Some retro channel the other day was showing the first season of The Simpsons. It was “on” where I was at. I’m sure I wouldn’t have tuned to it myself. Every 30 seconds or so I found myself chuckling. Funny stuff. As I think about what made it so good, a couple of areas stick out. The voice actors were incredible. The writing superb. The animation was generally very pedestrian, except for the facial expressions. Sound effects good, editing good.

A dozen years ago or so a talk show had all the actors together onstage. It was very sad, it was the first time they had met. The reality is animated series are very cheap to produce. No sets, no divas, no overhead. They could have the voice actor come in and read their part (parts) for an entire season in a day or two. Then it was just all edited together. No group sessions, no hi-jinks. Just very business-like.

Its been going since 1989. The IMDB page is quite interesting. It always shocked me Bart is played by a woman. As is Milhouse. Marge is voiced by “Rhoda’s sister” Julie Kavner. For those who aren’t true ‘Simpson-philes’, reviewer “liquidcelluloid-1” offers some interesting insight to the series and his perception of it ruined, was from 2004?! That’s 18 years ago! Which is intriguing as I know personally someone who is a Simpson expert and it goes along with his thinking perfectly.

Its also interesting to note that while women watch it, the obsession rests with men (boys). Also of note is that it was birthed by the FOX Network. Its easy to forget the tawdry nature of the upstart network back in the 80’s. Think of shows like ‘Married With Children’. They took low-brow to a whole new level. Another cost cutting aspect to it is that they farmed out the animation to South Korea long ago. Every once in awhile you’ll shake your head wondering if you see Asiatic aspects to the characters.