Toronto journalist John Ortved has written The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History. (Greystone Books) With The Simpsons more than 20 years old, there is a whole generation of TV watchers who speak the language of the animated show, says a Toronto journalist who has written an insider's look at the program.
The kind of irony and subversive humour that was introduced in The Simpsons has paved the way for shows as diverse as Malcolm in the Middle, Family Guy and the Daily Show, Toronto-born writer John Ortved argues in his new book.
Ortved has gathered interviews with creators, animators and writers in The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History, released last week by Greystone.
In an interview with CBC's Q cultural affairs show on Wednesday, Ortved tried to pin down the factors that have made The Simpsons such a groundbreaking show.
"I think what was special about The Simpsons was Fox was a new network…and they were willing to take the kind of experiments that could produce something like The Simpsons. The idea of an animated sitcom at the time was very, very radical," he said.
From the start, The Simpsons stocked its writing room with Harvard graduates and comedy writers from unusual backgrounds, he said.
"I don't think the writers ever sat down and decided to be subversive. I think there are sort of two contributing factors to that — one of those is that the jokes have to be timeless. It takes a year to make one of those episodes, so they couldn't rely on pop culture events, they couldn't rely on the news to create their jokes," Ortved said.
'For the last 10 years or so, the show has really been run into the ground. The jokes have gotten hokier and stupider.... I think they could really use some shaking up in their writing room.'— John Ortved
"And I think ... you have the animation that allows you to go in all kinds of directions, you can do anything in a matter of frames, " he said. "If there's another factor, aside from the animation, it's that there's no laugh track. Laugh tracks absolutely destroy comedies."
A pop culture junkie, Ortved has contributed articles on television, film, fashion and comedy to the National Post, Now magazine, The New York Observer, Interview and V. He initially began his insiders look at The Simpsons as a 2007 article for Vanity Fair.
The man who created the first Simpsons comedy room and is the uncredited third founder of the show is Sam Simon, a writer with the George Carlin Show and Cheers, who wrote for The Simpsons in its first four seasons, Ortved argues.
Asking questions about Simon is the reason his book is "unauthorized," he said, describing how producer James L. Brooks refused to allow the current staff to co-operate with him.
"I think what they were upset about was that the myth of The Simpsons would be challenged. Matt Groening had been going on TV and radio and giving interviews for 20 years as The Simpsons ambassador," Ortved said.
"He had the comic strip The Life in Hell that caught Jim Brooks's attention back in 1987 and ended up being the genesis of The Simpsons. And he sketched out the very first Simpsons drawings."
Ortved argues that Simon put together the comedy writing room that generated The Simpsons trademark humour. He did it by rejecting the concept of aiming the show at a particular demographic.
"The way it was described to me was they were just creating these jokes to make each other laugh. Sam Simon instructed them just to make things that they thought were funny and I think that's a key thing," he said.
Losing edge?
Simon and Groening had creative differences as the show became increasingly popular, Ortved said, and Simon moved away from writing to be executive producer.
"Once the show really started making millions of dollars I think there were some big fights over money and who was getting what in terms of the big paycheques," he said.
Ortved said the show, which entered its 21st season this September, has lost its innovative edge.
"To be fair to the writers and to be fair to the viewers, there is only so much you can do with a set of characters for 20 years. I don't know how you sustain interest," he said.
"For the last 10 years or so the show has really been run into the ground. The jokes have gotten hokier and stupider. It has not a lot of the wit and not a lot of the depth that it once had. I think they could really use some shaking up in their writing room."
A 20th-anniversary special about The Simpsons is planned for early 2010.
