There aren’t a lot of television shows that can lay claim to hitting the milestone of 500 episodes. “The Simpsons,” however, will hit that milestone this coming Sunday. There are still millions of fans after 23 years and two of them broke a Guinness World Record just to prove it.
Carin Shreve and Jeremiah Franco broke the world record for the longest television viewing by watching every single episode of “The Simpsons” in one sitting. It took 86 hours, 37 minutes – this means that they sat watching “The Simpsons” for more than 3 ½ days!
The Fox network issued the challenge to fans of the show. They wanted to know how many of them could watch all 500 episodes back to back to back…well you get the idea. Some of the show’s veterans, such as Al Jean, Matt Groening, Hank Azaria, and Dan Castellaneta, have all spoken out about the significance of the show. All agree that when “The Simpsons” started, it was a different world of television than what is seen today. Fox had just started and at the top of the ratings was “The Cosby Show.” Today, there are hundreds of channels and most have two or three shows about the same thing on several times a day. “The Simpsons,” thought continue on. Right now, the show is probably the only one that is still bridging the old world of television with the new world of television.
The 500th episode is called, “At Long Last Leave.” It focuses on an eviction for the Simpson family from Springfield. They end up in a community outside of the city and one that is quite strange. However, when Marge and Homer try to go back into Springfield, they find that their friends are not as welcoming as they once were.
