During the full length opening to The Simpsons, there is a very quick passby of a mural featuring several dozen of the show’s characters. I believe the mural was once printed in a fan magazine but I don’t have a copy. Does anyone know if I can see it online?
You can see it divided into two parts on the inside front and back covers of the new Simpsons summary book The Simpsons Beyond Forever.
It did also run in Simpsons Illustrated magazine once way back when.
As for online, I’m no help at all.
-Myron
I always thought it was a ‘panning’ shot across town to get the camera from wherever to the Simpson’s garage (where Homer comes plowing in like a drunken maniac!)
Did you mean mural in the sense of the animation cells?
A description appears here under “Pan across Springfield,” but I thought I’d try and describe it myself. (DVD…is there anything it can’t do?)
After Maggie and Marge honk the horn, we cut off the road (we can see a beer can on the side of it). Some kids are playing. Milhouse is throwing a baseball, and Nelson and his goons are stuffing somebody into a garbage can. An old couple looks at the goings-on from outside their house. Jimbo and one of his goons (Dolph, I belive) are threatening Martin, and Patty and Selma are sunbathing (ew…) Kent Brockman’s doing a live report outside the retirement home. Sherri and Terri are walking, holding hands. Grampa, Jasper, and Herman are together, Grampa’s holding a book. Near the old folks’ home, there’s a police blockade, watched over by Eddie and Lou. Behind them is Dr. Marvin Monroe and Dr. Hibbert, and Otto, who’s supposed to be fixing the school bus, but is just relaxing (Wendell’s still inside). Maude, Ned, and one of the Flanders kids are bird-watching, and that takes us to the Flanders house, which means the next house over must be the Simpsons house. The quick pan ends, Homer arrives home, then Bart, then Lisa, then Marge, who almost runs Homer over. They all arrive on the couch, something happens, Groening, Groening/Brooks/Simon, fade to black, begin episode.
I’m pretty sure I saw Bleeding Gums Murphy in the pan, as recently as the new one they showed last week (where Sideshow Bob helps Homer find out who’s trying to kill him).
Is there a reason why they’ve never redone the title sequence? The models for the main characters have changed a bit over the years, and many of the minor characters shown in the opening (Bleeding Gums, Maude, Dr. Marvin Monroe) are now dead. Lots of shows change their opening every season, so why not the Simpsons?
Bleeding Gums appears earlier. He’s one of the people Bart passes on his skateboard.