Hard to believe a Christmas Special starring the characters from the interstitials on The Tracy Ullman show would lead to a 30-year run on network TV in America. Well, years later James L. Brooks and Matt Groening would reveal how the original plan was to launch The Simpsons during the Fall of 1989 but miscommunication with the Korean animators led to a delay until January 1990. The Christmas episode was ready so they rolled the dice with it first (several others were go to go too but a holiday story has better odds of getting a strong draw).
Anyway, on this great anniversary, once again another pundit wants to talk shit about how the show isn’t as good as it used to be…blah blah blah.
Firstly, all TV shows evolve and change for the better, worse and somewhere in between. Case in point, SNL. When it debuted in the mid Seventies, it was edgy, revolutionary and the guests were esoteric but relevant to the comedy it promoted. Today, it’s an institution and the hosts are often flavor-of-the-month types. The Simpsons wouldn’t be any different, especially when viewed through Marx’s still valid theory of history (shortened); something new, daring is the antithesis colliding against the thesis; in the early Nineties, it would be Cheers, SNL, Married…with Children and The Cosby Show. Should this survive and prevail, as the show did, the result is a synthesis; its elements are combined with the opposition forming the new thesis. Repeat. Or in more plain language, The Simpsons became the establishment.
Secondly, I don’t buy into the complaints involving the dated references. I wouldn’t say the constant nods to Citizen Kane in the first eight seasons were exactly something Gen X understood easily then. The author’s argument would be an utter failure if applied to another well-loved franchise…Mystery Science Theater 3000.
I for one am looking forward to getting through all 30 years on Disney+! Once they put the earlier seasons’ aspect ratios back into place.