Opinion: What Kind Of A World Do We Live In When truTV Cares More About Their “Simpsons” Doc Than FOX Does Their’s?

What…the hell?

On November 19th @ 10 pm ET, truTV will premiere a brand new documentary inspired by The Simpsons called THE PROBLEM WITH APU. The movie is a comedic look at the history of Apu and what current personalities with Indian heritage think of the character. For those that don’t know, Apu is an animated character on The Simpsons voiced by a white actor with a heavily exaggerated, stereotypical Indian accent. Aziz Ansari, Kal Penn, Aasif Mandvi, Hasan Minjaj, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Aparna Nancherla, Russell Peters, Sakina Jaffrey and Maulik Pancholy share poignant stories about their own experiences with Apu and the broader questions about the comedy and representation he evokes. Additional personalities featured include Whoopi Goldberg, W. Kamau Bell, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, and Mallika Rao.

This weekend, FOX will premiere a documentary inspired by “Homer at the Bat” produced by Morgan Spurlock in the middle of the fucking afternoon on Sunday (check your local listings, because it’s different depending on what football games you’re getting). SPRINGFIELD OF DREAMS: THE LEGEND OF HOMER SIMPSON, will air adjacent to regional NFL broadcasts on Sunday, Oct. 22 on FOX.

The one-hour special celebrates the legendary episode “Homer at the Bat,” in addition to Homer Simpson’s induction into The National Baseball Hall of Fame earlier this year. A satire of Ken Burns’ epic documentary, “Baseball,” the special features interviews with eight Major League Baseball players appearing in the original episode, along with baseball historians, sportscasters, and iconic personalities, such as FOX Sports’ Joe Buck, sports announcer Bob Costas, author George Will, Dr. Oz, fashion consultant and television personality Tim Gunn and New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio. Current Yankee slugger and Major League Baseball AL MVP candidate Aaron Judge also appear in the special.

Additionally, the feature contains six minutes of never-before-seen original animation from THE SIMPSONS, including character “interviews” with Homer, Moe, Chief Wiggum and Apu, voiced by Dan Castellaneta and Hank Azaria.

Our Take

FOX clearly doesn’t give a shit about The Simpsons anymore. The network could’ve just as easily premiered this doc after an hour split between premieres of The Simpsons and Family Guy and made sure their documentary gets the widest possible audience ever…like truTV! The Turner-owned network who has never had anything to do with The Simpsons is clearly more excited about having an original documentary inspired by The Simpsons than FOX, a network that has had 30 seasons of The Simpsons all predominately in the 8 pm ET timeslot on Sunday Nights. SPRINGFIELD OF DREAMS: THE LEGEND OF HOMER SIMPSON is airing opposite football on CBS in most markets and will have random re-airing schedules.

Viewers with an NFL matchup airing at 1:00 PM ET get to watch the documentary at 4:30 PM ET; viewers with an NFL matchup airing at 4:05 PM ET get to watch the documentary at 3:00 PM ET. SPRINGFIELD OF DREAMS: THE LEGEND OF HOMER SIMPSON also airs on Friday, Oct. 20 at 6:00 PM ET on FS1.

Shame on FOX. “Homer At The Bat” was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame earlier this year, and THIS is the treatment that the doc gets? Clearly, FOX is mailing it in on its animated Sunday lineup and this is proof. What kind of a world do we live in when truTV shows more thought for the premiere of THEIR documentary than FOX does?