Matt Groening reveals location of Simpsons' Springfield Simpsons creator Matt Groening has revealed the location of Springfield, the setting for The Simpsons. In an interview with The Smithsonian, Groening says The Simpsons live in Springfield, Oregon, the setting for the radio and television drama Father Knows Best. Groening says he liked Father Knows Best as a child and, growing …
They still have the odd pearl... They've just got to stop trying to be Family Guy or South Park (their 6 months to make an episode vs 2 weeks for SP) and just go back to being a simple animated family sitcom, and it will be fine. The more it tries to be "relevant" and "now", the more the weakness in its production system hurt it.
ALL comedy shows stop being funny after several series. The writers and creators need to move on. None of the shows that go much past 5 seasons still have that ZING!
So some might argue that the long running shows still pull out an occasional "gem". Is that really worth the pain and investment in the other 20+ episodes?
If you came up with one good show, prove you've got real talent by inventing more. Don't just milk the lame public with the same old drivel week in, week out.
Heck, haven't seen that video for, er 29 years, thanks for sharing! Some of todays wannabe's could learn something about (cheesy) pop music and videos from that.
I must be getting on a bit as I am fairly sure I have some Tracey Ullman 7 inch vinyl in the cupboard under the stairs.. will have to dig it out and play it later....
What, it's the Simpsons we're talking about? Doh....
You mean now, in Japan?
Seriously, they do. I catch odd snippets on the French ADSL-only TV channel Nolife, which has extensive coverage of Japanese pop music, and an awful lot of them look like (caricatures of) late-teen schoolgirls, complete with the skirts almost long enough to be belts, etc. (I say caricatures because *in school* their uniforms are a bit longer than that - mid-thigh is on the short side, and winter uniforms are often ankle-length.)
Then again, lot of Japanese pop stars would make the majority of Western artists (KISS and Lordi aside) look like they are normal citizens.
Japan is an odd place.
Grew up just south of Eugene/Springfield, dad worked in the paper mill in Springfield. Springfield doesn't smell too bad if you're close enough to the mill, get about a mile out and the sulfur hits. Not a whole lot out there besides rednecks, Eugene has UO, springfield has the loggers. Some other outlets were talking about how "near" it is to Portland -- it's a 3 hour drive or train trip, not next door like they make it sound. But if you're ever in PDX go to the Alphabet District to see the streets he named people after, and then on SW 18th and Taylor by Lincoln High School, he drew Bart in the cement, as that was where he graduated from.
But that's only 6-7,000 years ago though (according to a story in an old book I heard about once) - or was that the first episode of 'The Sky at Night' - or are they in fact the SAME THING!!!! - so easy to get confused - - big old man, only a few can claim to have heard and understood him, stars, planets, etc.....
THAT'S IT - Patrick Moore is god, and he created the universe (a.k.a first episode of The Sky at Night) 7,000 years ago - in those days it was planned to be a nightly show running for 6 days (Patrick to have a rest on the 7th) and he covered different things on each day, Firmament, Earth, etc. Due to a stomach bug he picked-up at an office party in an early Wimpy he was replaced for the rest of the week by Richard Attenborough, who changed the topic slightly and covered humans, plants, and animals. After the ratings (Patrick saw it was good) it was decided to let Patrick continue with the star-version - Sir Richard would get hos chance nearly 7000 years later in his Life series.
:-)
I've just renounced my faith in the FSM, and will join as your disciple in building this brave new church. Richard Attenborough did create the dinosaurs from lumps of golden amber- I've seen documentary evidence, passed down in ancient tomes bearing the mysterious inscription 'VHS'. He also spoke unto the prophet Ghandi Kingsley, as lo he spread the Great Dick's message to all who would believe in him.
Shame it didn't take off to the same extent as The Simpsons, but that may be related to its funniness/cleverness.
South Park still does a decent job most of the time, although it is getting increasingly patchy
I thought The Simpsons should have retired gracefully about 12 yrs ago, I don't even bother watching any more.
Fact is, sometimes you just run out of jokes for any given setup then you jump the shark. Keeping on flogging old formats into the ground stifles creativity, risk, and trying something new.
I've watched the few South Park episodes of the current series and have barely laughed once. They are truly awful. Shame, seeing as there have been some cracking episodes over the last few years. Hopefully it's a blip.
The Simpsons has definitely got tired over the years (Bart would be 35 now if he'd aged) but there's still the occasional good episode. They've suffered by trying to write episodes around guests, and by letting Ricky Gervais do one.
As for Family Guy, there's a show which should have been off the air a long time ago. And it's _still_ the best thing on BBC3.
I have a theory about the lack of funnees. IMO the point it stopped being funny was when guest stars began appearing as themselves. In the early days they would play characters but now its all about coming up with the most unbelievable story lines to explain how Homer J gets to meet this weeks celeb guest.
Yep, I liked Spinal Tap, Barry White, The Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney meeting Homer Jay, but recently, the likes of N-Sync and Ricky Gervais can just sod off. They do spoil it.
But I can't be mad at a show that has Homer holding a box of locusts whilst walking towards the house of George Bush:
"So son, I thought to myself 'What would God do in this situation'"?
As far as I can make out, it's not been renewed for another season. Currently waiting for the last few episodes to filter through. Please show me wrong, though!
For those who haven't seen it: Think Spaced with Chevy Chase but completely different. And paintball.
That's a recommendation.
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?q=Springfield+Oregon&hl=en&sll=44.25897,-123.060608&sspn=1.508724,4.22699&gl=au&hnear=Springfield,+Lane,+Oregon,+United+States&t=m&z=12,
also
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timberline_Lodge
.......All work and no play makes jack a dull boy!
I don't know. the Simpson's can still be pretty cutting edge satirical at times. I remember one episode where they got this international war criminal called Tony Blair to guest star as a regular salt-of-the earth Prime Minister type geezer.
How we howled with laughter cringed with embarrassment!
Two of the best comedy series ever, ran to a massive 12 episodes each across two series.
I'm talking about Fawlty Towers and the Young Ones.
There is much more
Brass Eye: Six episodes
The Day Today: One series
The Fast Show: Three series
I can go on, but the one thing noticeable is they are all British. The trouble with Merkin shows is while they might be funny to start with, they have to flog the dead and buried horse, killing any fondness for the original humour.
With The Fast Show, it was more like 3.5 series as they did a three-part ‘Last Show Ever’ – the recent online shows indicate prove your point about cutting it short.
However, in defence of American shows, there were 143 episodes of The Phil Silvers Show (AKA Bilko) and it was always to a high standard.
The Jack Benny Show ran for 23 years on the radio and they were certainly not flogging a dead horse by the end. The TV version lasts for 15 years and again, it kept a consistently high quality.
Lum and Abner ran for 23 years on the radio (plus they did 7 films) and apart from they briefly changed the format (before changing it swiftly back), it was to a very consistent standard. The show was so popular that one American town changed its name to the fictional setting in the show.
And of course, there was King of the Hill – 13 seasons of glorious seasons, which was cancelled to make way for Sit Down and Shut Up, and The Cleveland Show.
Yup, I'll give you that those were old shows (except for KOTH) - although I can think of quite a lot more of other American shows of yesteryear that were remarkably consistent for years... some not in a good way. I remember Paul Whitehouse being interviewed by Paul Jackson, who asked him about classic comedies influenced and Whitehouse saying that a lot of it nostalgia - for every Hancock, there are five shows that are crap but people don't like to remember that.
Anyway, upvoted for liking Silvers!
He's been saying it's the one in Oregon for at least a couple years now. OTOH, the comment about Portlanders being in denial about how much it rains here is new. Not sure what he means by that-- I mean, it's not raining right now, and when I say it's not raining right now, I really mean it's not raining right now, and it's even been not raining for the last several minutes. So there!
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