Video Of The Week: Bart Simpson (The Simpsons)

As I was making my way into my first year of high school, at the end of 1990, I was out of touch with the pop charts: I could tolerate Bel Biv Devoe but had no love for Technotronic, Michael Bolton, Snap, Janet Jackson, MC Hammer nor Milli Vanilli, though I did own Hammer's and MV's cassettes (birthday presents from adults).

One instance where I was totally in synch with the charts, though, was when The Simpsons released their first soundtrack - Sing The Blues - which I purchased from the mail-in service ripoff company Columbia House. The lead single, Do The Bartman, featured here, may not have been the best song on it (Deep Deep Trouble was), but the mere fact that it was co-written by Michael Jackson (and may include background vocals from him) makes for a fun anecdote.

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''Whoa, mama!''

I like that the choreography is also a bit Jackson-like. Oh, and the self-congratulatory ''I'm bad like Michael Jackson, I'm bad, I'm bad!'' - priceless!

Oh, and it was directed by Brad Bird (The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Ratatouille). That's a lot of big names for such a short moment in time.

It's funny to think that at first, the series (and all promotional material) was centered around Bart's antics, but they evolved into being more about Homer, a more rounded character. 25 years in, the series is still alive and well, though perhaps without the highs of South Park and Family Guy, but definitely with more consistency.

Grey's Anatomy Fired Actress After Lesbian Scene

Although many sources, including Huffington Post, cite Grey's Anatomy executive producer Shonda Rhimes as saying this decision has nothing to do with actress Brooke Smith's recently-aired lesbian love-making episode.

Uh huh.

The fact that ABC executives were afraid of losing Christian viewers and/or valuable advertizers had nothing to do with the firing, which was told to the actress at the very last minute - when she got her next script. And the fact that it looks abrupt and forced in the script and is left rather unexplained is likely a coincidence too.

So let me get this straight: you do your job and go ahead with what's in the script, you lose your job. You refuse to go through with it (which never came to Smith's mind, mind you, consumate professional that she is), you're a sexist - and fired too.

''Damned if you don't, damned if you do'', said philosopher Bart Simpson in the song ''Deep Deep Trouble'' in the early '90s.

I guess so.

Nice to see networks still don't have the stomach to defend their employees and the purity of the art they're trying to maintain in a landscape dominated by reality shows. The bigger the corporation that's your boss, the less they've got your back. Good to know.

At least viewers got to see some girl-on-girl action, and film producers and directors saw someone willing to go where the script will take her, for future reference.