D'oh!

[captainsblog]

Today's entry is brought to you by One O'Clock™ brand Insomnia. One O'Clock™- it isn't just for midnight snacks anymore!

The story so far:
Day 01 - A show that should have never been canceled
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching
Day 03 - Your favorite new show (aired this TV season)
Day 04- Your favorite show ever
Day 05 - A show you hate

"Hate" is a bit much, but I have never, not ever, liked The Simpsons as anything other than a short.

That's weird in a way, because I liked them enough when they started out that way, as filler on The Tracey Ullman Show in the 80s. At least two of the long-time voices of the main characters- Marge's and Homer's- came from regulars of Tracey's ensemble cast. In short segments, they were smart, and funny, and pointed. One of the ones we still quote from before retiring some evenings is this one, in which Marge tenderly reassures Lisa right before putting her to bed for the night.  We'll still look at each other wide-eyed and say, "BEDBUGS?!?"

Part of my dislike stems from the apparent war between Tracey and Matt Groening's camps over the rights to those early episodes, which have reportedly kept her entire series out of the video market. There was an awful lot of good comedy in the non-animated segments of that show, from improvisational to physical (one of the latter I remember was a dance duet between Tracey and Steve Martin called "Skin the Duck" that I can still quote lines from), and it's a shame that those moments are caught in a development-hell war between them.

Once the characters, and especially Bart, became their own transcendant entities in the 90s, I never found the business to be worth the bother. It seemed more a reworked riff on Married....with Children than anything all that edgy. I picked up Homer's "d'oh!" and a bizarre inflection of "Exxxxxcellent, Mr. Burns!" which Emily tells me makes no sense whatsoever, but I never "got" most of what there was to "get."

Is it even on anymore? I don't watch anything on Fox these days except the occasional Saturday Met game, and even those have been pretty intolerable of late.

Comments

[platypus]

I liked the Simpsons on Tracey Ullman too. They had a bit more of an edge back then. As a standalone show, it's annoyed me more and more over the years, to the point where now I can't stand it if Ken watches it while I cook dinner. (I make him put on the Daily Show instead, and turn it up so I can hear it.) It is, unfortunately, still on. And on, and on... I like Matt Groening's sense of humor, and I still like his Akbar and Jeff cartoons and his bunny cartoons, but I hate his animation. My general annoyance has expanded to include Futurama as well. Something about the illustration style and the voice acting grates on my nerves.