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Bust Rodd posted:Married w/ Children was definitely worse and more reviled by the religious right. My very earliest memory of Ann Coulter is of her in her 20’s complaining about MwC trying to get in pulled from Fox and my mom just snorting and going “Man, what a bitch”. When I was a kid my family always watched the Simpsons together and the only things I wasn’t allowed to watch were Married with Children and wrestling, which is pretty goofy considering wrestling in the early-mid 90s was probably the tamest it’s ever been
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Nov 17, 2017 16:33
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Bust Rodd posted:Married w/ Children was definitely worse and more reviled by the religious right. My very earliest memory of Ann Coulter is of her in her 20’s complaining about MwC trying to get in pulled from Fox and my mom just snorting and going “Man, what a bitch”. And just because it portrayed families dealing with poverty and low social status instead of the idealized and idyllic life styles presented in other sitcoms (even though the Bundies lived in a huge two story house on a shoe salesman salary and I guess being a nuclear technician pays pretty well)
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Nov 17, 2017 16:35
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Aesop Poprock posted:When I was a kid my family always watched the Simpsons together and the only things I wasn’t allowed to watch were Married with Children and wrestling, which is pretty goofy considering wrestling in the early-mid 90s was probably the tamest it’s ever been Married with Children was banned for me, and in 1994 when we got cable, MTV was banned (because of Beavis and Butthead, which I just went to the other end of the house and watched it when were all asleep by 10:00)
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Nov 17, 2017 16:36
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Calaveron posted:And just because it portrayed families dealing with poverty and low social status instead of the idealized and idyllic life styles presented in other sitcoms (even though the Bundies lived in a huge two story house on a shoe salesman salary and I guess being a nuclear technician pays pretty well) Upper lower middle class
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Nov 17, 2017 16:42
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your friend a dog posted:hi everybody. i have never watched the simpsons. we didnt have cable when i grew up, just a rusty aerial that changed channels every time there was a windstorm. with that in mind, i would like to know where i should begin and where i should end. i dont really want to watch early episodes that develop the characters bc i have soaked in enough simpsons by proxy to understand that. please tell me when the peak begins + ends. god bless each and every one of you The absolute peak of the show is Season 4-7, you can pick any episode from that era and be guaranteed a good time. Some standout episodes off the top of my head are: Homer Goes to College Bart Gets an Elephant Homer Badman The PTA Disbands 22 Short Films About Springfield Last Exit to Springfield Kingsize Homer Sweet Seymour 's Badassssss Song I had to stop myself from just listing every episode I could think of from those seasons as they're all great but those in particular are standouts
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Nov 17, 2017 17:20
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porking a pork bun posted:Homer Goes to College He seemed a bit more malicious and uncaring about the nerds' predicament. Still a funny episode, but I was soured on the second half.
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Nov 17, 2017 17:24
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Calaveron posted:And just because it portrayed families dealing with poverty and low social status instead of the idealized and idyllic life styles presented in other sitcoms (even though the Bundies lived in a huge two story house on a shoe salesman salary and I guess being a nuclear technician pays pretty well) Iirc Roseanne was a lot more toned down from her original standups at first. They were gonna try the Mike and Molly thing where it was "idyllic sitcom family, but the parents are fat." Then Rosanne decided that in a scene where she was supposed to back down from Dan that it made more sense for the two to have an actual fight. After that they decided that gently caress it, the Connors should act like a normal lower income family. They still had the big house but it was clear they bought it off Dans first well paying job and they were constantly in danger of losing it. And you got fun scenes like the one where Roseanne is stalling bill collectors by sending them each others Past Due notices.
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Nov 17, 2017 17:25
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I think the problem with poor TV families in appropriately sized houses is it's hard to show an actual poor person house on TV without it looking like it's the lair of a serial killer, especially in multi-cam, studio audience set up.
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Nov 17, 2017 17:32
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Razorwired posted:Iirc Roseanne was a lot more toned down from her original standups at first. They were gonna try the Mike and Molly thing where it was "idyllic sitcom family, but the parents are fat." Their house was obviously large to accommodate sitcom angles but they nailed the run-down look
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Nov 17, 2017 17:43
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Nonviolent J posted:Are you idiots actually getting upset about Apu Amos n Andy was really popular and beloved at one point.
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Nov 17, 2017 17:47
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Calaveron posted:And just because it portrayed families dealing with poverty and low social status instead of the idealized and idyllic life styles presented in other sitcoms (even though the Bundies lived in a huge two story house on a shoe salesman salary and I guess being a nuclear technician pays pretty well) It was the early 90s, so the house could have been super cheap. It was often shown to be rat infested and falling to pieces, so maybe he got a bargain. And they were always in debt and living way beyond their means. Homer got help from his dad to buy their place, and the show revealed that Marge was super thrifty, feeding the family on $15 a week or something stupid like that. Apparently the least realistic house on TV is the Gilmore Girls home which would be worth $3 million. Even if they brought it cheaply in the 90s, that’s huge amounts of property tax.
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Nov 17, 2017 17:53
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An older three bedroom house in Shitsville, Nowhere doesn't actually cost as much as you might think. Though Bundy should have been living in a one bedroom apartment as a mall shoe salesman.
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Nov 17, 2017 18:00
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JazzFlight posted:I watched that one recently and while I love the opening skit where they hide Homer from the nuclear inspectors resulting in the amazing quote, "the bee bit my bottom and now my bottom's big," the rest of the episode seemed a bit too much... I dunno, the start of "Jerk-rear end Homer?" He does act like a dick to the Dean/nerds but I think they do a good job of showing that Homer's entire perception of College is based off of dumb frat-house comedies and that his behaviour is the result of him trying to live out all his John Belushi/Animal House fantasies. It's not like the later series where he's just a jerk for no reason, there's a solid narrative throughline for it.
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Nov 17, 2017 18:42
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porking a pork bun posted:He does act like a dick to the Dean/nerds but I think they do a good job of showing that Homer's entire perception of College is based off of dumb frat-house comedies and that his behaviour is the result of him trying to live out all his John Belushi/Animal House fantasies. It's not like the later series where he's just a jerk for no reason, there's a solid narrative throughline for it. And everyone reacts like he's being a jerk too. Later seasons it's just normal and no one really cares that he's being a jerkass
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Nov 17, 2017 18:44
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porking a pork bun posted:The absolute peak of the show is Season 4-7, you can pick any episode from that era and be guaranteed a good time. Some standout episodes off the top of my head are: I know that one gets a lot of hype as "best episode ever" but seriously drat near every line start to finish is a well-crafted joke that sticks the landing
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Nov 17, 2017 18:46
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SEX BURRITO posted:It was the early 90s, so the house could have been super cheap. It was often shown to be rat infested and falling to pieces, so maybe he got a bargain. And they were always in debt and living way beyond their means. Homer got help from his dad to buy their place, and the show revealed that Marge was super thrifty, feeding the family on $15 a week or something stupid like that. the actual house used for exterior shots was for sale a few years back for $129k https://news.avclub.com/own-the-house-from-roseanne-for-a-mere-129-000-1798235936 lets say they bought the house in '85, that'd have been a $60k house at the time. e: I think Roseanne was supposed to be based on the Aurora-ish area, somewhere in the far, far west Chicago exurbs anyway. You can still buy cheap as poo poo houses out that way. brugroffil fucked around with this message at 18:54 on Nov 17, 2017 |
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Nov 17, 2017 18:48
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brugroffil posted:I know that one gets a lot of hype as "best episode ever" but seriously drat near every line start to finish is a well-crafted joke that sticks the landing Yeah I rewatched that one recently and couldn't believe how many classic bits/quotes were stuffed into the episode. it's a goddamn masterclass of comedy
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Nov 17, 2017 18:53
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Iron Crowned posted:I think the problem with poor TV families in appropriately sized houses is it's hard to show an actual poor person house on TV without it looking like it's the lair of a serial killer, especially in multi-cam, studio audience set up. It seems like a US cultural thing. Most UK sitcoms and soaps are about the working class or lower middle.
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Nov 17, 2017 18:56
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bitterandtwisted posted:It seems like a US cultural thing. Most UK sitcoms and soaps are about the working class or lower middle. That's because in America everyone is a millionaire in the future!
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Nov 17, 2017 19:01
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bitterandtwisted posted:It seems like a US cultural thing. Most UK sitcoms and soaps are about the working class or lower middle. British TV has people in ridiculously oversized homes too. Eastenders is full of market traders and shop assistants living in Victorian terraces in East London. There’s a big class gap in TV in the UK. It tends to be either really poor or really wealthy people on TV. Most attempts at showing the middle class tend to be smug and bland. Which makes sense.
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Nov 17, 2017 19:16
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JazzFlight posted:I watched that one recently and while I love the opening skit where they hide Homer from the nuclear inspectors resulting in the amazing quote, "the bee bit my bottom and now my bottom's big," the rest of the episode seemed a bit too much... I dunno, the start of "Jerk-rear end Homer?" Personally, I think that you can see from episodes like that that some of the usual reasons for the show's decline, 'Jerkass Homer', 'Too many Celeb cameos' etc have actually been around since the very beginning and most of the problems you see today are simply down to a less easy-to-grasp decline in the writing quality.
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Nov 18, 2017 02:25
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The nice things about sitcoms and shows in the UK are all the ugly or at the least very normal looking people
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Nov 18, 2017 02:28
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SEX BURRITO posted:
Her parents were super rich and paid for everything.
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Nov 18, 2017 02:29
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The Simpsons house is so big that Maggie gets her own room. They didn’t need to go full Malcolm in the Middle and have all the kids in one room, but it’s still a bit silly. I’m not sure if the family is still meant to be poor by season twenty-whatever.
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Nov 18, 2017 04:23
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khwarezm posted:Personally, I think that you can see from episodes like that that some of the usual reasons for the show's decline, 'Jerkass Homer', 'Too many Celeb cameos' etc have actually been around since the very beginning and most of the problems you see today are simply down to a less easy-to-grasp decline in the writing quality. Frank Zappa once said the problem with post-60s/70s music is that business-minded record execs who once took a risk with odd experiments and often found unexpected hits were replaced by hippies who ferociously clung to the notion that they *knew* what was cool, thus ruining the fresh spirit of the industry and the works as art. I feel that this has happened to the Simpsons. The idea of drawing in viewers with celebrity guest voices for random characters has given way to simply having a celebrity personality be the plot catalyst. The current show runners and writers have fallen into the trap of being arbiters of "hip" pop culture gimmicks, and it really ruined the show. What the show needs is to get cancelled. Barring that, what it needs is less control over the entire process and to take risks. While the writing has become lazier, more superficial, and less nuanced because of this terrible format of clinging to pop culture zeitgeist, I think another major contributor has been that the actual plots became too ridiculous over time. They had already told most of the stories they could with the core cast of characters by the time seasons 8-10 rolled around so they started introducing ancillary characters' story arcs, sending the family overseas to rehash old plots in new zany contexts, etc. Jerkass Homer appears at this point because they need some character to tie everything together with the plot of the week. It's simply become over-exaggerated over and over again.
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Nov 18, 2017 04:37
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https://youtube.com/watch?v=BV3CYz34ziE
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Nov 18, 2017 05:01
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It's probably a lovely house for a nuclear safety engineer's salary. Plus Marge still doesn't work in the 21st Century. Not counting the times she opens up a pot dispensary or a fast food chain or whatever.
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Nov 18, 2017 05:34
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Razorwired posted:Iirc Roseanne was a lot more toned down from her original standups at first. They were gonna try the Mike and Molly thing where it was "idyllic sitcom family, but the parents are fat." Roseanne was such a loving good show, and as someone who grew up lower-middle class it resonated hard with me and watching it again later in life I got a lot more of the humor also: I have family who hated hated hated Married with Children, of course these are people who condemn it for being anti-family while being remarkably bad at being family members themselves
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Nov 18, 2017 07:31
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54 40 or gently caress posted:The nice things about sitcoms and shows in the UK are all the ugly or at the least very normal looking people The average English is uglier than the average American.
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Nov 18, 2017 08:11
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Who What Now posted:Her parents were super rich and paid for everything. Nah, she didn’t take a penny from them until Rory’s school fees. Not only that, but when she brought the house I don’t think she was even a hotel manager. She was still a maid, or working her way up the career ladder. TF2 HAT MINING RIG posted:The Simpsons house is so big that Maggie gets her own room. They didn’t need to go full Malcolm in the Middle and have all the kids in one room, but it’s still a bit silly. Maybe Homer just never ate avocado on toast. That’s why they can afford such a big house.
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Nov 18, 2017 14:43
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"Roseanne" was great, and Roseanne Barr was an amazing stand-up. It's too bad she's crazy as gently caress.TF2 HAT MINING RIG posted:The Simpsons house is so big that Maggie gets her own room. They didn’t need to go full Malcolm in the Middle and have all the kids in one room, but it’s still a bit silly. There was an episode, I dunno like 5 years ago, around the premise that Homer was up to his eyes in debt.
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Nov 18, 2017 14:45
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PostNouveau posted:"Roseanne" was great, and Roseanne Barr was an amazing stand-up. It's too bad she's crazy as gently caress. I feel like this is something that just aged weird as hell with how things currently are. Simpsons would have an episode once a season dealing with cutting corners and debt and poo poo like that but then you look back and realize they have a pretty nice house and 2 cars. Was Frank Grimes before or after Principle and the Pauper? I think the Grimes episode was kind of a good way to cap off the series if you wanna spare yourself what the show became. It's insane and absurd but doesn't reach the levels the show became.
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Nov 18, 2017 15:25
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SEX BURRITO posted:British TV has people in ridiculously oversized homes too. Eastenders is full of market traders and shop assistants living in Victorian terraces in East London. Victorian terraces aren't that good really. They may look good from the outside, but inside unless renovated are just rotting slum houses. I never thought any Eastenders house was big, they are always cluttered dingy rooms.
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Nov 18, 2017 15:37
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SEX BURRITO posted:Nah, she didn’t take a penny from them until Rory’s school fees. Not knowingly. Her parents just paid for everything on the DL, because their dipshit fast-talking daughter was too retarded to know how to do anything involving numbers higher than eleven.
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Nov 18, 2017 15:43
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OldTennisCourt posted:Was Frank Grimes before or after Principle and the Pauper? Grimey was season 8, Principal and the Pauper is 9
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Nov 18, 2017 15:52
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It's kind of implied that when Homer moves into his safety technician role (this happens in the first few episodes of S1), he gets a decent pay bump to go with it. They can afford two cars and a stay-at-home mother, but luxuries are still in short supply. They don't have cable TV, they don't have expensive habits, and Homer's jealousy of Ned affording things (RV, pool table, etc) drives quite a few plot lines in early seasons.
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Nov 18, 2017 16:43
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Well Lisa plays in Band and Bart is shown on various sports teams, those are time consuming and can be expensive now and then, but please also remember that in the late 80’s, early 90’s so people could afford big houses. According to google, a nuclear safety technician makes 60-100K a year, with 60 being the very healthy median. So 30 years ago Homer was probably making between 50-70K? Or probably more like 50K due to inflation? Or maybe more like 80K because he was the only safety inspector for the entire plant?
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Nov 18, 2017 17:13
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Springfield might just be a crappy small town where property is cheap. The four bedroom house I lived in as a kid is worth way less than the tiny flat I live in now.
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Nov 18, 2017 17:27
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bitterandtwisted posted:Springfield might just be a crappy small town where property is cheap. How high can property values be when you got a raging, ever-burning, tire fire going?
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Nov 18, 2017 17:38
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Johnny Aztec posted:How high can property values be when you got a raging, ever-burning, tire fire going? Well how high can you build an escalator to nowhere or a popcicle stick skyscraper?
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