In an interview with Smithsonian Magazine, Matt Groening reveals the true location of Springfield:

Springfield was named after Springfield, Oregon. The only reason is that when I was a kid, the TV show “Father Knows Best” took place in the town of Springfield, and I was thrilled because I imagined that it was the town next to Portland, my hometown. When I grew up, I realized it was just a fictitious name. I also figured out that Springfield was one of the most common names for a city in the U.S. In anticipation of the success of the show, I thought, “This will be cool; everyone will think it’s their Springfield.” And they do.

I want the real Springfield to erect a Homer statue in the middle of town, just like the Jebediah Springfield statue in “The Simpsons”.

PBS shows will soon get commercial breaks.

This is sad for two reasons. First, nobody wants to snap out of the Ken Burns zone for even a few seconds. As The Times points out in their coverage, PBS’s chief selling point to both audiences and sponsors was the unbroken programming, a format that both felt more authentic and supports the in-depth focus of shows like Frontline or any of the network’s many documentaries about everything you didn’t think was so exceedingly interesting until you sat down and leaned in for an hour.

The above is exactly why this news makes me sad (excellent little graphic, btw).

This commercial for the video game “Call of Duty: Black Ops” is probably the best video game commercial I’ve ever seen.  The average American 30-somethings firing weapons; Kobe and Kimmel; “Concierge”; The Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter”—stopping and restarting at the perfect times; and no actual game play footage all underscore the perfect tagline: “There’s a soldier in all of us”.

Hopefully the game will live up to the commercial (it’s got zombies…how bad could it be?)

Ken Burns’ awesome “Baseball” documentary will have a new four-hour installment come September. It will bring the 1994 series up to date with what’s gone on in the past 16 years. Of special note is the Red Sox’ 2004 World Series win:

A coda to Baseball held appeal because of recent events around the game — and, for a long-suffering Sox fan such as Burns, as a way to celebrate the team’s 2004 World Series win. “I admit we would not be doing this had they not won,” Burns says. “But this will sit well with all fans.”

Yeah, that should sit well with Yankees fans.

Artist Mark Bennett had made blueprints of fictional homes including Ricky & Lucy Ricardo, Bruce Wayne, and Wilma & Fred Flintstone.

After 30 years in the booth, John Madden has retired.

Longtime broadcast partner Al Michaels said Madden will have a unique place in pro football history.

“No one has made the sport more interesting, more relevant and more enjoyable to watch and listen to than John,” Michaels said in a statement. “There’s never been anyone like him and he’s been the gold standard for analysts for almost three decades.”

When I was growing up, almost every Sunday afternoon Giants’ game was broadcast by John Madden and Pat Summerall; so much so, in fact, that I was disappointed and didn’t pay as much attention to the game when it was another tandem in the booth. You could tell that he really loved watching the game (as well as hearing his own voice), and was at home explaining the obvious points as well as the underlying subtle ones. He’ll be missed.

In this YouTube clip, Stephen Hawking explains how he appeared on “The Simpsons”:

My daughter, Lucy, knew one of the script writers for ‘The Simpsons’.  She said he would like to write an episode involving me.  I accepted immediately because it would be fun and because ‘The Simpsons’ in the best thing on American Television.

He further says:

The episode was very funny and almost as many people know me through ‘The Simpsons’ as through my science.

If true, more people should read A Brief History of Time.