Wait…I don’t have access to the DVDs to double check, but I could have the sworn the comment about having one writer was made about Family Dog - or one of the other short-lived shows from that era.
Yeah… and Queer as Folk is a Will and Grace imitator.
Talk about comparing apples and oranges…
A comedy of the early nineties featuring characters in dinosaur costumes and some puppetry, rather like a prehistoric version of Muppets. It was heavy on the social satire, too. Aside from a number of sight gags and other throwaway humour (TV weather report: “Well, we’ve got an active supercontinent today, and it looks like the Tigris/Euphrates valley has torn completely clear, so if you’ve got any relatives there, better kiss 'em good-bye”), similarity to Simpsons was scant. There was a loutish father with a dead-end corporate job, an endlessly-suffering mother, a underacheiving son, an overly-intellectual (and thus unpopular) daughter, an infant, an borderline senile grandparent…
Well, perhaps “scant” is too strong a word. Anyhoo, the fact that Simpsons parodied them doesn’t prove hostility or arrogance, and more than their parodies of Married With Children or Home Improvement. It was just another topical reference.
What does one say when hit by the Handel?
Hal…le-lu-jah! 
More than you probably realize… Jim Henson’s company was behind the show.
Oh, I knew that, but Dinosaurs relied far more on costumes than on puppetry, distinguishing it from other Henson productions liks Sesame Street, The Muppet Show or Fraggle Rock, where actors in costumes were relatively rare, limited primarily to Big Bird, Snuffalupagus and the Gorgs.
In any case, Simpsons also took shots at Capitol Critters, Family Dog and Fish Police, three short-lived animated shows, by showing their graves in a pet cemetary. There’s a cruel chuckle to be had, but not any real hostility.
Bolding mine
Really? I thought Charlene was the complete moron one really. Or sure, she had a few genius moments here and there, but come on:
“Robbie, can you help me find Pangea on this map?”
She holds up a map of the Earth with one continent, Pangea, on it.
Sigh, love that show.
I’d say no one on that show was too bright.
Robbie seemed smarter than anyone else except the Mom, Fran.
(Back to the OP and topic)
Yes, the Simpsons rag on other TV shows like them. But I find that is more about how unoriginal we are, rather than their being upset by the possible derivations of each show.
Heck, I’m sure there are examples of the same type of shows past the Honeymooners. I would not be suprised if you could find such families in radio shows and theatre as well.
If my memory serves me correctly, the gag continues with Homestar…
…singing “The Never-Ending SoooOOOOOooda, oh oh oh, oh oh oh, oh oh oh…” That cracked me up, man!
Actually, I don’t remember the daughter being particularly intellectual, nor the son being particularly un-intellectual. And the grandmother was more mean than anything else. I could be remembering wrong, though.
Whoah, calm down man. I don’t think anyone said anything about “ire”. The point is that they have taken shots at other shows for supposedly imitating them. Whether it was in jest or out of anger isn’t really the point. The point is that you seemed to think them “incapable of such hypocrisy”. I merely pointed out that yes, they have taken a shot at at least one other show for imitating them. The implied hypocrisy did not prevent them from doing so.
I love this message board.
That’s what I remember too. Great show, it really needs to come to DVD.
I just have to mention another bit of cartoon timing genius: Wile E Coyote.
Cut to: road. Pile of birdseed.
Pan up: a wooden chute appears aimed directly at the birdseed.
Pan up: the wooden chute continues up.
Pan up: the wooden chute continues up, zigging left and right.
Pan up: the wooden chute continues up in a complicated pattern.
Pan up: Wile E Coyote stands at the top of the chute with a bomb. Wile E lights the match and lights the bomb, which instantly explodes. 
Likewise for me. Beyond that, I don’t think I can add anything to that great post.
[My italics]
I don’t agree with this bit. More than any other show I’ve seen, I think Family Guy throws stuff like that in when there’s no point aside from being odd. There’s kind of an extra laugh just because they’re going so far beyond the pale with a gag. Peter’s fight with the chicken had nothing to do with the plot of the episode. The very long fight between all the family members (although that one did relate to the plot) is another example, or the episode where Meg, Chris and Stewie sing almost all of So Long, Farewell from The Sound of Music completely straight-faced.
Okay, not my italics. :smack: Forgot the quote tags did that. I was trying to emphasize “or had a point (like the chicken scene in family guy).”
Are you saying that The Simpsons and Family Guy are apples and oranges?
If you are, that is absolutely ridiculous. I love the Family Guy. I’ve laughed my ass off at most of the episodes and I eagerly await its [rumored] return. I also agree with Miller that The Simpsons aren’t bashing it as much as giving it a nod or at least a non-commited reference.
But don’t think for one second that the two shows are apples and oranges. Family Guy is a Simpsons rip-off through and through.
Family Guy’s return sounds very definite to me at this stage.
I think Family Guy would not have seen air time if it weren’t for the Simpsons, but there’s not a lot of similarity otherwise, IMO. Even their brands of offbeat humor I find different.
What always bugged me was that the Family Guy family always seemed like funhouse mirror versions of the family from an old, forgotten, prime time cartoon called Wait Till Your Father Gets Home
I think the pop-culture referential style of humor can be traced to the Simpsons. But Family Guy is hardly the only cartoon that the Simpsons paved the way for.
[quote]
The point is that they have taken shots at other shows for supposedly imitating them.
[/quote=blowero]
It’s just not a Simpsons thread if somebody isn’t reading way too much into a joke, you know? I was watching Dinosaurs when I was too young to get the Simpsons, and I see no similarity at all beyond the basic family sitcom setup. I think the joke is the VERY random reference to a long-forgotten show. They do that from time to time with shows like Fish Police and Capital Critters. Family Guy does it too, just 10 times more often.
There’s no hypocrisy here. The very important point you’re missing is that the Simpsons makes fun of itself all the time for exactly the same thing. Here’s the SNPP listing for Flintstones references on the show. The one that leaps to mind for me is from Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder, where Homer bowls a perfect game. An anchor for Access Springfield calls Homer a “warmed-over Fred Flintstone.” (In the same episode, Homer copies Fred Flintstone’s distinctive twinkle-toed bowling motion.) Another is the 138th Episode Spectacular, where Troy McClure calls the Simpsons “America’s favorite non-prehistoric cartoon family.”
Look, man - if you’re going to be a smartass, at least know what you’re talking about. It was NOT a random reference; it was a slam. Probably just a good-natured one, but it definitely was a slam. I refer you to this newsgroup post made at the time, which makes a very compelling case:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=1992Apr14.194559.1406%40ux1.cso.uiuc.edu
I mean c’mon - don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining. That’s not exactly subtle - “It’s like they took our lives and put it right on the screen”. If you’re at all familiar with the Simpsons’ style of humor, you’d know they were taking a jab at the other show. I can’t believe we’re even arguing this.
I disagree. The biggest thing I think the Family Guy ripped from the Simpsons is I joke I like to call “the reference.” It goes something like this:
“Yea, like that time I did [X ridiculous thing]”
[cut to scene of character doing X ridiculous thing]
There can be slight variations on it but you get the picture. The Simpsons may or may not have invented this but they popularized it and the Family Guy drove it full speed into the ground. It doesn’t even matter how funny it is anymore on FG because the fact that they are doing it again makes it unfunny.