Simpson Stamps First Day of Issue

One of the nice things about having a blog like this is that you get invited to go to First Day of Issue ceremonies. Being able to attend yesterday's Simpsons first day was a lot of fun.

Held outdoors on the 20th Century Fox lot in West Los Angeles, the ceremony was MCed by actor Kelsey Grammer ("Frasier") who is the voice of Side Show Bob in the series. Feigning disappointment that his character was not selected to appear on one of the new stamps, Grammer said it was probably just as well.

David Failor, USPS executive director of Stamp Services, who was in attendance, told me that there had been some discussion about a having a 20 stamp sheet that would have included more of the characters. However that didn't work out and there no plans at present to extend the series beyond the five current characters.

U.S. Postal Service Vice President Ground Shipping James P. Cochrane half-joked that he had been in discussions with the Simpsons creator and Executive Producer Matt Groening about having a cartoon mail carrier appear in a recurring role on the show. Cochrane, apparently a big Simpsons fan, said in 20 years of watching the show he had never seen one.

He went on say he thought it would be a great idea to have the Simpsons' dog, Santa's Little Helper, be the mailman's buddy.

Shown above, the Simpsons first day of issue cancellation, my press pass and the Simpson sound stage on the Fox Studio backlot.

Click here to view the USPS Simpson Web page where you can enter to win one of 25 Simpson posters autographed by Matt Groening, purchase Simpson stamp products and vote for your favorite stamp character.