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‘The Simpsons Show’ podcast explores every episode of long-running TV program

If you somehow get your hands on my childhood home movies, two things: 1.) Please return them, and 2.) You’ll likely hear “The Simpsons” playing from an out-of-frame TV and see my bald baby head facing it.

“The Simpsons” has consistently been my favorite show for well over a decade. Now well into its 30th season, even after the illustrious season nine episode, “The Principal and the Pauper,” where many fans believe the creators jumped the shark in the form of Seymour Skinner revealing he’s an imposter and actually named Armin Tamzarian, I am still wildly in love with the show. Because the creators accept and poke fun at their own shortcomings, among many reasons, such as Lisa calling Skinner “Armin Tamzarian” later in season 15.

I’m Christopher Cizek, and this is Podcast Picks.

As a “Simpsons” superfan and a connoisseur of fine podcasts, I stumbled upon “The Simpsons Show,” hosted by Matt, whose last name is impossible to verify, and Robbie Dorman, two self-proclaimed nerds who love “The Simpsons,” said Dorman.

Many “Simpsons” podcasts skip around episodes and splice together whatever aspects the hosts want to discuss, but “The Simpsons Show,” to my gleeful surprise, goes through every single episode, one per recording.

The basic blueprint for each episode of “The Simpsons Show” is they start by introducing the episode, its Nielsen rating when it was aired, its network competitors — often “Married with Children” — and the logistics of the episode in review, such as runtime, animation studio, writers, etc., as well as fun trivia, guest stars and so on.

My only qualm with “The Simpsons Show” — wow, the first negative thing I have to say about a podcast — is Matt and Robbie seem overly critical of the show at times, specifically the episodes after “Principal and the Pauper.” On the other hand, I cannot blame them for digging deeper into the greatest show in television history. Inevitably, there will be flaws with a show that’s been running since December 1989.

It has been awhile since I tuned into “The Simpsons Show,” to be honest, but coming back, I remember why I listened in the first place. Matt and Robbie essentially read through the episode script and talk about significant references and moments, and insert audio clips from the episode. Each episode is capped off with a variety of fun, different segments, which include readings of viewer posts of episodes after their original airing, and my personal favorite, the No Google Trivia Challenge.

For this, Robbie and Matt ask each other “Simpsons” trivia questions of varying difficulty, most of which I will apologetically say I know without trouble. It seems pretentious, but it’s unnerving how the hosts, who love the show enough to devote an entire podcast show to it, miss even the easiest questions.

But I digress. If you’re a lover of “The Simpsons,” check out “The Simpsons Show” on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, as well as at thesimpsonsshow.com.

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