Agent Palmer

It’s not often that a cartoon series lasts for 23 years. In retrospect it seems downright implausible that a cartoon series on FOX would last that long as they did prematurely terminate Family Guy (only to resurrect it) and Futurama (which was resurrected after great straight to DVD sales).

So, The Simpsons hit the 500 episode mark and that should be and was celebrated.

As Russell Wilson tried in vain to try and spike the ball for one last shot at the end zone, I couldn’t help but think of the wonderful animated mother who gave birth to Phillip J. Fry and who’s husband named him after a tool (a phillips screwdriver).

Fry’s mother, who was never named in the series, was a huge Wisconsin Badgers fan.

If you watch tv, you see commercials. That’s the way it works. So this holiday season, when I first saw T-Mobile’s “4G Wonderland” spot (embedded at the bottom of this post), I was appalled. How is it possible that an ad agency or the executives at T-Mobile could let something go that to even the most casual observer is, well, appalling?

If you haven’t seen it, the commercial rips (parodies if you like) off the Christmas classic, “Winter Wonderland.”

I am so very impressed with The Muppets. I grew up with them, in fact, I’m in the last group of kids who watched new episodes of Jim Henson’s legacy. Nickelodeon, was still playing original episodes of “The Muppet Show” and “Fraggle Rock” were still alive and well. So for something that I grew up with to still impress me, feels like a big deal.

And what Disney has done, and I’m not the biggest Disney fan (far from it), socially through the use of available technologies to make The Muppets relevant again, is truely a masterpiece.