Watching Simpsons

There’s a couple of reasons why The Simpsons has likely survived all these years on television. Compelling, memorable characters is probably first and foremost – Bart, Lisa, Marge, Maggie, and Homer are now iconic figures in American pop-culture. Also, one can make a case that’s it’s even has some cultural clout in other countries too. After all, the characters have been tapped to sell French cars after all. Or, even a bit of creep into the art scene. Still, even with interesting characters, the show would be nothing without good writing.

Some may argue that the show is in a decline, but that’s beside the point. Compared to a lot of what’s on TV, The Simpsons remain relevant, partly because the writing keeps the show current every season or so. Still, it’s sometimes interesting to see where some of the Show’s writers go, after their stint comes to an end. Take Larry Doyle, for instance.

Doyle wrote seven episodes between 1999 and 2001. He’s also racked up credits writing a Looney Tunes movie as well as the hit MTV cartoon Beavis and Butthead. According to IMDb.com, he takes credit for “Simpsons Bible Stories,” “Worst Episode Ever,” and a few others. Recently, Doyle has come into new acclaim and accolades. The Baltimore Sun reports that his book, I Love You, Beth Cooper recently nominated for the Thurber Prize for American Humor. Prior winners include: Jon Stewart, the staff at The Onion, David Sedaris, and a many others. This year, Doyle’s competition consists of Patricia Marx and Simon Rich. The eventual winner will receive a commemorative crystal, as well as a check for $5000. More importantly, however, it places the winner in the pantheon of humorists of the written word. After all, as a writer, James Thurber was no slouch.

The Simpsons, James Thurber, Thurber Prize, Humor, Awards, Writing

As has been noted elsewhere on this blog, and in the 451 Network, there’ s been an ongoing feud between The Family Guy and The Simpsons. Quite often, this comes in the form of pointed barbs that make it onto the show. In one Treehouse of Horror episode, for example, there’s veritable sea of Homer clones, and in the middle of all of them, the writers and animators stuck Peter. Of course, The Family Guy has had it’s share of references too. On the surface, it might appear that creators Matt Groening and Seth McFarlane have it in for each other. However, if one is looking for a hip-hop style “beef” feud, one will likely be disappointed. Sure, the two and their creative teams quite often rib each other, but it’s not much different than they way that friendly comedians like to publicly poke each other – as in Comedy Central’s Roasts, for example.

So, it’s no surprise that when Groening and McFarlane show up to a Television Critics Association function, the verbal jabs fly, but beneath it, there’s a sense of mutual respect. Care of the Vancouver Sun:

“Wow,” Groening said, with a straight face. “Wow. You know, we love Seth. If we weren’t so rich, we would be very depressed.”
“Matt and I get along very well,” MacFarlane said. “People want us to hate each other. We get along extremely well. He’s a wonderful guy. Seriously.”
“Seth and me, on the other hand,” Jean quipped, “not so much.”
The mutual admiration is genuine: MacFarlane is quick to cite The Simpsons as an early inspiration for Family Guy.
“I wouldn’t be sitting here if it wasn’t for The Simpsons,” MacFarlane said.
“It’s so rare that something comes along that completely catches you off-guard. When you think back, The Flintstones was the last really big successful prime time animated show. And then The Simpsons came along and single-handedly reopened that door. I was instantly taken with that show, and still am. It doesn’t hold a candle to any live-action comedy that’s on the air - or is it the reverse?”
“Wait a minute,” Groening dove in. “You just snuck that in there. What he’s saying, that’s how I felt about Huckleberry Hound.”

Even if McFarlane wasn’t being genuine, he’d still have to concede to the pioneering history of The Simpsons. I would also throw in South Park, which wasn’t mentioned. South Park has brought fierce, daring satire to cable television, going much farther then The Simpsons ever would. The Family Guy has benefited from that predecessor too. Sometimes, Peter strikes me as a mixture between equal parts Homer and equal parts Cartman.

The Simpsons, The Family Guy, South Park, Cartman, Matt Groening, Seth McFarlane, Homer, Homer Simpson, Cartoons, Animation

Since I’ve been on a Futurama watching binge as of late, I’ve spent most of my internet time poking around, looking for any indication on whether there’s going to be any new individual episodes. (My secret wish, of course, it that Comedy Central will do more than air the straight to DVD features and will order new individual shows). So, I tried various keywords with Google and didn’t find anything really encouraging. Also, I took a cue off of an earlier post and clicked my way over to imdb.com to see if anything could unearthed there. The answer, of course, is no – perhaps I should just be glad that there are three more movies forthcoming?

At any rate, a lot of times looking for one thing leads to something completely different. Imdb.com, for Matt Groening, lists a good number of his Treehouse of Horror alias. You know, the “Nicknames” everybody in the credits get? This is what they had for Groening:

Matt Groening (Writer, The Simpsons Movie (2007))
aka “Mad Groening”
aka “Matt ”Mildly Frightening” Groening”
aka “Matt ”Scary Nickname” Groening”
birth name “Matthew Abram Groening”
aka “Matt ‘Merchandising’ Groening”
aka “Wotsa Matta U. Groening”
aka “Bat Groening”
aka “Malevolent Matt Groening”
aka “Mummified Matt Groening”
aka “Matt ‘El Monstro’ Groening”
aka “Mad Matt Groening”

And it’s the same for Sam Simon:

Sam Simon (I) (Writer, “The Drew Carey Show” (1995))
aka “Slithering Sam Simon”
aka “Sortirious Sam Simon”
aka “Scarifying Sam Simon”
aka “‘Supervisin’ Sam’ Simon”
aka “Sam ‘Sayonara’ Simon”
aka “Somewhat Shocking Sam Simon”
aka “Sort of Frightening Sam Simon”

James L. Brooks has a smaller number of AKA listings:

James L. Brooks (Producer, The Simpsons Movie (2007))
aka “James Hell Brooks”
aka “James ‘Bemused but Bloodthirsty’ Brooks

”

But then Hank Azaria has his included too:

Hank Azaria (Actor, The Simpsons Movie (2007))
aka “Hellacious Hank Azaria”
aka “Boo! Boo! Scare Ya Hank Azaria”
aka “Hack Azaria”
aka “Scare Ya’ Hank Azaria”
aka “The Shaws-Hank Azaria”
birth name “Henry Albert Azaria”
aka “Angst Azaria”

So, I’m guessing that the rest of the cast, as well as the production crew, likely have their aliases included on imdb.com. Maybe later I’ll dig up the rest.

The Simpsons, Matt Groening, Sam Simon, Hank Azaria, James L. Brooks

Ever since the blockbuster success of the Simpsons Movie and the subsequent DVD, speculation has always been out there regarding a possible sequel. After all, anytime a movie strikes it big in the box office, one can never truly rule out a sequel. It’s too lucrative, for producers, to not imagine. Still, Al Jean has, in the past, ruled out a sequel in the present.

Still, there’s another dynamic at play, and that is the ongoing writer’s strike. Typically, the effect has been most seen on television, but there’s a hidden component. The strike is having an effect movie production. In terms of The Simpsons, it also is gumming up any sort of sequel. Part of the strike, of course, is keeping developmental talks on hold until the main strike issues have been resolved.

Larry Carroll, on MTV’s Movie Blog, has tackled the issue a little. He writes:

Talks on the sequel should begin whenever everyone on both sides of the picket line is satisfied, but since it is a cartoon and all the “Simpsons” talents will still be working on that pesky little TV show, we’re talking several years before a green light gives us an actual movie to watch.

So, basically, there will be no sense of instant gratification in this regard. Animation usually is a much slower creative process. Live action movies, for example, tend to be quicker makes, as there’s no animation, voice acting, voice synch, and so on. Then again, it took more than a decade and a half of the Simpsons on Fox before a silver screen version materialized. Plus, there’s always the idea that good things take time, even years to produce, whereas lackluster garbage can be marshaled out in a matter of days, even hours and minutes. Fans, more than anything, want a good, quality, enjoyable product.

The Simpsons, The Simpson Movie, MTV

Watching awards shows can be a test of one’s patience sometimes. Still, hosting them is nothing but exposure and a good paycheck for comedic talent. Harry Shearer, who is Mr. Burns, Reverend Lovejoy, and many others on the Simpsons, will host the Art Directors Guild Awards on Feb. 16, According to The Hollywood Reporter:

Eight ADG awards for excellence in production design will be handed out in TV, film and commercials categories, along with a lifetime achievement award to production designer Stuart Craig and a cinematic imagery award to Ray Harryhausen. Five legendary production designers will also be inducted into the ADG Hall of Fame that evening.

The Simpsons, Harry Shearer, ADG, Artist Directors Guild, Artist Directors Guild Awards

One of the wonderful things about Futurama is how it’s not like The Simpsons. Sure, Groening’s art is the same in the two shows, although there’s more digital enhancement in Futurama. Yet, as has been noted before, the style of satirical writing is fundamentally different, and using science fiction is definite way to provide distinction. Yet, it’s the little things, both in Sci-Fi and pop culture, that always make the show interesting. David X. Cohen is an ardent genre fan, and it shows. So is Groening. But sometimes, the little things in prior careers do make for interesting trivia.

Take Cohen for example. He used to code for computer games. He did this back in the time before cable modems, internet chat rooms and online gaming. For today’s younger generation, it may come as a shock of what computers were actually like in the 1980’s — back during the era of green screen monitors, dot matrix printers, and large square “floppy disks” that literally were floppy. Computer gaming was a lot different back then. The characters looked vary blocky, and the games themselves were very simple; there were no 3-D environments, no polygon textured faces or landscapes.

At that point in time, David X. Cohen worked for Broderbund, a leading software company and game developer that has long since faded. Back then, Cohen coded for a game called “Zoid.” It never came out. However, that game, years later, when Cohen persued a highly different career, would become an interesting subtle influence. In developing Futurama, Cohen decided to name the doctor after that game. The story’s kind of interesting. Chris Baker, over at Wired, writes:

But the game Zoid achieved a sort of immortality when Cohen and Matt Groening were shaping the concept for the show that would be Futurama. Cohen, an ardent Trekkie, believed that their show should have some sort of doctor character like “Bones” McCoy on Star Trek. But whereas McCoy is continually forced to treat weird aliens, the doctor on Futurama would himself be a weird alien with no understanding of human anatomy.

While he and Groening were in Florida watching a space shuttle launch, Cohen decided to name the doctor character after his old video game. Doctor John A. Zoidberg became a fan favorite on Futurama.

Futurama, Zoidberg, David X. Cohen, Matt Groening

Much like his other off the cuff interviews, Stewart here jumps from being serious to cracking jokes. I think the interview is interesting, but I do wish that instead of incessantly cutting to black, that the interviewer didn’t edit his questions out.

The Simpsons, Jon Stewart, The Daily Show

This is eight years old, but chalk this up to the wonder that somethings stay on the internet without getting deleted. Mother Jones, a progressive minded political magazine, did an in depth interview with Matt Groening in 1999. It’s not a silly Hank-Azaria-bites-deer interview either, but one where he spells out his ideas and feelings about The Simpsons and Futurama. At the time, Futurama was about to debut on Fox, so much of the interview revolves around that. It’s also of interest that, in this interview, he does confirm having a knowledge of the old science fiction pulps — which fits, since he’s of the age where kids reading a vast amount of cheaply produces fiction digests was as common as some kids reading comic books, or in this day and age, playing console video games.

I’ve loved science fiction ever since I was a little kid, mainly from looking at the covers of science-fiction magazines and books, and I’ve read quite extensively as an adult. About three or four years ago, I decided to reacquaint myself with literary science-fiction and I went back and read everything from H.G. Wells to the new guys, Neil Stephenson and Rudy Rucker and those guys, and what I was surprised to find was that I’d read so much of it. I’d be reading a novel and think, “Wait a minute, I read this in fourth grade,” but I didn’t remember cause I’d plowed through so much. But a lot of my old favorites I thought really held up, I liked [Robert] Heinlein and [Philip K.] Dick and Cordwainer Smith and Theodore Sturgeon and Robert Sheckley — the funny guys, the guys who have a sense of humor.

Basically, Futurama and the concept behind it was a labor of love. That’s a good thing. After all, after the pioneering success, it would have been very easy, and very cheap, in my view, to spin off characters into a new shows. The Moe Show … The Principal Skinner Show … The Comic Book Guy Show … all of them would be bad, bad, terribly bad ideas. Even more, a standard practice in the entertainment industry is to do variations on a successful concept — that’s why The Family Guy and King of the Hill will always owe a debt to The Simpsons, just as The Simpsons owes a debt to The Flinstones and The Jetsons.

So, it’s good that Groening decided to persue something completely independent of The Simpson. Plus, it’s a good thing that he decided to persue something he’s had an interest in. According to the interview, producer David X. Cohen shared the science fiction love. Even more, the idea of Futurama gave Groening an excuse to conduct “research” into the genre. Cohen and Groening’s enthusiasm helped sell the show nearly immediately:

I spent way too much time — a few years — researching science fiction and making long lists of things I wanted to do and characters and ideas that I wanted to explore. After I assembled a few hundred pages of ideas, I got together with David Cohen, one of the writers and executive producers on “The Simpsons,” who is also a lover of science fiction and has a great knowledge of science and mathematics. He was excited and he had a lot to do with the thrust of the show and the direction, so he and I developed this thing together, and took it to Fox. They’d been begging me for years for another show, and in the meeting — which lasted about three hours because we had so much to talk about, we just knew the show inside and out — they jumped up and down and ordered 13 episodes on the spot. And then, that’s when the honeymoon was over, after that. The second they ordered it, they completely freaked out and were afraid the show was too dark and mean-spirited, and thought they had made a huge mistake and that the only way they could address their anxieties was to try to make me as crazy as possible with their frustrations.

Of course, there are other interesting things Groening talks about in this old interview. There’s his Life in Hell comic strips, the nature of business in Hollywood, the business of satire, and so on. Definitely an interesting read.

The Simpsons, Futurama, Life in Hell, Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Mother Jones

After the last post, it seems I’m running into weird stuff on the internet at the moment. The Daily Intelligencer has an interview with Hank Azaria, as part of an ongoing “21 Questions” featurebut it seems that Azaria, just like anybody else who makes a living in comedy, doesn’t take the interview process seriously — at least with this particular interview:

QUESTION: How often do you prepare your own meals?
AZARIA: I just bite into live, struggling deer.

The Simpsons, Hank Azaria

This just has me scratching my head, wondering what I have missed. I have to admit total ignorance. Yet, on Page 6 of the New York Post, the gossip is that George Takei (Sulu of the original Star Trek) did voice over work for The Simpsons. Takei, the article alleges, creeped out the rest of the Simpsons talent, and as such, won’t be asked back. I’m scratching my head, because unlike Phil Hartman or Kelsey Grammar, I honestly can’t remember Takei being a semi regular guest, or even a guest, period. More than anything, I remember that he’s had some feuds in the past with William Shatner, but that’s Star Trek nonsense, with a cast that was notorious for its squabbling. At any rate, The New York Post cites Hank Azaria:

THE producers of “The Simpsons” stopped using “Star Trek” stalwart George Takei (Sulu) to do voiceovers because he “creeped out the staff” and kept calling one of the interns “sweetie.” So said Hank Azaria, the voice of Moe the bartender, Apu the Kwik-E-Mart owner, Police Chief Wiggum, Professor Frink, Dr. Nick Riviera and Comic Book Guy.

The Simpsons, Hank Azaria, George Takei, Star Trek

So, after all these years, The Simpsons are still going strong. Last Sunday’s season opener featured Stephen Colbert, and, one can argue, that the season is starting off after a strong summer that saw the success of the first feature length Simpsons film. This time around, rating wise, The Simpsons didn’t boast of the highest numbers, but if one takes into mind that it’s football season, the show didn’t fare that badly. According to Reuters:

Primetime began with Fox getting a 15.3 million NFL runover between 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., which seemed to dampen the first half-hour of the season premiere of “60 Minutes”

The Simpsons didn’t do half bad:

The season premieres of “The Simpsons” (9.4 million, 4.7/12) and “King of the Hill” (7.7 million, 3.7/9) prevailed against CBS’ “Power of 10″ (7.5 million, 1.7/4) and the second hour of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” (7.8 million, 2.5/6).

Of most TV shows, the Simpsons can boast of having one of the most memorable musical intros. The show has been on the air for so long, it’s easy to understand how that might have happened. Yet, there’s more to the music of the show then just the intro. As Wayne Bledsoe points out in Knoxnews.com:

Clausen is a little frustrated that Danny Elfman sometimes gets credit for creating the music for the television show “The Simpsons.”

“Danny was there for one day,” says Clausen. “I’ve been there for 17 years.”

Elfman composed “The Simpsons’” main theme, but it is Clausen who writes the music for each episode, including writing music for all the songs on the new album “Testify,” the third release of original music from “The Simpsons.”

Of course, The Show has had lots of memorable songs — Mr. Burn’s “See My vest” immediately comes to mind. That’s why, the forthcoming CD is going to be great. Basically, it’s likely to be a “greatest hits.”

As for Clausen’s song writing process, Bledsoe quotes him as:

“The songs always originate from lyrics in the script,” says Clausen. “The original scriptwriter will come up with the first draft of the lyric, which, hopefully, will carry the story ahead. And once the script is turned in to our group of writers, they’ll probably do six drafts of the script before it’s released. Then I get a copy of the lyrics they’ve come up with and I compose the song to the lyrics, record a demo of the song with a small instrumental group and studio singers, so everybody knows how the song is supposed to go. We’ll record the cast voices on that track and make a composite mix of that and send it to the animators, and the animators animate to that track. Then it will come back to me about six or eight months later. I will then throw away that small rhythm section track and replace it with a full orchestra. And that will happen about two weeks before air time.”

The Washington Post has a preview of an interview Mat Groening has given The New York times. Among the many tid bits available, Groening reveals what inspired him, in terms of Marge’s distinctive blue hair:

The “Simpsons” matriarch’s impressive hair was inspired by “The Bride of Frankenstein” and by his own mother’s hairdo from the 1960s, the series’ creator told The New York Times Magazine in an interview published Sunday.

Many television shows, actors and directors will attest, are destroyed by the meddling of studio execs. Often, this comes by way of meddlesome “notes” that carry the weight — in terms of network authority — akin to an executive order or a regal fiat. It goes without saying that this cramps the creative process, to a large extent. In this regard, consider the following comment by Harry Shearer, as reported by Hollywood.com, the voice of Ned Flanders, Doctor Hibberd, Mr. Burns, Smithers, and many other Simpsons chacters:

The Simpsons star Harry Shearer insists the animated show is such a big hit because the company behind it is not allowed to interfere with the scripts.

That even goes for mogul Rupert Murdock, who is more then used to getting his way, politically and business-wise, across many continents:

He says, “Rupert can’t get involved. We had it written into our script that Fox weren’t allowed to meddle with our scripts.

“In fact, I’m pretty sure the reason we’ve been so successful is because no one’s been able to interfere.”

It’s always interesting to see the Simpson’s voice actors go in and out of character on live TV. Add to this Conan’s presence, and you have something interesting. Conan started off his career writing for The Simpsons, before he took off after replacing David Letterman on NBC Late Night.