'Simpsons,' 'Family Guy' trade barbs

NEW YORK (AP) � The Simpsons took a shot at fellow Fox cartoon Family Guy. So that series' creator is taking a shot right back. Seth MacFarlane said an episode of The Simpsons where a Homer Simpson clone was identified as Family Guy dad Peter Griffin was "definitely a slam."

But since the Family Guy team dishes out plenty of its own insults, it should be able to take some, MacFarlane told Blender magazine.

"To me, Peter is much more similar to Ralph Kramden than he is to Homer, right down to his voice," he said, referring to the character from The Honeymooners. "That's what I see. But because The Simpsons and Family Guy are really the only two shows of their kind of television, there'll be comparisons made."

MacFarlane said he was definitely influenced by The Simpsons.

"I mean, in its prime, it was one of the greatest comedy shows of all time," he said. "But it's not the show it was. It can't be. You can't do 16 seasons and be consistent."

I like Family Guy but Seth MacFarlane shouldn't take shots at anyone for not being consistent. Family Guy is very hit or miss.

On 14 Jul 2005 05:43:54 -0700, "Kyle B." wrote:

I think he was just being kind. The Simpsons went down the tubes a few years ago and today the people producing it show no sign of knowing anything about comedy whatsoever.

In article , Kyle B. wrote:

Oh, he's just trash talkin' a bit. No harm.

I concur, they do not stand up well to time at all. "WTF humour" doesn't mix well with familiarity.

Family Guy is definitely an entertaining show, but let's look at the similarties to The Simpsons:

Both families live in two-story houses in the suburbs: -Families consist of father, mother, son, daughter, baby and dog (plus Simpsons have a cat) -Stupid, fat fathers -Both mothers have nasally voices, with New York accents and agreeable personalities -Quagmire from FG has similar elongated facial features as Lenny from The Simpsons. -Quagmire is best friends with a mellow black guy and they always hang out in a bar. Lenny is best friends with a mellow black guy (Carl) and they always hang out in a bar.

On the Simpsons, four men always hang out together at the local bar. On FG, four men always hang out together at the local bar.

-Family Guy relies heavily on the "cut away" scenes which The Simpsons have repeatedly utilized in their episodes. (Where someone starts talking about something, i.e. in the past, and the scene just cuts away to that scene the character is talking about without visually showing any transition or visual cues that a "daydream" is taking place.)

In a recent episode of Family Guy, Peter had a scene with a life insurance agent where he said he was leaving his policy to the piece of pie on the chair next to him. When the agent then asked about the pie, Peter had already eaten the pie. That is SO Homer Simpson.

Family Guy definitely has fresher ideas than the newer Simpsons, but Seth MacFarlane needs to acknowledge that The Simpsons paved the way for his show.

Also, the similarity of Stewie's voice/character to that of Mr. Burns from The Simpsons.

In article , 888eight888 wrote:

Uuhhh... he did.

The article stated: "MacFarlane said he was definitely influenced by The Simpsons."

...but then he goes on to say: "I mean, in its prime, it was one of the greatest comedy shows of all time," he said. "But it's not the show it was. It can't be. You can't do 16 seasons and be consistent."

Keeping in mind all of the similarities I listed and the fact that without The Simpsons format there would be no Family Guy: Macfarlane should show nothing but respect.

He should be saying things like, "The Simpsons people are the greatest...without them I wouldn't be here..Those guys laid the foundation for people like me to have a successful, prime time animated sitcom."

Instead, he's taking subtle shots for The Simpsons not being what it used to be. It's also on the same channel as his show, so he shouldn't be knocking it all...

On 15 Jul 2005 10:44:46 -0700, "888eight888" scribed into the ether:

Why? If he feels that the show has slid in quality, he can make note of it if he wants to. Are Yankee fans not allowed to mention the fact that The Babe was a gambling, drinking, whoremonger just because he could hit the baseball really well?

This word, "subtle", does not mean what you think it means.

Uh huh...the ties of network solidarity went away in the 70s.

Hell, the Simpsons beats up on Fox and Rupert Murdock all the damn time.

North By North Quahog...I vaguely seem to recall that episode opened with a minute-long Fox bashing...

Now, I hate Family Guy with a passion, and I loved the golden age of the Simpsons, but it /has/ slid. I can't even watch episodes from the last few seasons.

Agreed (regarding The Simpsons, not Family Guy). Speaking as someone who has every Simpsons boxed-set released so far, I'm planning to stop after season 7.

In article , 888eight888 wrote:

Why is everybody such a big baby these days?

So he didn't fellate the Simpson's crew as much as you think he should have. Who cares?

"Quiet Desperation" wrote in message news:150720051827097578%[email]...

You shouldn't go off your medication without your doctor's approval.

"888eight888" wrote in message news:[email]...

I don't believe Marge Simpson has a New York accent. But the rest of your post was right on.

888eight888 wrote:

You're right. There has never been another show ever where a family lives in a two-story house in the suburbs.

You're right. There has never been another show ever with a family consisting of a father, mother, son, daughter and baby.

You're right. There has never been another show ever featuring a stupid, fat father (or husband).

You're right. There has never been another show ever with a mother (or wife) with a nasal voice.

You're right. There has never been a another cartoon ever featuring a character with an elongated face.

I can't speak to the preponderance of black characters in TV show, but you're right. There has never been another show ever where people hang out in a bar.

Man, I could do this all day.

_The Simpsons_ _never_ did this until _Family Guy_ came around. (That's not sarcasm, btw.) The sudden introduction of cutaways that _The Simpsons_ made was painfully obvious.

BTW, Marge's voice is gravelly, not nasal, and she doesn't even _have_ a New York accent. Huh?

--  wb

Actually I remember it as early as season 3, way before Family Guy came around. (Brother Can You Spare Two Dimes with Danny DeVito, Marge mentions the washing machine/dryer are going crazy, cut to them with Snowball II running away as they come toward her).

Andy wrote in reply to me:

Ehhhhhhh... kinda. The washer/dryer cutaway (which I love) was concurrent with the action of the show. The more random type of cutaway we saw from the get-go on _Family Guy_, either to a previous nonsensical event (Meg picnicking with her "boyfriend") or an out-there random pop-culture reference (Barbara Streisand and James Brolin at home) or a combination of both (Peter at Jon-Benet Ramsey's funeral, or Hanson's tour bus pulling up at the house, or the Six Million Dollar Man parody) preceded similar bits (or at least an obvious increase in frequency) on _The Simpsons_ (the Joe Millioniare parody is a glaring example).

--  wb

When has the simpsons done a family guy style cut away?

Once Upon A Time Funky wrote:

This question deserves to be top-posted, because the entire post you quoted answers it.

** Captain Infinity

I was pointing out the collection of the MANY similarities - not individual similarities by themselves.

man...I can't believe you actually said that. Family Guy obtained it's whole format directly from The Simpsons. My point of listing the similarities is that FG is not very original (although entertaining) in it's concept. And I was saying this because of Seth MacFarlane's comments implying that The Simpsons aren't what they used to be. He lifted The SImpsons and then turns around and says that it's played out - that's just bad form.

IMHO; both Marge and Lois have New York accents. (But I suppose Marge has more of a "gravel" then "nasal" quality to her voice.)

"888eight888" wrote in message news:[email]...

let's look at the

snip

Family Guy actually really sucks! I wouldn't even mention it in the same sentence as The Simpsons (Sacred be its name!)! (Of course, American Dad sucks even worse.) ...tonyC

Anthony Cerrato wrote:

Like the ep of FG where they go to the witness relocation program. Soooooooo been done before. It's like, The Simpsons is the gold standard Looney Tunes that set the bar and Family Guy's the barfy Ren and Stimpy... the same-old, same-old that's recycling the earlier, far better concepts.

"Taylor" wrote in message news:hvVJe.6656$[email]...

You seen the Simpsons already did it episode of South Park? Although I don't argue that The Simpsons are good and have been original, but it's not like they don't recycle ideas, everyone does (which becomes the point of that South Park episode) you just gotta do it in your own way. A good example may be the amount of times they have done Citizen Kane, Rosebud was pretty much just Citizen Kane, except shorter and funny! (& I know that they do it deliberately and do it to parody the film etc...) Newer episodes of The Simpsons are even recycling older episodes ideas and then proceed to coment on the fact time and time again!

Yet they did it with talent when the Simps did it with crap in their head...

I think you'd have to be mad to think that the Simpsons can hold a candle to Family Guy nowadays.

Now, if you were talking 10 years ago. But thats a long long time.

Smid

Well then I guess the only difference left is that Family Guy is a young show so good it was uncancelled while The Simpsons is an old show stupid and bereft of any originality that only stays on the air because people are just used to watching it.

hitokiri wrote:

The Simpsons is like The Flintstones (a classic) and Family Guy is like The Flintstone Kids (the detested lame knock off decades later).

Taylor wrote:

At least The Flintstones had the decency to get cancelled before it got mind-numbingly, sickeningly, unwatchably bad.

How do you know that it's bad if you're not watching it?

"Phaedrus" wrote in message news:[email]...

before it got

Well, take it from me, The Simpsons is far from that! In fact is is still one of the funniest shows on the air, bar none. Maybe it's you. Try taking a brush-up course in "funny." ...tonyC

The Simpsons can still be reasonably funny, on occasion, but try to find more than an episode or two from the last 5 years that can hold a candle to seasons 2-5.

Ubiquitous wrote:

Are we talking, then, about the "Mr. Plow" rant in Sunday's episode (4ACX11)?

Matt Garvey wrote:

I guess, although that seemed like more of a homage than a "shot." If it weren't for the bad blood, I'd think the _Simpsons_ staff would find it hilarious.

--  wb

Is there really bad blood? Between whom? We're not talking about that Yahoo story a few weeks back, are we?

What kicked off this supposed feud?

"Matt Garvey" wrote ...

How did you see that already?

"Jorabi" wrote in news:kSLHe.2$[email]:

I think "Sunday's episode" meant this past Sunday's episode. Even so, it was a repeat of "8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenage Daughter" which originally aired 10 July.

Jim

"Jim" wrote ...

Yeah, I thought it was a rerun last week. So it could not have been 4x11, which didn't air yet.

"Jorabi" wrote in message news:gcMHe.8$[email]...

4ACX11 is the production # of "8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenage Daughter" ...which has aired.

Greg

Jorabi wrote:

It premiered on Fox on July 10th; Cartoon Network, for obvious reasons, has been a few weeks behind.

"Ubiquitous" wrote in message news:[email]...

Of course it is....he saw the simpsons and was influenced to make a shows that's actually funny....Sure the simpsons was great when I was 11 years old but now it's about as entertaining as any other kiddies cartoon. Family guy, on the other hand, is very very funny....

On Fri, 15 Jul 2005 13:07:45 +0100, "Major ChrisB" wrote:

I do prefer Family Guy to the more recent episodes of The Simpsons, but even in my mid-30s, I find that the older Simpsons seasons have stood up well to the test of time.

Major ChrisB wrote:

Too bad he never made such a show.

"Ubiquitous" wrote in message news:[email]...

I would say taking three years to respond with some arbitrary quote isn't taking "a shot right back"...

Never saw the Gazoo episodes?

Brad