In the earlier seasons of the Simpsons, didn’t their used to be long messages that would come up at the end of the credits? In order to read them you had to tape the show and pause it.
Is there a site where someone has written all of those messages? I was so little I don’t know what any of them said.
Are you sure you’re not thinking of Dharma and Greg?
I don’t remember them doing that with the Simpsons, but then again I was pretty young when they first got their own series.
No, there were never any special messages in The Simpsons. If you’re thinking of Dharma and Greg, here’s Chuck Lorre’s official website. Perhaps, if you are thinking of The Simpsons, you might have thought the copyright notice was a secret message when you were a kid…although for the fans, they take a look at this, as they contain the episode’s production code (I refer to the episodes by title, myself).
Or Futurama, where the messages were at the beginning?
Not at the end of any episode, nor a regular occurence, but there were two instances where messages flash past:-
In the episode in which Springfield is about to be destroyed by a meteor/comet*, Kent Brockman takes an opportunity to list everyone he doesn’t like; a list of names scrolls up the screen quickly.
In the episode in which Homer is accused of sexually harrassing the babysitter (Homer Bad Man?), the TV progamme he appears on to clear his name (which performs a hatchett job on him), have a number of people they to apologise to; another list scrolls up the screen. (Hey, Tom Brokaw is a robot!)
At the start of the episode in which Homer joins the Stonecutters, his stool in work breaks and he adds the name of the manufacturing company to his enemies list (or something similar); we get a fleeting glance down the list.
I’ve not recorded these episodes to review them (honestly!) so can only remember the last entry on Homer’s enemy list is The Boy.
John diFool, there were messages at the very start of Futurama episodes, but I can’t remember any examples.
mtk_, geek and proud.
*I’m sure there’s a minor difference between the two of these, but i’m not sure what it is…
My favorite happened toward the end of the series’ run when the cancellation rumors were imminent:
LOVE IT OR SHOVE IT
Wow…I guess that was just a rumor when I was a kid. I guess we all just couldn’t read fast enough to see that it was a copyright announcement…
I was actually watching the DVD recently and saw second and third of the episodes you mentioned. Everyone groaned when I paused the episode and put it in slow motion. I remember God was on Homer’s list…
I think the OP might be talking about the chalkboard messages that Bart wrote:
Nope. I was talking about the end. Something that apparently never existed…
I believe Tiny Toons did this.
Actually, the list is of people who are gay. The names on the list are all Simpsons staffers.
Additionally, in Lisa’s Wedding, there is a list of celebrities on the loose.
Yep. The one I remember most was at the end of one of the musical episodes. “Name inexplicably omitted from The Name Game: Plucky.”
I seem to remember this, too. It wasn’t so much flashed over the end of the episode as it was the last screen of the closing credits. It looked like a big paragraph, anyway, although as someone said, it was probably the copywrite notice.
Futurama had great bits at the beginning:
Simulcast Two Years in the Future
Futurama also had a lot of gag message in the ‘alien languages’ used on the show. I’m sure there are a lot of sites where people have decoded those.
As did Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain (the PatB ones were always words and their definitions.)
I remember a “secret” message during the “who shot mr. burns” episodes. At the end, in the credits.
I don’t think there were any. This reminds me of a legend that spread on alt.tv.simpsons shortly after Behind the Laughter aired (which featured a scene in which a narrator referred to the Simpsons as “a northern Kentucky family,” which was intentionally changed to “a southern Missouri family” the second time the episode aired) that claimed there was a credit for a fictional Weernot F. Romky (We’re not from KY). This turned out to be false.
[QUOTE=volvelle]
I seem to remember this, too. It wasn’t so much flashed over the end of the episode as it was the last screen of the closing credits. It looked like a big paragraph, anyway, although as someone said, it was probably the copywrite notice./QUOTE]
Actually fourth-to-last (credits for Gracie Films VP Denise Sirkot, Matt Groening, and James L. Brooks follow). Since I love to do dumb things (like type useless stuff out), here, for the first time, is the “secret message:”
The persons in this film are ficticious. Any similarity to actual persons or events is unintentional.
THE SIMPSONS EPISODE #[production code]
COPYRIGHT©[year]
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM CORPORATION
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation is the author of this motion picture for purposes of copyright and other laws.
This motion picture is protected under the laws of the United States and other countries. Unauthorized duplication, distribution, or exibition may result in civil liability and criminal prosecution.
The Simpsons and the Simpsons characters TM Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
(logo) I.A.T.S.E. [first season only] N.A.B.
Animaniacs started out with gag jobs for Kathryn Page (who I believe was one of Spielberg’s assistants), then went over to Tiny Toons-style gag messages later in the show’s run. (The 65th episode of the series, a memorable 65th-anniversary party for the Warner Brothers- and Sister- was chock-full of gag credits, including one reading “Kathryn Page: Kathryn Page.”) When Elmyra was added to the cast of Pinky and the Brain in the last season, the definitions became what Elmyra believed they meant.
is there a web site that lists all of these gag credits? i remember being the first of my friends to discover that tiny toons had something hidden in the credits.