hi folks and welcome to another Simpsons Sunday poast. On the birthday front, actor and comedian Bob Newhart turned another year older on September 5, my mothers birthday. I’ve mentioned this in the past but there is a connection with my family with his birth date and his birth year in that, he was born in 1929 which was the same year my dad was born and as I said, on my mom’s birthday on September 5. Coincidence?
Also the voice of Marge Simpson herself, Julie Kavner turned another year older on September 7th. If you want to know more about her work both inside and outside The Simsons, just use our friend Google.
This week I thought I would talk about the Star Trek influence on The Simpsons. The show has been spoofed at times and has had characters featuring alumni, from at least two of the series. Leonard Nimoy has appeared twice in the first eight seasons of The Simpsons as both himself and as a continuity narrator. He appeared as himself in the episode Marge Vs. The Monorail and doing the narrration in the episode The Springfield Files, at least for a good chunk of the episode. His buddy William Shatner turned down an opportunity to appear on the series as a guest star.
Patrick Stewart, who portrayed Captain John Luke Pikard appeared as the character who is the head of the Springfield chapter of The Stonecutters, which is an ancient and influential secret society, poking fun at all secret societies including the Illuminati… another Star Trek alumni from the Next Generation Who guest starred on the series is Brent Spiner, who of course portrayed Data. Because of his ability to speak robotically, as the character, he voiced robots in the episode Them, Robot. This is the episode where Homer is the only employee from the nuclear plant who is retained because everybody else was replaced by robots.
The episode The Man Who Came To Be Dinner had dialog in it, similar to Star Trek in the original series from Homer, near the end of the episode, along with sound affects and the theme song. Also, in the episode Dude Where’s My Ranch? the original series was spoofed with dialog between Captain James T Kirk and Mr. Spock, with other people voicing the characters. Remember the song “Everybody Hates Ned Flanders?” It’s in the episode and on the album Testify, which is one of the albums available on streeming services and on iTunes.
As I said earlier, William Shatner turned down The Simpsons. There are probably other references but these are the only ones that popped into my head as I composed this post. Also, I am by no means a treky but, I do find the show interesting because I find space adventure shows fun to watch and think about, while by myself.
Well, that’s about it for this weeks Post. In the mean time, I recommend checking out my other blog, which has older posts relating to The Simpsons, along with a lot more interesting stuff about my favourite bands and other things. http://blindgordieblog.wordpress.com
Also, check out Chris Ladesma’s blog. He is the Music Editor for The Simpsons and has been since day 1.
http://simpsonsmusic500.wordpress.com/author/simpsonsmusic500/
Also, check out Yeardley Smith’s blog at http://gobbingoff.tumblr.com
Don’t forget about Marchez Vous, which is her women’s shoe designer company, which she started earlier in the decade. You can check out their website at
Additionally, for more news on The Simpsons, you can go to http://news.simpsonswiki.com/
You can also comment here or you can email me at blindgordie@gmail.com and I will reply as soon as I can to all messages I receive. If you follow me on Twitter or are my friend on Facebook you can comment directly to me that way too.
You can follow Simpsons Executive Producer Al Jean on Twitter and his Twitter handle is @AlJean.
He has ran the show since Season 13 and has ran it during Seasons 3 and 4.
Anyway, I’ll talk to you again next Sunday.
Simpsons on Sundays 