The Simpsons and Julian Assange to meet at off-grid hideout

Fox continues to dribble out info about the upcoming, record-setting 500th Simpsons episode, in which Homer and family go to live off the grid.

What will Mr Burns think?

We already covered the basic news that the family are ejected from Springfield and find a warm welcome in an off-grid community.

Now it transpires that the episode will also include an appearance by Julian Assange, the autocratic Wikileaks founder, who is living with the off-gridders when The Simpsons arrive.

“The Simpsons go off the grid to this very rugged place where they meet [Assange], who’s sort of their new Flanders,” said Al Jean, executive producer of the show.

However, aside from being their new next door neighbour, the similarities between Flanders and Assange end there. When the Simpsons are invited to watch a home movie with Assange they find themselves watching an Afghan wedding being bombed.

Its not the first time Homer and family have toyed with the off-grid life. In an environmentally-themed episode aired Sunday, April 25th 2010, Homer tried out wind energy, and built a backyard turbine.

But when Homer realizes some of the power is being directed to the local electric company, he decides to remove his home from the grid and becomes completely dependent upon his  unreliable source of power. “From now on, the Simpsons are living intermittently,” he declares.

We’ve known for a while that the milestone 500th episode of “The Simpsons” would come somewhere early in 2012, but FOX has now nailed down a date for the episode: Sunday, Feb. 19.