The Simpsons Channel

So I was thinking about syndication the other day. I used to spend a lot of time thinking about syndication. Most of the TV I love I didn't romance in prime-time but in the afternoons after school or work. This includes The Simpsons. Some might cry "Heretic!" at this point but the truth is that after the initial excitement of seeing my favorite part (and probably the only part I understood) of The Tracy Ullman Show get their due... there was some disappointment. Animated or no the first three seasons are, for the most part, general sitcom fodder. Not until Season 4 did it truly become the institution it is today.

I was wondering about the fact that the ep's are only syndicated locally and not on cable. I'm guessing they make more money milking every affiliate individually (do the repeats appear on any local network other than Fox?) than they would from a single cable broadcaster.

Or

Could they be just lying in wait to debut The Simpsons Channel-"All Simpsons, All The Time"? Think about it. They've already got 400+ episodes and are maybe three years away from 500. They could easily do it in 8 hour blocks (just 16 ep's) three times a day or just twice and sell the wee hours away to Ronco's Pocket Ronco or The Cleanse Your Bowels And Grow Your Weenie Show. They could fill at least 3 weeks before recycling.

Maybe they don't stay too tethered to an only The Simpsons programming schedule. They could show a movie very influential on Our Favorite Family like, say, Citizen Kane or Apocalypse Now, and then air all episodes with references to the film. Maybe pull Futurama back into the fold and kill some more airtime that way. It could work.

As a reward for suffering through my ramblings I've decided to go ahead and include some pics.

Homer J. Simpson - Halloween '06

Milhouse Van Houten - The Simpsons Movie premiere