Until now, Simpsons fans have been relegated to rewatching old episodes on grubby DVDs or downloading them one-by-one on iTunes. A new portal called Simpsons World will launch in October that will allow anyone to browse episodes and share clips—however, to actually watch all the episodes, your cable plan will have to include FXX.
As Fox announced today at the Television Critics Awards, Simpsons World will offer unprecedented access to the show's vast archives—and they are vast; it's the the longest-currently running U.S. sitcom—plus the ability to play with more than the typical TV show assets, like viewing episode scripts. Users will be able to access Simpsons World online as well as through the FXNow app.
But, yeah, the d'oh footnote to this good news is that you can't watch a single show unless your cable provider has struck a deal with FX. Right now, Hitfix points out, the ones that do include AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Cox and Time-Warner Cable. Perhaps to entice potential subscribers, FXX is planning a marathon of all 25 seasons, in order (that's 552 episodes!) which will run 24 hours a day from August 21 until September 1. It will be the longest TV marathon in history, and at the very least is sure to spawn some creative viewing parties—12 days of donuts?—and hopefully some Guatemalan insanity pepper-level hallucinations by hour 314. [Max Follmer via Engadget]