The simpsons vrs other cartoons (official simpsons thread)

[Pas]

HD won't make it suck less.

Well I guess not since I did not laugh once during the ep but it looked really good

[MacGuffin]

Fox renews 'Simpsons'; set to surpass 'Gunsmoke' as longest-running primetime TV series
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Longest. TV show. Ever.

Fox has ordered two more seasons of "The Simpsons" that will make the animated hit the longest-running series in primetime TV history.

The 44-episode pickup will bring the show to a whopping 493 episodes.

"Gunsmoke" has held the record as the longest-running series and was on the air for 20 years (airing on CBS from 1955 to 1975 with 635 episodes). "The Simpsons" and NBC's "Law & Order" have been closing in on the Western classic, with Fox's comedy tying "Gunsmoke" this year and "Order" currently airing its 19th season.

With this renewal, "The Simpsons" (which debuted in 1990) will easily take the lead. And with NBC shedding its 10 p.m. hour and the "L&O" flagship pulling modest numbers, the chances of the crime drama outlasting "The Simpsons" seems unlikely.

"The Simpsons" launched in 1990. Twelve years ago, the show surpassed "The Flintstones" as the longest-running animated series. Outside of ultra-competitive primetime, other programs have been on the air considerably longer. NBC's "Meet the Press" has been around since 1947. CBS' soap "Guiding Light" has been airing since 1952 and NBC's "The Tonight Show" has been in production since 1954.

The "Simpsons" pickup came after 20th TV closed a new deal with James L. Brooks' company Gracie Films on Wednesday. The voice cast was already secured for two more years as part of their most recent contract negotiations.

[MacGuffin]

'Super Size Me' Director Morgan Spurlock To Honor 'The Simpsons'
Source: MTV

This isn't really movie news, but there's a movie based on "The Simpsons" and Morgan Spurlock is an Oscar-nominated director. Put the two of them together, and that's enough for me to write it up here. Especially since I'm a pretty serious "Simpsons" nut.

Fox has announced that Spurlock is producing a for-TV documentary special to air on January 14, 2010 in celebration of "The Simpsons"' 20 years on television. Spurlock's "The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special in 3-D on Ice" will cap off Fox's "Best. 20. Years. Ever." campaign, which launched last January to celebrate the long-running TV series' irreplaceable contributions to our culture. Where else could we have a quote like: "Alcohol is a way of life, alcohol is my way of life and I aim to keep it."

While I'm guessing that the upcoming special will be neither "in 3-D" nor "on ice," Spurlock is uniquely suited to examine "The Simpsons" as a cultural touchstone. He's the right age, for starters. He also has a knack for exploring modern day obsessions: in "Super Size Me" he committed to living on McDonald's meals for a month and his TV series "30 Days" is all about immersing a person in a particular lifestyle. Of course it doesn't hurt that Spurlock is a fan of "The Simpsons" as well.

"When they first called me about this, I thought it was a prank and I hung up," Spurlock said. "And then my agent called back and said, 'No, no, this is for real,' at which point I fainted. Then when I woke up, I called everyone I knew because it was the coolest thing I could ever get to do in my career."

I hear you Morgan. Now you just have to go into hiding until this thing is in the can, lest some crazy obsessive "Simpsons" fan (coughMecough) takes you out for a shot at the job. In all seriousness, I think Spurlock is a top-notch choice for this special and I can't wait to see what he comes up with.

Creator Matt Groening's "The Simpsons" started life in 1987 as a recurring short on "The Tracey Ullman Show," a sketch comedy series conceived by the oft-disguised comedian and voiced by the show's cast members. The first proper episode — "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" — hit the airwaves on December 17, 1989.

I've been tuning in since that very first episode. While I haven't caught every single episode as it has premiered, I have seen them all over the years. Anyone who knows me is always prepared to be assaulted with random, often nonsensical "Simpsons" quotes; as I am fond of saying, there's (at least) one for every occasion.

[SiliasRuby]

hmmmm.....

[picolas]

ugh.

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

Is there any talk of this in any other thread?  The new episode "Homer the Whopper" that was written by Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen was hilarious.

Comic Books Guy gets a fairly quality episode.  This is one of the best new Simpsons episodes I've seen in a while.

[Pas]

haha I was about to come here to post that this was the worst of em all. If there was a funny joke, I didn't get it. And the whole velociraptor eating ben kingsley was way too Family Guy.

Little jab at Entourage from Rogen there...

[OrHowILearnedTo]

the HD opening sequence makes me die a little every time i see it.

[MacGuffin]

Marge Simpson is Playboy cover star
Animated celebrity features on front cover of glamour magazine
Source: guardian.co.uk

She is a devoted wife and mother-of-three. Now the yellow-faced Marge Simpson is about to go blue as the first animated character to grace the cover of Playboy magazine.

Pictures of the November issue were released yesterday showing the television matriarch posing behind a tactfully placed "bunny" chair, wearing only her signature blue barnet.

The glamour magazine cover shoot comes as part of celebrations that mark the 20th anniversary of The Simpsons.

Playboy's founder, Hugh Hefner, hinted recently of a possible Simpsons-Playboy collaboration, tweeting: "Marge Simpson has a surprise for her fans in the November issue of Playboy."

Hefner has also promised an alternative cover featuring Victoria's Secret model, Alina Puscau, photographed by film director Brett Ratner.

Hefner added yesterday: "True fans will want both."

"The Marge Simpson pics were shot by Homer."

Pictures and an interview with Marge will also feature in a three-page centrefold. She follows in the footsteps of Marilyn Monroe and Farrah Fawcett.

Playboy's new CEO, Scott Flanders, says the aim is to attract readers in their 20s to a magazine whose readership currently averages at 35.

He told the Chicago Sun-Times that the shoot is "obviously somewhat tongue-in-cheek. It had never been done, and we thought it would be kind of hip, cool and unusual."

[Stefen]

Leave it to Ratner to fuck up a really, really awesome news article.

Fucking Ratner.

[matt35mm]

I was prepared to come here and say that The Simpsons has been getting better over the past half a year or so.  They must've changed writers because the shift in storytelling strategy is obvious, i.e., there are stories now.

But then I saw today's episode and it was absolute garbage.  Sasha Baron Cohen was guest-starring so they just let him ramble away as a pointless and annoying character.  The plot has Flanders wanting to save Homer rather than hate him, so Flanders invites the Simpsons to join him on his trip to Jeruselem.  But all that follows is a bunch of dumb Jew jokes which were offensive in their inanity.  They were less actual jokes than they were "Hey, Jewy words sound funny, let's say them a lot."  It was also borderline anti-Semetic in places, not in the form of any possibly legitimate criticism of Israel (not that I would expect that from this show, but they do bring up Palestine in one super lousy joke where Homer goes into a strip club called--you guessed it--the Gaza Strip), but just plain ol' stereotyping and pointing fun.  Homer reverts back to being a thoroughly mindless pig, after a few promising episodes of him having some semblance of character and personality.

Terrible.

But still, while the quality has been really uneven, that's still a general boost in quality when the last 7 or 8 seasons have been wall-to-wall crap.  It's a different show now than when it began, because the characters have all become caricatures of themselves, but the good new episodes have re-introduced character-based storytelling and use that to examine the caricatured elements of the characters as they've become.  Some of that has been interesting, so I still want to give them a thumbs up for that.  In the good episodes, the Simpsons actually relate to each other as a family and characters have a reason to do what they do.  Oh, and sometimes it's even actually funny and clever.  It varies wildly, though.

The good new ones are nowhere as good as the classic Simpsons (of course), but it's pulled itself out of the nosedive, which is good news for those of us (and it seems like there are very few indeed) who still bother to watch The Simpsons.

[OrHowILearnedTo]

No, the show hasn't been getting better. None of the new ones are good. This one was especially awful. They haven't changed the writing staff (significantly) in a good 3-4 years. Everything is based on the "so ridiculous it's funny" bullshit. I blame that assclown Matt Selman. Also, the new HD opening sequence literally makes me sick every time i see it, lucky for me my PVR usually cuts off the beginning.

[Stefen]

Futurama>>Simpsons (ALWAYS)

[matt35mm]

Actually, after some reconsideration, I have to retract saying that any of the new episodes are good.  But, I'll stick with saying that some of the new episodes are putting in more story, whereas seasons 13-19 are a solid block of nonsensical random scenes stuck together based on some wacky idea like "Homer does this crazy thing."  These days, many of the episodes are making me laugh, and the story thing, by which I mean that a character causes an incident and reacts which causes another incident until they make a decision that brings things back to normal, and learn something, and the A, B, and C stories connect in some meaningful way.  Just doing that is not really enough to call them good, I know that, and they don't do it deftly anymore, but they're at least doing story.  The crassness of the references to pop culture are still as terrible as always.  But I haven't been able to help being loyal to the show, in that I want to see every episode... so after years of not laughing at The Simpsons, being able to laugh a bit means a lot to me.  It's pathetic, yeah.  But I can't stay away from this show.

I don't really know any details about Matt Selman, but for some reason, I've come to instinctively hate him, too.  I notice his name attached to particularly terrible episodes.  I didn't know he had enough power to be worth blaming for the whole show's derailing, though.

I agree with that the new opening is terrible.

Futurama might well be better than The Simpsons.  I mean, it's certainly true of any of the Simpsons post-season-10, but you might even be right that Futurama as a whole is better than The Simpsons as a whole.  BUT, The Simpsons has been with me practically every day since I was 6 years old or so.  I can't let it go.  I'll always worship at this temple, even if it means that I'm so pathetic that I'm grateful for one or two laughs in a new episode as opposed to none.  Oh well.

[OrHowILearnedTo]

I don't really know any details about Matt Selman, but for some reason, I've come to instinctively hate him, too.  I notice his name attached to particularly terrible episodes.  I didn't know he had enough power to be worth blaming for the whole show's derailing, though.

He's an executive producer and i've heard podcasts where claims to "practically be a showrunner." When I hear him talk, i definitely see connections between his brand of comedy and the "jokes" simpsons episodes usually contain.

The problem is the whole staff seems totally burnt out, but wont admit it beacuse being a writer for the simpsons is obviously a really sweet gig. Its no coincidence that the show was at its best when there was a new showrunner every two seasons and the writing staff switched up more regularly. Most of these guys have been around since seasons 10,11,12... there's obviously only so much you can do with these characters and now they're out of ideas (well they have been for awhile).
yes, there has been an attempt to put a little more effort into developing story, but they're still in love with that camera winking "aint that crazy but hey its the simpsons!" style of storytelling, mostly characterized by the overuse of deus ex machina as a comedic device. This show lacks sincerity.