How hath Family Guy ripped off The Simpsons, help me count the ways

Cafe Society
81

[QUOTE=whole bean]
Finally, the Muppets example is just stupid. Kermit played a newscaster in a skit on a skit show. Did you include this lame ass example just so I would have to feel silly responding to it?
[/QUOTE]

Actually, The Muppet Show did have a recurring news segment, Muppet News Flash, Kermit was just a reporter. In fact thinking back on it, this is probably one of his better examples. Something almost always happened (in some painful way) to the anchor that involved the back story.

82

[QUOTE=CandidGamera]
'OMG! Both these shows have a newscaster character! Somebody call the Supreme Court!"
[/QUOTE]

Why would you do that? I mean, lawsuits aren’t filed in the Supreme Court anyway. Oh, wait. That was a joke. You and your jokes. Lemme try, lemme try?

/starting over/

Okay, CandidGamera, what do you want me to call them? ::rimshot::

83

Family Guy is actually a blatant rip-off of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Both shows have a guy who’s the lead character. And he’s in charge of a ship.

Both lead men have a woman who gives him advice which he doesn’t always agree with.

Both shows have a male character who likes sex.

Both shows have a handicapped character.

Both shows have a black character with a mustache.

Both shows have a character with a strangely shaped head.

Both shows have a teenage male character.

Both shows have a character who isn’t human.

Both shows have had a secondary character die.

Both shows have shown characters traveling to places.

Both shows have shown characters at work.

Both shows have shown characters talking.

The coincidences start to add up.

84

[QUOTE=ITR champion]
I think what Rucksinator is saying is that is that everytime a housewife disapprovies of her husband going into a casino, but then ends up becoming a gambling addict, it’s a ripoff of The Simpsons. That, after all, is what Rucksinator said.
[/QUOTE]

It’s been a while since I saw it, but the plot line involving specifically the wife seemed to me to be nearly identical, and I saw the FG episode not long after the Simpson’s episode, so it was kinda fresh on my mind (ie. it wasn’t like I thought “Hey, the Simpsons once had a casino plot”, it was more like “Holy crap, what a ripoff.”) I don’t doubt that there were differences, but the similarities were somewhat blatant.

85

[QUOTE=whole bean]

Okay, CandidGamera, what do you want me to call them? ::rimshot::
[/QUOTE]

Whatever they want!

86

[QUOTE=whole bean]
And I’ll give you South Park, Arrested Development, and MASH. The American Dad example doesn’t even come close, and even if it did it’s a cartoon by the same guy we’re accusing of ripping of the gimick – do you see just how weak that is??? Finally, the Muppets example is just stupid. Kermit played a newscaster in a skit on a skit show. Did you include this lame ass example just so I would have to feel silly responding to it?
[/QUOTE]

Perhaps you missed my post earlier in which I gave several other examples of TV sitcoms which used the “News as Exposition” thing before The Simpsons.

Either that or you’re deliberately ignoring my post because it doesn’t agree with what you’ve already decided upon…

87

Cartoon characters are not extras. They have to be drawn, designed, and modeled, and a “standard look” has to be established as a reference for each animator. It’s a certain amount of work to create any character you see on screen. Given that they’re already paying the animators and the voice-over artists on a per-show basis, it’s no more or less work to use a recurring newscaster than it is to do a voice-over radio news broadcast while they animate the main character listening to the radio. Once the character design is done, it’s easier to have that newscaster character recur than to create a new newscaster each time.

A live (or filmed) TV sitcom simply casts an actor to play a newscaster for a single show, then dumps him. They don’t want to pay him to be a recurring cast member (because that would drive up the cost of that actor).

As a consequence of both shows being animated, they both have a large cast of characters, most of whom are specialized, many of whom persist. It doesn’t necessarily mean that Family Guy ripped off the Simpsons, except that Family Guy is using the same medium as the Simpsons, which carries with it the advantage of persistent, recurring characters.

Hell… Scooby-Doo had radio news broadcasts that operated as a plot device, at least fifteen years earlier. The only difference is, they didn’t name the newscaster.

88

Um, Ted Baxter anyone?

89

[QUOTE=Happy Wanderer]
Um, Ted Baxter anyone?
[/QUOTE]

Well, there you go - although it’s from a show that aired before I was born. :wink:

90

[QUOTE=Martini Enfield]
Perhaps you missed my post earlier in which I gave several other examples of TV sitcoms which used the “News as Exposition” thing before The Simpsons.

Either that or you’re deliberately ignoring my post because it doesn’t agree with what you’ve already decided upon…
[/QUOTE]

Or, perhaps I wasn’t responding to you in the text you quoted. Dammit, man. Keep up! Furthermore, I addressed two of your examples (MwC and Dinosaurs) in another post. I’ve not seen the Goodies, was the newscaster a recurring named character? Same question for Parker Lewis and ALF (each of which I just can’t remember a newscaster in, but I know I watched). If so, “sure, two more examples”; if not, once again, dammit man, keep up.

As for me having already decided, please see post nos. 46, 48, 69 and 77; and, one and for all, dammit man, KEEP UP!

91

[QUOTE=whole bean]
I’ve not seen the Goodies, was the newscaster a recurring named character?
[/QUOTE]

The Goodies used current BBC News Announcers, parodying themselves- so the chap who read the 9 O’Clock news on the BBC 1 in real life would be the chap parodying himself reading the 9 O’clock news on The Goodies in the TV show, if that makes sense.