Homer Smokes the Competition
After having ordered two more seasons of The Simpsons, FOX has cleared the way for the show to soon become the longest running primetime show in American television history. It will edge out Gunsmoke for the title. Add in the Tracey Ullman years, and your average undergrad has never lived in a world without Homer.
I think it’s worth pointing out that primetime television’s longest resident will also therefore be one of its more iconoclastic. More after the fold …
Admittedly, many of The Simpsons‘ more controversial days are behind it: principals aren’t still banning Bart Simpson t-shirts (are they?), and McCain/Palin didn’t blame the excesses of the Bush years on the Simpson family. Also, The Simpsons‘ role in halting the ever-onward progress of the traditional family sitcom ended over a decade ago. The mantle of edgy show passed to South Park, Chappelle’s Show, and various other Comedy Central outings many years back. The Simpsons can also be found advertising many products or services in ad breaks, and thus the anti-consumerist ethos of the show has been tempered by its paratexts (as it was from the beginning, in all fairness, with Bart a spokesperson for Butterfinger right from the get go). So I don’t want to overstate.
But at the same time, the bar for iconoclasm on primetime television, especially primetime network television, is pretty low. And The Simpsons has been parodying and satirizing American television and life for over twenty years. Being a Simpsons fan seemingly requires one to bemoan how the show has lost it, and is but a shadow of its former self, but it can still pack a powerful punch. Its Treehouse of Horror special in 2006 about the Iraq War was strong, biting satire. Ralph Wiggum’s run for President (“Pick a Winner”) made waves. Homer’s encounter with a voting machine went viral this last year. And while fans usually point to seasons 4-7 for its most consistent run of brilliance, it can still offer pitch perfect satire, a genre that proves all too rare on primetime network television.
Fox execs have often noted how monumentally important the show was to the network’s success. It has garnered billions of dollars in syndication revenues. It has traveled the world. A family friend who ran one of Canada’s largest advertising firms insisted that it had one of the longest queues of would-be advertisers, due to its appeal to key advertiser demographics.
All this while having network television’s only true environmentalist and one of its only feminists, little Lisa Simpson; while consistently criticizing its own parent company; while taking frequent swipes at the corporate conservative politics of presidents Bush 1.0, Bush 2.0, and Clinton; and while breeding a generation of comedy writers who would go on to do similar things elsewhere on television. American network television, we’re often told, likes and needs to play it safe, doesn’t like controversy, and has an aversion to anything that bucks the status quo. Yet its longest running, and one of its most lucrative programs ever violates those rules.
I’m used to seeing smart shows that I love get canceled. And when they get the axe, it’s easy to blame Hollywood for caring more about trite, repetitive junk like According to Jim than about smart and provocative shows. One can easily imagine how Bryan Fuller might have been asked to make Pushing Daisies look more like CSI: Pie Hole after low ratings in the first year, or how Arrested Development’s notes likely included requests to slow and dumb it down. One can find politically interesting shows on television, but many of them are on cable, as network television still too often proves itself scared of difference.
Well, to the networks, I implore you to look at your best success. By playing it safe, you might get four or five seasons of a middling show that will be watched, yet easily forgotten. But look what The Simpsons has done.
Go, Homer, Go!!!!