I Hate Fox!

[Drtooth]

Nah, I like how Homer has a job that could blow Springfield off the map, and he gets Bill Scott Free away...

But then again, I was with the show since the beginning... I mean, the Ulman show shorts. And it had a good ammount of kid's focus without slowly becoming a kid's show...

but then again, I tend to feel an older episode, the one with Sideshow Bob stealing the A Bomb could be rerun in syndication with other kid's shows. Of course, I mean like how The Flintstones and Rocky and Bullwinkle used to be adult focused and somehow were regulated to kiddy entertainment.

But I still do love the show and characters... 'cept for Cletus.

 

[Vic Romano]

The funny thing about Cletus and a LOT of other cast members is they really were created as one trick/one time ponies. I'm pretty sure I've read similar posts by you about that (and Ralph too, right?), and I get it. Some characters are just too limited in what they can do.

I followed the show nearly from the beginning. I saw several shorts on Ulman. However, I've read "Life In H***" since 1986 or so. Now that's a great strip, but I suppose it is what it is because Matt is still the main (if not only) writer.

 

[Teheheman]

Actually, in my opinion, I think the Simpsons are getting better and I think that's because they stopped relying on having guest stars every episode and basing an episode on them meeting a new celebrity or something like that. I loved it when the guest stars either did a few lines in an episode, or when they played other characters. It's early in the season, so I'm hoping they do that kinda thing, but I think the fact that some of the writers are young enough to remember the good ol days of the show really are gonna help the show til the end.

Daniel

 

[Sgt Floyd]

I'm afraid I dont completely understand what you mean by the whole guest star thing. Guest stars have never been the main focus of the episode with the exception of Tony Hawk and Lenard Nemoy (spelling?). Most of the time guest stars where only in a few scenes with only a few lines if they where playing themselves. while in ealier seasons guest stars where in the episode a bit more, I dont think they have ever really been the main focus. Sure, Aerosmith was either mentioned or shown alot in the Flaming Moes Episode, but the band themselves only really had one line each. On the other hand, when the Ramones guest stared in the Rosebud episode, they where shown for no more than 2 minutes, and then forgotten about the rest of the episode.

And Did anyone see tonights episode? While I think the whole thing with swapping lives is overdone, it wasnt as bad as I thought it would be.

 

[Vic Romano]

Yeah, I watched tonight's episode and then Family Guy and felt kind of vindicated about this thread because The Simpsons episode was great while the FG episode was lame.

 

[frogboy4]

Yeah, I watched tonight's episode and then Family Guy and felt kind of vindicated about this thread because The Simpsons episode was great while the FG episode was lame.

I don't see the shows in competition. On the surface they look like one another but they are both vastly different. Even as more of a Family Guy fan I do realize that it would not exist if not for the solid road paved by the Simpsons. And has anyone seen the new Futurama DVD films? Fantastic!

I suppose my FG fandom stems from their superior parody, but the Simpsons writing even on their worst season can't be beat by most live action shows much less animated. Well, there's Venture Brothers but that's an entirely different sort of experience.

 

[Vic Romano]

I don't see the shows in competition. On the surface they look like one another but they are both vastly different. Even as more of a Family Guy fan I do realize that it would not exist if not for the solid road paved by the Simpsons. And has anyone seen the new Futurama DVD films? Fantastic!

I suppose my FG fandom stems from their superior parody, but the Simpsons writing even on their worst season can't be beat by most live action shows much less animated. Well, there's Venture Brothers but that's an entirely different sort of experience.

Oh my God, I LVE Venture Brothers! I sat in on the VB panel at the NY Comic Con and asked Doc Hammer for a job. It's one of my top five favorite shows.

 

[Drtooth]

Actually, in my opinion, I think the Simpsons are getting better and I think that's because they stopped relying on having guest stars every episode and basing an episode on them meeting a new celebrity or something like that. I loved it when the guest stars either did a few lines in an episode, or when they played other characters.

I miss that as well. Guest stars playing characters, and not just saying "Hey! It's So and So! Let's have them say our catchphrases!" Who could forget Harvey Firestine's character in the second season where Homer had hair? Or Albert Brook's recurring guest spots as different people, especially Hank Scorpio... or even Jackie Mason as Rabbi Krustoffski.

But in the same aspects, I think Family Guy is really getting better this season. They seem to have less and less of the "This is worse than the time Scooby Doo did coke with Garfield." type gags every five minutes to get out of a scene. I really liked the episode about Jesus and Surfin' Bird...

But as much as I love Simpsons, Family Guy and King of the Hill, I like Futurama, The Critic and American Dad a lot more. Too bad they only wanna make shows about dysfunctional families lately, since the action element of Futurama really made it pop.

 

[ryhoyarbie]

Ah some classic Simpson's episodes were mentioned.

"Flaming Moe's" is halarious, especially in the beginning with Lisa's sleepover group and how they put makeup on Maggie and Homer leaves after seeing his youngest daughter looking so weird.

Or "Kampy Krusty", "Home's Barbershop Quartet", "Cape Feare", "Homer Loves Flanders", "Separate Vocations", "Bart Sells His Soul", or "Marge Vs The Monorail".

 

[dwmckim]

Someone upthread really put their finger on it...Simpsons at its worst often beats most tv comedies (animated or otherwise) four-fingered hands down. Kinda like SNL, it has its off years but still manages to come back...i don't think anyone in 1998 would have expected the show would still be on 10 years later with no signs of quitting. I think the Simpsons' main competition is with itself...its had some very intensely high creative peaks that it becomes really hard after awhile to match that level.

...and though this was back on page 1, i can't let this go without commenting on it..."While Fox News has a definite conservative bias, most other mainstream news has a liberal bias" - that is one of my biggest pet peeves when i hear it precisely because that's one of the Big Myths of our time - the idea of a "liberal media" is a fraudulent and cwrefully crafted claim/strategy that dates back decades and over time has not only gained more credibility in the general public's minds due to years of steamrolling that concept into us but the more its claimed the less it turns out to be true precisely because (1) Fox News, as a specifically created conservative news channel drives its influence into other networks (2) the charge of "liberal bias" has become so prevalent and bandied about so frequently that most news sources end up over-compensating with self-censorship and in the process leans more rightward...one of the major goals of the whole "liberal bias" lie/strategy (3) as almost all media/news sources are swallowed up into conglomerates and ultimately owned by one of five companies, there's much less dissent and independant thought/reporting - with the big fish dictating direction to all the small guppies. For just about the past decade, an American has to look at papers/news from outside the US to really get a clear view of the whole story!

There's some really excellent books on the subject, chief among them Eric Alterman's "What Liberal Media?" (and if you're not into heavy reads, you could also try Al Frankin's "Lies and the Lying Liers Who Tell Them" which in many ways covers a lot of the same material just in a less scholarly and more comedic tone) and David Brock's "The Republican Noise Machine" which makes a great companion piece to WLM as it traces the history of the whole "liberal media" myth and its snowball effect on modern media. The works of Greg Palast are also excellent in terms of seeing the kind of stories that get censored by our "liberal media" and what kind of stuff should be on our front pages if today's media had any kind of spine.