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Christmas Special[]
"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", which is also officially known as "The Simpsons Christmas Special", is not technically an episode of the series but rather a stand-alone Christmas special. The "episode" does not have the standard opening theme sequence and even features on-screen title at the top of the show calling it "The Simpsons Christmas Special". This special was even nominated for an Emmy for "Outstanding Editing for a Miniseries or Special" (an award an episode would not be eligible for). In syndication and the season DVD releases it has been treated like any other regular episode, but it originally was not. I don't know if that mean "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" should get its own entry, or how that would affect categorization here but I thought I would at least bring it up. — WaldoWatcher, 07:19, 27 November 2007 (UTC)
- I think that's a good point; I'd vote for the special getting its own page. -- Danny (talk) 14:07, 27 November 2007 (UTC)
- As far as I've been able to tell, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" also preceded the actual premiere of The Simpsons as a series, airing on December 17, 1990 as a one-off, before the weekly series debuted on January 14. It's a close question, but as a general rule, I think it makes sense to have a seperate page to maintain that distinction. In the same way, eventually we'll have a page on The Brady Bunch because of the Christmas episode where Cindy asks Santa for mommy's laryngitis to go away blah blah, but also for A Very Brady Christmas, which aired later as a TV movie. I'd think the same logic should apply in cases like this, or as I mentioned on the talk page, Pinky and the Brain, if it originally aired and was trated as a special (conversely, if it was an episode of the original series but on video or in a Cartoon Network marathon it airs with other specials, it should remain in episodes). The only thing that makes this slightly iffy is the fact that while the series followed it, supposedly according to the Wikipedia article, it was produced as the eighth episode, but instead aired first (possibly because Fox decided to air it as a mid-season series instead of debuting it in the fall). I'm not enough of a Simpsons expert to say much more about it, but it sounds like it was basically produced as part of the regular series but then moved up. So it could go either way, but I do think a good general rule of thumb is, if a program initally premieres as a seperate special and is titled and promoted and receives Emmy awards as such, regardless of whether a series is concurrent or not, it's a special (and likewise, if it originally aired in the regular series timeslot with the regular titles and so on, and usually with no advance promotion, it's an episode, even if it at some later point ABC or someone decides to re-run it in prime-time). This applies mainly to animated series, which otherwise can become awfully convoluted. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 21:23, 27 November 2007 (UTC)