"Papa Don't Leech"

It's the return of Colonel Homer and Springfield's own country music star Lurleen Lumpkin (voice of Beverly D'Angelo), plus a guest appearance by the Dixie Chicks, in the April 13, 2008 episode of The Simpsons.

"The Debarted"

Airing March 2:

Bart teams up with a new kid at school, Donny, to pull some pranks, but when the hijinks go haywire, Groundskeeper Willie tips Bart off to the fact that there might be a rat amongst his friends. Meanwhile, Homer becomes attached to a loaner vehicle while his is in the shop being repaired.

"Love, Springfieldian Style"

Airing February 17:

After being stranded in a Tunnel of Love ride at a carnival, Homer, Marge and Bart pass the time by sharing some of the greatest love stories of all time.

"That 90s Show"

"Weird Al" Yankovich and Kurt Loder will guest-star as themselves in the January 27 episode of The Simpsons.

Synopsis:

When Bart and Lisa discover Marge's diploma from Springfield University, Marge reveals that she attended the university back when she and Homer first started dating.

In a flashback, Homer gives up his dreams of becoming a musician and takes a job at his father's laser tag warehouse to support Marge while she attends Springfield University. However, when Marge finds herself attracted to the offbeat Professor August, Homer decides he has had enough of Marge's wandering eye. Homer focuses his emotions on his music, inventing a new sound called "grunge."

As Marge continues to date the pretentious professor, Homer becomes the hottest grunge artist around, as evidenced by Weird Al's parody of his music. But when Marge sees a special news report on MTV with Kurt Loder announcing that Homer's band, Sadgasm, has broken up and that Homer is holed-up in a mansion hopelessly addicted to drugs, Marge must choose between her new life and her old love.

Ralph Wiggum For President

Ralph in '08!

The Simpsons website is kicking off a presidential campaign site for Ralph Wiggum, in honor of the January 6th episode, "E. Pluribus Wiggum."

You can download a printable campaign poster here in PDF format.

The poster has the address www.wiggumforprez08.com/ on it, but at the time of this post, it just points to Foxmovies.com.

I'm sure if we keep checking back, we'll eventually find out everything we need to know about Ralph's campaign platform.

"E. Pluribus Wiggum"

Jon Stewart, the host of Comedy Central's The Daily Show, will be making a guest appearance as himself on the January 6, 2008 episode of The Simpsons, along with Dan Rather.

"It's truly a great honor and I'm very excited about it," said Stewart.

Synopsis:

After Springfield becomes the first city in the nation to hold a presidential primary election, excitement builds as reporters from around the country, including Jon Stewart and Dan Rather, descend upon Springfield to cover the debates. When the candidates turn out to be less than compelling, Kent Brockman announces an unexpected turn of events: Springfield voters rejected all of the candidates and embraced a write-in: notorious bed-wetter Ralph Wiggum.

With Ralph as the new presidential front-runner, Republican and Democratic party leaders fight to win him over as their candidate. Find out if Ralph can make the leap from Sesame Street to Pennsylvania Avenue.

Comics Continuum has a video of Jon Stewart recording his dialogue for the episode here.

"Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind"

Airing December 16:

Homer wakes up one morning only to find himself outdoors and covered with snow. With no recollection of what happened the night before, he makes his way home only to find his entire family missing. Hopelessly confused, he goes to Moe's bar, where Moe reveals that Homer drank a "Forget-Me-Shot" the night before - a drink so potent, it wipes out a the last 24 hours of one's memory.

When Wiggum informs Homer of a domestic disturbance at the Simpson house the night before, Homer begins to worry that he may have done something awful. Homer turns to Professor Frink, who hooks him up to a device that allows him to explore his memories to piece together the night's events.

Click the image to enlarge.

"Funeral for a Fiend"

Airing November 25, 2007:

When Bart accidentally kills his old nemesis Sideshow Bob (voice of Kelsey Grammar), Bob's brother Cecil (David Hyde Pierce) and father (John Mahoney) invite Bart to attend the memorial service to bury the hatchet for good.

Keith Olbermann makes a guest appearance as himself.

"Husbands and Knives"

Airing November 18:

Much to the Comic Book Guy's chagrin, Bart, Lisa and Milhouse check out a new comic-book store called "Coolsville Comics & Toys," where they are treated like royalty by a friendly comic book buff named Milo (guest voice Jack Black). Coolsville attracts some real-life comic book creators, such as Alan Moore, Art Spiegelman and Dan Clowes (guest-voicing as themselves), and the Comic Book Guy wages war on Coolsville in an attempt to win back his customers.

Meanwhile, Marge decides her middle-aged physique could use some help, and she launches a gym for 'regular women.' Marge's gym becomes wildly successful and as her fame grows, Homer fears she will dump him for a younger, more fit guy. Homer decides to take matters into his own hands to get into shape.

90 Minutes of "The Simpsons" on November 4

Sunday, November 4, 2007:

In addition to the new Treehouse of Horror XVIII, Fox will air the "24" parody 24 Minutes and last year's Treehouse of Horror XVII, which includes "Married to the Blob", "You Gotta Know When to Golem", and "The Day the Earth Looked Stupid."

Treehouse of Horror XVIII

The frightfest begins in "Mr. and Mrs. Simpson" as Homer and Marge leave for what appears to be an ordinary day. But Homer is living a double life as a secret agent, and he is assigned to eliminate Kent Brockman. When a mysterious woman blocks Homer's shot and tries to kill Brockman herself, Homer finds that his competition "hits" a little too close to home.

In "E.T. Go Home," Bart and Lisa come to the aid of Kodo the space alien, who's hiding from the government. Kodo asks them to help him obtain a long list of devices so he can reconnect with his home planet, but his intentions prove to be anything but friendly.

In the final Halloween scare, "Heck House," Bart, Lisa and their friends spend Halloween night pulling pranks on unsuspecting people in Springfield. But when they go too far, Flanders decides he's going to spook them straight. Transforming the church into the "Heck House," Flanders is filled with supernatural power and subjects the children to his wrath of seven deadly sins in the "Treehouse of Horror XVIII" episode of THE SIMPSONS airing Sunday, Nov. 4 (8:00-8:30 PM ET/PT) on FOX. (SI-1816) (TV-14 D, L, S, V)

Simpsons Star Wars

"The Homer of Seville"

Episode JABF18

"After a freak accident, Homer becomes an opera singer and finds himself star of the Springfield Opera. Soon he becomes mobbed by fans and gains himself a female stalker."

Guest stars: Maya Rudolph and Placido Domingo (pictured) as himself.

"The Homer of Seville" airs Sunday, September 30.

Stephen Colbert Gets Simpsonized

"He Loves To Fly And He D'ohs"

The nineteenth season of The Simpsons begins on Sunday, September 23, 2007. Stephen Colbert and Lionel Richie will guest star on the season premiere, "He Loves To Fly And He D'ohs."

Synopsis:

"After Homer saves Mr. Burns from drowning in a mall fountain, Burns thanks him by taking him on a whirlwind trip to Chicago on his private plane. Homer is smitten with the luxury jet and all the perks that come with it, including flying with song legend Lionel Richie, who serenades him with a customized version of 'Say You, Say Me.' After returning home, Homer makes it his mission to find a job that offers him the chance to fly on a corporate jet and enlists a life coach, guest-star Stephen Colbert, to help fulfill this dream."

Homer's "Tonight Show" Monologue

The Simpsons on Channel 4

"The Simpsons Go to Paris"

The Simpsons (and Simpsonized models and fashion designers) in a fashion spread from the August issue of Harper's Bazaar magazine. Click images to enlarge. (via TV Squad, via LiveJournal).

JABF14: "24 Minutes"

Synopsis: "With the help of Jack Bauer and Chloe O'Brian, Bart and Lisa must stop bullies Dolph, Jimbo and Kearney from releasing the ultimate stink bomb at Springfield Elementary's annual bake sale."

"24 Minutes," previously mentioned here, will be the 400th episode of The Simpsons. It airs on May 20 as part of the one-hour season finale.

Kiefer Sutherland and Mary Lynn Rajskub guest star, providing the voices of their characters from the Fox series "24."

JABF15: "You Kent Always Say What You Want"

You can't always use the title you want. Case in point: The 399th episode of The Simpsons, "The Kent State Massacre," was renamed "You Kent Always Say What You Want" in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings. Since the original title unapologetically referred to the 1970 Kent State shootings, this would seem to be a textbook example of the "too soon" philosophy of acceptable comedy.

Synopsis: "Homer purchases the one millionth ice cream cone at an ice cream store and is featured on Kent Brockman’s nightly news program. However, the innocent interview turns into trouble when Brockman uses a shocking expletive and Ned Flanders wages an anti-indecency campaign."

The rapper Ludacris (left) guest-stars as himself.

"You Kent Always Say What You Want" airs May 20 as part of the one-hour season finale.