Some people say that The Simpsons is past its best, and that every second of an episode that doesn't feature Chief Wiggum is a wasted one. Those people should brace themselves for bad news, as a new list of Simpsons guest voices have been announced.
Among the new guest voices set to appear on the new season of The Simpsons are Kiefer Sutherland, The White Stripes, Dr Phil, Natalie Portman, Fran Drescher, Eric Idle, Richard Lewis and Gore Vidal. Why the overbearing reliance on celebrity guest spots on The Simpsons? Why not – after all, it worked for for Will & Grace, didn't it? Oh that's right. It didn't.
The Simpsons has always used a certain amount of high-profile celebrity guests, from Paul McCartney to Ringo Starr to George Harrison to that midget that used to follow Kid Rock around, and this season looks set to be no different at all. Barely an episode of The Simpsons goes by without at least one guest voice cropping up, and this Simpsons season is going to be a bumper year.
Fox president Peter Ligouri, speaking at the Television Critics
Association press tour in California, reeled off a bunch of names who you can expect to see in season 18 of The Simpsons when it returns in the autumn. The Treehouse Of Horror Simpsons episode will star Fran Drescher from that awful Nanny show and Richard Lewis from Curb Your Enthusiasm – both as Gollum – and oddly-shaped know-it-all Dr Phil, while an episode entitled Jazzy And The Pussycats will guest star lanky screamers The White Stripes.
Let's hope that all of these Simpsons guest-spots will all actually have a purpose, since the worst Simpsons episodes are always the ones with entirely gratuitous guest voices in them. However, what with The Simpsons movie on the way and The Simpsons TV shows carrying on until the end of the world, perhaps The Simpsons can afford to rest on their laurels a little.
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