The Simpsons Movie

girish writes "Eonline is reporting that, finally, after more than 10 years since Matt Groening said that a Simpsons film 'is way down the line', a movie based on The Simpsons is being made. It's still in its early stages and is being planned to be debuted in the summer or during Christmas time of 2006. The Simpsons has been on FOX for 15 seasons and averages 12.9 million viewers this season."

Re:I wonder who will play homer?

[smellystudent]

Erm... how many times do they have to say "animated film"?

Re:Mmmm.... movies!

[AgentUSA]

They already literally jumped the shark a few years ago in one of couch gags.

Already done

[kaszeta]

Will there be any shark-jumping?

Well, it's already been done. In epsiode DABF22 ("How I Spent My Strummer Vacation") the "couch gag" was Homer waterskiing and jumping over a shark.

Obligatory Informative Links

[crashnbur]

Commercial Sites:

• "The Simpsons" Official Web Site [thesimpsons.com] -- Brought to you by Fox (and Matt Groening?)!
  "The Simpsons" Semi-Official Web Site in the UK [bbc.co.uk] -- Brought to you by the BBC!

Fan Sites:

• The Simpsons Archive [snpp.com] -- "the Internet's clearinghouse of Simpsons guides, news, and information"
  Last Exit to Springfield [lardlad.com] -- "For All Your Simpsons Needs" (Well, it looks very well done.)
  nohomers.net [nohomers.net] -- "the center of all that is simpson"

Fun Site:

• The Simpsons Personality Test [matthewbarr.co.uk] -- I am Lisa Simpson. My dad is Krusty the Clown. Who are you?

There are countless others. These are among the best I've found. Please link to others... I'm sure I haven't seen them all.

episode quality

[jedrek]

I'll be the first to admit it: there have been some pretty good episodes this season, story-wise. There have been total dogs (like the school-closing ep, I think I smiled *once* during that 22min fiasco) but it's a lot better than the shit they were putting out S12-14.

That said, it's still far, far away from the Simpson's glory days. I'm not talking about the story lines, I'm talking about the direction and 'cinematography' (if you can call it that) of recent episodes. The current eps watch like a sitcom. A couple of camera angles, some close ups, some pans, maybe a zoom or two. I watch eps from S1-3 (on DVD, woo hoo!) and it's a totally different world. Zooms, pans, moving shots, distorted angles, etc.

I don't know how much this is a budgetary concern (although with 13+ mln viewers you should have enough money) but it is something that has to be addressed in the movie.

Oh, and bring back Conan!

Re:Mmmm.... movies!

[MCS]

Isn't there an episode were Homer literally jumps a shark?

Actually looking at Jump the Shark [jumptheshark.com] it was the episode titled Gump Roast... which aired on 21 Apr 2002.

So The Simpsons jumped the shark between 8-8:30 PM EST on April 21st 2002.

Aren't they doing that this season?

[gosand]

Y'know, that's a great suggestion! Matt might have them jump a shark in this movie just for the joke. He knows the show is old, and mocking himself would be perfectly in keeping with his style.

I swear I saw Homer jumping a shark on skis in the previews for this season. It made me crack up. I am actually surprised they haven't done it on the show yet. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if it became a running gag. I don't know if the Simpsons could ever truly jump the shark, they are all about the shark. :-)

For those who don't know about this phenomenon, "jumping the shark" is a term a guy coined to describe when a TV show (or anything for that matter) has started to go downhill. It comes from Happy Days, when Fonzie jumped a shark on water skis. It was made up to be a scary and serious episode, but was clearly very very lame. After that, the show was never the same. See jumptheshark.com [jumptheshark.com] for more info.

good point -- it also had to do with

[sbma44]

the company hired to do the animation. I believe they only started using Akom (in Korea) for the animation during Season 2. That studio gave the show its current look.

Live action :(

[rnelsonee]

Producer Mike Reiss has been talking about this movie recently. Keep in mind that two weeks ago, he said the movie would most likely be live-action [ua.edu], a la Scooby Doo.

And frankly, that sucks. I've been a fan of The Simpsons show since the first episode in 1989, so I've seen it decline. At this point, the movie might not suck if it was 2D. But live-action/CGI won't cut it.

South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut did well, because it was an extention of the show. Imagine if the South Park movie was live-action: it would've tanked.

Hopefully Groening and co. will pull this off, but I have my doubts...

Re:"prepare-for-disappointment department"?

[Coventry]

On MASH - are you refering to the final episodes as a movie, or to the in-theaters movie? If the latter, it was released before the TV series, and was the inspiration, not the other way around.

From IMDB:
MASH (1970) - the movie, Ring Lardner Jr wrote the screenplay, based on the book by Richard Hooker.
"M*A*S*H" (1972) [TV-Series 1972-1983] - developed for TV by Larry Gelbart.

So, it was a book, then movie, then TV show.

Re:"prepare-for-disappointment department"?

[euxneks]

I'd like to point out that the M.A.S.H movie came out before the series.. The series was based on the movie.. =)

Unless they made another movie... Which would be kind of silly..

Re:Already done

[Oyvind Eik]

Here's a picture [animationartgallery.com] of it.

If you're too lazy to google "jump the shark"

[Killswitch1968]

Q. What is jumping the shark?
A. It's a moment. A defining moment when you know that your favorite television program has reached its peak. That instant that you know from now on...it's all downhill.
The aforementioned expression refers to the telltale sign of the demise of Happy Days, our favorite example, when Fonzie actually "jumped the shark." The rest is history.
www.jumptheshark.com

Re:End of simpson near?

[meta-monkey]

I don't think that's true at all of South Park. South Park is just as funny, if not funnier, today than it was when the movie came out. The movie is great, the series is great...keep it coming.

However, yes, the quality of the Simpsons has deteriorated somewhat, but it's still better than 99.9% of the crap on TV.

Contracted or optioned?

[Galvatron]

The article, as far as I can see, just says that they've "signed" to do the movies. That doesn't necessarily mean they've been contracted to actually do the movies. More likely, I'd imagine they've signed a contract saying "if these movies happen, we'll do them for thus and such amount of money, but if they don't happen, then we won't," which is known as an option, because it gives the studio the option to do or not do the movies at their discretion. Sometimes in the case of book rights, they'll pay a certain amount for the option (kind of like a signing bonus), and then an additional amount if the movie actually gets made.

Re:"prepare-for-disappointment department"?

[RandBlade]

On MASH - are you refering to the final episodes as a movie, or to the in-theaters movie? If the latter, it was released before the TV series, and was the inspiration, not the other way around.

The final episode of M*A*S*H was movie-length. It wasn't shown in the cinema's, but it was done as a movie. Incredibly emotional and tops any episode.

From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M_A_S_H_(television)

The final episode was titled "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen" and was first broadcasted on February 28, 1983. The episode was 2.5 hours long and was viewed by over 125 million Americans (77% of viewship that night) which made "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen" the most watched television episode in history up to that time.

Re:Season 1 vs Season 2

[EricWright]

I agree... Bart the General was one of the very first episodes I ever saw (the 5th one ever) and I was hooked. The animation really wasn't great, but the writing was beyond compare. Two Cars in Every Garage, 3 Eyes on Every Fish (a very loose take on Citizen Kane) from early in Season 2 is probably my favorite of all!

Burns: Amazing, isn't it Smithers? This anonymous clan of slack-jawed troglodytes has cost me the election, yet if I were to have them killed, I would be the one to go to jail. That's democracy for you.

Smithers: You are noble and poetic in defeat, sir.

Best. Dialog. Ever.

My local WB affiliate is running through seasons 1 and 2 right now... brings back fond memories (even if I do have the DVD box sets).

On the other hand, I saw Bart the Daredevil again last night. I was really struck by how poor the animation was at certain points. One in particular is where the kids are watching wrestling on the TV and start throwing popcorn at the screen. The arm motions are totally wrong... I would have to say that, by the end of season 2, the animation was getting there, but not quite yet.

As for celebrity voice overs, the first episode with Danny Devito was in Season 2 (Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?) and the first episode where Sideshow Bob talks (Krusty Gets Busted) was in Season 1. Kelsey Grammar had been on Cheers for several years by then, although he hadn't yet spun that into Frasier.

Re:End of simpson near?

[Galvatron]

South Park is just as funny, if not funnier, today than it was when the movie came out.

I second that. If you haven't seen The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers, it is truly one of the most carefully done parodies I've ever seen, right down to Cartman's mimicing of Gandalf's sigh at the council in Rivendel. More recently, All About the Mormons is one of their all time best, I think.

Simpsons I rarely watch anymore. Even if the writing hadn't deteriorated, it's like they talked about in the Itchy and Scratchy episode, the characters are just starting to get kind of boring. How many times can you really watch Homer say "d'oh!"

Re:Aren't they doing that this season?

[Zixia]

For those who don't know about this phenomenon, "jumping the shark" is a term a guy coined to describe when a TV show (or anything for that matter) has started to go downhill. It comes from Happy Days, when Fonzie jumped a shark on water skis. It was made up to be a scary and serious episode, but was clearly very very lame. After that, the show was never the same. See jumptheshark.com [jumptheshark.com] for more info.

For someone who even points to the webbage, you seem to be a little misguided. Fonzie jumping the shark was not 'very very lame', but when the show clearly reached its peak and could never achieve anything better than that moment, and it is from there that everything goes downhill.

'Jumping the shark' is when something has reached its peak and has nowhere to go but down. It is not when the show has all ready started to decline in quality.

Re:End of simpson near?

[glesga_kiss]

I disagree. The sixth series of South Park was the best yet, possibly excepting the first. They went back to their roots; each episode has a political slant to out, rather than 20 mins of beeped cussing and random nonsense that made many of the shows in between these series. I always find a show that has something to say more enjoyable (even if I disagree with what it is saying).

Re:Who will Star?

[unborracho]

unfortunately, the voice of Troy McClure is dead... and for that I get to call you an insensitive clod.

Re:Aren't they doing that this season?

[gowen]

Fonzie jumping the shark was not 'very very lame', but when the show clearly reached its peak

Your wrong (as incidentally is the frontpage of jumptheshark.com. The OP was right. The Shark Jump was lame, and indicative that the Happy Days writers were entirely devoid of ideas (much as the Simpsons writers have been for 2 or 3 years). It wasn't the peak, it was the point at which the decline was irreversible.

See here [wordspy.com] for example.

Makes sense because...

[LighthouseJ]

Matt Groening signed his contract that includes 2 movies, this one and another one. Also, Groening has a 15 year contract, which ends at the end of the current The Simpsons season. I'm willing to see of Fox will renew or if Matt Groening will refuse, everyone knows The Simpsons has been hinting at the fact they've overstayed the welcome. However, don't get me wrong, I am still a fan and enjoy every episode, but I'd rather they go out with a bang instead of a whimper.

Re:Conan O'Brien is overrated

[sbma44]

From snpp.com [snpp.com]:

Conan O'Brien wrote or cowrote:

• [9F06] New Kid on the Block
• [9F10] Marge vs. the Monorail
• [1F02] Homer Goes to College
• [1F04] Treehouse of Horror IV (wraparounds)

All very fine episodes, and obviously a staff writer will contribute to others' episodes. But that's just 3.3 episode credits. Conan was a contributor, but not a driving creative force.

George Meyer wrote or cowrote:

• [7G13] The Crepes of Wrath
• [7F07] Bart vs. Thanksgiving
• [7F22] Blood Feud
• [8F01] Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington
• [8F02] Treehouse of Horror II
• [8F15] Separate Vocations
• [9F01] Homer the Heretic
• [1F05] Bart's Inner Child
• [AABF08] Sunday, Cruddy Sunday
• [AABF22] Brother's Little Helper
• [BABF19] Behind the Laughter
• [CABF22] The Parent Rap

That's a much larger contribution. He's also probably got the most cameos on the show of any simpsons writer (he's the dirty looking bearded guy with the gilligan-style hat found in the unemployment line, in the writers' office at I&S studios, etc). And his tenure at the show is considerably longer.

But my best advice is to go here [snpp.com]. It's an archive of a new yorker article profiling Meyer. Conan is a great, talented guy. But don't assume that just because he's the only famous name on the Simpsons writing staff that he's the funniest one.

Re:End of simpson near?

[Skyshadow]

Yeah, I think a lot of people stopped watching South Park after the first two seasons. The first season was shocking stuff at the time, but then they replayed it ad infinitum while they scrambled to punch out series 2, which wasn't nearly as good as it needed to be to match expectations.

Since then, SP has climbed back up to be something much better than it had ever been before. Season 6 and 7 have been as good as the Simpsons was in its heyday. It's just pushing another envelope than the Simpson was in the early '90s -- saying "shit" on TV, Lemmiwinks, Cartman's chili and some of the other holyGodIcan'tBelieveTheyDidThat moments owe their existance directly to the Simpsons.

On a slightly related note, South Park is a lot like the Simpsons in the fact that it's benefitted from having a very large cast of framiliar characters that have evolved over time. Butters, Jimmy, Timmy, Token, etc.

Re:Mmmm.... movies!

[homer_ca]

See Groening's quote from the article:

Last year, Groening told the Hollywood Reporter that South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut was the only movie based on a TV show that wasn't "horrible."

The South Park is the benchmark that they're shooting for in this movie. It's just MHO, but Beavis and Butthead Do America was also based on a TV cartoon and didn't suck. Not as good as South Park, but still good.

Re:End of simpson near?

[junkgoof]

The first season of South Park was classic. The creators had lots of time to work on it, lots of stuff they wanted to do, lots of interest.
BR Listen to later interviews, they're famous, bored, sick of killing Kenny, have a lousy deal on the show and make no money... They've done a few good episodes since, but the spirit is mostly gone. They are trying hard to shock instead of just running with weird, offensive storylines.

Re:Already done

[Scrameustache]

There was another instance too, it was a still picture of homer alone on water sckis wearing the Fonze's leather jacket jumping over a shark at the end of the Simpson's spin-off show (Hi, I'm Troy McLure) I believe.

Ignore your own references often?

[DoctorHibbert]

You claim that because he wrote more episodes, he had a greater contribution to the show. However, if you actually read the New Yorker article, you'll see that the lead author basically just writes the plot. The episode author also writes gags and jokes, however once its written it basically gets ripped apart and gags and jokes and even plots are added/deleted/changed around by the writers as a group.

So just because Conan didn't write more episodes doesn't mean he didn't add more hilarity.

Re:Aren't they doing that this season?

[Gulthek]

Sorry, but you're wrong. The official definition is held at (oddly enough), jumptheshark.com:

Q. What is jumping the shark?
A. It's a moment. A defining moment when you know that your favorite television program has reached its peak . That instant that you know from now on...it's all downhill.
The aforementioned expression refers to the telltale sign of the demise of Happy Days, our favorite example, when Fonzie actually "jumped the shark." The rest is history.

Now That's Ironic!

[MonkeyGone2Heaven]

Alanis Morissette and yourself, share a problem with the definition of irony.

I once heard a comedian go on an extended rant on how the events in Alanis' song, while unfortunate, weren't ironic.
My two favorite examples of irony that he gave:

Scotsmen cloning sheep.

Naming the U.S. National Airport after the guy who fired all of the air traffic controllers (Reagan National Airport).

Irony article

[sbszine]

Anyone who's interested should have a look at this big blurb about irony [guardian.co.uk]. It discusses the philosophical roots and modern usage, and takes the mandatory swipe at Alanis.