Special Edna

From EW.com

Fox and The Simpsons producers are making some changes to Sunday’s programming to pay tribute to the passing of longtime Simpsons actress Marcia Wallace.

First, the network is replacing a repeat of American Dad with a classic Simpsons episode that focused on Wallace’s beloved character Edna Krabappel.

The network will re-air the 16th episode of the show’s third season, “Bart the Lover,” which offered a sympathetic take on Bart’s cynical, lonely teacher. In the episode, Bart discovers Krabappel has posted a personal ad, so he begins writing her bogus love letters. After setting her up on a fake date, he spies her sitting by herself in the restaurant. When she’s still there hours later, he’s no longer amused by his prank and sets about trying to make things right. The episode won Wallace an Emmy Award in 1992.

“Bart the Lover” will air as the 7:30 p.m. lead-in to an all-new Simpsons, titled “4 Regrettings and a Funeral.” The new episode will then conclude with a tribute card from the producers honoring Wallace. Also, the episode opens with an epic-length couch-gag spoof of The Hobbit.

Wallace died at age 70. “I was tremendously saddened to learn this morning of the passing of the brilliant and gracious Marcia Wallace,” producer Al Jean said in a statement earlier this week. “She was beloved by all at The Simpsons and we intend to retire her irreplaceable character.”

2013 Fall Television Schedule Announcement (FOX)

Kevin Reilly, Chairman, Entertainment, Fox Broadcasting Company, today unveiled the FOX primetime slate for the 2013-2014 television season to the national advertising community during its annual Programming Presentation at the Beacon Theatre.

This season, we will strategically launch five inventive live-action comedies, four distinctive dramas, our first-ever event series, as well as some innovative new digital initiatives, across the week and throughout the year," said Reilly. "We're making the biggest investment in original programming in our history to ensure that FOX continues to engage viewers and move the culture more than any other entertainment brand."

FOX 2013-2014 SCHEDULE (All Times ET/PT)

MONDAY

8:00-9:00 PM Bones (fall) / ALMOST HUMAN (new; late fall)
9:00-10:00 PM SLEEPY HOLLOW (new; fall) / The Following (midseason)

TUESDAY

8:00-8:30 PM DADS
8:30-9:00 PM BROOKLYN NINE-NINE
9:00-9:30 PM  New Girl
9:30-10:00 PM The Mindy Project

WEDNESDAY

8:00-10:00 PM The X Factor (fall) / American Idol (midseason)

THURSDAY

8:00-9:00 PM The X Factor Results (fall) / American Idol Results (midseason)
9:00-10:00 PM Glee (fall) / RAKE (new; midseason)

FRIDAY

8:00-9:00 PM JUNIOR MASTERCHEF (wt) (new; fall)
9:00-10:00 PM SLEEPY HOLLOW encores (fall)

Late Fall:

8:00-9:00 PM Bones (late fall)
9:00-9:30 PM Raising Hope (late fall)
9:30-10:00 PM ENLISTED (new; late fall)

SATURDAY

7:00-10:30 PM FOX Sports Saturday
11:00 PM-12:30 AM ANIMATION DOMINATION HIGH-DEF

SUNDAY

7:00-7:30 PM NFL Game (fall)
7:30-8:00 PM THE OT (fall)
8:00-8:30 PM THE Simpsons
8:30-9:00 PM Bob's Burgers
9:00-9:30 PM Family Guy
9:30-10:00 PM American Dad

Scheduling to be announced for the following new series slated for midseason: "Gang Related" (New), "Surviving Jack" (new), "Us & Them" (new) and "Murder Police" (new).

Trading louses

From EW.com:

You may now exclaim, “Holy crap! Woo hoo!”: Seth MacFarlane has recorded a guest spot on The Simpsons.

The Family Guy creator and voice actor (not to mention one of EW’s Entertainers of the Year and the host of the upcoming Oscars) will try to romance Marge in an episode that’s slated to air next fall as the season 25 premiere, EW has learned. The two popular animated shows, of course, share a network, a night, an overweight patriarch that falls well shy of role model, and a rivalry as they’ve playfully jabbed each other on screen over the years. “We wanted to come together in a bipartisan way to make Fox Sunday night rock,” sums up Simpsons executive producer Al Jean of the MacFarlane casting. “This was all very fun.”

In the episode, titled “Dangers on a Train,” Marge mistakes an Ashley Madison-type website for a Dolly Madison-type cupcake site, not realizing that it’s a destination for married people to arrange affairs. While on the site, she encounters the charming Ben (MacFarlane), who pursues her as they bond over their mutual love of a Downton Abbey-ish series, Upton Rectory. “A lot of him trying to go after her is over the phone, so it’s a perfect part for someone with his voice,” says Jean, who adds that the smooth-voiced MacFarlane croons “The Way You Look Tonight” in the episode. (By the way, Ben’s wife is voiced by comedian Lisa Lampanelli, “which explains what’s wrong with his marriage,” quips Jean.)

MacFarlane — who lent his voice to Matt Groening’s other animated series, Futurama, in 2009 — welcomed the offer to visit Springfield. “We thought we had a great part that he’d be perfect for, and it would be great to have him on our show, so it worked out just right,” says Jean, noting: “There’s been a little rivalry. We’re both humor shows and we make jokes, but it’s always been friendly.”

In fact, “Dangers on a Train” contains a joke that tweaks both Family Guy and The Simpsons. During one of Marge and Ben’s conversations, says Jean, “they talk about this Downton Abbey show and they say, ‘There’s so much great stuff on Sunday nights… except on Fox.’”

Will Family Guy flip the script and feature some Simpsons talent on an upcoming episode? MacFarlane was unavailable for comment, but Jean says, “I’m hopeful that there will be something of us on their show but that’s up to them. We’d certainly welcome it.” In any case, he adds, “for Seth, it completes the Saturday Night Live/Oscar host/Simpsons triple crown that exists only in my head.”

(UPDATE: Some of you have astutely noted that Dan Castellaneta had a one-line cameo in an October episode of Family Guy. We were asking if Family Guy will return the favor with a prominent guest role like MacFarlane’s.)

2012 Fall Television Schedule Announcement (FOX)

I know I'm a little behind on these, so shoot me.

2012 FOX Fall Lineup

Fox decided to play it safe and boring this year apparently. There most dramatic changes, like moving Glee to Thursday night don't particularly affect me. I'm thankful that they renewed Fringe so that it can get a proper sendoff. It's also nice to see that there's no shakeups to the Animation Domination lineup. Although given how most of those series are starting to get long in the tooth, perhaps some fresh blood would have been nice. Their bigger concern though will definitely be the block they have devoted to The X Factor/American Idol for fall/spring. X Factor did not become a breakout hit like most expected it would be and Idol's ratings dominance is beginning to fade. If either or both of those shows go down the tubes, FOX will be left with a lot of timeslots to fill up in a hurry. What will be most interesting to see is how their Tuesday comedy block will fare. I never got the appeal of New Girl, but it's clearly going to be responsible for serving as the anchor to that night of sitcoms. As for FOX's new shows, watching the trailers the only ones that had moderate appeal to me were both shows (The Following and The Goodwin Games) that won't be premiering until midseason. So unless the Indians make the playoffs, it looks like I won't be watching too much on FOX in the fall.

Fall TV Report Card: (Returning Favorites pt. 4)

The Simpsons: Jack Bauer saves the day once again. Well, Kiefer Sutherland does at least thanks his voice work in the Simpsons' 23rd (!!) season premiere. He voices a new security guard at the Springfield Power Plant who Homer tries to befriend. But this guy has a mysterious past that gets revealed causing Homer to get caught up in some international espionage. This is by no means a classic, but after all this time, this show still finds ways of producing laughs. Credit to the show for throwing in some really absurd comedy here including a bizarre training montage involving Keifer's character and several fictional movie villains, plus a spoof on those animated Taiwanese news report videos. I realize this show will never be what it once was, but like SNL it has become an iconic comedy tradition that can still find ways to make us laugh. Grade: B+ The Cleveland Show: Most people seem to bash this show, but I often find it to be the best of the Seth McFarland trio. Perhaps its because a lot of the jokes on here feel fresher than they do on the other two shows. Their premiere was reflective of that again as Cleveland struggled to figure out who is best friends really are. This includes a guy's camping trip led by of all people Ric Flair (Woooo!). Of course, this naturally turns into a Deliverance parody, but they manage to avoid the cliches and still have a fresh take on that story. The subplot involving Rollo wasn't the best, but he's generally a very funny character so I was happy to see him get the screen time. Grade: B Family Guy: How the mighty have fallen. I have no idea what's going on with this show anymore. Like other recent episodes, this was more morose than funny. You would think a story involving the Griffin's winning the lottery would produce a high number of funny moments, but the writers opted to take a very dark turn involving Peter turning Quagmire and Joe into his servants after lending them some money. I felt unconfortable watching the story unfold. I guess they should have taken a note from Roseanne that winning the lottery on a sitcom is comedy death. Let's hope this show can recover from this lackluster opener. Grade: C American Dad: To show you how odd and complicated the animated process is, this year's opener was a story that was previewed in last year's Entertainment Weekly fall TV preview issue. I know this show didn't produce a full 22 episodes last year, so why this was held off until this year is unclear to me. Anyway it involves Stan buying a hot tub and quickly turns into a Little Shop of Horrors parody. The hot tub is voiced by Cee-Lo Green who also sings a few songs as the hot tub throughout the episode. From a narrative perspective this was a really strong episode, but it was somewhat light on laughs. I'm not sure if I would have aired this as the opener. It probably would have worked better on Halloween weekend. Grade: B