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an "interesting" thing about "strong arms of the ma" is that, two years before it, family guy's "lethal weapons" had a sort of similar plotline (lois gets very good at martial arts as a way of working out her hatred of new york tourists, but ends up giving it up when she sees her aggression is negatively impacting her family) that also includes a similar rape "joke" (where lois is aggressive towards peter in bed and doesn't accept a "no") but the outcome of that joke is peter crying at the breakfast table (and hit by stewie with a baseball bat) which lois is horrified by and is the catalyst for her reverting to status quo at episode's end. so it's not just a rape joke, it's a hack and derivative rape joke that even loving early season family guy took more seriously somehow
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Jul 21, 2023 15:51
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I’ve read several times (most likely in this thread) that the Simpsons’ writers thought it was going to end around season 8 or 9, hence the shift to more experimental episodes and cynical tone. How did its status at Fox (now Disney) change so dramatically though? What changed that made the show go from good, popular, but on the brink of cancellation, to terrible but essentially un-killable?
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Jul 21, 2023 16:32
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Tree Goat posted:an "interesting" thing about "strong arms of the ma" is that, two years before it, family guy's "lethal weapons" had a sort of similar plotline (lois gets very good at martial arts as a way of working out her hatred of new york tourists, but ends up giving it up when she sees her aggression is negatively impacting her family) that also includes a similar rape "joke" (where lois is aggressive towards peter in bed and doesn't accept a "no") but the outcome of that joke is peter crying at the breakfast table (and hit by stewie with a baseball bat) which lois is horrified by and is the catalyst for her reverting to status quo at episode's end. Futurama did it too
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Jul 21, 2023 16:52
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PostNouveau posted:Futurama did it too Are you talking about "death by snu snu" or is there a Leela-specific plot point that I (likely thankfully) missed?
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Jul 21, 2023 17:05
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YeahTubaMike posted:Are you talking about "death by snu snu" or is there a Leela-specific plot point that I (likely thankfully) missed? A Comedy Central-era episode where Leela and Amy take steroids to do sports better. The less you know about it, the better.
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Jul 21, 2023 17:06
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Halisnacks posted:I’ve read several times (most likely in this thread) that the Simpsons’ writers thought it was going to end around season 8 or 9, hence the shift to more experimental episodes and cynical tone. I've heard it was the belief of Oakley and Weinstein that the show was winding down when they took over showrunning, but I can't find a solid quote or source. But what I understand is it was kind of the opposite of what you're thinking: it wasn't Fox but the creatives who thought the show was running its course and that primetime comedies just didn't last much more than ten seasons (Friends would ultimately go for 10, Seinfeld would end at 9), so it made sense Simpsons would probably follow the same trajectory. Things get stale and the talent wants to move on to new projects. But... the main voice cast didn't really have anything else they wanted to get to, new writers cycled though, and Fox was perfectly happy to keep having more Simpsons, so all the reasons a show would run its course just didn't really apply. If you look at a list of longest running scripted primetime shows, you see that the Simpsons is really an outlier no one could have seen coming in the 90s. Getting beyond 14 seasons, It's them, cop and hospital shows like Law & Order and Gray's Anatomy that can just go on forever, shows from a different media landscape in the 50s, like Gunsmoke, and other Fox animated series that are just following the model made by the Simpsons. Sort it by first air date, and you see a bunch of shows that came out right around the Simpsons that were wrapping not long after their 7th or 8th seasons. In 1996, when Season 8 was written, Murphy Brown was writing its final, 10th season, Cheers had already ended the previous year at 11 seasons, and Married... with Children was looking to end that year at 11 as well. It just made sense that the Simpsons would follow a similar trajectory, but... it didn't.
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Jul 21, 2023 17:34
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Today I learned that there were new Murphy Browns on the air in 1996.
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Jul 21, 2023 19:55
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Today I learned Married With Children went 11 seasons.
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Jul 21, 2023 20:43
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Keromaru5 posted:Today I learned Married With Children went 11 seasons. Oh yeah, there was a whole season where Peg and the neighbor were pregnant and they adopted a precocious child relative and it turned out to be all a dream. Also Peg and Al get divorced. I think the show might even end with them still divorced.
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Jul 21, 2023 21:15
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I wonder if strong DVD sales had anything to do with it? Not necessarily that it was a driving factor but the first season came out on DVD in 2001 and was the best selling DVD set in history at that point and wouldn't be usurped until The Chapelle Show. Maybe because of that and consistent viewing numbers showed there was still demand for more Simpsons
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Jul 21, 2023 21:25
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PostNouveau posted:Oh yeah, there was a whole season where Peg and the neighbor were pregnant and they adopted a precocious child relative and it turned out to be all a dream. I always try to tell people about how at one point they went to the beach and brought home a kid named 7 or something. And no one believes me. I had no idea about the divorce plot though.
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Jul 21, 2023 22:07
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Keromaru5 posted:Today I learned Married With Children went 11 seasons. Bizarre they haven’t brought it back yet (checks Wikipedia page) ah dammit
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Jul 21, 2023 22:41
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PostNouveau posted:Also Peg and Al get divorced. I think the show might even end with them still divorced. ??? I remember they get separated in a two parter but they get back together in the end.
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Jul 21, 2023 23:08
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Fairly Odd Parents comes to mind as going on waaay too long and they even introduced a new main character and then quietly stopped using him twice
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Jul 22, 2023 03:01
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I've always thought it was weird Murphy Brown doesn't seem to have the same ongoing cultural cachet a lot of other long running shows airing around that time have. Like, people will still bring up Married with Children or Cheers or even fuckin' Wings. I wonder why that is?
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Jul 22, 2023 03:46
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Ghost Leviathan posted:Fairly Odd Parents comes to mind as going on waaay too long and they even introduced a new main character and then quietly stopped using him twice What character was this?
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Jul 22, 2023 03:56
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FireWorksWell posted:What character was this? I mean Poof they introduced as the baby, which is always a great sign, and then later on they had a talking fairy dog instead.
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Jul 22, 2023 04:00
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Ghost Leviathan posted:I mean Poof they introduced as the baby, which is always a great sign, and then later on they had a talking fairy dog instead. Oh, they introduced a third character after that, who shares Cosmo and Wanda with Timmy https://youtu.be/V-_w0_M1pHs
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Jul 22, 2023 07:46
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Ghost Leviathan posted:Homer's Phobia does make a lot of fun jabs at how fuzzy the line is between stereotypical heterosexual masculinity and homosexual stereotypes, and how Homer suddenly finds his homophobia is making it a struggle for him to display affection. Pretty outright touching on what would later be called toxic masculinity. Honestly some pretty great and almost unique social commentary because it's specifically about how arbitrary those stereotypes are, and how life is so much easier when you simply don't worry about them and accept people as they are. This episode is now banned in Florida, naturally. Ghost Leviathan posted:I mostly remember that one implying Homer is bi. Sure I'm flattered, maybe even a little curious. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75RtpQPYce8
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Jul 22, 2023 08:13
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Hrist posted:I always try to tell people about how at one point they went to the beach and brought home a kid named 7 or something. And no one believes me. I had no idea about the divorce plot though. The best part is the show got rid of the kid real quick (I think it was explained he just went over to the D'Arcy's next door and wouldn't leave) and a season or two later his face shows up on a milk carton.
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Jul 22, 2023 12:57
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porfiria posted:I've always thought it was weird Murphy Brown doesn't seem to have the same ongoing cultural cachet a lot of other long running shows airing around that time have. Like, people will still bring up Married with Children or Cheers or even fuckin' Wings. I wonder why that is? Them taking the piss out of Dan Quayle rings some bells.
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Jul 22, 2023 13:06
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porfiria posted:I've always thought it was weird Murphy Brown doesn't seem to have the same ongoing cultural cachet a lot of other long running shows airing around that time have. Like, people will still bring up Married with Children or Cheers or even fuckin' Wings. I wonder why that is? It was very tropical humor based mostly on early 90s current events so it didn't have much of a shelf life. Plus it wasn't actually all that good. If it hadn't been for Dan Quayle (I think?) getting all in a snit about the title character becoming a single mother nobody would remember it at all. Vincent Van Goatse fucked around with this message at 07:11 on Jul 23, 2023 |
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Jul 23, 2023 07:08
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Sentient Data posted:I want mp3s of the futurama and simpsons commentaries, I haven't heard them in at least a decade but feel like they'd be perfect podcasts Been listening to the Futurama commentary tracks synced with the episodes. I love how the voice actors bring all their crazy energy and it's offset by David X Cohen telling his slow anecdotes in monotone.
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Jul 23, 2023 23:15
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Sourdough Sam posted:Been listening to the Futurama commentary tracks synced with the episodes. I love how the voice actors bring all their crazy energy and it's offset by David X Cohen telling his slow anecdotes in monotone. “The title of the episode is a reference to the 1959 film Ben-Hur. It is also a reference to Bender's name and the act of gender bending. In the DVD audio commentary, producer David X. Cohen claims the episode title is a "triple joke".” A triple joke where naming an episode “Bender” would have counted as a joke? Beginning to wonder if David may be Futurama’s Al Jean.
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Jul 24, 2023 02:04
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His anecdotes are usually somewhat interesting but they have so many people in the room for the commentary tracks that every second he talks is one less second of Billy West playing Zoidberg as an actor admiring his own performance in the episode.
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Jul 24, 2023 04:32
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Halisnacks posted:I’ve read several times (most likely in this thread) that the Simpsons’ writers thought it was going to end around season 8 or 9, hence the shift to more experimental episodes and cynical tone. 9/11 happened. If I remember correctly, ratings started to grow almost immediately.
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Jul 24, 2023 10:18
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Fish of hemp posted:9/11 happened. If I remember correctly, ratings started to grow almost immediately. This would be a good clickbait article premise. "Who ruined The Simpsons? Turns out, it was Osama bin Laden"
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Jul 24, 2023 12:25
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hate to say it but 9/11 had more negative effects than good
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Jul 24, 2023 14:02
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Gonna need a volunteer to watch Futurama reboot and report back.
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Jul 24, 2023 23:50
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Hyrax Attack! posted:Gonna need a volunteer to watch Futurama reboot and report back. Halfway through and it's very, uh, topical
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Jul 25, 2023 00:28
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my only takeaway is that Billy West's Fry voice sounds kinda scraggly
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Jul 25, 2023 01:05
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Yeah Fry sounds realllly bad, it makes the whole thing feel kind of depressing. Beyond that... ehhh, it was fine, I guess, as background while I made dinner. Even then... like, even in the previous reboot episodes you could tell they still had the energy. This felt off, like you could feel how much they really didn't want to be doing it anymore. Maybe I'm wrong, or maybe it'll improve and that was just a shaky start?
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Jul 25, 2023 05:15
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Mantis42 posted:hate to say it but 9/11 had more negative effects than good Don't you even remember the good old days after 9/11?
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Jul 25, 2023 05:22
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Hyrax Attack! posted:Gonna need a volunteer to watch Futurama reboot and report back. It was fine
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Jul 25, 2023 05:27
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Yeah, that was better than I expected. Nothing groundbreaking, but consistent and nothing monstrously bad like “Susan Boil.” Hope they keep it up at least at that level, but considering one of the upcoming episodes is called “Zapp Gets Cancelled”, I have strong doubts.
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Jul 25, 2023 05:36
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I feel it could work if they have Zapp face public condemnation for something comically minor in the face of all the horrible poo poo he's actually guilty of.
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Jul 25, 2023 08:25
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Zapp flashes Nixon. Again.
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Jul 25, 2023 11:12
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 man gently caress you youtube algorithm
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Jul 26, 2023 21:28
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I’m not seeing the prob… oh
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Jul 26, 2023 21:29
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Well, that's now the lowest point
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Jul 26, 2023 21:37
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