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Re: The Simpsons
Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2022 4:27 pm
by domino harvey
colinr0380 wrote: Fri Jul 01, 2022 3:31 pm
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!
Re: The Simpsons
Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2022 4:41 pm
by 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.
Re: The Simpsons
Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2022 5:27 pm
by colinr0380
domino harvey wrote: Fri Jul 01, 2022 4:27 pmFamily 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.
Re: The Simpsons
Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2022 5:49 pm
by 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.
Re: The Simpsons
Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2022 6:04 pm
by 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!
Re: The Simpsons
Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2022 7:18 pm
by 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.
Re: The Simpsons
Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2022 8:05 pm
by 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
Re: The Simpsons
Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2022 2:18 am
by 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.
Re: The Simpsons
Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2022 3:41 am
by beamish14
hearthesilence wrote: Sat Jul 02, 2022 2:18 am
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
Re: The Simpsons
Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2022 3:59 am
by hearthesilence
beamish14 wrote: Sat Jul 02, 2022 3:41 am
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.)
Re: The Simpsons
Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2022 4:27 am
by 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
Re: The Simpsons
Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2022 6:11 pm
by DarkImbecile
Future Simpsons
Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2022 7:12 pm
by 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.
Re: The Simpsons
Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2022 7:41 pm
by hearthesilence
Re: The Simpsons
Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2022 11:38 pm
by domino harvey
Re: The Simpsons
Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2022 11:37 pm
by domino harvey
Re: The Simpsons
Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2022 10:59 pm
by mizo
Re: The Simpsons
Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2022 5:48 am
by 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.
Re: The Simpsons
Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2024 5:39 pm
by hearthesilence
Re: The Simpsons
Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2024 5:43 pm
by beamish14
Love those guys. DJ Muggs is one of the greatest producers ever. B-Real has a marijuana dispensary franchise now
Re: The Simpsons
Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2024 5:39 pm
by domino harvey
Re: The Simpsons
Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2024 7:14 pm
by beamish14
Already have the
Adidas shoes AND socks that immortalize this
Re: The Simpsons
Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2024 2:06 pm
by colinr0380
Has there been any sign of the post-Season 20 series turning up on physical media at all?
Re: The Simpsons
Posted: Wed Nov 20, 2024 7:44 pm
by dx23
Pamela Hayden has announced her retirement from the show, thus ending her 35 year career with The Simpsons voicing Millhouse, Jimbo, Rod and Todd. Her last episode will be the upcoming one on Sunday
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Re: The Simpsons
Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2025 11:40 pm
by hearthesilence
Conan O'Brien accepted his Mark Twain Prize at the Kennedy Center this weekend, and while there was obviously much mockery made of all the insanity from the Trump administration, Kumail Nanjiani did a funny bit pointing out that O'Brien really only wrote three episodes of
The Simpsons. I looked it up and apparently they are: "New Kid on the Block" and "Marge vs. the Monorail," and "Homer Goes to College."
"New Kid on the Block" sticks out because of the quick cutaway gag to the restaurant
Two Guys from Kabul. It's the type of gag Conan would later do in many hilarious variations on his own talk show, a glimpse into the unhappy and unpleasant lives people have in private, sometimes at work but often times at home. (For example, one time Conan thought it would be fun to see what he's doing when a taped
Late Night episode is actually being broadcast, so we see him in the midst of an angry domestic squabble, climaxing with him screaming at his unseen partner and his neighbor on the other side of a wall to shut up.)
