'The Simpsons' to run through 2011

Not many television shows make it through a full season, never mind 20 of them. But that is exactly what Fox's "The Simpsons" has managed to do. In fact, Fox has just announced that they are going to order another two seasons of the comedy, making it the longest-running scripted program in network television history, passing the legendary TV Western "Gunsmoke," and adding 44 episodes to the series lengthening total. (For the record, at the end of this latest batch, "The Simpsons" will have produced 493 episodes, also tops in scripted series history.)

It's hard to believe that this animated comedy, which started as 2-to-3 minute interstitials on "The Tracey Ullman Show," is two decades old.

Perhaps the show isn't as sharp as it used to be, but it's still worth checking out from time to time, if only to see what kind of mischief Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie are up to nowadays.

I recently watched several episodes from seasons 5 and 8, and found myself appreciating once again the way the scripts and performances from these earlier years had a wide streak of anarchy to them, something that tends to be missing from more recent seasons of the series. Episodes like "Cape Feare," where Bart's nemesis, the highly unstable Sideshow Bob, is released from jail with revenge on his mind, or "You Only Move Twice," where Homer takes a new job working for the world's best boss (and deadliest supervillain) Hank Scorpio, are almost overstuffed with rapid-fire gags, while also managing to find moments of genuine poignancy and tenderness among the characters.

That's what separates "The Simpsons" from most other television series, and it's a safe bet that the warmheartedness of the show is a major factor in its continuing popularity.