The Simpsons

CHICAGO – Perhaps the highest compliment I can pay FX’s new often-brilliant animated series “Archer” is that, even with several new shows on my plate to watch, I actually went back and viewed a few episodes more than once. Like a lot of great animation - the best of “The Simpsons,” “Family Guy,” “South Park,” “Venture Bros.” - “Archer” is immensely rewatchable. A future cult hit premieres tonight.

CHICAGO – Even the most diehard fans of “The Simpsons,” a group of which I would proudly call myself a member, would admit that the last few seasons of the show have been disappointing at best and, at times, downright bad (especially the current season we’re in, which has produced fewer laughs than anything on FOX Sunday nights).

CHICAGO – FOX recently sent over the details on their post-baseball coverage including the series premiere of “The Wanda Sykes Show,” the special “Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex’s Almost Live Comedy Show,” a week-long “The Simpsons”-themed on-air scavenger hunt November 9th through the 15th, and synopsis information for the hit shows they have planned for the sweeps period including “House,” “Glee,” “Bones,” “Fringe,” and “Lie to Me”.

CHICAGO – Since Fox released the first season of “The Simpsons” on DVD, fans of the series have anticipated each new release like a kid waiting for presents for a fat man in a red suit to fall down a chimney in late December. Each season set for “The Simpsons” has set the bar for what TV on DVD should be. It’s no surprise that the twelfth season doesn’t change the excellent pattern.

CHICAGO – FOX announced their fall premiere dates this morning and the network should start off with a skip in its step with “So You Think You Can Dance” and “Glee” kicking off the season on Wednesday, September 9th.

Television Rating: 2.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Will another animated show on Sunday nights be a perfect fit for “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy” fans or will those beloved shows have set too high a bar to jump over for another cartoon to compete? People love their Homer and Stewie. Will they fall for the teachers of Knob Haven on “Sit Down, Shut Up”? Despite the incredible talent involved, I highly doubt it.

Blu-Ray Rating: 3.0/5.0

CHICAGO – I honestly never though Trey Parker and Matt Stone would still be pumping out “South Park” episodes in the era of HD Blu-Ray. It’s not that I’m not a fan. I’ve seen the brilliant movie, “South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut” a dozen or so times, but I thought that would be near the end of the phenomenon of Stan, Kyle, Kenny, & Cartman. Years later, it looks like it was just the beginning.

CHICAGO – Here is the legendary documentarian Errol Morris on the infamous 2003 photographs taken at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, which are the subject of his new film entitled “Standard Operating Procedure”:

CHICAGO – Frantic and fantastically funny, the musical-comedy play “The Bicycle Men” invades Chicago again for a limited run at the Lakeshore Theater this time featuring the man – Dan Castellaneta – who is best known as the voice of TV’s Homer Simpson.

CHICAGO – Bill Zwecker of the Chicago Sun-Times and CBS 2 Chicago has the scoop on Thursday that Oak Park, Ill. native Dan Castellaneta – the voice of Homer Simpson in “The Simpsons” – will be coming back to Chicago.