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The Simpsons

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File:C-SimpFamily.png
The Simpsons. Clockwise from top left: Homer, Marge, Maggie, Santa's Little Helper, Bart, Snowball II, and Lisa

The Simpsons is the longest-running animated television series and sitcom series in U.S. television history, with 15 seasons and 335 episodes since its debut on December 17, 1989. Highly satirical, the show lampoons almost everything possible; mainly, the middle class, "Middle American" lifestyle its titular family exhibits, but more generally American culture, society, the Fox network, and television itself.

Setting, characters, and plot

Created by Matt Groening, The Simpsons is set in the fictional U.S. town of Springfield. A running joke is that the state in which it is located is never explicitly mentioned, although many irreconcilable details are given about it (see Where Is The Simpsons' Springfield?).

The show's basic premise centers on the antics of the family: Homer and Marge, and their children, Bart, Lisa and Maggie, as well as their pets Santa's Little Helper – the dog – and Snowball II – the cat. (Snowball I was run over and killed earlier in Simpsons history.)

Homer is a safety inspector at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant and a generally well-meaning buffoon whose short attention span is often drawn to outrageous schemes and adventures. Marge was once intelligent and sophisticated, but has come to conform with the stereotype of housewife/mother. Bart, the older sibling, is a troublemaker and classroom terror ("a vile burlesque of irrepressible youth" is how Lisa once described him) who thinks of himself as a rebel, while Lisa is a brainy student and jazz music fan who dreams of a better future (she is referred to as "the future of the family"). Maggie is an eternal baby. Despite the fact that numerous years (and birthdays) clearly pass (for example, many Christmas episodes), the Simpsons do not appear to age.

The show also has a vast array of quirky supporting characters, including co-workers, teachers, family friends, extended relatives, and local celebrities. Many of these characters have developed a vast cult following of their own. For a comprehensive list, see characters from The Simpsons.

Authority, especially in undeserving hands, is a constant target of the show's often sharp satire. This probably explains the often strong negative reaction to the show from social conservatives. Nearly every authority figure in the show is portrayed unflatteringly: Homer is thoughtless and irresponsible, the antithesis of the ideal 1950s TV father; though he always comes through for his family in the end. Springfield police chief Clancy Wiggum (voiced by Hank Azaria in an Edward G. Robinson-influenced tone) is obese, stupid, lazy, corrupt and not overly concerned with constitutional rights. Mayor Quimby – who sounds like John F. Kennedy – is a corrupt womanizer. Seymour Skinner, the principal of Springfield Elementary School, is an uptight, humorless bachelor who lives with his domineering mother. He has frequent flashbacks to his capture and imprisonment by the Viet Cong, and he is repeatedly likened to Norman Bates in Psycho. Reverend Lovejoy, the pastor of the local church, is jaded and moralistic. While most of these characters are more incompetent than truly evil, there is one true sadist: Montgomery Burns, owner of the Springfield Nuclear Plant and Homer Simpson's boss; he is often compared to Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane. It is probably not a coincidence that Harry Shearer's voice for Montgomery Burns closely resembles his voice for former US President Ronald Reagan.

The show also routinely mocks and satirizes show business conventions and personalities. Krusty the Clown has an enthusiastic following among Springfield's kids, but offstage he is a jaded, cynical hack, in poor health from a long history of overindulgence and substance abuse. He will endorse any product for a price. Kent Brockman is a self-important, spoiled TV news anchorman with little regard for journalistic ethics, possibly thanks to the fact that he won the lottery in one episode. Viewers also learn that Brockman had an ethnic name in the 1960s, which he anglicized by the time the Simpsons episodes of the 1990s take place.

The plots of most episodes focus on the adventures of one particular family member, frequently Homer. However the plots have never been very predictable or constant and tend to be very character-driven. Recurring themes in episodes include:

  • Homer gets a new job, or attempts to make money in a get-rich-quick scheme.
  • Marge attempting to escape the monotony of keeping house by finding employment.
  • Bart causing a large problem and attempting to fix it.
  • Lisa embracing or advocating the merits of a particular political cause or group.
  • The entire family going on vacation. (They have visited every continent on Earth with the exception of Antarctica.)

There are also a number of different types of scenes that recur often, in many different episodes, that have become conventions of the show's storytelling style. Examples of these stock scenes include:

  • A scene at the very beginning of the show in which the family goes somewhere together, like a cartoon festival or a cider mill. After a few minutes there, the main plot begins.
  • A scene, often near the middle of the show, in which Homer and Marge are in bed together discussing the events of the story so far.
  • A scene in which the family is eating dinner together and talking about the events of the plot. Conceptually, very similar to the "Homer and Marge in bed" scenes, but including Bart and Lisa.
  • A scene in the morning in which Marge is preparing breakfast, and the kids and Homer are eating before going to work or school as they talk about what they are going to do. This is often near the start of the episode.
  • A scene in which Homer is at Moe's Tavern escaping the hassles of work and family to be with his friends.
  • A scene in which one or more Simpsons are watching a TV program, which we watch along with them.
  • A crowd scene, in which the entire town of Springfield convenes to witness some notable event, protest something, attend a civic meeting, or even start a riot. Many recurring minor characters appear and speak.
  • TV anchorman Kent Brockman reporting on the events of the plot.
  • Scenes that cut from the main action to show what a secondary character, like Krusty or Mr. Burns, is doing at the time.
  • A fantasy in which one of the Simpsons imagines how something might turn out.

Series history

The Simpson Family first appeared in animated form as shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, the first short Good Night airing on April 19, 1987. (The shorts were not aired by the BBC in the UK, though some of them, including Good Night, were included in a Simpsons anniversary episode.) The Simpsons was converted, by a team of production companies that included what is now the Klasky-Csupo animation house, into a series for the Fox Network in 1989 and has run as a weekly show on that network ever since. (view photo of original Simpsons)

In September of 1990, Barbara Bush said in an interview for People magazine that The Simpsons was the dumbest thing she'd ever seen. Later, an episode had George and Barbara Bush move to Springfield and leave after George gets involved in a feud with the Simpson family. One of the Simpsons DVD sets includes a special feature that presents an exchange of letters between the First Lady and show staff.

The writers have shown a love for cameo appearances by celebrities and extended pastiches of contemporary and classic movies, as well as subtle visual jokes.

On February 9, 1997 The Simpsons surpassed The Flintstones as the longest-running prime-time animated series; and in January 2003, it was announced that the show had been renewed by Fox through 2005 – meaning it has replaced The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952 to 1966) as longest-running sitcom (animated or live-action) ever in the United States. If the series survives until its 20th season in 2009, it will tie Gunsmoke's record as the longest-running prime time series (of any genre) in American television history.

In its 1998 issue celebrating the greatest achievements in arts and entertainment of the 20th Century, TIME Magazine named The Simpsons the century's best television series. In that same issue, Bart Simpson was named to the Time 100, the publication's list of the century's 100 most influential people. He was the only fictional character on the list.

Since the series originated as part of The Tracey Ullman Show, it is also considered the longest running and most successful spinoff of all time.

The voice actors have gone on strike on more than one occasion. In 1998, the actors were making $30,000 per episode and stopped working, forcing 20th Century Fox TV to renegotiate the amount to $125,000. Six actors (playing over 50 characters) – Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, and Harry Shearer – stopped showing up for script readings in April 2004. They asked for $360,000 per episode, or $8 million for a 22-episode season. On May 2, 2004, the actors ended their strike after having their demands met.

Origin of the names

Characters in the Simpsons take their names from important people and places in Groening's life:

  • Lisa – Lisa Groening (Matt Groening's sister)
  • Marge – Margaret Groening (his mother)
  • Homer – Homer Groening (his father and one of his sons)
  • Maggie – Maggie Groening (one of his sisters)
  • Bart – an anagram for "brat", a reference to Groening himself
  • Abraham – Matt Groening's grandfather
  • 742 Evergreen Terrace is the address of the place where Matt Groening grew up.
  • Chief Wiggum – Groening's college love's last name was "Wiggum"
  • Seymour Skinner – behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner
  • Miss Hoover (Lisa's teacher) – one of his primary school teachers
  • Moe – Matt Groening's former drug rehab counselor
  • Apu (Kwik-E-Mart owner) – reference to one of his favourite movies
  • Ned Flanders – In Portland, Groening's hometown, there is a street called NE Flanders St. (from which one could deduce – Ned Flanders, Saint)
  • Maude, Rod and Todd Flanders – they all rhyme with "god"
  • Kang and Kodos (aliens) – In the original Star Trek, Kang is a Klingon, and Kodos ("The Executioner") is a human villain
  • Barney Gumble (Homer's drinking buddy) – Barney Rubble from The Flintstones
  • Troy McClure (actor) – B-movie actors Troy Donohue and Doug McClure
  • Dr. Nick Riviera (enterprising physician) – Elvis Presley's physician, George C. Nichopoulos, was called Dr. Nick

Opening sequence

The Simpsons opening sequence is one of the show's most memorable trademarks. Almost every episode opens with a title shot coming through the cumulus clouds and into the school where Bart is writing sentences on the class chalkboard, presumably set as a punishment by one of his teachers for some mischievous deed or wayward comment; Marge and Maggie are shown checking out at the supermarket with Maggie travelling across the scanner, ringing up at $847.63. The sequence then introduces Lisa and Homer, where the family is on their way to their house at 742 Evergreen Terrace (the address varied in the beginning, but the writers now use 742 Evergreen Terrace exclusively). The members of the family weave dangerously through traffic and in between fellow (and familiar) Springfield denizens, miraculously reaching home at the exact same time. Upon entering, they all speed towards the family room couch where, in comedic parallel with the audience, they settle to watch their "must-see" TV show.

For each episode, the sequence includes four variations: Bart writes something different on the chalkboard, Lisa plays a different solo on her saxophone, Homer screams in a differing way, and the attempt of the family to sit on the couch goes awry in an often surreal manner.

In the syndicated version, all or part of the opening sequence is usually not broadcast in order to include more commercials in the show's allotted timeslot.

The "couch gag" sequence is frequently used to help show staff make the show longer or shorter, depending on the length of the episode itself. Most couch gags last only about five seconds, but longest one on record took up 46 seconds.

The first season opening sequence featured a number of differences from the later seasons, including a shot of Lisa riding her bike on the way home and Bart's way home consisting of snatching a bus stop sign, forcing several dazed Springfieldians to chase the bus, rather than just riding past a number of well-known characters.

The series' distinctive theme tune was composed by musician Danny Elfman. The current arrangement was orchestrated by Alf Clausen.

See also: Simpsons couch gag

Halloween episodes

An annual tradition is a special Halloween episode, entitled Treehouse of Horror, consisting of three separate, self-contained pieces. The tradition began in the second season with Bart and Lisa telling scary stories to each other in their treehouse while Homer secretly listened in. Neither Bart nor Lisa was scared, but Homer was terrified. In later years the episode dropped the treehouse storytelling "frame", but kept the Treehouse title; for several years the characters broke the fourth wall and introduced their pieces directly to the audience. These pieces usually involve the family in some fantasy setting, and always takes place outside the normal continuity and rules of the show. Regular Simpsons characters play humorous special roles, and the two space aliens Kang and Kodos, featured in the original Treehouse episode, always make an appearance, albeit sometimes at the last minute and for no reason but simply to continue the tradition of their appearances. These Halloween segments have parodied many classic horror and science fiction films, and one segment is often a parody of a classic Twilight Zone television episode. The Halloween episodes have traditionally been quite popular, but really stupid and farty.

In a section of "Treehouse of Horror VI" called "Homer³ ", Homer and Bart go into a three-dimensional world. The computer animation company Pacific Data Images created the only time any part of The Simpsons was not drawn in 2D.

Voice actors and their characters

  • Dan Castellaneta: Homer Simpson, Grampa Simpson, Santa's Little Helper, Barney Gumble, Krusty The Clown, Groundskeeper Willie, Mayor Quimby, Gil, Sideshow Mel, Itchy, Hans Moleman, Kodos, Arnie Pie, and others.
  • Nancy Cartwright: Bart Simpson, Nelson Muntz, Todd Flanders, Ralph Wiggum, Kearney, and others.
  • Julie Kavner: Marge Simpson, Patty Bouvier, Selma Bouvier, Jacqueline Bouvier.
  • Yeardley Smith: Lisa Simpson.
  • Hank Azaria: Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, Moe Szyslak, Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy, Lou, Carl Carlson, Dr. Nick Riviera, Snake, Bumblebee Man, Professor Frink, Cletus, Kirk Van Houten, Superintendent Chalmers, Drederick Tatum, Squeaky-Voiced Teen, Crazy Old Man, and others.
  • Harry Shearer: Montgomery Burns, Waylon Smithers, Ned Flanders, Principal Skinner, Otto Mann, Reverend Tim Lovejoy, Dr. Julius Hibbert, Jasper, Lenny Leonard, Eddie, Rainier Wolfcastle, Scratchy, Dr. Marvin Monroe, Kang, Kent Brockman, Herman, and others.
  • Maggie Roswell: Maude Flanders, Helen Lovejoy, Elizabeth Hoover, Luann Van Houten, and others.
  • Pamela Hayden: Milhouse Van Houten, Jimbo Jones, Rod Flanders, Janey Powell, and others.
  • Tress MacNeille: Lindsay Naegle, Agnes Skinner, Cookie Kwan, Dolph, Brandine, and others.
  • Phil Hartman: Lionel Hutz, Troy McClure; (both characters were 'retired' after his tragic death)

Guest celebrities

Many episodes feature celebrity guests contributing their voices to the show, as either themselves or fictional characters.

See list of celebrities on the Simpsons

Memes

Several memes (often neologisms) that started on The Simpsons have now become mainstream words or sayings. The most famous of which is Homer's saying: "D'oh!", which is referred to in scripts, as well as at least one episode name, as "annoyed grunt". D'oh is now listed in the OED, but without the apostrophe. "D'oh" is the accepted spelling, and is certainly the most common; the closed captions for the program (at least in the U.S.), however, spell it "D-OHH".

Groundkeeper Willie's phrase, "cheese-eating surrender monkeys", used to describe the French, was picked up by US politicians and publications in 2003, after European and especially French opposition to the proposed war in Iraq.

The expression "excellent" – drawn out as a lisping "eeeexcelllent..." in the style of Montgomery Burns – has also entered popular use.

The show's creators also take pride in having passed on schoolyard rhymes to a new generation of children who otherwise may not have heard them.

Other memes are listed on the article Made-up words in The Simpsons

Music

Music has been a recurring theme in The Simpsons with virtually all members of the cast breaking into song at least during the course of the series. Perhaps the best known song is "Do the Bartman", released as a single and becoming an international success.

Trivia

  • KBBL is a fictional talk radio station in Springfield, used in the show. The call letters represent the word "babble."
  • Groening named many of the characters in the show after his own family members, and some after streets in Portland, Oregon, where he grew up.
  • The Simpsons is executive produced and developed by: The Mary Tyler Moore Show producer James L. Brooks, Cheers writer Sam Simon, and of course Matt Groening.
  • Almost any riot, in above crowd reference, is started by Moe Szyslak of Moe's Tavern.

TV Series & Movies within The Simpsons

TV channels that air The Simpsons

See: TV channels that air The Simpsons

Academia

Serious academic work has been done on the show. Among the publications that deal with it are:

  • Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation by Chris Turner ISBN 0679313184
  • The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh! of Homer by William Irwin (Editor), Mark T. Conard (Editor), Aeon Skoble (Editor) ISBN 0812694333
  • The Gospel According to The Simpsons: The Spiritual Life of the World's Most Animated Family by Mark I. Pinsky ISBN 0664224199

Related topics

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