The Simpsons

[domino harvey]

I feel that Family Guy mostly followed the cues of the Simpsons, given it was coming around the time that the Simpsons was in its eighth or ninth season and was getting into the really outlandish stuff, and then just pushed it even further with its non sequitur cutaway gags (which in the Simpsons commentaries the writers say that they started to shy away from at this time) and anything goes logic.

Family Guy initially found novelty in exploiting this comic tool, but there are only so many variations on the same joke and having an incredibly long cut away where the gag is solely the length of time expended on the cutaway (as in the most famous Family Guy example, the five minute fistfight with the chicken or whatever it was) means that joke works exactly once, but they just kept doing it and as far as I know keep doing it. Maybe these were more valuable to the Simpsons than we give credit though since the decline happened at the same time they went away!

[dustybooks]

I love the first season, and rate the first three (plus parts of the seventh) far above everything else. But Domino and I went back and forth on this back during the lists project and I think we left it peacefully... I think.

[colinr0380]

Family Guy initially found novelty in exploiting this comic tool, but there are only so many variations on the same joke and having an incredibly long cut away where the gag is solely the length of time expended on the cutaway (as in the most famous Family Guy example, the five minute fistfight with the chicken or whatever it was) means that joke works exactly once, but they just kept doing it and as far as I know keep doing it. Maybe these were more valuable to the Simpsons than we give credit though since the decline happened at the same time they went away!

Yes, the chicken fight was the most obvious thing that Family Guy did in that vein. I did like though that it began as a cut-away gag and eventually grew into interrupting the flow of the episode's story, then became almost its own giant segment, before being seen from a different perspective that obviously inspired Tenet!

Then the Simpsons did it.

[Mr Sausage]

I thought the obvious gag was to have the first cutaway of the episode just last the whole episode. Surprised they haven’t pulled that one.

Legion pulled something similar in the second season, have the pre-credits opener go on for so long that it became the whole episode, with the title card and opening credits not showing up until the episode was over.

[colinr0380]

The closest Family Guy has come to being that experimental that comes to mind is the locked in a vault episode, which felt just as notable for not having any score!

[Drucker]

Season 3 is probably my favorite, Knives, and I do hope you make it to 3, 4, and 5 and don't judge the show too harshly on the first two (though I do enjoy those). Saturdays Of Thunder has always been one of my favorite episodes and is the one that does a superb job of, well, just about everything good that the show does.

[beamish14]

The mixture of pathos and humor was really more deftly balanced when Sam Simon was running the show, and it reached its apex during seasons 3 and 4. I certainly think the first 9 seasons are all worth watching and hold up to repeat viewings. It was by the early 2000's, and episodes like "Bart to the Future" in particular,that the show became unbearable. All of the A-list writers/producers exited by that point (with many of them flailing with their own shows* or films). Even Groening's own once-brilliant Life in Hell quietly died, but not before becoming deeply repetitive as well.

In essence, The Simpsons will always be a product of the 90's and the unique ethos, aesthetics, and Western popular culture that sprang from that era, and it seems anachronistic today.

*Mission Hill and The Critic are excellent

[hearthesilence]

There's probably several good articles on this out there, but I always wondered what Sam Simon did compared to the other two executive producers Groening and Brooks, and given his absence in the DVD commentaries, I kind of pictured him having a lesser role than the other two. Turns out, he really was THE guy who IMHO made the show that had its devoted following rather than a large mass of casual viewers. This may be overgeneralizing it, but after some turnover and reshuffling, he basically guided the second creative team that ran the show, and he clearly set the tone of "let's just try to make the best show we can do, and the kind of show we WANT to do, and not worry about anything else." To be fair, I have some reservations that apply to his seasons as well (as posted upthread), but seasons 3 & 4 had the bulk of my favorite episodes and probably got a lot more play than any other DVD set. It's just really unfortunate that he had a very bitter falling out with the other executive producers, though the crazy deal to get rid of him still made him an extremely wealthy man without ever having to do another thing. IIRC he was banking $20-30 million a year up to the day he died, which unfortunately was way too early (age 59), but he gave most of that away to good causes.

[beamish14]

There's probably several good articles on this out there, but I always wondered what Sam Simon did compared to the other two executive producers Groening and Brooks, and given his absence in the DVD commentaries, I kind of pictured him having a lesser role than the other two. Turns out, he really was THE guy who IMHO made the show that had its devoted following rather than a large mass of casual viewers. This may be overgeneralizing it, but after some turnover and reshuffling, he basically guided the second creative team that ran the show, and he clearly set the tone of "let's just try to make the best show we can do, and the kind of show we WANT to do, and not worry about anything else." To be fair, I have some reservations that apply to his seasons as well (as posted upthread), but seasons 3 & 4 had the bulk of my favorite episodes and probably got a lot more play than any other DVD set. It's just really unfortunate that he had a very bitter falling out with the other executive producers, though the crazy deal to get rid of him still made him an extremely wealthy man without ever having to do another thing. IIRC he was banking $20-30 million a year up to the day he died, which unfortunately was way too early (age 59), but he gave most of that away to good causes.

Simon didn’t just guide the show’s evolution and hand-pick many of the first generation writing staff; in tandem with David Silverman, he revised Groening’s character designs and made them far more palatable than they appeared on Tracy Ullman. Simon was a cartoonist for Stanford University’s student paper and had a very strong visual sense.

Unfortunately, he also discriminated against female writers, as he wouldn’t let Mimi Pond, who wrote “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire”, be a permanent staff member

[hearthesilence]

Unfortunately, he also discriminated against female writers, as he wouldn’t let Mimi Pond, who wrote “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire”, be a permanent staff member

Eeeeep....the blatant misogyny in the comedy world is so disheartening. Didn't Janeane Garofalo say she quit the cast of SNL for similar reasons, albeit in a reverse relationship? (I think one writer actually said to her face that he refused to write jokes for women, using a derogatory term in the process.)

[domino harvey]

Jennifer Crittenden was on staff in later part of the good years. She in fact wrote the “Do it for her” episode mentioned upthread

[DarkImbecile]

”Shut up, brain! I’ve got friends now, I don’t need you anymore!

[Lemmy Caution]

Recently I've watched almost a dozen later Simpsons episodes from Seasons 23-28, plus the 2 Horror episodes from S31. Rather disappointing overall. Occasionally a good joke pops up. And a few episodes have promising ideas and starts, only to collapse.

The only one that stood out is S23 E09 Future Xmas. The Simpsons have always done a good job delving into their future (and past). There's a lot of good ideas, jokes that work, and a bit of a message that comes through. I liked Bart's kids and his fraught relationship with them. And small touches, like Bart living in the school (and grinding his coffee beans in the pencil sharpener).

Too many of the other later episodes get frantic, and try too hard to be edgy. I was also surprised by the level of violence, but maybe that's because 4 that I watched were the Horror episodes. But the violence was more graphic than I expected.

[hearthesilence]

I had no idea they did a crossover with Family Guy until I came across this article last month. I can't say I ever was a fan of MacFarlane's shows, but some of the jokes mentioned in this review seem to reflect a lot of what I never liked about him.

[domino harvey]

Steamed Hams re-enacted under the actual Northern Lights

[domino harvey]

Oral history of Steamed Hams

[mizo]

YouTube video where examining details from an early version of the opening sequence occasions a deep dive into the animation guidelines for the show. AKA Do you want to see a bunch of subtly off-model Barts and Homers?

[flyonthewall2983]

Sideshow Bob watching MacGuyver with Patty and Selma has been all of us at some point. Not just romantic relationships but I think with all loved ones some of us should be judged at how much junk tv we can handle before resorting to slurs such as claptrap.