Get Back To Work
Probaby “Get Back to Work.”
I heard it was “get back to work”.
On the episode of “Inside the Actor’s Studio” with the cast of the Simpsons, Dan Castallanetta mentioned that one of the conditions of the show was that James L. Brooks (I think) specified when they signed on at FOX that there would be no network notes. Has that changed?
Gay, Bi, Transexual and Women who are very good friends with other women
According to Chris Turner’s book Planet Simpson, they do not recieve notes from network executives, but they do recieve directives from censors which they can choose to ignore (and usually do). The “Kill my boy” directive I mentioned is one of Matt Groening’s personal favorites, quoted by him at an appearance in London in 2000. Here’s another: “To discourage imitation by young and foolish viewers, when Homer begins to pour the hot wax in his mouth, please have him scream in pain so kids will understnad that doing this would actually burn their mouths.”
For those who find humor in that sort of thing, Drew Carey included a list of comments that he got from his network censors in his book Dirty Jokes and Beer.
My first thought - Go Bite The Wang. Show’s how much I know (although that may be more in Rupert’s character).
Yeah, it boils down to:
- As long as the Simpsons pulls in eyeballs, advertisers will pay to keep it on.
- One of the things that pulls in eyeballs in the fact that they are willing and able to be so irreverant.
- As long as it keeps pulling in dollars, Rupert Murdoch et. al. will let them do as they please.
I’m personally curious if the Simpsons writers get as much free rein for mocking George W. Bush and the Republican party.
Apparently, there was one case where they got in trouble for this…or were going to. One episode which aired shortly after the 2004 election featured a Fox News truck with a Bush '04 banner on it blasting We Are The Champions. Apparently, the executives thought that they were planning to air it before the election and got nervous. They expalined that they weren’t going to air it until after the election, and only if Bush won.
The irony is that FOX no longer really deserves all the crap the Simpsons piles on it. Its lineup is no worse than – and in some cases, is better than – those of the other major networks. This is after all, the network that gave us, in addition to the Simpsons itself, Family Guy, 24, X-Files, Malcom in the Middle, King of the Hill, Arrested Development, etc. Not a bad line-up for a network that is still so relatively young.
Of course, FOX still gets some blame, because the crap it puts out tends to out-crap the worst of the other networks. But hey, that’s one of the good things about the network – it’s willing to try anything.
I seem to remember a scene of Rupert Murdoch ordering his flunkies to release the killer robots, too… and that didn’t seem to hurt ratings.
Married…with Children used to make fun of Fox all the time, too.
I remember one episode in particular that came on right after Fox got the rights to show NFL games. I think it was the episode where they made a show based on the Bundys’ lives that was supposed to be on Fox, and there was a split screen that took up more than half of it saying:
Watch NFL on Fox!
I think it’s cool that they can poke fun at themselves.
One other case where they got in trouble had something to do with a network other than Fox. In the episode where Krusty gets in trouble with the IRS and fakes his own death, a bus can be seen in one scene with a billboard on it reading “Are you missing Mad About You right now? Sunday nights at 8:00 on NBC.” This was a little joke, since Mad About You was on opposite The Simpsons, and Hank Azaria appeared on both shows. On the DVD commentary, I forget the details, but I know the network wasn’t happy since they were, in effect, advertising a show on a rival network.
Of course, there was a joke similar to this a number of years later. Marge buys a Canyonero SUV, and escapes before the gas tank explodes. She knew that the gas tank would explode since she watched a Dateline NBC expose about the SUV. She then goes on to comment about all the great programming NBC has to offer. What’s on now? Why don’t you go find out for yourself? Over the credits, we hear Homer being forced at gunpoint to give an apology saying that NBC sucks and you should stay tuned to Fox. “So, in conclusion, NBC bad, Fox good. [sub]CBS great[/sub].”
They did that same thing when Ray Romano was on. Over the credits it was just Homer and Romano repeating over and over when Everybody Loves Raymond was on.
“So, when is it on? What’s it called again? And it’s on when?”
But they never explicitly said the name of the show.
I’ve noticed that a lot of the Fox shows have carte blanche to mock the network. I can remember a Mad TV sketch promoting Fox’s fall lineup where they made fun of a bunch of shows (and the fact that Mad TV itself wasn’t carried on every affiliate.)
I wonder if they don’t pick on FOX more than other networks for two reasons:
– Any publicity is good publicity, why pretend other networks even exist?
– Fear of lawsuits. Sure, there may be legal matters to consider but it’s a lot smaller when it’s your own little pond.
There was also a NBC/Frasier reference in the episode with Sideshow Bob’s brother (played by David Hyde Pierce).
Regarding the “We have more notes!” tale. The “Version I Read” was that in the show’s beginning, the suits didn’t have a clue as to what notes they should even give an animated show, so they layed off. Then once the show was successful, the producers let them know where they could put their notes.
Fox approached Matt Groening’s to use his Life Is Hell characters as bumpers in the Tracy Ullman Show. Part of the condition was that Fox would buy the rights to the characters. Groening didn’t want to sell the rights, so it was suggested that he would create all new characters that Fox would own.