The Simpsons: The Fight Before Christmas


7:00 pm - 7:30 pm, Today on Sky Showcase HD (355)

Average User Rating: 5.27 (15 votes)
My Rating: Sign in or Register to view last vote

Add to Favourites

About this Broadcast

-
The Fight Before Christmas
Season 22, Episode 8

Four tales celebrating the festive season. Bart hatches a plan to hold Santa Claus hostage, while in a 1940s-set story, Lisa refuses to give in to the holiday spirit until her mother returns home safe from the Battle of the Bulge. Home improvement expert Martha Stewart helps a desperate Marge, and Katy Perry leads the family in a rendition of The 39 Days of Christmas


subtitles repeat 16x9
Animated Movie/Drama Comedy Movie/Drama Sitcom

Cast & Crew

-

Dan Castellaneta (Actor) .. Homer Simpson
Julie Kavner (Actor) .. Marge Simpson
Nancy Cartwright (Actor) .. Bart Simpson
Yeardley Smith (Actor) .. Lisa Simpson
Hank Azaria (Actor) .. Moe Szyslak
Harry Shearer (Actor) .. Mr Burns
Katy Perry (Actor) .. Herself

More Information

-

No Logo

Did You Know..

-

Dan Castellaneta (Actor) .. Homer Simpson
Born: October 29, 1957 in Oak Park, Illinois, United States
Best Known For: Being the voice of Homer Simpson.
Early-life: Daniel Louis Castellaneta was born on October 29, 1957 in Oak Park, Illinois, United States. He showed a talent for impressions at a young age and his mother enrolled him in an acting class when he was 16. Dan attended Oak Park and River Forest High School and then Northern Illinois University. While studying, he worked as a student teacher and planned to become an art teacher. He also honed his skills as a voice-over actor working on one of the university's radio shows.
Career: Castellaneta started working at The Second City, an improvisational comedy theatre, in 1983 and stayed until 1987. During this time, he did voiceover work for various radio stations. He was hired to work on The Tracey Ullman Show and he started voicing Homer Simpson in The Simpsons, which was initially aired as a series of animated shorts. The Simpsons has since become a half-hour show and Castellaneta has continued to provide the voice of Homer. He has also voiced many other characters, including Grampa Simpson, Barney Gumble and Krusty the Clown. Castellaneta and his wife, Deb Lacusta, have also written several episodes of The Simpsons. He has done voice acting for a number of other animated series too, including Back to the Future, Aladdin, Earthworm Jim, Hey Arnold!, The Batman and Futurama. Besides voice acting, Castellaneta has had on screen parts in such series as Entourage, Everybody Loves Raymond, Friends, Greek, Parks and Recreation, How I Met Your Mother and Desperate Housewives. He has appeared in such films as K-9 (1989), The War of the Roses (1989), The Pursuit of Happyness (2006), Super 8 (2011) and Fantastic Four (2015).
Quote: "To many, Homer may appear lazy and a loser, but he's just much misguided. He's boorish, sure, but well meaning and, I guess, the one thing we have in common is the pursuit of lousy diets."
Trivia: He has won four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for voicing Homer.
Julie Kavner (Actor) .. Marge Simpson
Born: September 07, 1950 in Los Angeles
Best Known For: Providing the voice for the put-upon Marge Simpson in The Simpsons.
Early-life: Born Julie Deborah Kavner in September, 1950 in Los Angeles. She attended Beverley Hills High School and went on to study at San Diego State University. Julie showed a talent for improvisation and stood out from the crowd due to her distinctive voice.
Career: Kavner won her first notable role on popular comedy series Rhoda as Brenda Morgenstern in 1974 and stayed on until it finished four years later, winning an Emmy award for her performance. She then moved on to guest stints on The Tracey Ullman Show, in which a number of animated shorts were to be included. Producers were looking for voices for the cartoons and enlisted the actress. This just happened to turn into The Simpsons, which proved a runaway success. Despite voicing Marge since 1988 (and reportedly earning more than $400,000 per episode), Kavner has fitted in several film roles over the years, including her first starring role in This Is My Life from 1992.
Quote: On also providing the voice of Marge's embittered sisters on the cartoon sitcom: "When I was trying to come up with the voices for Patty and Selma I asked [producer] Jim Brooks what he wanted and he said 'They suck the joy out of everything'."
Trivia: In The Simpsons, she also voices Patty and Selma Bouvier.
Nancy Cartwright (Actor) .. Bart Simpson
Born: October 25, 1957 in Dayton, Ohio
Best Known For: Being the voice of Bart Simpson.
Early-life: Nancy Jean Cartwright was born on October 25, 1957 in Dayton, Ohio, United States and raised in Kettering, Ohio. She discovered her talent for voices at a young age and won a school-wide speech competition with her performance of Rudyard Kipling's How the Camel Got His Hump when she was in fourth grade. Nancy attended Fairmont West High School. She frequently entered public speaking competitions and judges often said she should do cartoon voices. Nancy studied at Ohio University and took a part-time job doing voiceovers on radio adverts. She began corresponding with Hanna-Barbera cartoons voice actor Daws Butler for feedback on her work while at university and transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles to be closer to him and Hollywood.
Career: Cartwright's first professional voice acting role was in the animated series Richie Rich. She went on to appear on-screen in the leading role in TV film Marian Rose White (1982) and her first feature film was Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983). In 1987, she auditioned for a role on The Simpsons while it was a series of animated shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show. She voiced Bart Simpson for three seasons on The Tracey Ullman Show and has retained the role ever since The Simpsons became a half-hour show. Cartwright also voices other characters on The Simpsons, including Nelson Muntz, Ralph Wiggum and Todd Flanders. Besides The Simpsons, Cartwright has voiced Chuckie Finster in Rugrats and All Grown Up!, Mindy in Animaniacs, Rufus in Kim Possible and many other characters. She has also appeared on-camera in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, 24, Empty Nest and Godzilla (1998).
Quote: On auditioning for The Simpsons: "I went in, saw Lisa, and didn't really see anything I could sink my teeth into. But the audition piece for Bart was right there, and I'm like, ‘whoa, 10 years old, under-achiever and proud of it? Yeah, man - that's the one I want to do!'."
Trivia: She published her autobiography, My Life as a 10-Year-Old Boy, in 2000 and adapted it into a one-woman play in 2004.
Yeardley Smith (Actor) .. Lisa Simpson
Born: July 03, 1964 in Paris, France
Best Known For: Being the voice of Lisa Simpson.
Early-life: Born Martha Maria Yeardley Smith on July 3, 1964 in Paris, France. Yeardley and her family moved with her father's job to the United States in 1966. When she was a child, she was often teased for her high-pitched, nasal voice. Yeardley made her acting debut in a sixth grade play. After graduating from high school, she apprenticed at Arena Stage and then moved to New York.
Career: Smith appeared in a number of Broadway productions before landing her first film roles in Heaven Help Us (1985) and The Legend of Billie Jean (1985). She moved to Los Angeles in 1986 and landed a recurring role in the TV series Brothers. In 1987, she auditioned for The Simpsons shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show. She has voiced Lisa Simpson ever since and the series was spun into a half-hour show in 1989. Away from The Simpsons, Smith played Louise in the sitcom Herman's Head. She has also appeared in such series as Dharma & Greg, Dead Like Me, Mad Men, The Big Bang Theory and The Mindy Project. Her film credits include City Slickers (1991), Jingle All the Way (1996) and As Good as It Gets (1997).
Quote: "Romance is dead - it was acquired in a hostile takeover by Hallmark and Disney, homogenised, and sold off piece by piece."
Trivia: She won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance in 1992 for her work as Lisa Simpson.
Hank Azaria (Actor) .. Moe Szyslak
Born: April 25, 1964 in New York
Best Known For: Providing the voices of Moe, Apu and Chief Wiggum on The Simpsons.
Early-life: Azaria was born in Queens New York in 1964 into a Greek Jewish family. His showbiz-loving parents encouraged his love of performing, but it was only upon viewing the Godfather trilogy that he became certain of wanting to become an actor. After finishing school he trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and Tufts University. After being unable to find success in his home city he moved to Los Angeles to try his luck in Hollywood.
Career: A few bit parts in comedy series were to be Hank's first roles, but it was his voice that earned him the attention of The Simpsons' bosses; he has provided his vocal talents for the iconic show since its launch in 1989. Azaria's comedy credentials earned him roles in Pretty Woman and Point Blank. He would give a memorable performance in Robin Williams' The Birdcage, playing a Guatemalan cleaner named Agador Spartacus. He also had a small cameo in Along Came Polly in 2004, guested on Friends and was seen in British comedy Run Fat Boy Run, as well as Mystery Men, Godzilla and Night at the Museum 2. Azaria has four Emmys to his name and a reputation as being one of the most talented and versatile actors in the business.
Quote: "It's not really difficult to go from one voice into the next. It's like asking you to sing a line of Happy Birthday and then Goodnight Irene - assuming you know the words to both those songs."
Trivia: In The Simpsons, Azaria voices Moe, Wiggum and Apu among others.
Harry Shearer (Actor) .. Mr Burns
Katy Perry (Actor) .. Herself
Born: October 25, 1984 in California
Best Known For: Her hit song I Kissed a Girl.
Early-life: Born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson near Santa Barbara, California, on October 25, 1984, much has been made of Katy's religious upbringing, with both her parents being pastors. She sang in their church from the age of nine and quickly showed a talent for music, as well as dancing, leading her to pursue a singing career. Her first album - a self-titled gospel number - came out when she was just 15, but her record label closed. Two subsequent albums failed to be released, but Katy was certainly showing signs of the drive and ambition it takes to succeed.
Career: In 2007, Katy signed to Capitol Music Group, changed her name to Katy Perry and released her first single, Ur So Gay, online. The departure from her gospel roots attracted some attention, but it was second single I Kissed a Girl that catapulted her to fame. She scored a number one across the world, and follow-ups Hot N Cold and Thinking of You, from the album One of the Boys, were also big hits. Her second album Teenage Dreams was released in 2010 and its lead single California Gurls also went to number one. She made her film debut voicing a Smurfette in The Smurfs (2011) and reprised her role in the 2013 sequel. She has also guest starred in episodes of How I Met Your Mother and Raising Hope. She continues to release albums and headline world tours.
Quote: "If you're presenting yourself with confidence, you can pull off pretty much anything."
Trivia: She has released a number of perfumes, including Meow and Killer Queen.

Before / After

-