(Image Source: WikiSimmons)

BY GILLIAN STEDMAN
 

ANCHOR ANA COMPAIN-ROMERO

Celebrations are underway ahead of the Simpsons’ 500th episode.  The show first aired in 1989 and is now in its 23rd season. The much-anticipated 500th episode will air this Sunday on FOX.
 

But this is not only a big week for the show’s fans - series creator Matt Groening’s star was installed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.


To officially mark the 500th episode, 20th Century Fox held a marathon viewing competition for die-hard Simpsons fans in Hollywood. It started with 100 fans – and ended with just two.
 

“Celebrating the 500th episode of the Simpsons, which airs February 19th and we’re having a contest where true fans are going to try watch every episode in a row.  It’s a marathon with the idea that they’re going to sit in a special tent that was constructed just for them.”


Jeremiah Franco and Carin Shreve were crowned the ultimate couch potatoes, lasting 86 hours, 37 minutes and 2 seconds – almost three-and-a-half days. The two took home a whopping $10,500 each.


The 500th episode is titled “At Long Last Leave” and sees the Simpson family getting kicked out of Springfield once and for all. After 500 episodes, The Dallas Morning News says it’s clear life would just not be the same without the Simpson family.

“Is there a product in pop culture - from cereal boxes to Slurpee cups - that hasn't received the Simpsons - theme treatment? Books on philosophy and religion, not to mention entire college courses have been devoted to gleaning lessons from the wit and wisdom of the show.”


But over the years, the Simpsons have had their critics. Guanabee reports on the show’s changing popularity.
 

“Bart Simpson's anti-authoritarian ways were condemned as a bad example most famously by George H.W. Bush who implied he considered them the anti-role model for an American family, but in a presidential era when ‘anti-authoritarian’ can be interpreted as a willingness to embrace change, the creators of The Simpsons are now being cast as the original ‘mavericks’ of popular TV.”