i can't help but think . . .

. . . looking at the state the simpsons is in now (to lay out my view of the simpsons, it's that it started off kind of cold but amusing, grew very warm-hearted with developed characters you could really care about, got too wacky whilst remaining fairly funny, lost all hint of three-dimensionality with the characters and most of the humour with it, and then started getting increasingly funnier but never regaining the "heart" of the earlier seasons, before losing the funny again and at the present time having entire episodes with plotlines you either don't care about or make you feel uncomfortable and aren't at all amusing or engaging and one dimensional characters you also don't care about), i can't help but think it was paving the way for altogether more well-made and hilarious shows like family guy.

JQM

In alt.tv.simpsons, on the "i can't help but think . . ." thread, James Q. Morrissey wrote:

Wow, I certainly guessed wrong about where that sentence was heading.

While watching "Family Guy," I could never shake the feeling that I was seeing a cut-rate version of "The Simpsons." Some features of "Simpsons" were there -- the pop-culture parodies, the quick-cut gags, the dysfunctional family -- but something was missing. It was, for want of a better phrase, the human touch. People could laugh at the Simpson family, but they could root for them as well. Even though they were nothing more than moving pictures, they felt like real people, and decent people at that. This was unprecedented in 1990, when the series debuted, and most of the animated series that followed, "Family Guy" included, didn't bother to duplicate it.

As for the recently-finished 15th season, I thought it was a notch above seasons 13 and 14, which themselves were an improvement on the Scully era. Shows like "I D'oh-bot (FABF04)" and "Smart and Smarter (FABF09)" skillfully weave together "soft" elements like character development and emotional exploration with the pop-culture references, satire, and sight gags the show is known for. I heard a rumor that since "Futurama" was cancelled, Matt Groening was taking a more active role on "The Simpsons." If that's the case, I hope he sticks around for a while.

Benjamin Robinson wrote:

That might be too harsh a judgment of Family Guy's characters - though I don't exactly disagree with you - on the other hand, there is only one full episode of FG (Brian Wallows and Peter's Swallows) that felt particularly emotional to me...

[email] (Benjamin Robinson):

Matt Garvey :

I don't think that _Family Guy_ was ever meant to be another _The Simpsons_. Yah, superficially it's similar - similar family setup, for example. I think FG is more about opportunities for quick, throw-away, and absolutely hysterical humor. I've laughed at a lot of Simpsons stuff over the years, but almost never as hard as at specific FG points - the Mr. Peabody/Sherman parody, Stewie's eulogy for Brian's mother, Quagmire's "it's caught in the window this time"...the list goes on.

Jim

that.

i agree with you for about seasons 2-5, and then almost nothing they did after that would affect me emotionally at all because they became too outlandish. they used to be more like real people in real situations with some wackiness (but not too unbelievable wackiness) thrown in there, but then became wacky people in wacky situations with some slight normality thrown in. family guy is about totally normal people who inexplicably and consistently do insane things and have insane things happen to them, but it never seems to alter them. i think family guy benefits where the simpsons doesnt because the simpsons tries to keep up the facade that they're realistic characters whilst wackiness flatly contradicts this, whereas family guy openly embraces its madness.

skillfully

show

i just couldn't agree less then :-) because i found both of those episodes stupid and tedious. in fact, the only good laugh between them for me was the buddy system failing bart and lisa. tee-hee.

JQM

In alt.tv.simpsons, on the "Re: i can't help but think . . ." thread, James Q. Morrissey wrote:

Actually, that was from "Bart and Lisa vs. 3rd Grade (DABF20)."