The eighteenth season of the American animated television series ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer Simpson, Homer, Marge ...

'' aired from September 10, 2006 to May 20, 2007. The season contained seven hold-over episodes from season 17’s HABF production line.

Al Jean Alfred Ernest Jean III (born January 9, 1961) is an American screenwriter and producer. Jean is well known for his work on ''The Simpsons''. He was raised near Detroit, Michigan, and graduated from Harvard University in 1981. Jean began his wri ...

served as the showrunner, a position he has held since the thirteenth season, while the season was produced by

Gracie Films Gracie Films is an American film and television production company founded by James L. Brooks in 1986. The company is primarily responsible for producing its long-running flagship animated series ''The Simpsons'', as well as the films '' Big'', ...

and

20th Century Fox Television 20th Television (formerly 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Century-Fox Television, and TCF Television Productions, Inc.) is an American television production company that is a division of Disney Television Studios, part of The Walt Disney Co ...

. The season finale, " You Kent Always Say What You Want", was the series' 400th episode. Additionally, the ''Simpsons'' franchise celebrated its 20th anniversary, as it has been on the air since April 1987, beginning with

shorts Shorts are a garment worn over the pelvic area, circling the waist and splitting to cover the upper part of the legs, sometimes extending down to the knees but not covering the entire length of the leg. They are called "shorts" because they ...

on ''

The Tracey Ullman Show ''The Tracey Ullman Show'' is an American television variety show starring Tracey Ullman. It debuted on Fox on April 5, 1987, the network's second original primetime series to air following '' Married... with Children'', and ran until May 26, ...

''. Season 18 included guest appearances by Metallica,

Tom Wolfe Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...

Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, erudition, and patrician manner. Vidal was bisexual, and in his novels and e ...

Michael Chabon Michael Chabon ( ; born May 24, 1963) is an American novelist, screenwriter, columnist, and short story writer. Born in Washington, DC, he spent a year studying at Carnegie Mellon University before transferring to the University of Pittsburgh, gr ...

Ludacris Christopher Brian Bridges (born September 11, 1977), known professionally as Ludacris (, homophonous with 'ludicrous' in American English), is an American rapper, actor, record producer and record executive. Born in Champaign, Illinois, Ludac ...

, Jonathan Franzen,

Fran Drescher Francine Joy Drescher (born September 30, 1957) is an American actress, comedian, writer, activist, and trade union leader. She is known for her role as Fran Fine in the television sitcom '' The Nanny'' (1993–1999), which she created and prod ...

The White Stripes The White Stripes were an American rock duo from Detroit formed in 1997. The group consisted of Jack White (songwriter, vocals, guitar, piano, and mandolin) and Meg White (drums and vocals). After releasing several singles and three albums wit ...

, Kiefer Sutherland, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Richard Lewis, Dr. Phil,

Elvis Stojko Elvis Stojko, (born March 22, 1972) is a Canadian figure skater. He was a three-time World champion (1994, 1995, 1997), two-time Olympic silver medallist (1994, 1998), and seven-time Canadian champion (1994, 1996–2000, and 2002). Personal ...

Natalie Portman Natalie Portman (born Natalie Hershlag, he, נטע-לי הרשלג, ) is an Israeli-born American actress. She has had a prolific film career since her teenage years and has starred in various blockbusters and independent films, receiving mu ...

Jon Lovitz Jonathan Michael Lovitz (; born July 21, 1957) is an American actor and comedian. He was a cast member of ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1985 to 1990. Lovitz starred as Jay Sherman in '' The Critic'' and played a baseball scout in '' A League of ...

Betty White Betty Marion White (January 17, 1922December 31, 2021) was an American actress and comedian. A pioneer of Golden Age of Television, early television, with a television career spanning almost seven decades, White was noted for her vast work i ...

, Eric Idle,

Sir Mix-a-Lot Anthony L. Ray (born August 12, 1963), better known by his stage name Sir Mix-a-Lot, is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his 1992 hit song " Baby Got Back", which peaked at number one on the ''Billboard'' ...

, Stephen Sondheim, Ronaldo,

Meg Ryan Meg Ryan (born Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra; November 19, 1961) is an American actress. She began her acting career in 1981 when she made her acting debut in the drama film ''Rich and Famous''. She later joined the cast of the CBS soap oper ...

Andy Dick Andrew Roane Dick (born Andrew Thomlinson; December 21, 1965) is an American comedian, actor, musician, and television and film producer. Known professionally as a comic, his first regular television role was on the short-lived but influential ...

Peter Bogdanovich Peter Bogdanovich (July 30, 1939 – January 6, 2022) was an American director, writer, actor, producer, critic, and film historian. One of the " New Hollywood" directors, Bogdanovich started as a film journalist until he was hired to work on ...

James Patterson James Brendan Patterson (born March 22, 1947) is an American author. Among his works are the '' Alex Cross'', '' Michael Bennett'', '' Women's Murder Club'', '' Maximum Ride'', '' Daniel X'', '' NYPD Red'', '' Witch & Wizard'', and ''Private'' ...

and others.

Reception

Critical reception

Robert Canning of IGN gave the season a 6.6 saying it was "Passable" and that "Now in its eighteenth season (go ahead, say that out loud: 'eighteen seasons'), The Simpsons continues to supply America with a decent half-hour of comedy every Sunday night. However, most long-time fans of the show agree that the last several years have seen the program in constant decline. Looking back at this particular season, there's little evidence to prove them wrong. Though we were treated with at least a few hilarious gems this year, the mediocre (to the downright terrible) heavily outweighed the great."

Awards

At the

35th Military units *35th Fighter Wing, an air combat unit of the United States Air Force *35th Infantry Division (United States), a formation of the National Guard since World War I *35th Infantry Regiment (United States), a regiment created on 1 July 1 ...

Annie Awards The Annie Awards are accolades which the Los Angeles branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood, has presented each year since 1972 to recognize excellence in animation shown in Film, cinema and television. Originally ...

, Alf Clausen and Michael Price won the award for "Best Music in an Animated Television Production" for "

Yokel Chords "Yokel Chords" is the fourteenth episode of the eighteenth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 4, 2007. It was written by Michael Price, and di ...

" while Ian Maxtone-Graham and Billy Kimball won "Best Writing in an Animated Television Production" for " 24 Minutes"

Jeff Westbrook Jeff Westbrook is a TV writer best known for his work on ''The Simpsons'' and ''Futurama'', for which he is a three-time winner of the WGA Award. Education and pre-TV Prior to becoming a TV writer, Westbrook was a successful algorithms researc ...

won a

WGA Award WGA may refer to: In arts and entertainment: * Web Gallery of Art * Writers Guild of Alberta * Writers Guild of America, an American union ** Writers Guild of America, East ** Writers Guild of America, West Other uses: * Wagga Wagga Airport ...

for " Kill Gil: Vols. 1 & 2" while

Matt Selman Matt Selman (born }) is an American writer and producer. Early life Selman is a native of Watertown, Massachusetts. He graduated from Beaver Country Day School in 1989 and the University of Pennsylvania in 1993. Career After considering a car ...

was nominated for " The Haw-Hawed Couple" and

John Frink John Frink (born May 5, 1959) is an American television writer and producer. He has written several episodes of the American animated sitcom ''The Simpsons'', many of which he co-wrote with his former writing partner Don Payne. Frink and Payne ...

received a nomination for " Stop, or My Dog Will Shoot". The series also received a

British Comedy Award The National Comedy Awards (known as the British Comedy Awards from 1990 to 2014) is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom, celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year. The British Comedy Awards ( ...

nomination for "Best International Comedy" a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Animated Program for " The Haw-Hawed Couple" and an

Environmental Media Award The Environmental Media Awards have been awarded by the Environmental Media Association since 1991 to the best television episode or film with an environmental message. The Environmental Media Association (EMA) is a non-profit organization cre ...

nomination for "Best Television Episodic Comedy" for " The Wife Aquatic".

Nielsen ratings

The show ranked 60th in the seasonal ratings with an average of 8.6 million watching it and a

Nielsen rating Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rati ...

of 4.1/10.

Episodes

DVD release

Series showrunner Al Jean reported in April 2015 that ''The Simpsons'' would no longer see home media releases after the seventeenth season, claiming an inability for DVD sales to keep up with the rise in streaming and

download In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar system. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote ...

s, as well as a boom in

FXX FXX is an American basic cable channel owned by the Walt Disney Television unit of The Walt Disney Company through FX Networks, LLC. It is the partner channel of FX, with its programming focusing on original and acquired comedy series and fe ...

reruns, and Fox's on-demand video service, FXNOW. Jean reassured that bonus features commonly featured on the DVDs, such as commentaries for each episode, would still be available, now packaged with the digital format. In 2016, audio commentary for the 18th season was made available exclusively through FXNOW. On Saturday, July 22, 2017, it was announced during the San Diego Comic-Con 2017 panel that, due to fan demand, the eighteenth season DVD would be released after all on Tuesday, December 5, 2017, in the United States and Canada by

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment 20th Century Studios Home Entertainment (commonly referred to as 20th Home Video, or 20th Home Entertainment, formerly known as 20th Century-Fox Video, CBS/Fox Video, Fox Video, and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) is a home video label of Wa ...

, ten years after it had completed broadcast on television.

References

;Bibliography *

External links

Season 18
at The Simpsons.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Simpsons (season 18) Simpsons season 18 2006 American television seasons 2007 American television seasons