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Homer Simpson to go live on "The Simpsons'" May 15 broadcast

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Kaladin

Member
Live from Springfield, it's Homer Simpson.

The lovable oaf will be televised live at the conclusion of "The Simpsons'" May 15 broadcast. The live three minutes will have Homer talking about topical news and possibly answering questions from social media.

Now, you're probably asking yourself, how is it possible that an animated show can go live? Well, according to Al Jean, the show's executive producer and showrunner, Homer will be live thanks to motion capture technology.

Jean explained that the longest running sitcom in TV history will be using the tech to have Dan Castellaneta, the actor who has voiced Homer since 1989, act out the character in real time.

"Dan Castellaneta will be in the studio and not only what he says will go out live, but the motions he makes will be incorporated in what Homer does on screen," Jean said in an interview with CNNMoney on Tuesday.

Jean added that the May 15 show will be a live portion for the East and West coast broadcasts and that the scene will look like the rest of the episode. The only difference is that Homer be speaking about current events.

"He'll be saying something current like, 'can you believe Donald Trump shot a man today' or whatever is going on," Jean laughed.

The rest of the broadcast, which took eight months to produce, will be a normal animated episode.

Fans will be able to tweet questions for Homer to answer using the hashtag #HomerLive. They can send him questions between May 1 and May 4.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/16/media/the-simpsons-live-homer-simpson-fox/index.html

Wow, this is kind of cool.

I guess this is another thing we'll look at years from now when it is a regular thing and say The Simpsons did it first.
 

oldmario

Member
i wonder if he'll look like this
r1336199_18614844.jpg
 

Geist-

Member
Well, that's pretty awesome. Motion cap tech is getting way better every year, it's amazing the kind of stuff that we're seeing in video games lately.

If this is 2d motion capture, wow, that's insane. If CG, that's okay too.
 
Well, that's pretty awesome. Motion cap tech is getting way better every year, it's amazing the kind of stuff that we're seeing in video games lately.

If this is 2d motion capture, wow, that's insane. If CG, that's okay too.

How would 2d live mocap even work? I need a laymen explanation here.
 

UberTag

Member
I'm somewhat glad they're getting this publicity stunt out of the way on the 15th and that we'll have a proper season finale airing the next week.

That said, as with most episodes that run short and require padding, I don't have high hopes for whatever episode airs before this nonsense.
 

UberTag

Member
Because referencing current events is what makes The Simpsons great. -_-
It's not... but they seem more focused on cashing in on the publicity of how current and live this is as opposed to anything else. That way they can say, "Hey, look we delivered. We talked about that wacky news that just broke yesterday."

It's a publicity stunt... plain and simple. If you want to see actual quality Simpsons fare from this season, scope out Halloween of Horror or Barthood instead.
 

jstripes

Banned
It's not... but they seem more focused on cashing in on the publicity of how current and live this is as opposed to anything else. That way they can say, "Hey, look we delivered. We talked about that wacky news that just broke yesterday."

It's a publicity stunt... plain and simple. If you want to see actual quality Simpsons fare from this season, scope out Halloween of Horror or Barthood instead.

Nah, I'm good. I try to keep this illusion in my mind that The Simpsons quietly ended over a decade ago. It works, most of the time.
 

DiscoJer

Member
It's funny (ironic sense) because when Homer was Poochie's voice, he asked if he was going to perform Poochie live.

"No, that's very hard on the animator's wirsts" (or something like that).
 
So...did this happen? How did it go?

Really well, actually.

I mean, the entire episode was framed around stand-up, just so the live improv segment wouldn't feel so forced and aimless.

In that sense, they did a good job, but Homer obviously wasn't as well animated. He face was very stiff. His monologue went off the rails a few times, but it never felt like stuff that Homer wouldn't say.

But still. A live segment of an animated show.

I have not seen this...

I saw it at E3. It was ridiculously amazing.
 
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