for these days. At least something's
    not falling short...

    Yeah, I guess it's back to schedule ranting. This is the season finale.
    In mid-February. Fifteenth episode of the season. Some real BS. Does Fox even like the show at this point? If not, why did it renew it for FOUR
    more seasons? And are these going to be 22-episode production runs?
    Because although the strike a few years ago really threw off the
    numbers, you'd think it would be building BACK, instead of treading
    water briefly and then falling further behind. We began this (air)
    season with an 11-episode (HALF SEASON) holdover count, up from the 7
    that's been typical for the last few decades. Tonight, the 37th air
    season contains 7 season 36 episodes and 8 season 37 episodes (with 4
    more season 36 episodes yet to materialize - one assumes they're
    destined for streaming-only nonsense like the last tail end but if so WHEN?), so by my math that leaves 4+14=18 holdovers, almost a full
    season of its own. After this long, is The Simpsons going to get lapped
    like Family Guy, American Dad!, and Bob's Burgers (though not,
    technically, King of the Hill)?? Just after its production codes finally started looking intuitive, too! Oh yeah, let's have 38ABF01 kick off
    season 39, that makes sense. Maybe the next few production seasons will
    be dialed back significantly and the air seasons will catch up. Or Fox
    could just go back to airing 26 or 27 episodes a year as it did once
    upon a time.
    And as I mentioned before this early finale (and other extremely sparse episode scheduling in the last month) means that even though 1/18, 2/1,
    and 4/12 are the only three REALLY NORMAL dates that have never seen episodes premiere on Fox and they're all Sundays this year, they all get passed up AGAIN. Great.
    Till next time!

    --
    "This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another." --1 John 3:11. :) (L/C)NY eve. Watch out 4 da bucking fire horses.
    Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
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    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Renee McNeely@3:633/10 to All on Thu Feb 19 03:43:44 2026
    I recall reading that Season 37 had its budget cut, so they got rid of
    some of the auxiliary staff. Plus, there are apparently supposed to be
    two streaming-only episodes coming soon. I know they've ordered through
    season 40, but I would personally not be flabbergasted if the movie ends
    up serving as the de facto final send-off for the series (even though
    Season 40 will be going until 2029, which is after the movie comes out).

    Also, per simpsonswiki, production season 35ABF had two episodes that
    never got produced, "The Beautiful Shame" and "Marge and Homer and Moe
    and Maya". It makes me wonder if perhaps there are production issues
    going on behind the scenes that's affecting the release schedule.
    There's always some rollover, but it's felt particularly egregious
    lately and I have to wonder if it's something more than just COVID and
    the writers' strike having ripple effects.

    On 2/15/26 10:25 PM, Matt Garvey wrote:
    (...not 37ABF08)

    Is it season finale time already? APPARENTLY! Is Fox ordering too many animated shows without anywhere to put them? YES! And with this weird
    half year split, and more shows (including the return of one Fox dropped over a decade ago and then TBS dropped), I guess this is where we are.
    More thoughts below.

    How was the episode? Fine, a little weird for Kirk but OK as satire. The very specific format of the title must mean something but it's eluding
    me. Another new co-EP credit for the new production season in Tim Long.
    I was enjoying the subtle joke that the "CNBC" ticker was abbreviations
    for all types of crackers until Kirk went and noticed it himself
    somehow. And if I did the math right this was actually about 10 seconds above the nominal episode length for these days. At least something's
    not falling short...

    Yeah, I guess it's back to schedule ranting. This is the season finale.
    In mid-February. Fifteenth episode of the season. Some real BS. Does Fox even like the show at this point? If not, why did it renew it for FOUR
    more seasons? And are these going to be 22-episode production runs?
    Because although the strike a few years ago really threw off the
    numbers, you'd think it would be building BACK, instead of treading
    water briefly and then falling further behind. We began this (air)
    season with an 11-episode (HALF SEASON) holdover count, up from the 7
    that's been typical for the last few decades. Tonight, the 37th air
    season contains 7 season 36 episodes and 8 season 37 episodes (with 4
    more season 36 episodes yet to materialize - one assumes they're
    destined for streaming-only nonsense like the last tail end but if so WHEN?), so by my math that leaves 4+14=18 holdovers, almost a full
    season of its own. After this long, is The Simpsons going to get lapped
    like Family Guy, American Dad!, and Bob's Burgers (though not,
    technically, King of the Hill)?? Just after its production codes finally started looking intuitive, too! Oh yeah, let's have 38ABF01 kick off
    season 39, that makes sense. Maybe the next few production seasons will
    be dialed back significantly and the air seasons will catch up. Or Fox
    could just go back to airing 26 or 27 episodes a year as it did once
    upon a time.
    And as I mentioned before this early finale (and other extremely sparse episode scheduling in the last month) means that even though 1/18, 2/1,
    and 4/12 are the only three REALLY NORMAL dates that have never seen episodes premiere on Fox and they're all Sundays this year, they all get passed up AGAIN. Great.
    Till next time!


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Ant@3:633/10 to All on Fri Feb 20 00:46:38 2026
    Maybe it is time to end the tradition Simpsons on TV. Isn't there
    another movie coming too?


    Renee McNeely <reneemcneely@outlook.com> wrote:
    I recall reading that Season 37 had its budget cut, so they got rid of
    some of the auxiliary staff. Plus, there are apparently supposed to be
    two streaming-only episodes coming soon. I know they've ordered through season 40, but I would personally not be flabbergasted if the movie ends
    up serving as the de facto final send-off for the series (even though
    Season 40 will be going until 2029, which is after the movie comes out).

    Also, per simpsonswiki, production season 35ABF had two episodes that
    never got produced, "The Beautiful Shame" and "Marge and Homer and Moe
    and Maya". It makes me wonder if perhaps there are production issues
    going on behind the scenes that's affecting the release schedule.
    There's always some rollover, but it's felt particularly egregious
    lately and I have to wonder if it's something more than just COVID and
    the writers' strike having ripple effects.

    On 2/15/26 10:25 PM, Matt Garvey wrote:
    (...not 37ABF08)

    Is it season finale time already? APPARENTLY! Is Fox ordering too many animated shows without anywhere to put them? YES! And with this weird
    half year split, and more shows (including the return of one Fox dropped over a decade ago and then TBS dropped), I guess this is where we are. More thoughts below.

    How was the episode? Fine, a little weird for Kirk but OK as satire. The very specific format of the title must mean something but it's eluding
    me. Another new co-EP credit for the new production season in Tim Long.
    I was enjoying the subtle joke that the "CNBC" ticker was abbreviations for all types of crackers until Kirk went and noticed it himself
    somehow. And if I did the math right this was actually about 10 seconds above the nominal episode length for these days. At least something's
    not falling short...

    Yeah, I guess it's back to schedule ranting. This is the season finale.
    In mid-February. Fifteenth episode of the season. Some real BS. Does Fox even like the show at this point? If not, why did it renew it for FOUR more seasons? And are these going to be 22-episode production runs? Because although the strike a few years ago really threw off the
    numbers, you'd think it would be building BACK, instead of treading
    water briefly and then falling further behind. We began this (air)
    season with an 11-episode (HALF SEASON) holdover count, up from the 7 that's been typical for the last few decades. Tonight, the 37th air
    season contains 7 season 36 episodes and 8 season 37 episodes (with 4
    more season 36 episodes yet to materialize - one assumes they're
    destined for streaming-only nonsense like the last tail end but if so WHEN?), so by my math that leaves 4+14=18 holdovers, almost a full
    season of its own. After this long, is The Simpsons going to get lapped like Family Guy, American Dad!, and Bob's Burgers (though not, technically, King of the Hill)?? Just after its production codes finally started looking intuitive, too! Oh yeah, let's have 38ABF01 kick off season 39, that makes sense. Maybe the next few production seasons will
    be dialed back significantly and the air seasons will catch up. Or Fox could just go back to airing 26 or 27 episodes a year as it did once
    upon a time.
    And as I mentioned before this early finale (and other extremely sparse episode scheduling in the last month) means that even though 1/18, 2/1, and 4/12 are the only three REALLY NORMAL dates that have never seen episodes premiere on Fox and they're all Sundays this year, they all get passed up AGAIN. Great.
    Till next time!


    --
    "He who covers over an offense promotes love, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends." --Proverbs 17:9. Not a good start with CNY.
    Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
    /\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
    / /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
    | |o o| |
    \ _ /
    ( )

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)