Vanity Fair History of The Simpsons
The essay is long, but the quality is good and informative. Vanity Fair has published a detailed history of The Simpsons. In a sense, it would be too long to pick out and block quote all the good bits, but here’s a choice few morsels from the article:
“It’s like what sci-fi fans say about Star Trek: it created an audience for that genre,” says Seth MacFarlane, the creator of Family Guy. “I think The Simpsons created an audience for prime-time animation that had not been there for many, many years. As far as I’m concerned, they basically re-invented the wheel. They created what is in many ways—you could classify it as—a wholly new medium. It’s just wholly original.”
“The Simpsons is the bane of our existence,” says Matt Stone, co-creator of South Park with Trey Parker. “They have done so many parodies, tackled so many subjects. ‘Simpsons did it!’ is a very familiar refrain in our writers’ room. Trey and I are constantly having our little cartoon compared to the best show in the history of television, The Simpsons. Why can’t we be compared to According to Jim? Or Sister, Sister?”
Not that there aren’t some debits on The Simpsons’ ledger—for every King of the Hill, there was a Fish Police and a Critic. But over 18 years, The Simpsons has been so influential, it is difficult to find any strain of television comedy that does not contain its DNA. And yet the show’s footprint is so much larger. Homer’s signature “D’oh!” has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary.
What’s interesting, really, is the expansive nature. They start at the beginning, really, back when the current presidents father, while running for reelection, tried to slam the decline in “values” that The Simpsons “represented.” Vanity Fair also delves into Matt Groening’s career, and some of the other cultural implications the show has had on its 18 season, and counting.
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