No Simpsons

What if the Simpsons cartoons on the Tracy Ullman Show wasn't a big success and the Simpsons TV show was never created? What would be it's effects on society?
 
For a start I'd think no Family Guy, Futurama, South Park etc. Also cartoons would still be seen as kids only, so maybe the increasing trend of subtle adult humour in animated films never happens.

Maybe Fox struggles without it?
 
I venture you'd see Adult Swim never coming about too (Space Ghost, Home Movies, Robot Chicken, Venture Bros., etc.), and maybe Fox keeps "Married With Children" running so it doesn't bomb as a network. (Frankly, that latter part wouldn't be so bad to me)
 
Considering the huge effect that the Simpsons and the other shows of that type of had culuturally (personally there's hardly a day goes by that either I or a friend ends up coming out with some random Simpsons quote) Id imagine it's removal would change our culture a fair bit.

Also between Sky One and Channel 4 here there's easily 3 hours of Simpsons a day minimum, never mind other adult cartoon shows. Would leave a lot of network space. I wonder what would take it's place?
 
Waasn't their an episode that said the simpsons saved FOX or something? it's funny, because on the show they always make fun of FOX
 

MacCaulay

Banned
First that thread about the cancellation of Law and Order, and now THIS!? I'm going to be afraid to sleep for all the nightmares...
 
Considering the huge effect that the Simpsons and the other shows of that type of had culuturally (personally there's hardly a day goes by that either I or a friend ends up coming out with some random Simpsons quote) Id imagine it's removal would change our culture a fair bit.

Also between Sky One and Channel 4 here there's easily 3 hours of Simpsons a day minimum, never mind other adult cartoon shows. Would leave a lot of network space. I wonder what would take it's place?

One thing about the Simpsons is that it took the pop culture of Matt Groening's youth (the 60's and 70's) and injected it into the 90's. Without the Simpsons, a lot of that would be more obscure.

Also, for us non-Americans, the Simpsons introduced us to a whole lot of Americana. I've never watched Citizen Kane but I know all I need to know about it because I've watched the episode with Bobo.
 
Waasn't their an episode that said the simpsons saved FOX or something? it's funny, because on the show they always make fun of FOX

It was the Episode "Missionary: Impossible" (http://www.snpp.com/episodes/BABF11) where Homer takes up missionary work in a bid to avoid paying $10,000 to PBS which he pledged to shut up a pledge drive. Right at the end of the episode, Fox have a spoof pledge drive where Bart gives then $10,000 and Rupert Murdoch thanks Bart Simpson for saving the Fox Network whereby he shrugs and says "it wouldn't be the first time".

If the Simpson's don't make it, Matt Groening still has his "Life in Hell" series of cartoons to fall back on and there's no reason why Binky, Akbar & Jeff et al can't remain lucrative characters.

The writers on the Simpsons would go onto other media projects and we'd have a number of similar shows on Comedy Central but non that capture the minds of America and the rest of the globe. Would Conan O'Brien have made it as a tv talkshow host? Dunno. I don't think Sky television in the UK would have been as big in the early days and given the size of their losses, Murdoch might have thrown in the towel without a bunch of new subscribers who did register just to see the Simpson's once a week.

South Park probably would have still gone ahead. Family Guy is also still a possibility as neither of their creators draw inspiration from the Simpsons (or at least haven't acknowledged publicly. There are certain things that one can get away with in animation and there will always be adult animations - Ren and Stimpy might have lasted a while longer as might have Beavis and Butthead.
 
I don't think Family Guy happens but South Park just might (it grew out of an in-house Christmas gag cartoon that found fertile soil in teh interwebz). Maybe SP can be the catalyst to spawn popular adult cartoons in the US, or maybe Anime finds its audience, but adult cartoons will be a lot harder pressed without the ultra-success of the Simpsons to prove profitability to the networks.

Still, a sad, dystopian world... :(
 
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