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The new horror movie AfrAId, directed by Chris Weitz, is in theaters now. In the film, John Cho and Katherine Waterston play Curtis and Meredith Pike, parents who agree to try out a new AI named Aia (Havana Rose Liu). Installing the AI means also setting up cameras throughout the house, so Aia can learn the familys needs and habits to better take care of everything. The premise of AfrAId is reminiscent of a Season 13 episode of The Simpsons. The episode Treehouse of Horror Xii features the hilarious segment House of Whacks, written by John Frink and Don Payne. Pierce Brosnan guest stars as the voice of a smart home called Ultrahouse 3000 thats installed in the Simpsons house. At first, Ultrahouse seems great, but things take a sinister turn.

The Simpsons has a truly massive overall cast. While most of the show centers around the titular family, there are dozens of supporting characters that have received focus over the last thirty-four seasons. This isn't even counting the nearly countless minor characters who've appeared, some of whom had plenty of untapped potential as mainstay additions to the show.

Introduced during Season 12, Francine Rhenquist had the makings of a solid addition to The Simpsons' supporting cast. The female bully served a unique role as a direct antagonist to Lisa, having the potential to become a show mainstay as a foil to the good-intentioned and brainy young girl. However, Francine only ever had one major appearance in The Simpsons. Here's how Lisa almost got her own version of Nelson.

Related: How The Simpsons Pulled Off Anime Style for Death Note Parody

Who Was Francine in The Simpsons?

Directed by Lauren MacMullan and...

Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:

Oscars | Emmys | Grammys | Tonys

2023 Emmy Predictions:

Outstanding Animated Program Rick and Morty, S7. Adult Swim.

Weekly Commentary: Netflix’s “Entergalactic,” the animated accompaniment to Kid Cudi’s album is competing against long-standing series such as “Bob’s Burgers,” “Rick and Morty” and “The Simpsons.” The streamer pulled off a surprise win last year with “Arcane,...

With a potential strike on the horizon, the Writers Guild Awards were handed out Sunday in ceremonies at the Edison Ballroom in New York and Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles.

Awards magnets Severance, The White Lotus, and The Bear continued to secure big awards.

Better Call Saul, Hacks, and Undone were also represented.

Check out the full list of winners below.

Drama Series

Andor

Better Call Saul

The Crown

Severance — Winner

Yellowjackets

Comedy Series

Abbott Elementary

Barry

The Bear — Winner

Hacks

Only Murders in the Building

New Series

Abbott Elementary

Andor

Bad Sisters

The Bear

Severance — Winner

Limited Series

The Dropout

Fleishman Is in Trouble

Pam & Tommy

The Staircase

The White Lotus — Winner

View Slideshow: Fox Cheat Sheet: Is the Resident in Trouble?

TV & New Media Motion Pictures

Heart of the Matter (Hallmark Channel)

Honor Society (Paramount+) — Winner

Ray Donovan: The Movie (Showtime)

Torn Hearts (Epix)

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story...

The 75th annual Writers Guild Awards were handed out on Sunday in concurrent ceremonies at the Edison Ballroom in New York and Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles.

Severance took home the prize for best new series, beating out fellow first-time nominees such as Bad Sisters, Andor and Abbott Elementary. The Apple TV+ series also won for best drama, with FX’s The Bear winning in comedy.

More from TVLineSummer TV Calendar: Your Guide to 85+ Season and Series PremieresNo Joy for Euphoria Fans: Season 3 Pushed to 2025 - and It's Not the Only Popular HBO Drama Being DelayedThe Bear Season 2 Trailer Teases Beefy Facelift,...

Nominees have been announced for the 75th annual Writers Guild Awards, to be held on Sunday, March 5 in concurrent ceremonies at the Edison Ballroom in New York and Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles.

In addition to usual suspects like Better Call Saul, The Crown, Hacks and Barry, this year’s nominees include first-time contenders such as Andor, Severance, Yellowjackets, Abbott Elementary and The Bear.

More from TVLineWriters Guild Awards: Yellowjackets, Loki Among New Series Scoring NodsWriters Guild Awards: The Americans, Mrs. Maisel and Barry Among WinnersWriters Guild Awards: FX Wins Big With Atlanta, O.J. and The Americans

This...

Newcomers “The Bear” and “Severance” and departing drama “Better Call Saul” were among the frontrunners, with three nominations each, as Writers Guild of America West and Writers Guild of America, East announced nominations for outstanding achievement in television, new media, news, radio/audio, and promotional writing during 2022. Winners will be honored at the Writers Guild Awards ceremony taking place Sunday, March 5, 2023. Here are this year’s noms:

Drama Series

“Andor” — Written by Dan Gilroy, Tony Gilroy, Stephen Schiff, Beau Willimon; Disney+

“Better Call Saul” — Written by Ann Cherkis, Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould, Ariel Levine, Thomas Schnauz, Gordon Smith, Alison Tatlock; AMC

“The Crown” — Written by Peter Morgan; Netflix

Severance, Written by Chris Black, Andrew Colville, Kari Drake, Dan Erickson, Mark Friedman, Helen Leigh, Anna Moench, Amanda Overton; Apple TV+

“Yellowjackets” — Written by Cameron Brent Johnson, Katherine Kearns, Jonathan Lisco, Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson, Liz Phang, Ameni Rozsa, Sarah L. Thompson,...

For a series like The Simpsons, which has been running for 33 seasons, it’s a difficult task to keep the series fresh and feeling new. That’s a task that writer, executive producer and showrunner Matt Selman says is the “greatest creative challenge” for the writing team. Even after more than three decades on television, Selman is excited for the next season and gives a tease for what is coming next. The series is Emmy-nominated this year for Outstanding Animated Program, bringing the total nominations in the The Simpson‘s lifetime to 98, with 35 wins. He talked with Deadline’s Ryan Fleming about that and much more.

Deadline: Why was “Pixelated and Afraid” chosen for Emmy consideration?

Matt Selman: We’ve done more than 700 episodes of the show, but I feel like this one showed a new depth and a new intimacy to the classic Homer and Marge love story.

Oscar-winning film “Parasite” gets the “Treehouse of Horror” treatment in the Season 33 edition of “The Simpsons'” annual Halloween episode. “Treehouse of Horror Xxxii,” which also parodies “Bambi,” “The Ringer” and more, airs Oct. 10 at 8 p.m. on Fox.

In the segment “Bong Joon Ho’s ‘This Side of Parasite,'” the Simpsons live in a squalid basement apartment, but aim to change their circumstances after Bart is hired as a tutor by wealthy superstar Rainier Wolfcastle.

Eventually, Bart arranges to have Homer hired as Wolfcastle’s new chauffeur, while Marge gets a gig as the house maid, Lisa is hired as art teacher and even baby Maggie lands a job as groundskeeper. But when Wolfcastle goes on vacation and the Simpsons throw a party in the manor, they discover others have been secretly living in the house, too — Kirk and Luann, who are not happy that the Simpsons took their...

Santa Claus has been a consistent presence on The Simpsons from the very first episode, and not strictly contained within the holidays. Homer wanted to be him. Abe and Bart wanted to kill him. The family dog is named after him, and Mr. Burns routinely releases the hounds on him. The very image of Santa once saved Homer’s life. The town of Springfield brought a class action suit against him, even if they do trust him enough to hawk TV savings at Sprawl-Mart or buy Dancing Santas off YouTube. Here are the many ways in which Santa Claus has impacted The Simpsons.

Santa doesn’t get special treatment in the first episode of season 1, “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire,” which was titled onscreen as “The Simpsons Christmas Special.” The episode premiered on Dec. 17, 1989, when the world still treated Father Christmas with respectful kid’s gloves. “There’s only...

D’oh! Homer’s in over his head on this Sunday’s episode of “The Simpsons,” and Oscar-winning actress Olivia Colman is to blame. (Scroll down for an exclusive clip.)

In episode 689, “The 7 Beer Itch,” Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie head to her relatives’ home in Martha’s Vineyard, but with a catch: Homer isn’t invited. Left at home, he is “unwittingly tempted by a British femme fatale,” according to the show’s logline. “Then Mr. Burns makes Homer his romantic go-between with extremely unintended consequences.”

Colman, currently starring on Netflix’s “The Crown” as Queen Elizabeth II, plays Lily, the “British femme fatale” in question.

“She’s the woman every man falls for, she’s so charming,” executive producer Al Jean said. “But the one man she wants is someone who doesn’t want her, Homer.”

Colman recorded her part over three sessions, remotely from London. Jean said...

The Simpsons, celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, got a tribute to its longevity by taking the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program for the episode “Mad About The Toy” at the Creative Arts Emmys tonight. It’s the show’s 11th win in the category, expanding its record haul and widening the gap with the rest of the field. The animated series with the second most wins is South Park with 5.

The Simpsons proved its mettle against a much-ballyhooed episode of Bojack Horseman, “Free Churro,” in which BoJack, voiced by Will Arnett, delivers a bizarre, rambling eulogy for his mother that lasts the entire episode. Arnett had joked several times at near the beginning of the telecast that BoJack would surely be walking away with an Emmy.

The other competitors were Bob’s Burgers, Big Mouth, and Come Along With Me, the series finale of Adventure Time. The Simpsons’ win...

Us-China co-production is being launched in Toronto by Ralph Kamp’s UK-based sales agent Timeless Films.

Adam Devine, Rachel Bloom, Zazie Beetz and Ken Jeong will head the voice cast for animated Us-China co-production Extinct, which is being launched in Toronto by Ralph Kamp’s UK-based sales agent Timeless Films.

The original story follows two donut-shaped animals – flummels – who accidentally time-travel from 1835 to modern-day Shanghai. They discover their species has become extinct and have to find a way to change the course of history.

It is produced by China Lion, Hb Wink, Huayi Tencent Entertainment and Tolerable Entertainment and is...

Adam Devine (The Righteous Gemstones), Rachel Bloom (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), Zazie Beetz (Deadpool 2) and Ken Jeong (Crazy Rich Asians) will lend their voices to animation feature, Extinct, from China Lion, Hb Wink, Huayi Tencent Entertainment Ltd, Tolerable Entertainment and Timeless Films. David Silverman, who directed 2007’s The Simpsons Movie and co-directed Monsters Inc, is helming the adventure-comedy along with co-director Raymond Persi (The Simpsons).

Timeless is handling international sales, which will launch at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The Simpsons veterans Joel Cohen, John Frink, and Rob Lazebnik penned the screenplay. It follows Op and Ed, two adorable donut-shaped animals — Flummels — who accidentally time-travel from 1835 to modern-day Shanghai. There they discover traffic, trans fats, and worst of all, that flummels are now extinct. It’s up to this bumbling pair to save themselves and their species… and, just maybe, change the course of history.

Jim Jefferies (The Jim Jefferies Show...

The voice cast for U.S.-Chinese animated movie “Extinct” will feature Adam Devine, Rachel Bloom, Zazie Beetz and Ken Jeong. The film is being directed by David Silverman (“The Simpsons Movie”). “The Simpsons” veterans Joel Cohen, John Frink, and Rob Lazebnik are writing.

The adventure-comedy will follow Op and Ed, a species of donut-shaped animals called flummels. They accidentally time-travel from 1835 to modern-day Shanghai where they discover traffic, trans fats, and the fact that flummels have become extinct. The duo set out to to save themselves and their species.

The movie comes from China Lion, Hb Wink, Huayi Tencent Entertainment, and Tolerable Entertainment. Timeless Films has boarded the project and will sell it internationally, kicking off the sales effort at the Toronto Film Festival.

“We are really looking forward to screening the first footage from this incredibly funny film to our distributors at Toronto,” said Timeless CEO and chairman Ralph Kamp.

China’s Wink Animation, a division of Huayi Brothers, is a Chinese animation company that creates both Chinese-language films and globally-skewing features for the young adult market. It produces both fully animated and hybrid content that combines live action with animated characters.

The company is led by CEO Joe Aguilar, former CFO of Oriental DreamWorks, who led the flagship Sino-Hollywood co-venture while it produced “Kung Fu Panda 3,” the highest-grossing animated co-production of its time. Aguilar will be at FilMart on Tuesday to deliver a keynote address on co-productions in the animation space.

According to Aguilar, it will still be quite some time before globally successful animated co-productions explode onto the scene. “It’s not going to go as fast as everyone wants it to happen. There’s a lot to learn in terms of the risk factors, and culturally about how to work together,” he told Variety.

Since a...

Starbucks’ first branded web series, Upstanders, was an inspirational look at people who are difference-makers in their respective communities. The coffee chain’s second digital show, on the other hand, adopts a very different tone. It’s called 1st & Main, and it consists of short, animated vignettes set within a Starbucks establishment.

The brains behind 1st & Main are John Frink, Joel H Cohen, and Rob Lazebnik, all of whom have written episodes of The Simpsons. For their work with Starbucks, which they produced through their studio Tolerable Entertainment, they sketched out a few amusing stories that use some of Starbucks’ signature elements as plot points. The first episode, for example, imagines what would happen if a couple chose their baby’s name from among the ones shouted by the barista at their local coffee shop.

Visit Tubefilter for more great stories.

When the “Every Simpsons Ever” mega-marathon of The Simpsons began last Thursday on Fxx, it renewed interest in a show that will go down as one of the all-time greats—but has nevertheless been struggling commercially and creatively for awhile at this point. The show’s unimpeachable heyday in the ’90s is rightfully heralded, and as the marathon got going, it was those episodes that created the most excitement. Sure, they’ve been out on DVD for some time, but rebroadcasting them in order emphasized how great the show was at its peak.

Precisely when The Simpsons began to descend...

Writer Don Payne, who began his writing career on TV in the mid-nineties with episodes of Hope and Gloria, Can’t Hurry Love, Men Behaving Badly, Veronica’s Closet and The Brian Benben Show before becoming writer, producer, supervising producer, co-executive producer and consulting producer of The Simpsons, has passed at 48, losing his long battle with bone cancer. The Simpsons’ showrunner Al Jean stated: “Don was a wonderful writer and an even more wonderful man. He was beloved in the ‘Simpsons’ community and his untimely passing is terrible news to us all.” Payne either wrote or co-wrote 18 episodes of the long-running Fox series beginning in 2000. He segued into screenwriting in 2006 with My Super Ex-Girlfriend, followed by Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Thor, Maximum Ride and this fall’s Thor: The Dark World. In 2006, he told the website Cinematical that “I’ve always wanted to write features. That’s...

Los Angeles -- Don Payne, an Emmy-winning writer and producer for "The Simpsons" who also wrote the hit movie "Thor," has died. He was 48.

His friend and former writing partner, John Frink, tells the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/YgqVYH) that Payne had bone cancer and died Tuesday at his Los Angeles home.

Payne shared four Emmys won by "The Simpsons."

He also wrote the 2006 Uma Thurman comedy "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" and 2007's "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer."

___

Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com...

Screenwriter Don Payne has died, it has been announced.

Payne is best known for writing several episodes of The Simpsons and co-writing the screenplay to Thor and its upcoming sequel Thor: The Dark World.

Details of his death have yet to be released.

Thor stars Kat Dennings and Jaimie Alexander tweeted about Payne's death today (March 27).

Don Payne won four Emmy Awards for his work on The Simpsons. He wrote 16 episodes of the Fox animation, serving as a consulting producer for 100 episodes.

He also wrote the screenplays for Uma Thurman comedy My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and the upcoming Maximum Ride.

Payne had worked on several TV sitcoms in the 1990s, including Hope & Gloria, Pride & Joy, Can't Hurry Love, Men Behaving Badly, Veronica's Closet and The Brian Benben Show.

For many years, he worked with fellow screenwriter John Frink.

Dennings described Payne as "a wonderful,...

Don Payne, a writer whose work has encompassed sitcoms, The Simpsons and big movies for several Marvel characters, has died at the age of 48.Born and raised in North Carolina, Payne harboured a desire to be involved with TV and, in particular, film, from a young age. He met writing partner John Frink while at UCLA and the pair worked together on the staffs of several unsuccessful sitcoms.But more high profile work was to follow when they joined the team behind The Simpsons, writing several episodes including two Treehouse Of Horror entries and The Bart Wants What It Wants.Yet Payne had big screen ambitions. “I've always wanted to write features. That's why I moved to Los Angeles in the first place,” he told Cinematical. “I started writing with John Frink when I was in college at UCLA. And I've been a comic book geek from way back.” After the disappointing My Super Ex-Girlfriend,...

Don Payne, whose screenwriting credits include 2011′s Thor, Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer and My Super Ex-Girlfriend, and who was an award-winning writer/producer on The Simpsons, has died. He had been battling cancer. Payne started out in TV, hooking up with writing partner John Frink before graduating with a screenwriting master’s from UCLA. They penned episodes for such series as Hope & Gloria, The Brian Benben Show and Veronica’s Closet. Payne and Frink eventually joined The Simpsons, sharing in four Emmys for Outstanding Animated Program. In 2005, Payne received the WGA’s Paul Selvin Award for penning the Simpsons episode “Fraudcast News”, which skewered the TV news business. Another Simpsons episode — co-written as was the usual case with Frink — was “The Bart Wants What It Wants,” was nominated for a WGA Award for animation in 2003. Among his projects in the works, Payne, who described himself in a...

Updated: Animated series writers are protesting a decision by the Television Academy to allow NBC’s Community to compete for Emmys in animated categories, arguing that they should be allowed similar cross-genre privileges.

Community made it onto the Emmy nomination ballot in several categories, including best animated program — along with 33 entries from full-time animated shows. The episode, “Digital Estate Planning,” features the cast rendered into 8-bit characters to compete in an old-school-style video game.

Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy), David X. Cohen (Futurama) and Al Jean (The Simpsons) are among the 52 writer-producers who signed a letter to the TV Academy arguing...

The Simpsons has been on television for twenty-three years and, in the first few years of that run, was one of the defining programs of the then-new Fox network. The show has had a remarkable run by any benchmark. But as Fox looks at the possibility of a twenty-fourth season, execs and beancounters have done some math. Their conclusion is that The Simpsons will continue to generate money for a long time with or without new shows, and so paying out high salaries to actors and producers may no longer make sense. The first salvo in the Simpsons budget battle came early this week when the core cast members (Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner,  Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, and Harry Shearer), each of whom makes about $8m per year, were each asked to take a smaller paycheck [1]. Now unnamed members of the top producing team (Al Jean, John Frink,...

Dennis Nishi The eight-man panel of writers for the “The Simpsons” included Bill Odenkirk, David Silverman, Joel Cohen, John Frink, Kevin Curran, Michael Price, Rob Lazebnikv, Tom Gammill and moderator Geoff Boucher.

On Wednesday night, student fans got a backstage peek of “The Simpsons” writers’ room where pop culture has been diced up and reassembled to create 22 seasons of the award-winning animated Fox show. The event was held by the “UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television” and the school’s “Young Alumni Program.

With awards season is underway comes the 38th Annual Annie Award nominations, which recognize the year’s best work in animation. Since the creation of the animation-specific Oscar category in 2001, the Annies have predicted the Academy Award winner every year except 2006 and 2008.

Unfortunately, the award has been tainted by controversy after CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg reportedly bought each DreamWorks Animation employee a membership in the International Animated Film Society, Asifa-Hollywood, skewing the voting in the studio’s favor. This likely resulted in a surprise sweep by DreamWorks Animations’ Kung Fu Panda at the Annies in 2008-2009 over Pixar’s eventual Oscar winner, Wall-e.

Disney Studios has since pulled its official support of the event and submissions for the awards, though individual animators are able to submit their films themselves. As a result, the rules were changed for individual achievement categories, but Disney sought a neutral committee of animators from every studio to propose and approve guidelines.

The contenders of the 38th Annual Annie Awards have just been announced. In TV category, "The Simpsons" grabs four nominations, including a nod for Best Animated Television Production along with "Futurama", "Kung Fu Panda Holiday", "Scared Shrekless" and "Star Wars: The Clone Wars". The Simpson is nominated for episode "The Squirt and the Whale", and "The Clone Wars" is nominated for episode "Arc Troopers".

Next, the "Simpsons" leads Bob Anderson vying for Directing in a Television Production, thanks to its "Treehouse of Horror Xxi". Anderson is facing off Peter Chung ("Firebreather"), Duke Johnson ("Frankenhole: Humanitas"), Tim Johnson ("Kung Fu Panda Holiday") and Gary Trousdale ("Scared Shrekless").

The "Simpsons" music worked for "Elementary School Musical" by a team consisting of Tim Long, Alf Clausen, Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement gets nominated for Music in a Television Production, and scribe John Frink is up for Writing in a Television Production for...

The feeling I get talking with fans and casual viewers is that The Simpsons hit a high for a couple of years (say, seasons 5-10), and then got pretty bad. They were off their game, and it all became too route. But then when you watch later seasons, they’re never that bad. Sure there are a couple episodes that really miss, but ultimately the show has hit a point where they know their formula. The familial unit is place, there’s the standard group of supporting performers who often have a spotlight episode every season, and the peripheral characters. They haven’t really added much to it in years, and though some dynamics have been explored and changed (Barney is clean and sober in this season), stasis is maintained. Season 13 is solid, but nowhere near the show at its best. My review of the Blu-ray edition of The Simpsons...

Not many people have seen Jerry Lewis' The Day The Clown Cried. And David has a good idea as to why that is...

Legendary comedian Jerry Lewis is known for a lot of things. When he first exploded on the scene in the late 40s with Dean Martin, they were the rock stars of comedy. Whether performing onstage or starring together in movies, they were the hottest act in show business.

When Lewis went solo in the late 50s, he had big success writing, directing and acting in a number of classic comedies, peaking in 1963 with the original Nutty Professor. (Julius Kelp, the uber nerdy title character, was the inspiration for Professor John Frink on The Simpsons.)

In modern day, you still see Lewis every Labor Day raising money on his telethon for muscular dystrophy, and you see his comedic influence continue through generations of funny people, from Woody Allen to Jerry Seinfeld.

The 2010 Writers Guild of America Awards Winners The Writers Guild of America, East (Wgae) and the Writers Guild of America, West (Wgaw) tonight announced the winners of the 2010 Writers Guild Awards for outstanding achievement in writing for screen, television, radio, news, promotional, and videogame writing at simultaneous ceremonies at the Hudson Theatre at the Millennium Broadway Hotel in New York City and the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. Susie Essman of Curb Your Enthusiasm hosted the East Coast show, which was executive produced by Craig Shemin, who was also the head writer. Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy) hosted the West Coast show, which was executive produced by Spike Jones, Jr.

The Writers Guild of America, East presented special honors to: Alan Zweibel - Ian McLellan Hunter Lifetime Achievement Award; Gary David Goldberg - Herb Sargent Award for Comedy Excellence; Edward Albee - Evelyn F. Burkey Award for contributions...

As hard as it may be to believe sometimes, someone (or someones) actually sits down and writes a movie or TV show before you end up seeing it at your local multiplex or on your favorite TV network. The people who do the sitting and the writing are, surprisingly, called writers and, like the Directors, the Golden Globes and the Oscars, they have their own awards show.

This week, the Writers Guild of America, which is the trade group and advocate for writers, announced its nominations for outstanding achievement in feature film and television, radio, news, promotional writing, and graphic animation during the 2009 season to be honored at the upcoming 2010 Writers Guild Awards on February 20, 2010, in Los Angeles and New York.

We realize that these nominations may not be as glamorous as the Golden Globes or the Oscars, but we kinda like writers around here and think they do a pretty important job.

It’s mid-December and that can only mean one thing: awards season. Today, the WGA announced their TV nominations (feature nominations will be announced Jan. 11th) and it’s the usual suspects for the most part with a couple of surprises. Mad Men, 30 Rock, The Office, and newcomer Modern Family earned 3 nominations each. Meanwhile, popular fan favorite Glee received two. There are a lot of categories and nominees so I’m just going to mention the two big awards before the jump.

The nominees for Best Drama Series are: Breaking Bad, Dexter, Friday Night Lights, Lost, and Mad Men. The nominees for Best Comedy Series are: 30 Rock, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Glee, Modern Family, and The Office.

The WGA will announce the winners on Feb. 20th. Hit the jump to see the full list of nominees.

Drama Series

“Breaking Bad” - Written by Sam Catlin, Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould, George Mastras,...

Several usual suspects -- "30 Rock," "Mad Men," "The Office," "The Simpsons" -- picked up multiple nominations for the 2010 Writers Guild of America Awards -- but a couple of new shows broke through too.

"Glee" and "Modern Family" are both up for best comedy and best new series at the guild's awards, which will be presented Feb. 20. "Modern Family" also picked up an episodic comedy nomination for its pilot, written by series creators Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd.

The other comedy series nominees are "30 Rock," "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "The Office." For drama series, the contenders are "Breaking Bad," "Dexter," "Friday Night Lights," "Lost" and "Mad Men." Someone from "The Simpsons" will win in the animation category, as its writers swept all five nominations.

Below is a partial list of the nominees in the TV and radio categories (movie nominations will be announced later). The complete list is at WGA.org.

Awards heavyweights "Mad Men," "30 Rock" and "The Office" and buzzed-about newcomer "Modern Family" led the TV field for the 2010 Writers Guild Awards with three nominations each.

AMC's "Mad Men" and NBC's "30 Rock" and "The Office" are in the running for best drama/comedy series, and each received two nominations for episodic writing. "Family" made the cut for best comedy series, best new series and best episodic writing for a comedy series.

ABC's "Family" was one of two new shows to break into the best series categories along with Fox's quirky high-school dramedy "Glee," which faces "Family" in the best comedy series and best new series fields.

While the WGA Awards are still in its nomination phase, Fox's "The Simpsons" can already uncork the champagne. The veteran series is assured to win the animation category after landing all five nomination slots.

The biggest surprise among the series nominees was HBO's low-key baseball comedy "Eastbound & Down,...

With The Simpsons 12th Season arriving in-stores on DVD today, Fox sent Starlog a trio of clips from the new box set.

See the clips below the jump, along with the full specs on this massive Mint Condition set that is Comic Shop Guy Approved!

Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie return for more outrageous adventures when “The Simpsons” The Complete Twelfth Season arrives on DVD August 18th from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. The longest running animated series in television history, the latest DVD collection features all 21 classic episodes from the 2000-01 season including Bart’s boy band odyssey in “New Kids on the Blecch” featuring pop sensations N’Sync and a hilarious less-than-ordinary day for Homer, Bart and Lisa in “Trilogy of Error.” The season also boasts an impressive line-up of talented guest stars including Drew Barrymore, Edward Norton, Justin Timberlake, Stephen King, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Roger Daltry and many more.

Finalists for the 2009 Humanitas Prize, which honors writers whose work "affirms the dignity of the human person and reveals our common humanity" include the scribes behind "Slumdog Millionaire," "Milk," "The Secret Life of Bees," "Doubt" and "Wall-E."

Awarded by the non-profit, Human Family Educational and Cultural Institute, the winners, who will collect $95,000 in prize money, will be announced at the group's annual luncheon on Sept. 17 at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

The David & Lynn Angell Fellowship in Comedy Writing, worth $10,000, will be presented to Scott Rutherford for the pilot of "Venice Beach, G.E.D." The Humanitas Student Drama Fellowship, also worth $10,000, will be given to Joey Falco for the pilot of "Fortunate Sons."

The writers cited in the feature category, which carries a $10,000 prize, are Simon Beaufoy ("Slumdog"), Dustin Lance Black ("Milk") and John Patrick Shanley ("Doubt") as well as Andrew Stanton and Jim Reardon, who were nominated for the...

"The Dark Knight," "Slumdog Millionaire," "Doubt," "Frost/Nixon," and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" are among the nominees in the Adapted Screenplay category for the WGA's (Writers Guild Awards) 61st Anniversary awards show.

Winners will be announced February 7th, and will be held simultaneously between two ceremonies -- West Coast at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, and the East Coast at the Hudson Theatre at the Millennium Broadway Hotel in New York City.

What about "Milk" or "The Wrestler?" Click Read More to see full list of nominees!

Original Screenplay

Burn After Reading, Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, Focus Features

Milk, Written by Dustin Lance Black, Focus Features

Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Written by Woody Allen, The Weinstein Company

The Visitor, Written by Tom McCarthy, Overture Films

The Wrestler, Written by Robert Siegel, Fox Searchlight Pictures

Adapted Screenplay

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Screenplay...

Genre vets Marc Guggenheim (Eli Stone), Drew Goddard, Brian K. Vaughan (Lost), Marti Noxon, Zack Whedon, and Danny Strong (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) have been nominated by their peers. The Writers Guild of America, West and the Writers Guild of America, East announced their nominees for outstanding achievement in television, radio, news, promotional writing, and graphic animation during the 2008 season to be honored at the upcoming 2009 Writers Guild Awards on February 7, 2009, in Los Angeles and New York.

Television Nominees

Dramatic Series

Dexter, Written by Scott Buck, Daniel Cerone, Charles H. Eglee, Adam E. Fiero, Lauren Gussis, Clyde Phillips, Scott Reynolds, Melissa Rosenberg, Tim Schlattmann; Showtime

Friday Night Lights, Written by Bridget Carpenter, Kerry Ehrin, Brent Fletcher, Jason Gavin, Carter Harris, Elizabeth Heldens, David Hudgins, Jason Katims, Patrick Massett, Aaron Rahsaan Thomas, John Zinman; NBC

Lost, Written by Carlton Cuse, Drew Goddard, Adam Horowitz, Christina M. Kim, Edward Kitsis, Damon L.