Simpsons/Family Guy crossover

[JirinPanthosa]

Homer is going to be in another band?

Homer has now been in a grammy winning barbershop band in the 80s, an R&B band in the late 80s, and a grunge band in the 90s. Why is Homer not considered a celebrity in any other episode? They should use this at some point as a justification to have him host a reality show. Rock Star: B Sharps!

 

[the G-man]

The writers just aren't trying.

They're trying. They're trying to be "Family Guy."

 

[cooleddie74]

American Dad! has become quantitatively and even qualitatively funnier than both shows in recent years. It's the one show of the three that doesn't feel like it's A.)either trying way too hard and/or B.)a mere shadow of its old self.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

The writers just aren't trying.

They're trying. They're trying to be "Family Guy."

If they're trying to be Family Guy they're failing. They don't deliver punchlines nearly as fast, they don't dig up ad hoc critique of pop culture knowledge, and they don't go out of their way for shock value.

They aren't trying to be anything really, they're just trying to take the well established characters and kinda do stuff with them.

I get that in a show that lasts 25 years you're going to repeat yourself but they should have at least hung a lantern on the fact that Homer and Apu have already been in a famous band together.

 

[Christopher]

I get that in a show that lasts 25 years you're going to repeat yourself but they should have at least hung a lantern on the fact that Homer and Apu have already been in a famous band together.

But that was a generation ago, and now there's a whole new audience that may have never seen that episode. After all, there are so many episodes in reruns that it would take ages to get fully caught up with the series.

I'm reminded of how the Adventures of Superman radio series would sometimes retell the same stories several years later, updated and revised a bit, because they knew their audience of children had aged out and new ones had taken their place. The radio series did three different versions of the storyline where a criminal stole Superman's spare costume from Clark Kent's apartment, and then the TV series did a fourth version in its debut year. Also, Whitman/Gold Key would often reprint the same comic-book stories every few years for the same reason, because they knew their current audience wouldn't remember the previous iteration.

 

[ITL]

I get that in a show that lasts 25 years you're going to repeat yourself but they should have at least hung a lantern on the fact that Homer and Apu have already been in a famous band together.

I liked how subtle they were about it - there was a framed picture of the B Sharps in Apu's dressing room.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Yeah but the one where Homer was a grunge band in the 90s was more recent.

And young people don't exactly watch the Simpsons, by now it's nostalgic folks like us who have practically memorized the first few seasons.

 

[Marc]

Yeah but the one where Homer was a grunge band in the 90s was more recent.

And young people don't exactly watch the Simpsons, by now it's nostalgic folks like us who have practically memorized the first few seasons.

thought he was just on tour with a grunge band doing his own thing (it Homerpalooza where he stopped the cannon ball with his belly and featured Smashing Pumpkins.

"<singer's name here>, Smashing Pumpkins"
"Homer Simpson, smiling politely"

 

[cooleddie74]

The Simpsons is often like the James Bond movie franchise. Sometimes there are references and callbacks to earlier events and storylines to reinforce a continuity, but for the most part there aren't. Also, Simpsons continuity tends to be all over the place when it even exists at all so I wouldn't read much into the lack of a lot of blatant, verbal references to classic episodes from about twenty years ago.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Yeah but the one where Homer was a grunge band in the 90s was more recent.

And young people don't exactly watch the Simpsons, by now it's nostalgic folks like us who have practically memorized the first few seasons.

thought he was just on tour with a grunge band doing his own thing (it Homerpalooza where he stopped the cannon ball with his belly and featured Smashing Pumpkins.

"<singer's name here>, Smashing Pumpkins"
"Homer Simpson, smiling politely"

No, this is a flashback episode from a few years ago. It started with Lisa saying "If Dad is 39, and Bart is 10, how could you have had him right after high school?" (Having fun with a long standing continuity problem). Marge then responded by explaining that there were actually ten years between high school and having Bart, and that was the 90s. Marge was courted by a smarmy liberal arts professor who was kind of a liberal 90s stereotype, and when Homer saw he was losing her he started a grunge band.

I have no problem with Simpsons riding roughshod with continuity in a show where everyone has been the same age for 25 years, but I think that the more obviously they contradict established things, the funnier an idea they need to justify it. And the show just isn't funny now. The writers are coasting.

 

[the G-man]

American Dad! has become quantitatively and even qualitatively funnier than both shows in recent years. It's the one show of the three that doesn't feel like it's A.)either trying way too hard and/or B.)a mere shadow of its old self.

Agreed. I'm not a big fan of the Rogercentric FG episodes but otherwise, yeah.

Damn shame Fox shunted it off to TBS, especially insofar as TBS doesn't put the episodes on Hulu (where I generally watch my sitcoms)

 

[Redfern]

Anybody watch last night?

The episode showacsed Kang and Kodos even though it was not presented as a Halloween "Treehouse" offering.

I won't "spoil" anything about the story, but I will mention the closing credits which I thought were the best part of the show. And, no, that's not meant to be a "dig" at the episode.

In short, the credits were depicted like the closing of a "classic" Trek episode with the extended Sandy Courage score. True, "Futurama" did this years earlier for "Where No Fan Has Gone Before", but in that presentation, shots from the episode itself were used, ending with with a close-up portrait of Kiff as the Balek puppet. For the Simpsons, the artists recreated many shots we saw in Trek's credits. It started with Marge As Vina, green skin, red lips and leaning back while dancing, just like the original. Homer, complete with a command tunic battles a Gorn. I was laughing so hard at this point the rest was a bit of a blur, but I recall Lenny and Carl depicted as the Cherons, both half yellow and half brown. Bart is depicted as Scotty examining a Jefferies tube. The garbling crazy cat lady is half buried in a pile of tri..., er, cats. And ith concludes with the Balok puppet, this time Montgomery Burns filling the screen. Of course, instead of cutting the the desilu or Paramount fanfare, it's 20th Century Fox.

Hopefully, the official Simpsons page on YouTube will upload this sequence as it has several of the more notable "couch gag" sequences.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[cooleddie74]

Didn't know that. I haven't watched a Sunday night episode of the show in a while and I'm guessing since it was the weekend of New Year's that it was probably a rerun from earlier in the season. I don't know, maybe it was the first new episode of the year and I missed it. Thanks for letting us know about it. Maybe there are clips of the closing credits posted on YouTube.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I like the idea of Simpsons going for wackier and wackier storylines so I like that they did a non-Halloween alien story. But this episode mostly wasn't that funny. The funniest part of the episode was where they made fun of Disneyworld at the beginning.

Spoiler: Ending

I wish they'd focused more on the Simpsons being kept as zoo attractions instead of falling back on the 'Aliens eat humans' thing.

 

[Mr Light]

I really loved that episode. Particularly for the opening act at Disneyland (which I JUST went to!). I loved that it was a full out sci-fi episode the whole way through. At this point in the show they might as well play even more fast and loose with continuity...

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Hopefully, the official Simpsons page on YouTube will upload this sequence as it has several of the more notable "couch gag" sequences.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpgsFAGrV9A[/yt]

 

[Pondwater]

Hopefully, the official Simpsons page on YouTube will upload this sequence as it has several of the more notable "couch gag" sequences.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpgsFAGrV9A[/yt]

Loved that!

 

[cooleddie74]

The show still has its great moments, however infrequent they've become.

 

[Redfern]

Thanks, Locutus!

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Christopher]

That was neat... but they slipped in a couple of 24th-century ringers.