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The (high) definition of Homer

And here's the zippy new title sequence from the first Simpsons episode to go out in HD.

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10_simpsons_lgThe Simpsons airs its first ever HD episode in the US today, and marks the occasion with an extra long new title sequence.

Most media are calling it a “new opening title” which I guess refers to the section before they reach the couch. There are added characters, gags and a new aerial shot. Even Grandpa Simpson gets a look in.

Once they reach the couch, clearly we’re into a one-off extended sequence.

While it remains to be seen how much will stay and go, I guess it’s likely the pre-couch section is a permanent shift -note, no more girly scream from Homer as the car pulls into the garage. Doh.

The TV itself is also a cute change.

South Park is also going out in HD from March 11th.

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  2. Arrrghhh ..So mad at Ten. The sports related One should be in SD and then least Ten could do is simulcast the main channel in HD. I was also suprised to see 24 and Lost only availible in SD in the Adelaide market. I really don’t think they get it 🙁

  3. Yeah it’s in 16:9 from now on Marco (or in around a couple months for Australia).

    Does anyone know what season Fox 8 are up to? Because there’ll surely be some sort of Fox HD channel when the next batch of channels hit Foxtel later in the year.

  5. yeh i don’t mind about it not being in HD, as long as it’s WS. Seeing as HD recorders are so expensive and watching live tv is barely worth it with all the ads on today. (Note: I like 7HD which has less than a minute of ads during most of it’s break away programmes, but i know that will increase as the audience share for SevenHD increases.)

  7. About time it changed to show characters that have lasted the stretch of time and been introduced since season two, rather than those who were important in first season episodes (goodbye Jacques, Bleeding-Gums Murphy). The post-movie credits were good too.

  9. Sorry Johnny 1.5, there’s no hope for non-sport HD programmes on Ten after March 26. There’s not enough bandwidth to accommodate two HDand two SD channels in a network’s multiplex, without very crappy video quality.

    So Ten has 4 channel numbers pointing to 3 video ‘streams’:
    – Ten Digital [SD] on channel 10
    – One HD on channels 1 and 11
    – One Digital [SD down-conversion of One HD] on channel 12

  10. hd and sd would have little to no difference as the simpsons is a simple animated show unlike scifi’s which benefit alot. so the improvement over older simpsons is the addition of widescreen.

  13. I am actually still a little confused at what ten are doing with their DTV set-up, this became even more so when last week I looked at my DTV Box and found Ten had added Channel 11, on the DTV Box it now reads:

    01 = One HD
    10 = Ten Digital
    11 = One HD
    12 = One Digital

    So perhaps 11 will become the Channel for Non-Sports HD Programming and spill over HD Sports when 2 events are on at the same time (ie; Twenty/20 and NBA or such like).

    I have not found any information on this at all, however it would seem odd to run two Sport HD Channels 24/7,

  14. Has Ten actually said that ONE HD would be truly 24/7 sport? I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a couple hours a night of primetime where normal Ten shows are shown in HD, then back to sport at 10.30 or whatever. Obviously only a temporary solution until a second HD channel is allowed, and the analog stuff is turned off.

    At least SBS HD is finally 720p in time for South Park.

  15. Ten always makes the wrong moves!!! thats something everyone can agree on!

    well.. the only good thing is tens new website compared to nine and seven’s

    but still… programming and decision wise, they really don’t know what we want!

  17. While this is long overdue, and especially seeing futurama in widescreen shows that, it means nothing unless they beef up the scripts.

    They should also do Family Guy and American Dad, as those probably have more days left than the simpsons.

  20. It looks ok, although the episodes of this season so far aren’t exactly what i would call entertaining. In fact they’re pretty boring, it’s like theyre trying to copy family guy too much by just having random and directionless plotlines. They rely too much on these “random” and so-called “humorous” moments to drive the plot.

    I wish they would go back to the old days where they had meaningful/ interesting stories, and then allow jokes as a secondary aspect to the show.

  22. Incidentally, King of the Hill has also gone HD. 😀 I knew they would’ve. It was just a matter of when. Apparantly they didn’t reanimate their opening sequence though. 🙁

  24. For years, I was hoping for a TV change in the title sequence, but I wasn’t expecting a full blown HD revamp lol.

    I think it’s okay. I think they’ve paved the way for even more once-off gags during the title sequence (the Krusty billboard near the school would probably change on an episode-per-episode basis; along with the chalkboard, saxophone and couch gags).

    My only gripe really, is that I didn’t like the camera movements. It just seemed so… clunky, whereas the original title sequence was so smooth and consistent. The movements in the HD titles seemed robotic, kind of like the opening sequence of The Simpsons Movie (I’m probably not making much sense lol).

    It’s a shame though, because not only have Ten dumped The Simpsons on a low-key Friday slot, but their HD channel will be gone by the time they get around to airing the HD eps… 🙁 They really could have promoted the hell out of the HD eps.

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