Ever since Amoeba fan/Simpsons creator Matt Groening recently paid tribute to Amoeba Music by including an Amoeba Music Hollywood fashioned building (renamed Protozoa Records) in the Season 24, Episode 7 Simpsons show titled "The Day The Earth Stood Cool" that aired in early December I have been scratching my head and wondering what if Homer Simpson were to stop into Amoeba for some music shopping? What would he buy? What would be included in a Homer Simpson's WIMB (What's In My Bag?) episode if he were to go crate digging at Amoeba Music? Based on the numerous songs Homer has cited (most well worn Top 40 pop/rock hits that the cartoon character supposedly grew up listening to) and have been featured in episodes in the long running animated series, now in its 24th year, this is my stab at what Homer's WIMB might look like.

Bear in mind that this list only scratches the surface since over the years Groening and company have incorporated such a long list of hit songs into The Simpsons. In fact the show must have racked up quite a bill in copyright fees to license all this popular music for the show. But it is worth it since music often plays such an important role in so many episodes of The Simpsons - especially the Homer related songs. For example, when Homer and Marge pop into the open house next door to them and he imagines buying the house and what it would be like living next door to himself, just how horrible that would be, as he visualizes himself always playing Journey's "Separate Ways" and at way too loud volumes.

We made it onto The Simpsons last night! Or rather, Protozoa Records did... :) So rad. Thanks Matt Groening & co!!

The episode was called "The Day The Earth Stood Cool" and featured The Decemberists (who also wrote and recorded original music for the episode), Fred Armisen, Carrie Brownstein, and Patton Oswalt. The A.V. Club posted a great review of the episode here.

 

 

One advantage that an animated TV show has is that its stars need never age. Case in point is Matt Groening's creation The Simpsons, which debuted on Fox TV way back in December 1989 (although it appeared in a shorter and rougher form two years previously as a skit on the Tracey Ullman Show) and whose stars haven't aged a bit in the years that it has been on consistently since.

However the show has gone through many changes behind the scenes with various creative contributors, especially writers, coming and going -- prompting some critics to say that it is not the same Simpsons that it once was.

Personally I think it is still a great show, although I don't rush home to watch it the moment it first airs as I once did. But I still really enjoy it whenever I catch an episode (some more than others). And one episode that I got to watch recently was the Sadgasm episode, from the ongoing 19th season, in which Homer flashes back to the nineties -- a time when he creates grunge, or so the storyline goes.

I thought it was hilarious and loved it. (Check out the highlights of it in above video clip if you haven't already seen it.) But some naysayers were critical of it: saying things like "Hey, how come Bart wasn't born in this episode when he was already born when the series started the previous decade?" To whom I say: It's a cartoon, dummy! And it's called suspending your beliefs as the show takes poetic license.

The Simpsons' intro, with real life humans filling in as the animated family members Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie, made in the UK as a promo for the TV show's 17th season in March of this year, continues to grow in popularity online. As of today on YouTube it has gotten well over sixteen million views. And that is just on that site. The video clip is also posted on numerous other popular sites, such as ebaums world, where it is also getting repeated hits -- all of which reportedly have increased in recent weeks following the release of the Simpsons Movie.

The short clip, which accurately re-enacts the title sequence of the animated show with real actors such as at the very beginning of each episode, when the camera zooms into a schoolroom to Bart (above) writing in chalk on the blackboard, got the full approval of Simpsons maker Matt Groening. If you haven't already, see the one-minute video clip that uses the original Simpsons intro theme below and witness the actors' and film-makers' accurate portrayals of each character. Like the TV show, the clip ends with the whole family squeezed on the sofa ready to watch TV- - only in this version they are about to watch the cartoon version of the Simpsons.