Simpsons Season 20 (New HD Intro) (1 Viewer)

[TravisR]

Because good or bad, people still watch it.

 

[Anthony Hom]

Because apart from American Idol, these are the only two shows in the Fox line-up that actually have a steady audience. The rest aren't even a blip on the ratings board. Plus, what was said above, the worldwide numbers for the Simpsons are huge. Like the 138th episode said, it will continue so long as the show remains profitable.

 

[TravisR]

At least House, Lie To Me, Fringe, Bones and 24 are all currently doing better than The Simpsons. That's not to say that The Simpsons isn't still a winner for Fox but it's certainly not their only show either.

 

[Henry Gale]

"I want to live in the sauce!"

 

[DaveF]

And the Simpsons' TV is now widescreen too? I liked that little touch, at the 1:50 point, where the credits show on their TV.

However, I watched the new HD intro on my SD Tivo in the bedroom.

I'll have to watch it again while Tivo HD still has it.

 

[Jon Martin]

I watched it on 4x3 as well. The first two segments were cropped pretty heavily. But, when they came back from the final break, it was ltbxed.

I don't know if someone in the control room finally noticed or what.

And KING OF THE HILL was ltbxed as well.

 

[Sam Favate]

I liked the new opening segment. After 20 years, it was a good call to update it. And it's not like they haven't tinkered with it before - heck, they change the ending virtually every week.

I'd be fine with the show staying on the air another 20 years. (Although I still want to see an episode that reflects real time - you know, Bart wakes up one day and is 30 years old and wants to know what the hell happened to his teens and 20s.)

 

[Anthony Hom]

The new couch gag for How The Test Was Won was another long one, but a nice homage to classic sitcoms over the years. I must say the story for the show was not very original. Weren't the bullies and Bart hidden away before?

 

[AnthonyC]

Yeah, it's happened at least once in the past. I didn't catch the full thing because NASCAR delayed it and so I only got about 15 minutes of this because I set King of the Hill to record (of course I didn't get any of that...)

I know I'm probably the only dinosaur at HTF who doesn't have an HDTV yet, but I'm sick of how the networks refuse to air these shows letterboxed. NBC used to be good about this but lately The Office, 30 Rock, SNL, etc. are full frame and cropped. Last night on The Simpsons I couldn't read the first word(s) of the chalkboard gag because it was cut off.

 

[Mike Slade]

This isn't the networks. I assume you're probably watching on cable. This is a byproduct of the digital transition and how your provider is carrying the feed. Since the analog feed is going away, cable providers have begun to take the digital feed provided to them and also use it as their standard channel. For this most just crop the sides and send it out that way. Most shows on CBS and ABC are shot for the safe 4:3 area so you don't notice it. But like you said NBC's shows were all shown letterbox because they are shot to use the 16:9 frame. Now that the cable providers are cropping the sides, it's very noticeable. Not sure about other FOX shows but, I noticed the simpsons and king of the hill both appeared to be composed for widescreen now. When i saw the shots of Hank and the gang in the alley, they covered the whole screen. I was thinking at the time "i bet this looks awful on the SD channel." I assume most of hank and boomhauer were cut off.

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

FYI, King of the Hill went to 16:9 a week before the Simpsons did. (Of course, Fox didn't promote it at all.)

 

[AnthonyC]

I didn't catch KOTH, but during the scene where Bart and Ralph and the bullies were on the bus making stupid faces, you could only see the edge of Ralph. I wrote to my NBC station when I first noticed them airing The Office fullframe but of course got no response. This is even worse than pan-and-scan since they're just taking the center of the screen and slapping it out there.

 

[Anthony Hom]

Some things noted on "How the test was won" episode:
The insurance company envelope has the address "Balloon Payment Blvd."
The banner on the school with Miss Caldecott is now Mr. Newbury is a reference to the two literary awards for children's books.

 

[Michael Harris]

Leave it to Mr. Burns to brighten up any weak episode of "The Simpsons". "Apaches!"

 

[Jon Martin]

Actually, I think this is a problem with the local channels, and not the cable companies. It is the signal that they are sending to the cable company.

I watched it in SD and it seems my local channel didn't know what to do. It would begin to be shown letterboxed, then in the middle of a segment, switch to zoom. Throughout the episode, it changed three or four times. I thought they would finally figure it out, and then it was zoomed again.

 

[Mike Slade]

Well i can't say for sure but I think it's the cable companies although what you're describing does sounds like a local issue. There are still many local stations that cannot do HD video from the local level, so when they have to insert local commercials or weather graphics, they have to drop back to their standard signal to send those out. Basically when they drop back to their SD upconvert you're getting what would normally be on the analog station. Where I live we only have one local station that can do HD on local material. So when we have severe weather in our area HD goes out the window. Then sometimes there are just problems when the controller is either asleep at the "HD button" or the auto switcher is having issues. I'm just assuming that the local station provides their digital signal in its raw form and then it's up to the cable provider to display in in a way they choose for the SD version of the channel. I don't think the locals would send the signal to them in multiple different ways so that it could be displayed differently on the SD cable version.

I asked my local ABC affilate how it's done and they said they have an agreement with the cable providers to "center cut" the HD image for the SD tier. They said it is done on the cable side though.