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Meanwhile, 'Simpsons' clan keeps cranking along

It's a cliché for reporters to ask the creator of a long-running TV show about his favorite episodes, and the clichéd response is for the creator to say that he loves them all and can't possibly single out one or two. Yet upon meeting "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening on Monday at a party celebrating the show's 350th episode - which airs Sunday - the temptation to ask the favorites question was too hard to resist. Happily, he didn't give the usual non-answer. "I don't have a single favorite. There's a bunch I really like," Groening says. "I love 'Bart Sells His Soul,' the old episode (from October 1995) where he sold his soul to Milhouse for five bucks. And I like an episode we have coming up where Bart converts to Catholicism." That episode, originally scheduled for earlier this month, was pulled following the death of Pope John Paul II and is now set to air May 15. Groening says the decision was one the network made: "We think it's offensive - whenever you run it." What's remarkable is that "The Simpsons" series has made it to 350 episodes, more than any other scripted show currently on TV. That it can still create a buzz after that long is pretty much unheard of in this era. "No matter how hard people try to run it into the ground by putting it on too many times a day, putting it on multiple DVDs and oversaturating the marketplace and all the rest, we still keep going," Groening says. "In fact, I have to say I'm very proud of this season and the coming season." Groening said that "the show has almost reached its halfway point," later saying he "was not serious at all" about lasting another 350 episodes, but he quickly added, "I'll do them if we can. "That's a long time, but if we, you know - unless we all get killed," he says. "I think five of the main people could get killed and the show could still go on. But any more than five - that's why we all ride in separate airplanes."