Al-Shamshoon (In Arabic, الشمشون) was the Arabic dub of The Simpsons, which first aired in September 2005.

History

Before an actual dubbed version existed, they had the original episodes in English, but with Arabic subtitles. Later, it was not only dubbed in Arabic (with subtitles provided for shots including written English, such as the chalkboard gags), but references to alcohol (Duff Beer and Moe's Tavern), pork (bacon and hot dogs), and numerous other themes have been deleted or significantly modified. For instance, Homer drinks soda instead of beer, eats beef sausages as opposed to pork, and all references to Moe's Tavern were cut.

The characters were also given typical Arabic names such as Omar, Mona and Badr for Homer, Marge and Bart respectively as part of the retooling, while voices were provided by leading Arabic voice actors including Egyptian film star Mohamed Heneidi as "Omar", and their hometown "Springfield" was called "Rabeea" (Arabic for Spring) and made it look like an American town with a major Arab population. The series, however, did not fare very well and only 34 of the 52 adapted episodes aired.