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Laterite posted:Season One blew my mind as a 12 year old raised on truly mawkish and banal '80s sitcoms. It was absolutely a transgressive take on the wholesome family trope. The pilot episode has father and son going to a dog track on Christmas Eve because they're broke, after having paid for the son's tattoo removal. In another the entire family zaps each other during electroshock therapy. The wife flirts with infidelity. A babysitter holds the kids hostage. There's some dark stuff there. You still had the occasional self celebrity that was fine such as Ringo Starr in the early seasons but that's realllllly subtle compared to later ones.
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Jan 9, 2019 12:18
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Remember when celebrities like Harvey Fierstein and Dustin Hoffman wouldn't even let themselves be credited because appearing in the Simpsons was career suicide?
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Jan 9, 2019 12:30
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Nutsngum posted:You still had the occasional self celebrity that was fine such as Ringo Starr in the early seasons but that's realllllly subtle compared to later ones. This one was always my favorite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xChORIKcAcg
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Jan 9, 2019 16:26
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Mr Interweb posted:Can I just say that I find the trajectory of the Simpsons absolutely fascinating? And no, I'm not talking about how it got worse over time. Yes, it's unfortunate, and even tragic, but also, not surprising at all. This is a problem that nearly every long running T.V. show in existence faced. It happened to Sons of Anarchy, Dexter, Suits, Weeds, Oz, Hercules/Xena, the list goes on and on. This phenomenon is not special or unique at all. However, looking at how the Simpsons started, and then seeing what it became, is a helluva lot more of an interesting story. seasons 1 and 2 are really good you fuckin doofus
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Jan 9, 2019 16:42
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Nutsngum posted:You still had the occasional self celebrity that was fine such as Ringo Starr in the early seasons but that's realllllly subtle compared to later ones. The difference is when the celebrity cameos quit being cameos (q.v. George Harrison having like three lines in that episode) and turned into twenty minutes of Cartoon Lady Gaga Does Her Set Also The Simpsons Are There
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Jan 9, 2019 16:52
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Sagebrush posted:The difference is when the celebrity cameos quit being cameos (q.v. George Harrison having like three lines in that episode) and turned into twenty minutes of Cartoon Lady Gaga Does Her Set Also The Simpsons Are There It was really bad - it went from “George Harrison/The Ramones/whoever is there for a quick specific joke and then leaves” to “OH MY GOD LADY GAGA!!! What are YOU doing in Springfield??” The turn really happened in that Basinger/Baldwin episode where the celebrities became the plot vs being a subtle guest appearance. That whole episode was just a star-gently caress that fed an ego, vs the classic years where it was a cameo to tell a joke or push the plot along. And you have to look at season 1 through the eyes of 1989-1990 television. It seems tame and boring and horribly animated now, but it was the biggest thing ever when it debuted. The freaking president and First Lady talked about what a bad role model the family was, schools were in an uproar over now-innocuous catchphrases, and parents were banning kids from watching it. It was groundbreaking and subversive and innovative all at the same time - tv families didn’t act like that on NBC or CBS, and they certainly didn’t have major faults that carries over from episode to episode. If you wanted to deal with alcoholism on Family Ties or Mr Belvedere, you had a one time guest star act as a family member and the problem was resolved in 22 minutes of less. If you wanted to deal with money issues, you had the cute kid get a job to get extra money for a birthday present. If you wanted to deal with a problem child, you had a kid say a sarcastic remark and then learn a lesson about respect after being grounded while sappy music played. Homer had a drinking problem every episode and hung out at bars on a daily basis. The family was always one minor expense away from going broke. Bart and Lisa fought with each other and talked back to their parents every episode and Bart was constantly in trouble. Go back and watch that first season through the eyes of a tv viewer at that time - every single episode of season 1 would have been a once-a-season very special episode on any other sitcom at the time....
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Jan 9, 2019 17:36
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GPTribefan posted:Homer had a drinking problem every episode and hung out at bars on a daily basis. The family was always one minor expense away from going broke. Bart and Lisa fought with each other and talked back to their parents every episode and Bart was constantly in trouble. Go back and watch that first season through the eyes of a tv viewer at that time - every single episode of season 1 would have been a once-a-season very special episode on any other sitcom at the time.... The average TV viewer doesn't like looking into the mirror, especially when it's a cartoon. See Also: Cartoons were for children back then.
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Jan 9, 2019 17:44
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I find the trajectory of the show interesting, but more problematic is the lawn dart landing it took into unfunniness rather than its excellent, subversive and downright revolutionary start
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Jan 9, 2019 19:14
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Mak0rz posted:This one was always my favorite: What's funny about this gag in particular is the joke is Homer doesn't know/care who George Harrison is. Today the line would be, "Oh my God George Harrison! From the famous musical rock group, The Beatles!"
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Jan 9, 2019 20:45
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watch Homer buying an RV again and then try to come back here and tell me Season 1 isn't gold
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Jan 9, 2019 22:19
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I always wondered why Hans moleman started showing up less when Phish guest starred.
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Jan 9, 2019 22:35
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This YouTube playlist is really the best illustration of the show’s overall trajectory. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh9u5VZBKXo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6TysxdM25Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRPv-AAam_I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6QefAm9jUU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWe4pCX8nEw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45dZ3lz3pnw emgeejay fucked around with this message at 07:17 on Jan 10, 2019 |
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Jan 10, 2019 07:13
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The Simpsons were definitely revolutionary in how they approached joke structure and comedy, but were they really *that* revolutionary in terms of basic? I was either a tiny baby or not even born yet when both shows aired, but doesn't Married...With Children predate the Simpsons? It's obviously not as funny and certainly not as clever as the Golden Years were, but surely MWC deserves some credit for being a deconstruction and parody of the 1950s/Sitcom/Wholesome Americana family?
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Jan 10, 2019 09:27
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One difference being that Al is a little misanthropic and emblematic of the kind of person who peaked early and just never got it together, but goes through the motions with family work and whatevee. Homer is just a dumb oaf that got lucky and snagged a steady gig he doesn't belong in. But he's overall positive and doesn't hate his cursed existence.
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Jan 10, 2019 09:33
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Oh, they were both quite different in many ways. It’s just I often hear the Simpsons praised as revolutionary for how it subverted that idealized and wholesome view, when it seems to me MWC did it first.
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Jan 10, 2019 09:40
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This transition is from the 2nd season Try finding something like that in the new animation style episodes.
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Jan 10, 2019 09:50
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RoboChrist 9000 posted:Oh, they were both quite different in many ways. It’s just I often hear the Simpsons praised as revolutionary for how it subverted that idealized and wholesome view, when it seems to me MWC did it first. I think the key difference is that The Simpsons was animated and as we all know, animated shows are for children. This attitude combined with a primary, if not main character, being an 11 year old boy resulted in people thinking that children were especially at risk of being influenced negatively by the family and their antics.
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Jan 10, 2019 10:52
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now homer is the main boy dont assume his gender (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Jan 10, 2019 11:02
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The key difference is that The Simpsons was funny, witty, and clever and MWC was trash for trashy idiots. The Simpsons showed that you could not only subvert the expectations of television but also be smart while doing it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agh70crfUYQ
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Jan 10, 2019 11:20
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married with children was good you loving idiot
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Jan 10, 2019 13:26
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The Simpsons was not the first show to portray a dysfunctional family, no. American TV pre-1989 was not all Leave It To Beaver But it was a cartoon, and its first aired episode was a Christmas episode, which put everyone in mind of animated holiday specials, and what they got was a prime-time family-targeted cartoon about mall Santas and dog tracks and tattoo removal and alcoholism and suburban poverty. People found themselves empathizing with the delinquent kid and rooting for him to get his own way instead of for the parents to strangle him back into line. I've always tended to think that if it weren't for the SRoaOF episode being the premiere, the splash the Simpsons would have made right out of the gate would have been way different.
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Jan 10, 2019 13:41
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SweetMercifulCrap! posted:The key difference is that The Simpsons was funny, witty, and clever and MWC was trash for trashy idiots. The Simpsons showed that you could not only subvert the expectations of television but also be smart while doing it. What a terrible loving post.
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Jan 10, 2019 14:03
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Flannelette posted:This transition is from the 2nd season Neat, what episode was that?
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Jan 10, 2019 14:10
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bitterandtwisted posted:Neat, what episode was that? "Simpson and Delilah" S2E2 the one where homer gets hair and becomes and exec
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Jan 10, 2019 14:33
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Bart the Genius is very good and very funny.
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Jan 10, 2019 14:45
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Flannelette posted:This transition is from the 2nd season this is really cool and im going to reiterate that seasons one and two of simpsons are Really Fuckin' Good and it's not like star trek tng where the first couple seasons sucked rear end or something
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Jan 10, 2019 14:52
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Data Graham posted:The Simpsons was not the first show to portray a dysfunctional family, no. American TV pre-1989 was not all Leave It To Beaver Wasn't it a pretty big hit from the Ullman shorts though?
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Jan 10, 2019 15:00
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Last Chance posted:this is really cool and im going to reiterate that seasons one and two of simpsons are Really Fuckin' Good and it's not like star trek tng where the first couple seasons sucked rear end or something I can't speak for season 1, since I really need to order a copy, but Season 2 is better than most people remember, there are a bunch of iconic episodes that season that seem most people think are from later seasons.
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Jan 10, 2019 15:05
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Atlas Hugged posted:Bart the Genius is very good and very funny. RDRR
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Jan 10, 2019 15:27
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Riptor posted:RDRR They had to research a LOT of weird science/math and wordplay gags for that episode. Really wall-to-wall with cerebral stuff people were not at all ready for (even if some of it was kinda cringey)
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Jan 10, 2019 15:30
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Data Graham posted:They had to research a LOT of weird science/math and wordplay gags for that episode. Really wall-to-wall with cerebral stuff people were not at all ready for (even if some of it was kinda cringey) eh they were a bunch of Harvard nerds, I'm sure plenty of the writers knew basic calculus by the time we get to futurama several of the writers are PhD math dorks packing math jokes into the background constantly, sometimes even centering entire plots on them
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Jan 10, 2019 15:45
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Apparently they don't even bother putting the newest seasons on DVD any longer lol
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Jan 10, 2019 15:46
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WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW posted:Apparently they don't even bother putting the newest seasons on DVD any longer lol Fox as a whole doesn't put out TV on physical media anymore, it's not just limited to The Simpsons.
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Jan 10, 2019 15:57
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Iron Crowned posted:Fox as a whole doesn't put out TV on physical media anymore, it's not just limited to The Simpsons. Kind of ironic you have to be a pirate to own a TV show for life these days
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Jan 10, 2019 16:00
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brugroffil posted:eh they were a bunch of Harvard nerds, I'm sure plenty of the writers knew basic calculus Yeah, but it's not just the dumb derivative thing, it's all those palindrome jokes, the "two trains rush toward each other" test question, all the literary and sociological stuff they did in the genius school. They went all across the board And yeah I know the Futurama writers are their spiritual successors even in the post-revival era. I'm just impressed that that is the bar, is all I'm saying.
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Jan 10, 2019 16:00
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Nonviolent J posted:Would they even bother to do them I heard once that Groening's contract says that the dvd releases have to have commentary.
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Jan 10, 2019 16:06
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WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW posted:Apparently they don't even bother putting the newest seasons on DVD any longer lol They'd announced that they wouldn't release them on DVD anymore. Then because of "fan demand" they picked up where they'd left off and released Season 18 on DVD at the end of 2017, and they have the commentaries recorded for Season 19.
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Jan 10, 2019 16:13
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PostNouveau posted:Wasn't it a pretty big hit from the Ullman shorts though? The shorts were a popular segment on a somewhat popular show - so much so that they began licensing the characters for commercials before the regular series was even started. It was more a factor of “FOX needs to get ANY kind of original programming on the schedule ASAP” than anything else, tho. They obviously picked a winning horse, but it was a huge gamble given the cost and the time involved.
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Jan 10, 2019 16:25
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GPTribefan posted:The shorts were a popular segment on a somewhat popular show - so much so that they began licensing the characters for commercials before the regular series was even started. It was more a factor of “FOX needs to get ANY kind of original programming on the schedule ASAP” than anything else, tho. They obviously picked a winning horse, but it was a huge gamble given the cost and the time involved. Does make you wonder what the world would be like if they didn't run with it
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Jan 10, 2019 16:31
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Iron Crowned posted:Does make you wonder what the world would be like if they didn't run with it Somehow, we'd be talking about what the lowest point was for the Critic's 25 seasons and counting.
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Jan 10, 2019 16:37
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