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The essential real-world knowledge lost from my brain (anniversaries, co-workers' names, the lyrics to ''MMMBop'') to make room for 20 years of Springfield minutiae is regrettable — but necessary. Now that The Simpsons Movie is on DVD, we're cramming in five more Comic-Book-Guy-caliber nuggets.

1 Two commentaries dwell mostly on the film that wasn't made, a coarser incarnation that included history's longest poop joke.

2 The filmmakers chose broad comedy over the show's more cerebral, satirical sensibilities: ''We really wanted to write this movie for people who weren't that familiar with The Simpsons,'' says co-writer Al Jean.

3 Jean's offhand remark about an amazing ''spider-pig'' launched his co-writers into a silly Spider-Man musical parody that became the film's hilarious trademark tune.

4 Why did the Simpson family take that detour to Alaska? Homer insisted because he always wanted to visit the city of Homer — a detail lost in 100 script revisions.

5 A deleted scene reveals that villain Russ Cargill originally resembled Springfield sad sack Gil. His character was redrawn, though, leaving promo partner Burger King with 150,000 useless Cargill toys, according to producer James L. Brooks.


Posted Dec 14, 2007 | Published in issue #970 Dec 21, 2007 | Order Article Reprints