Originally published at: On this date: The Simpsons eclipsed Gunsmoke in episodes | Boing Boing
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Me at the start of every new episode:
(d’oh)
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For those that are curious, as of the time of writing this article, The Simpsons episode count currently sits at 724.
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Presumably ‘scripted prime time series’ refers to American prime time, and the rest of the world can go hang.
eta: do new episodes actually run in ‘prime time’?
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The Simpsons is still a perfectly cromulent show.
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Apparently “longest running” and “number of episodes” are two different metrics, but even then, there are other US shows with more episodes. Dark Shadows has 1,225 episodes, and since that show was only on for five years, I’ll bet other soap operas have even more episodes.
ETA: Just did a quick search. Guiding Light went off the air with 18,262 episodes!
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Soap operas don’t get the credit they deserve in many areas, not least of which is sheer production efficiency!
Jay Leno famously quipped to a guest who was bragging about doing 28 episodes of his scripted TV show in a single year, “We call that July”.
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It also dawned on me that producing an episode of a soap opera (or any live-action show that doesn’t involve digital effects) takes a lot less time than producing an animated television show. mr_racoon’s stats are probably a better comparison.
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I think it’s also that soap operas are engineered for fast production in how they tell their stories. Camera work and direction are kept simple, editing is minimized, and the actors are serious pros who don’t need 500 takes to get a shot (nor do directors demand 500 takes to get the eyebrow lift they wanted or whatever).
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I guess I have to concede that the show isn’t as good… but I still watch it. It still is poking fun at society, even if it isn’t doing as good of a job.
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It really isn’t. I made peace with that a long time ago, though. I watched the Simpsons Movie on mushrooms and suddenly stopped caring about the decline (this would have been around the time it was particularly bad, too, 2010ish). Ever since I’ve noticed there’s one or two solid laughs in every new episode I watch.
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Pah. Coronation Street has been going for sixty years, and has had north of 10,000 episodes.
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Question for the younger crowd. I’m 39 and I probably haven’t watched a new episode of The Simpsons in 20 years. I probably stopped watching sometime around season 12, and I definitely stopped watching before they went to HD. I did watch the movie, but didn’t think much of it.
Are the new episodes as good as the old ones? Or is this just a case of “Old Man Yells at Cloud” wherein the older folks assume that the newer stuff must be crap because they have nostalgia for the old stuff? Or can it be said in some kind of quasi-objective way that the quality has diminished compared to the first 10 years?
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I think that they lost some of the key creatives a while back that made the show groundbreaking. The writing is objectively less creative and more routine/predictable. I still enjoy it reasonably well because it’s still more imaginative than the live action equivalents. But there’s definitely less novelty. There are animated shows out there that are still bringing the charming wackiness of old-school Simpsons (Bob’s Burgers and Great North are excellent) but the Simpsons is definitely run of the mill now. I will argue that it’s not bad though and has recovered some of the lost ground but it’s become formula. Not sure if that’s the quasi-objectivity you’re seeking but it certainly seems difficult to argue against.
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cough Doctor Who cough
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To some degree the world also moved on. Simpsons was extremely edgy for the time of its heyday. The edginess bar got raised by shows like South Park, Family Guy, etc, and Simpsons now feels very tame in comparison. Jokes about saxophone playing presidents and Lisa’s veganism just don’t bite like they used to.
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I simply can’t imagine anyone now finding it as amusing as many of us did- so much of it’s appeal relied on an audience that had, up to that point, consumed a steady diet of standard-lame-american-sitcom.
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