#1: Soothsaying With The Simpsons

The world's most well-known cartoon comedy family have borne witness to much in their seemingly everlasting tenure on television, and within those annals are writ many a gag that then eerily manifested into our own reality some years later. From murder hornets to presidential elections to scientific wonders, could The Simpsons be a codex that predicts the fortunes of our civilisation? Or do such respected major publications as Time Magazine, Gentleman's Quarterly and that one dude you know off Twitter really gotta drum up some traffic? We'll sort the cromulent truths from the entertaining lies and peer within the Springfield scrying glass to make a few prophecies of our own as The Secret Of The Sailor Madness is preached unto the world anew!

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OH That's A Baseball Episode! #2: The Simpsons, King Of The Hill and Bob's Burgers

The second game in our stellar series has us putting on the throwback jersey as we cast our minds back to some of the baseball episodes that lay within the earlier seasons of fan favourite animated sitcoms! Homer Simpson gets called up to the big leagues; Hank Hill finally makes manager at Strickland Propane; and Bob Belcher has yet another idyllic piece of his youth shredded before his very eyes. Mortifying mascots and the most under-handed of pitches round out another classic showcase of animation and athleticism. Give us an A!

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Show #192: The Critic

Libby Cudmore of The OST Party continues her streak on SOTSM with something very near & dear to her, that being Al Jean & Mike Reiss's effort at producing primetime animation outside of their work on The Simpsons, which The Critic got lumped in with anyway! Besides mocking the vacuousoness of the entertainment industry then & now it's also a paean to a slightly more innocent (and probably partially imagined) era of cultural criticism, which inspires quite the thoughtful discussion of the same alongside a childhood spent in 1990s New York City and studying up on film references at the video rental shop. Please try some of these complimentary edible Porgs left over from the press junket for Star Wars 8, or whatever else you're craving for your Post-Podcast Repaste!

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Show #170: Disenchantment

A wizened old wizard dusts of his tomes so that the world may know him once more! Matt Groening emerges from the mists to relate his sordid tale of Disenchantment!

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Besides serving as a prominent reminder of just how long ago Futurama was on television, Matt Groening's latest original offering for Netflix had others taken aback for different reasons and wondering if this adult animated sitcom had anything new to offer in an increasingly crowded field. But does Disenchantment have a trick up its sleeve for the end of this season and beyond? Inaccurate comparisons, a predictable investigation of artistic references and probably far too much use of the high-pitched cautiously optimistic voice await you at the end of your quest!

Show #163: Family Dog (1987/1993)

The Brad Bird bombardment continues as we check the pedigree of animated short and TV spinoff Family Dog!

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After a lot of hard graft in the 80s Brad Bird finally broke through and landed a life-changing job working on The Simpsons. Everybody wanted something from television's new golden boy, such that even his past projects were dusted off and ill-advisedly moulded into unwieldy forms with little to no input from their original creator! But does Family Dog the series deserve it's place in the boneyard of prime-time cartoon pretenders? Careers are catalogued, points are missed and yet more pondering is done on our podcast prospects!

THE SHORT VERSION

Good dog

Bad dog

That pencil test for The Spirit really is somethin'.

Show #146: Mission Hill

We just about found the time to prise ourselves off the couch and reappraise our misspent youth on a little trip to Mission Hill!

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Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein were some of the hottest TV comedy writers going in the 90s. Fresh off what are widely viewed as the best seasons of The Simpsons, surely their own original show about folks their age with all the material they weren't allowed to use on their other gigs would be a huge success right? I'm gonna bet you are unlikely to have heard of Mission Hill until this very podcast so naturally there's a bit of a story behind why that is, not to mention how similarly styled programmes met a similar fate and just what ARE the 18 to 25 age bracket watching these days?

THE SHORT VERSION

Bright lights, big city

Cutting wit

Great representations

Show #131: Capitol Critters

This election year be sure to exercise your civic duty and be an informed voter on the dangerous policies of Capitol Critters.

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Another Simpsons wannabe that misses what made that show appealing, Capitol Critters is a pungent mess of clumsy political hot takes interspersed with cartoon animal slapstick capering, and if you think that sounds like two elements that'd mix about as well fire & gasoline you would be entirely correct. As subtle as a sledgehammer and somehow even less graceful, it's amazing it lasted as long as it did.

THE SHORT VERSION

PTSD

Even, nuanced discussion of social issues

You're alright VP Cat

Show #108: Fish Police

Dredged up from the deep after being fed to the sharks many years ago, we investigate the strange case of Fish Police.

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A pretender to the 90s prime time cartoon throne (held in that era in an iron grip by The Simpsons) Fish Police sounds good on paper, an adaptation of Steve Moncuse's bizarre comic with a prestigious cast including John Ritter, Buddy Hackett and Megan Mulally. The execution is sorely lacking though; too dumb for an older audience with lame humour and stale plotlines and grossly unsuitable for younger viewers, laced with sexual innuendo and other mature content. In attempting to be for everybody it was a show for nobody, only notable now for being a fascinating artifact of animation from the time.

THE SHORT VERSION

Hard-bitten carps

Fish fatales

An all shar(k) cast! (Forgive me...)

Show #35: What Happened Gravity?

Our first Academy Awards special is released way past the point of relevance, but released it shall be nonetheless!

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What started out as a snappy bonus episode quickly became an ordeal of massive proportions yet we doggedly struggled on til completion. Pretty late as far as Oscar specials go but hey! Lessons have been learned and we shall strive to be more punctual next year.

Anyhow we get down to a bit of banter about this year's Oscar shorts and their various merits and how all that muss turned out. We also have a bit of discussion thrown in about the feature length animations, a few of which you may expect to hear about in more detail on a future podcast, so watch this space!

THE NOMINEES! 

Paperman

Head Over Heels

Fresh Guacamole

 Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare

Adam and Dog