Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website. This post is in honor of The Simpsons anniversary tomorrow.

On December 17, 1989 The Simpsons made its debut on Fox TV. What can you say about The Simpsons? Now in its 23rd season, it is, without a doubt, one of the most brilliant television shows of all time. Let's take a look at some Simpsons trivia you may not have known  

Why are they yellow? Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, said he made the characters yellow to grab the attention of channel surfers.  

How much does Maggie cost in the opening sequence? O.K. we're all familiar with the classic opening sequence on the show, where Marge and Maggie are at the supermarket checkout line and Maggie goes through the market scanner. Ever wonder how much she scans for? Maggie originally scanned for $847.63, which was the price of raising a baby for one month back in 1989 (when the show debuted). Now things have changed and Marge's groceries add up to $243.36. When Maggie is added and scanned, she doubles the tab to $486.52.

Tracy Ullman sued the show. The Simpsons is one of the most successful spinoffs in history, spawning from The Tracy Ullman Show. Tracy Ullman's variety show ran for three years on Fox, and The Simpsons originated as brief cartoon vignettes on the show. Dan Castellanetta (the voice of "Homer") and Julie Kavner ("Marge") were regulars on the series, nancy Cartwright ("Bart") and Yeardley Smith ("Lisa") were brought in to do the voiceovers for the cartoons. After The Simpsons took off on its own, Tracy Ullman sued, unsuccessfully, to earn a share of The Simpsons' merchandising bonanza. (So far, The Simpsons has lasted twenty years longer than the show that spawned it.)  

Most unnecessary translation switch. The Simpsons is dubbed in by foreign-speaking actors for its runs in many different countries. In episodes dubbed in French, Homer's catchphrase "D'oh!" is translated and read as "T'oh!"

Most Parodied movie? The Simpsons is always incredibly clever satire. One of the show's favorite satire targets is, of course, the movies. According to the show's creators, the show's most parodied film is Citizen Kane. "They could create an entire film from Simpsons clips," a Simpsons writer has stated, referring to the amount of Citizen Kane gags they've used.he added that The Godfather films were very popular targets, too. Specifically, the show's creators listed the show's four most popular movie targets for satire as: 1. Citizen Kane 2. 2001: A Space Odyssey 3. The Shining 4. A Clockwork Orange  

What celebrity guest star has played the most roles? The Simpsons is not only the longest-running animated TV show in history, but it holds the record for the most celebrity guest star appearances. Albert Brooks has made the most guest appearances in the most different roles: five different appearances as five different characters.

Many last names come from actual streets. Matt Groening got many of the last names of characters on the show from streets in his hometown of Portland, Oregon. Lovejoy, Quimby, Flanders, Kearney, Terwilliger, and Burnside are all actual street names in Portland. 

Who is the only character on The Simpsons to have five fingers on a hand? The Simpsons characters, like almost all animated characters, have only four fingers on each hand.Only one Simpsons character has ever had five fingers. "God" is the only character portrayed on The Simpsons to ever have five fingers.

Secret Hidden Beatles Message

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.  

It's a Wonderful Life is on the American Film Institute's list of "100 Greatest Movies Ever made" (coming in at #11) and was voted the #1 spot on the list of "Most Inspiring Movies of All-Time."

To all of us now, the film seems as much a part of the Christmas season as Santa Claus, egg nog, gift giving, and kissing under the mistletoe. But much like The Wizard of Oz and Citizen Kane, the most beloved Christmas movie of all time was a disappointing box office flop when it was first released. In fact, It's a Wonderful Life may just have sailed away, out of our collective consciousnesses, but for television and the magic of reruns. It wasn't actually until the 1970s, almost 30 years after its theater debut, that It's a Wonderful Life became the cultural icon it now is.

The film's copyright protection ended and it fell into the public domain in 1974, so stations could air it for free. Repeated airings at Christmas time in the '70s caused millions and millions of movie fans to fall in love with this now-considered "timeless classic." Republic Pictures restored its copyright claim to the film in 1993, with exclusive video rights included. At present, it can only be shown on the NBC-TV network.

Directed by the wonderful Frank Capra, It's a Wonderful Life had its official debut on December 20, 1946, and going into limited release just five days before Christmas. It didn't go into general release until July of 1947. One has to wonder at the logic of the distributors of the film. Why put an obvious "Christmassy" film into general release after the holiday? Nowadays, that would be rather like releasing one of the Halloween films in November or the film Valentine's Day in March. What the heck were these guys thinking?  

It's a Wonderful Life also faced an even-bigger obstacle regarding its release. It was almost completely overshadowed by another film called The Best Years of Our Lives. An indisputably beautiful, touching film, The Best Years of Our Lives was a salute to returning World War II veterans. The film showed how each one dealt with life after war. The United States, of course, still had war on its mind, and this mindset probably caused the discerning movie-goer of 1946-47 to opt for The Best Years of Our Lives and neglect It's a Wonderful Life.

Critics, too, pretty much dismissed the film upon its release; reviews were decidedly mixed. It's a Wonderful Life did garner five Oscar nominations, but it was shut out at the awards ceremony. Jimmy Stewart was not the first choice to play the film's lead, perennial All-American George Bailey. (Stewart has called George Bailey his all-time favorite role.) The studio very much wanted Cary Grant, but fate, as is its want, intervened, and Stewart, a true screen legend, was given his quintessential role. Henry Fonda was also in the running for the lead role (he would have made a perfect George Bailey, too).

Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers

Ginger Rogers also was offered the female lead as Mary Bailey, George's devoted wife (director Capra's perennial favorite leading lady, Jean Arthur, was unavailable). But Ginger was set to do a Broadway play and gave the offer a thumbs down. She considered the story "too bland." Ginger never quite forgave herself for this monumental error in judgement, and Donna Reed got the part.

On July 14, 2015, the spacecraft New Horizons will come within 7,767 miles of (former planet) Pluto. The probe has been traveling for six years already, covering a million kilometers every day, and broke a record on Friday by becoming the closet spacecraft to Pluto ever. The previous record was 1.58 billion kilometers, when Voyager I came its closest to Pluto in 1986.

“We’ve come a long way across the solar system,” says Glen Fountain, New Horizons project manager at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. “When we launched [on Jan. 19, 2006] it seemed like our 10-year journey would take forever, but those years have been passing us quickly. We’re almost six years in flight, and it’s just about three years until our encounter begins.”

From New Horizons’ current distance to Pluto – about as far as Earth is from Saturn – Pluto remains just a faint point of light. But by the time New Horizons sails through the Pluto system in mid-2015, the planet and its moons will be so close that the spacecraft’s cameras will spot features as small as a football field.

Get ready for your closeups, Pluto! Link

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An LSU cheerleader wore a GoPro camera during the November 25th LSU-Arkansas football game. Be warned that she is a "flyer," one of the smaller cheerleaders who stand on top of the pyramids, so this might make you dizzy. It might also make you rethink allowing your daughters to try out for the team. -via BroBible

Each of us have more microbes on and in our bodies than we have cells of our own. Some are beneficial; others we'd like to do without. Then there are millions that are neither, but may be profitable someday. Sound ridiculous? Consider this scenario:

IMAGINE a scientist gently swabs your left nostril with a Q-tip and finds that your nose contains hundreds of species of bacteria. That in itself is no surprise; each of us is home to some 100 trillion microbes. But then she makes an interesting discovery: in your nose is a previously unknown species that produces a powerful new antibiotic. Her university licenses it to a pharmaceutical company; it hits the market and earns hundreds of millions of dollars. Do you deserve a cut of the profits?

It is a tricky question, because it defies our traditional notions of property and justice. You were not born with the germ in your nose; at some point in your life, it infected you. On the other hand, that microbe may be able to grow and reproduce only in a human nose. You provided it with an essential shelter. And its antibiotics may help keep you healthy, by killing disease-causing germs that attempt to invade your nose.

Bioethicists are wrangling with the notion of microbe ownership. Carl Zimmer, whose navel microbes have already been posted at Neatorama, writes about the issues involved at the New York Times. Link -via The Loom

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Just a concept now (although one that can be demonstrated), buildings of the future might be put together by flying robots. Which sounds like a great idea, but I'd still want a real human building inspector! -via Geeks Are Sexy

This Star Wars-themed Christmas tree has gone to the Dark Side. I believe the only light is the light saber! This picture is just begging for puns, which you can find in the reddit thread. Link -via @johncfarrier

Clifton Vial of Nome, Alaska, set out in his Toyota Tacoma to see where a road went, but ended up stuck in a snowdrift on a deserted road that doubles as a snowmobile track. He was 40 miles from town, out of cell phone range, without provisions or much in the way of emergency equipment. Vial wrapped himself in a sleeping bag liner and waited, turning on the car occasionally for warmth. After three days, he was almost out of gasoline. On the second day he didn't show up for work, his boss called emergency services.

The Nome Volunteer Fire Department was alerted and Vial's co-workers and volunteer rescuers drove surrounding roads in search of the Toyota.

One searcher drove 41 miles along Kougarok Road -- just a few miles from where Vial sat shivering and stranded in his pickup -- but saw no tracks. The searcher turned back as daylight disappeared and the road conditions worsened, Handeland said.

Troopers joined the search. Rescuers looked for Vial on the ground and from the air, in planes and from a helicopter.

"When we get called on situations like this, it's a needle in a haystack," said Jim West Jr., a Nome fire department captain and search and rescue coordinator.

For Vial, the cold was worse than the hunger, he said. Still he scoured the pickup in vain for food.

His only provisions: Snow, and a few cans of Coors Light that had frozen solid in the cab.

Vial ate the beers like cans of beans. "I cut the lids off and dug it out with a knife," he said.

Vial lost 16 pounds, but showed no signs of frostbite. Link -via Breakfast Links

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The Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra asked its fans to Tweet their tips for keeping warm in the winter. Then the chorus sang those Tweets to the tune of O Fortuna! -via the Presurfer

Previously: The Original Lyrics

These adorable brownie bites wear little Santa hats made of strawberries! You'll find instructions for making your own at daisy's world. Link -via Buzzfeed

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Misery Bear buys a "happiness machine" in hopes of relieving his misery. But you know that's not going to happen. He gets a new friend, whose true nature you will recognize before Misery Bear does. A BBC Comedy production. -via The Daily What

Words: Marc Abrahams
Music: Jacques Offenbach, Giuseppe Verdi, and Arthur Sullivan
(And thanks to Mary Ellen Davey, Harriet Provine, Dany Adams, and Carl Zimmer for bacteriological insights, and Robert Csillag, DDS, and his staff for inspiration on microbial matters.)

The Bacterial Opera premiered as part of the 20th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, at Sanders Theater, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, on September 30, 2010.
Video of the performance can be seen at www.improbable.com.

Original Cast
Stage manager and conductor: David Stockton
Kirkospocokococcus: Maria Ferrante
Gallileococcus: Ben Sears
Sidekickococcus: Roberta Gilbert
Accordionococcus: Thomas Michel
Bacillusnameless: Marc Andelman
The woman: Jenny Gutbezahl
Supporting bacilli: Sheldon Glashow, Roy Glauber, William Lipscomb, James Muller, Frank Wilczek, Neil Gaiman, Amanda Palmer, Jason Webley, Mary Ellen Davey, Rich Losick, and a multitude of bacteria.
Pianist: Branden Grimmett
Costume designer: Jenn Martinez.

The characters are a WOMAN, who spends the entire time—except at the very end—sitting on a chair napping with her mouth open so we can see her teeth, and the BACTERIA who live on one of her front teeth. Those bacteria, KIRKOSPOCKOCOCCUS, SIDEKICKOCOCCUS, and GALLILEOCOCCUS, do all the singing. Most of the characters on stage are non-singing bacteria. In the premiere one bacterium played the accordion.

ACT 1—Stuck on This Tooth

NARRATOR: Tonight’s opera stars several trillion bacteria—would you all please take a bow?—several
trillion bacteria… and one human being—a woman, who as you can see, is asleep on a chair, with her mouth hanging open. The action takes place on one tooth inside that woman’s mouth. The main characters are called KIRKOSPOCKOCOCCUS, SIDEKICKOCOCCUS and GALLILEOCOCCUS. We have arranged a sort of microscope so you can see them. Let’s take a look. Will one of the technicians please turn on the microscope?

[KIRKOSPOCKOCOCCUS AND SIDEKICK-OCOCCUS AND GALLILEOCOCCUS COME ON STAGE AND TAKE A BOW.]

Ah. Here they are, magnified so very much that—believe it or not—these teeny-tiny, liddle-widdle bacteria appear to be the SAME SIZE AS THE HUMAN BEING. Isn’t that a hoot? Here in Act 1, KIRKOSPOCKOCOCCUS and SIDEKICKOCOCCUS will explain why they hate being stuck, their whole lives, on this tooth. But you know, and I know, that what they REALLY hate are all the many, many other bacteria species in their crowded neighborhood. Let’s listen to them gripe…



[TUNE: “Barcarolle” by Offenbach, from “Tales of Hoffman”]

KIRKOSPOCKOCOCCUS and SIDEKICKOCOCCUS:
Nasty neighbors! Nasty neighbors!
Nasty neighbors! Nasty neighbors!
Nasty neighbors! Nasty neighbors!

[HERE IS WHERE WORDS BEGIN IN ORIGINAL OFFENBACH VERSION]

Streptococcus! Stuck on this tooth,
With neighbors who hurt and mock us.
Let’s name names. Let’s tell the whole truth.
Let’s name the scum on this tooth!
TrepoNEEma dentiCOla! What a loathsome neighbor!
Squirts and leaks and drips and drools
Such stinky molecules.
Such stinky molecules! Prob’ly some kind of peptide…
Those stinky molecules—They eat holes in my hide.
Stinky molecules. Stinky molecules.
Pee yooo!
Porph’ro-MO-nas gingi-VA-lis! What a loathsome neighbor!
Night and day, they spew and they spray / Bacteriocin spray.
Bacteriocin spray / Makes our guts leak away.
Our guts leak away. They leak away.
Oooh! Oooh!

ACT 2—A Vision of Distant, Bigger Things

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Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, The Piano Guys brought us Cello Wars. Steven Sharp Nelson plays several of the various themes from the Star Wars films on two cellos with light sabers. Then Darth Vader and Chewbacca dance. I think you'll enjoy it. -Thanks, Will Findlay!

This is the real reason people sleep with teddy bears. They don't let you down, no matter what. This great image titled Sweet Halloween Dreams is by DeviantART member begemott. Link -via Buzzfeed

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Stuffed and mounted animals sing "Back in the Day" by The Erratic Man. Besides the video, there's a choir of singing animals that you can add your pet to! http://petchoir.com/ -Thanks, James!