Homer Simpson hits the big time

The first family of comedy have finally made it to the big screen.

For years, fans of Bart, Homer, Marge and the other dysfunctional stars of the long-running cartoon saga The Simpsons, have fired up the microwavable popcorn of a Sunday night, ready to enjoy the next episode. Soon, however, they will be able to eat the good stuff.

Next July, the beehive hair-do of mother Marge will have a new, size-appropriate, home: the full expanse of a cinema screen.. It will be better viewed from seats towards the rear of the theatre.

The thrilling news - at least for that portion of the world's population that loyally tunes in to the relentlessly lower-register humour of the show - was not announced in the normal way through media release or press conference.

Instead, Twentieth Century Fox, the movie studio behind the project, made it official by way of a 20-second promotional trailer at screenings across the United States this weekend of its latest computer animation film, Ice Age: The Meltdown.

Striving to emulate the Simpson-brand of irony, the studio says the coming of Bart to the big screen will be a cultural event to beat all others. Why else would they begin advertising a full 15 months in advance?

Audiences saw a giant super-hero sized S fill screens with a voice intoning: "Leaping his way on to the silver screen ... the greatest hero in American history!" Anyone with their finger on the popular pulse of the United States knew at once what was coming next.

And there in the next frame was Homer Simpson sitting on a sofa in his Sunday best - his underwear - confirming what most already knew about him. That he is not the brightest member of his clan. "I forgot what I was supposed to say," he mumbled.

If there is any surprise in Homer's promotion to Hollywood stardom it is that Fox didn't do it earlier. The television series is in its 17th season and although its audience numbers are not as strong as they once were, a new episode draws an easy 9 million viewers in America. The show is also exported to dozens of countries.

It started life as a short, cartoon diversion on the Tracey Ullman Show back in 1987. Two years later the then fledgling Fox channel launched 30-minute episodes in its primetime schedules.

The programme delighted a generation of television watchers with its zany, often profane and irreverent comedy. It did more than any other to propel Fox to a position from where it could seriously challenge the three big US networks, ABC, NBC and CBS.

While the show first focused on the antics of school-age Bart, it is Homer, who has now taken centre-stage. A worker in a nuclear power plant, his life is a series of mistakes and accident which he greets with the familiar lament "Doh!"

Just as fans have been aching to hear confirmation of all the talk of a Simpsons movie, others have been wondering how long it can keep going on television screens.

Last year, its main creator, Matt Groening, said that as long as he and his colleagues could keep coming up with fresh ideas for Homer, Bart and all the others, the programme would stay alive.

- INDEPENDENT