The Televised Worlds of Matt Groening

One of my friends has suggested that I look at Matt Groening's two animated shows, The Simpsons and Futurama. These are two of the most celebrated animated series of the modern era (if not ever); The Simpsons has been on for about twenty years, and for about half of that time, it displayed a brilliance that few shows ever even approach (ok, so the later years have gotten kinda bad, but it's hard to maintain something so good that long, and there is the occasional episode now that harkens back to the show's glory days). On the other hand, Futurama got the "FOX treatment" and was mishandled for the four or five years that it was on the air; frequent timeslot changes and underpromotion made it hard to develop much of a fanbase at the time it was on, but the loyal fans it did amass spread the word, allowing the fanbase to grow as the DVDs were released (sound like a few other FOX shows?) and when reruns started airing on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. The post-mortem popularity led to four direct-to-DVD movies that will (presumably) tie up the loose ends of the series.

Futurama had a definite sense of continuity that the writers tried to maintain, which sets it distincly apart from The Simpsons (the fact that three of the main characters are children, and much of the humor is derived from family satire, a sliding timeline is used, thus hindering continuity). One of the things I will examine is the world-building aspect of both shows; The Simpsons may not have an overarching story, but it excels at character development. Springfield, USA is a thoroughly populated town, and we have immense knowledge about everyone from the minister to the local TV personalities, from the convenience store clerk to the school principal. Futurama, on the other hand, builds a world with consequences to actions and ongoing agendas and desires. This isn't to say that either show totally lacks the quality I mentioned for the other (though Futurama has much more character development than The Simpsons has continuity), rather that each show focuses on a different type of storytelling.

Up next: Welcome to Springfield...