A little bit more info on the Superbowl Simpson's episode...

http://www.sj-r.com/sections/ane/stories/46962.asp


FOX hopes 'Dad!' can carry the ball

By NICK ROGERS
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

The post-Super Bowl TV time slot has ranged from heavyweights (last year's "Survivor: All Stars" on CBS) to what could kindly be called welterweights.

(Who remembers ABC's heavily hyped but quickly canned "Davis Rules," a sitcom with Randy Quaid, Bonnie Hunt and Jonathan Winters?)

With Super Bowl XXXIX on Fox, that network is banking on an old standby (with its third post-Super Bowl episode) and a risky startup. While it's not legendary TV, the one-two punch of "The Simpsons" and "American Dad!" contain a handful of great laughs in this big-ticket spot.

"The Simpsons" continues to rely a little too heavily on slapstick from Homer for my taste, but like most recent installments, "Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass" hits its stride mid-episode.

After besting Bart at a carnival game, Homer's showboating (complete with butt cleavage) draws worldwide attention after being posted on the Web site of Comic Book Guy. (His actual name is revealed on this episode as well.)

Homer then becomes a showboating consultant to Tom Brady (who better hope he throws few interceptions for the Patriots given the jokes here), Warren Sapp, Michelle Kwan, LeBron James and Yao Ming.

Yao clearly has the most fun and best gags of any celebrity. .

Also tapped to plan the Super Bowl halftime show, a creatively strapped Homer teams with Ned Flanders for a biblically themed idea. "South Park" aside, animation tends to create a lag time for sarcasm, and some of the "Passion of the Christ" jokes feel stale. The idea of the merger of Ned and Homer's ideas is a great one, even though it concludes the episode much more quickly than it should.

If I were Seth MacFarlane (creator of "Family Guy" and "American Dad!"), I'd find another network aside from Fox to shop my tasteless and twisted - but hilarious - comic endeavors.

The oft-moved, then-canceled "Family Guy" is being resurrected soon only because of brisk DVD sales. And now "American Dad!" is premiering Sunday before regular episodes resume in May.

His latest show is as funny as "Family Guy," albeit in a different, more politically pointed way. CIA agent Stan Smith (voiced by MacFarlane) copes with domestic life (a wife and two children), strange houseguests (Roger the overweight alien and Klaus, the German-speaking goldfish with an eye on Stan's wife) and overall concerns about national security.

"American Dad!" has great one-liners about the war on terrorism ("Osama, is that you?" Stan asks when investigating a nighttime noise in his house) and typically warped asides (a phone call from God to George W. Bush asking him to "downplay their relationship"). Its only problem is that so much is packed into a 20-minute episode that it gets cluttered toward the end. Well, that and the fact it's not going to be on for three more months.