Woo-hoo!
Well, what else but a Homeresque exclamation to salute “The Simpsons,” the best network show of the ’90s?
The Fox satire in kiddie-cartoon clothing marked its 10th anniversary on Jan. 14. It’s the longest-running comedy on TV today and the longest-running prime-time cartoon in TV history. (Is that a “D’oh!” coming from Fred Flintstone, the previous prime-time animation king?)
The key to the success of “The Simpsons” is laser-sharp writing that creates rich, identifiable characters and scalds a kooky pop culture it both observes and influences. Most important, it inspires laughter. Out-loud laughter. Few shows do that.
The program triumphs in its oppositions. Kids love the bright cartoon colors, adults enjoy the satire and both revel when the idiot father, Homer J. Simpson, falls down a flight of stairs or into a gorge. Yes, “The Simpsons” traffics in more than its share of immature jokes, but it also presented an episode, “22 Short Films About Springfield,” that was a takeoff on a sophisticated art house movie and makes references to such intellectuals as St. Augustine of Hippo. And when did you last see “Just Shoot Me” toy with ironic punishment, as when an insatiable Homer thwarted a devil’s plan to force-feed him doughnuts in perpetuity?
Animation, rather than being a limitation, gives “The Simpsons” freedom to straddle the realms of fantasy and reality. This cartoon features a family more genuine in its loves, hates and imperfections than most sitcom broods while allowing flights of fancy — Homer as an astronaut or talking to a coyote apparition during a hot-pepper-induced hallucination — that live-action shows can’t do or do poorly.
At the birth of “The Simpsons,” few would have guessed this family, born in the subversive mind of alternative-weekly cartoonist Matt Groening (“Life in Hell”), would even be remembered by viewers, let alone be getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The cartoon clan premiered in 60-second snippets on “The Tracey Ullman Show” in 1987 before getting its first special, a half-hour Christmas show on Dec. 17, 1989. The brilliant actors who do “The Simpsons” voices — Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith and the rest — were with the show from the start, but their voices, especially Homer’s, needed time to develop their comic vibrance.
From the beginning, however, satire and subversion were in focus. In the Christmas special, 10-year-old Bart got a tattoo and Homer and Bart went to the dog track to try to win money for gifts, which might have been jarring for viewers used to presentations of sweet yuletide bliss. But the family was happy together in the end, an early indication of family values that would be frequently used in the show’s defense after its various affronts to conventional social mores.
Bart was the initial star of the show, a smart-mouthed, underachieving wise guy (“Eat my shorts!”) whose quick rise to prepubescent role model drew the wrath of many parents. Its use of what had been unacceptable language on TV, such as the word “sucks,” also drew criticism. In 1992, the show even earned a presidential rebuke, when President Bush commented families “should be less like `The Simpsons’ and more like `The Waltons.’ “
By that time, “The Simpsons” already was a hit with critics and viewers, helping the fledgling Fox network establish itself. It also became a cultural icon. Movie stars (Mel Gibson), TV actors (Kelsey Grammer as the inimitable “Sideshow Bob”) and other celebrities clamored to do guest voices. International figures who probably don’t even watch TV, from Paul McCartney to physicist Stephen Hawking, also gave voice to cartoon characters of themselves.
Early objections to “The Simpsons” family depictions and language now seem quaint in light of today’s programs. The show, however, has retained its subversive irreverence, making fun of everything from government (corrupt Mayor Quimby) to law (incompetent Lionel Hutz voiced by the late Phil Hartman) to television news (self-important anchorman Kent Brockman) to organized religion (the going-through-the-motions Rev. Lovejoy).
“The Simpsons” also gladly bites the hand that feeds it, parodying television and the Fox network in a merciless manner that might make media pundits cheer if they weren’t so jealous. From ridiculing Fox’s anything-goes attitude to advising viewers to watch the competition on NBC, “The Simpsons” goes where other sitcoms fear to tread. It even smacks the people who watch it, since Homer is the ultimate TV-loving “couch potato.”
Over time, the program has evolved into The Homer Simpson Show, as writers discovered a clueless adult who eats too much and doesn’t work enough is much richer fodder for comic malfeasance than a 10-year-old tyke. Besides going to outer space, Homer has visited the Himalayas, hell and a computer-generated third dimension and has worked as a movie producer, boxer and cartoon voice actor (Poochie the dog on the violent but hilarious ‘toon-within-a-‘toon, “Itchy & Scratchy”).
Other characters are wonderfully developed. Marge, with her blue-haired beehive, is the beleaguered moral conscience, while 8-year-old Lisa is the brains of the family. They are morally and intellectually superior to the men in the Simpson family, although that sometimes limits their comic possibilities. Like sitcoms “The Simpsons” lets men be hilarious boobs but often fails to allow female characters to achieve their comic potential.
The supporting cast is more numerous — again, the wonder of animation — and funnier than any on TV, from Apu, the cliched foreign convenience-store clerk who nevertheless defies stereotype, to young Ralph Wiggum, a wide-eyed non sequitur machine.
“The Simpsons” may eventually outlive their Sunday-night welcome, but they haven’t yet. Here’s hoping Homer or Bart, in true “Simpsons” style, will make some wisecrack telling us when the show has lost its edge. That would be true “Simpsons” style.
