Simpsons syndication package coming to cable

http://variety.com/2013/tv/news/fox-plans-simpsons-cable-syndication-push-1200608976/

I'm guessing it ends up on Adult Swim overnight, and TBS daytime/evenings.

 

Adult Swim would be a good choice. I usually watch a lot of shows on that channel. I wonder if this is a sign that the show is coming to an end? They are signed up through season 26, but after that, who knows. Maybe it will end up like Gunsmoke or Bonanza. There are so many episodes and different eras, that certain episodes appear on certain networks and other episodes appear on different networks. Examples. I only was able to see the color episodes of Gunsmoke and the first 6 seasons of Bonanza growing up. Only later on did I see the rare episodes.

 

I heard one of the show producers say that their goal is to at least get to Season 30 before the end of the decade.

Adult Swim could run a month of nightly marathons and probably get great rating from it.

 

FXX is running a massive marathon of EVERY SINGLE SIMPSONS EPISODE, EVER.

Starts today!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...arts-thursday-on-fxx-will-shatter-tv-records/

 

I just turned it on. Fake widescreen on the SD (read: pre-2009) episodes. It looks terrible and cuts off much of the image. Boo, FXX!

 

Don't you mean, "Boo-urns"?

 

I haven't come across the first season Simpsons episodes in syndication in quite a while, at least a decade.

 

My local CW affiliate recently started running the show in syndication every night, chronologically, starting with season one, episode one.

 

And in full frame, too.

 

Correct, no fake widescreen.

Not real HD, though. I think the show was mastered on video and the original cells for the early stuff is lost, so I don't think we'll ever get true HD for the early seasons, which is a shame.

 

I think Groening mentioned on the commentary tracks that cells were lost/stolen and they are frequently for sale in galleries with the Simpson creators getting no money.

 

<unsuccessfully working up sympathy>

 

The cels were both stolen and generally horribly stored by Fox (Groening tells of visiting a warehouse once where he found tons of them just laying on the floor being stepped on). Some film elements should still exist I'd think, though, because they wouldn't go back and re-shoot all the original cels even if they did exist. The cropped widescreen is just awful though, the show really doesn't look right this way (and again Groening complains a few times about people zooming in the show to fit their new widescreen TV on the DVD commentaries). But other than that, the FXX airings look very good to me. I'm sure it's probably just an upscale, but they seem to look better than the DVD transfers do when upscaled to me. And I think they've re-composited, if that's the right word, the end credits - something just looks a little off about them to me.

 

I am enjoying seeing all these old episodes again, even though I have the DVDs.

 

Has anyone ever gotten to the bottom of whether the pre-Season 20 seasons that Fox has released on Blu-Ray are actually anything other than upconverted SD? Are they using something other than SD video masters for those seasons? They look quite nice for late 90's-early 2000's, and do look better than the DVD's marginally. Do they have access to some sort of digital file as opposed to an SD video master? Sort of like Disney's "CAPS" animation masters (pardon if I have the terminology all wrong).

 

I noticed that, when I tried to go 4:3.

 

Sometimes I just watch old VHS recordings of this show as the earlier episodes were so pointed in their satire and had perfect comedy timing. As long as I can see/hear the characters it's all good. The writing, voicing, etc, involved back then were stellar.

Bart: So, is there anything I can do to avoid coming back here?
Devil: Yeah, sure, but ehhh...you wouldn't like it.
Bart: Oh, Ok then.
Devil: Goodbye Bart! And remember - lie, cheat, steal...and listen to heavy metal music!
Bart: Yes sir!

 

Yeah, I noticed that too. They were airing episodes from 1990 last night, but zoomed in to be "widescreen". Fail. I wached something else after about two minutes.

 

The only way to watch these original episodes from uncropped, restored masters is through FXX's upcoming streaming website. You'll need a participating cable provider to access it, however.

The cropping is terrible, of course. I've found the restoration creates a marked improvement after season two. The first season is a mess, I am not sure the restoration has done anything to help it out.

 

So FXX offers them in the correct aspect ratio online, but broadcasts them wrong? That's really annoying. Since they know how they are supposed to look, why can't they just do it right? What if they figure out many people have widescreen monitors now?

 

even the sd version of fxx is a "windowboxed" widescreen version! boo....

 

Rest assured I was on the Internet within minutes registering my disgust throughout the world.

 

I'll just stick with my DVD seasons.