‘The Simpsons,’ back from the pit

[Murphy3]

‘The Simpsons,’ back from the pit

COMMENTARY
By Jon Bonné
MSNBC

Nov. 7 — Perhaps if TV shows can jump the shark, they can jump back, too. “The Simpsons,” which in recent years seemed to have lost all trace of its original brilliance, certainly is attempting a daring feat, reaching back to its roots without ignoring just how far it’s come in the 15 years it has been on the air. Perhaps Bart put it best in an episode last season: “If I may dust off an old chestnut: Ay caramba! Ay caramba, indeed.”

Is 'The Simpsons' improving?
* 22764 responses
Yes, it was going downhill for a while
31%
No, it's getting worse
6%
It's always been great
63%


THREE YEARS AGO, I argued the show had lost its soul and devolved into an uneven, slapsticky mess that needed to be put to a respectable death. At that point, it seemed that the show’s creators — even those like George Meyer who had shepherded it through its proudest days — were hopelessly on a track to TV hell, allowing “The Simpsons” to drift toward ever-coarser humor and a lowbrow view of the world that bore little resemblance to the subtle work of earlier years.
I won’t say they’ve fully cured themselves. Jerkass Homer, as old-time fans called him, can still dominate the screen — presumably because those younger viewers who more recently learned the virtues of the Simpsonsverse compose a large chunk of the viewing audience.
Guest star appearances often still seem incongruous, such as filmmaker Michael Moore’s stint in one of the new season’s early episodes.
But the show has finally evolved into a modern incarnation that retains its heart without feeling tired or bouncing from gag to gag like Homer tumbling down the side of Springfield Gorge.

RETURN OF A VETERAN
Rather, the episodes have turned away from Homer — both focusing back on the rest of the family again and taking time to explore the lives of secondary characters.

If it once took Lisa’s piggy bank to repurchase Bart’s soul, getting the show’s soul back seems to have required Al Jean, a “Simpsons” veteran who joined the show for its 1989 launch and ran it during its pivotal third and fourth seasons, when it really began to evolve beyond a Bartfest and develop its intricate texture.
Jean, who took the show’s helm from executive producer Mike Scully in 2001, has guided the show away from its gag-heavy, Homer-centric incarnation. With the DVD set of season three released in August, and another season of Jean-guided episodes due in days, these are certainly brighter days for the show’s long-time fans.
What’s most interesting is how the show has evolved since Jean returned. Homer’s personality hasn’t actually changed much, perhaps because it would be nearly impossible to unspill the wine that caused his boorish metamorphosis in the show’s middle years.


Rather, the episodes have turned away from him — both focusing back on the rest of the family again and taking time to explore the lives of secondary characters. Bart and Lisa have re-emerged from their father’s shadow in episodes like 2002’s “Bart vs. Lisa vs. 3rd Grade,” which considers the horrifying prospect of the two Simpson kids in the same classroom. Secondary characters who had faded into the background — Apu and Moe, for example — have suddenly gotten lots more time in the spotlight.
A January 2003 episode, “Special Edna,” was a great example: Bart leverages his storied career as ne’er-do-well to get teacher Edna Krabappel nominated as Teacher of the Year. The episode was hardly retro: The family’s visit to Orlando’s “Efcot Center” included a seating on “Enron’s Ride of Broken Dreams.” After a mere 14 seasons, Principal Skinner finally grew a spine, sort of, and belatedly proposed to the lovelorn Krabappel.
But the sensibility sure was, with everyone (OK, almost everyone) in Fox’s First Family acting like their old selves again. Other characters were no longer mere props for Homer gags. Sly social satire was seamlessly woven in. It felt like the “Simpsons” of yore.

HOMER GETS HAMSTRUNG
Not only is Homer being shuffled into the background, but the show’s creators seem to have acknowledged — implicitly, at least — that his jerkass incarnation really can be enervating. It’s a puzzle as to whether this was a conscious directive, but when Homer has appeared recently, the writers frequently put the moral screws to him:
Last season, in “The Great Louse Detective,” Homer keeps narrowly escaping attempts on his life as he rolls through his usual annoying antics. (Spoiler alert: His attacker turns out to be Frank Grimes, Jr., son of Homer’s one-time nemesis — who killed himself during a spastic imitation of Homer’s thoughtless antics. The original 1997 Grimes episode grated, but did underscore the travesty Homer had become.)
In season 13’s “The Parent Rap,” both Homer and Marge are dinged for their parenting skills. Hard-boiled Judge Constance Harm (a welcome addition to the troupe) revels in putting them through the paces, including a stint in the stocks. As Comic Book Guy notes half-sagely, “Worst parents ever!”
In this year’s “Barting Over,” Bart discovers his young stardom in breath freshener commercials as “Baby Stinkbreath” and Homer admits he squandered Bart’s riches. Bart becomes so angry with his addlebrained dad that he goes to court to become emancipated and move out of Evergreen Terrace.
Homer’s comeuppance has reached the point that even he acknowledges his own intolerability. In last season’s “Brake My Wife, Please,” not only is his driver’s license taken away, but his sudden desire to walk everywhere runs Marge so ragged that she runs him over — and then has to spend all her time nursing him. By episode’s end, Homer realizes he’s become such a drag that he throws Marge a huge thank-you bash. Not exactly an epiphany, but shreds of hope that Homer might in fact redeem himself. (The episode’s added bonus: a laugh-out-loud opening subplot at the Springfield Aquarium that included Milhouse’s secret desire to be a nurse shark.)

NO TURNING BACK
Many of the show’s newer fans insist it has always been on the right track. Of those who submit opinions about the show to Jumptheshark.com, which debates when shows begin to slide downhill, “Never Jumped” remains, curiously, the clear winner.

For every hardened fan who wouldn’t mind seeing Homer pilloried, there is a younger viewer who was raised during the show’s more herky-jerky days. I can assume that’s one reason why Annoying Homer, even if he’s been taken down a few pegs, hasn’t been supplanted.
Plus it’s simply impossible to turn back the clock. A “Simpsons” that reverted back to Jean’s glory days — assuming writers could conceivably reverse 10-12 years worth of television — simply wouldn’t work anymore. The snarky-but-soulful tone that emerged in the first few seasons would feel awkward.
Though pop references sometimes seem to have been Krazy Glued into the script, “The Simpsons” remains an effectively cultural reflector — mocking, among other things, the lesser TV lights that surround it and the networks that create them. (In “Day of the Jackanapes,” which Jean wrote, two TV executives are blown to bits before melding, “Terminator 2”-style, into liquid cyborgs.)

SIGNS OF HOPE
Whether it goes out with the fire of a Guatemalan insanity pepper or stumbles to an embarrassing collapse like an overfed monkey remains a choice the show’s staff will continue to face, but there’s a new whiff of hope in the air.

So what’s ahead for “The Simpsons”?
The show has survived darker days — the focal point perhaps being the ungraceful handling of Maude Flanders’ demise — and created a new hybrid “Simpsons” that frequently allows the show’s best core values to shine through without turning away a new crowd. It was a dangerous highwire act, and I’m frankly surprised they pulled it off.
If one new episode, “The President Wore Pearls,” is any indication, the show’s changes are continuing and its quality is getting even stronger. With a nod to “Evita,” the teachers at Springfield Elementary anoint Lisa the student body president so they can use her as a pawn. It gives screen time to the boys in Lisa’s life — Bart, Nelson, Milhouse — and Homer’s solipsistic mumblings are kept to a minimum.
Farther down the road, there is always the specter of the show ending for good and a much mumbled-about “Simpsons” movie. Jean recently told IGN.com the cast had signed on for three films, but neither a script nor a timeline was in place, and has hinted the show certainly might reach 20 seasons — a prospect likely to generate even more speculation about its future.
Whether Fox will allow the show to die remains a complicated bit of showbiz economics since “The Simpsons” is no longer a mere show. Most fans in the United States can get at least one daily dose, to say nothing of its overseas syndication. And with the arrival of long-awaited DVD sets, even the most rabid viewer can indulge and freeze-frame at any time of day.
Indeed, “The Simpsons” has become an iconic American brand and re-established a deserved position near the top of the pop-culture pile — at least for now. Whether it goes out with the fire of a Guatemalan insanity pepper or stumbles to an embarrassing collapse like an overfed monkey remains a choice the show’s staff will continue to face, but there’s a new whiff of hope in the air.
And it doesn’t smell like donuts.

[Murphy3]

‘Simpsons’ evolves as an industry

Fox’s much-loved TV show is a guaranteed cash cow
One of many name-brand companies to tie itself to the show, Kellogg's has used "Simpsons" characters to sell cereals like Crispix and Corn Pops, along with other breakfast products.



By Jon Bonné
MSNBC



Nov. 7 — “D’oh!”? Perhaps it really should be “Dough!” With original shows in production, several reruns a day in syndication and thousands of items that now feature the faces and voices of its unforgettable characters, “The Simpsons” is an industry unto itself.

IT IS TELEVISION’S Energizer Bunny. As other programs — even those with tremendous marketing appeal — fade away, the citizens of Springfield keep on going. Each successive season, and its 15th begins Sunday, strengthens its brand and solidifies its hall-of-fame status in American cultural history.
“It will be one of the longest running shows in the history of television,” says Bill Carroll, vice president and director of programming at Katz Television Group, which represents local TV stations. “It will be ‘Gunsmoke,’ it will be ‘Law and Order,’ and and it will be ‘The Simpsons.’”
New “Simpsons” episodes do just fine in the ratings — often in the top 25 for the week, according to Nielsen Media Research — though they rarely break the top 10. But that doesn’t really matter: What the show delivers consistently is a spectacular audience mix of kids and adults, often topping its time slot among viewers 18-34. One of Fox’s key strategies has always been to program to that younger audience, which remains a coveted prize among advertisers, but “The Simpsons” delivers it in addition to younger children and teens.
Still, the real cash comes from syndicated episodes, which broke a traditional once-a-day mold for syndicated shows and are regularly seen two or even three times a day in major markets. It has quickly ensconsed itself on syndication A-lists with “Friends” and “Seinfeld,” though they often can’t deliver quite as broad a demographic range; its syndication revenue is estimated to be as large as $1 billion, with Fox capturing perhaps 10-15 percent.
“That’s where they make most of their money,” says Wayne Friedman, contributing editor for Television Week magazine. “It’s like printing money, basically.”

‘SIMPSONS,’ ‘SIMPSONS’ EVERYWHERE

That’s just the beginning, though. Fox has harnessed a whole realm of “Simpsons” licensing opportunities over the years. Unlike most movies and TV shows, which get an initial rush of interest in branded merchandise before fading into obscurity, “The Simpsons” has provided endless fodder for manufacturers and retailers.
Some 500 companies around the world are licensed to put “Simpsons” faces on everything from action figures to cereal — and 96 percent renew their contracts. Major retail brands like Burger King and Butterfinger, which came back for new deals after a hiatus, can’t get enough of “Simpsons” tie-ins. A line of “Simpsons” pet toys just launched at Target; a recent video game, “The Simpsons: Hit and Run,” remains a big hit; and Brunswick just signed a deal for a “Simpsons” bowling ball and bowling leagues at its 109 alleys. Like other companies, it hopes to harness the show’s ageless appeal and signal a promise of family fun. “It’s an excellent match,” says Don Jones, Brunswick’s director of retail marketing.
Though Fox won’t discuss how much it makes from license deals, revenues from “Simpsons” merchandising are estimated to edge up into the hundreds of millions, and possibly higher. “Simpsons” T-shirt sales reportedly will take in $20 million this year in the United States alone.
“It is without doubt the biggest licensing entity that Fox has had, full stop, I would say from either TV or film,” says Peter Byrne, Fox’s executive vice president of licensing and merchandising.

"The Simpsons," back from the pit


A GLOBAL APPEAL
Part of the trick has been to go well beyond T-shirts and mugs — to capitalize on the show’s recognition around the globe with marketing programs that target local audiences in Europe, Brazil, Australia and Japan. While the U.S. market primarily focuses on collectibles, Byrne notes, the British are keen on “Simpsons” food and drinks.
Says Tim Walsh, president of THQ Wireless: “It is one of the few properties that is truly global.”
Late last month, THQ unveiled the first round of “Simpsons” programming for mobile devices, offered to customers of European wireless firm Vodafone. (U.S. deals are in the works.) The goal is not just to fill phones with ringtones and wallpaper but also games that highlight specific aspects of the “Simpsons” world, all filtered through a “Virtual Springfield” phone owners can browse. Walsh has little fear he will run out of material: “They’ve been able to last and reinvent themselves over time.”
For THQ, as it does with most other firms, Fox offered up writers to help devise content that would retain the show’s feel without just lifting snippets. Such a direct role — with quality assurance in mind — has remained key to recent branding, perhaps because the network’s first attempts at merchandise ran into a brick wall shortly after the show debuted in 1989.
“They had a huge amount of merchandise that died out in a year or two,” says William LaRue, author of “Collecting Simpsons!” and creator of collectors’ site Bartfan.com. “A lot of that stuff was just generic merchandise where they slapped a logo on it and said ‘This is Simpsons.’”

This collectors' edition car from Playing Mantis is a replica of the vehicle Homer designed when given free reign of the auto factory owned by his half-brother, Herb Powell.


Most of it, LaRue says, was quickly tossed away or forgotten by the serious fans who usually create markets in collectibles. An early Burger King figure, for example, was mocked for its distorted molds of the characters. By the mid-1990s, just a couple years after the show gained traction, the market for “Simpsons” items was seriously lagging.
“They probably oversaturated the market a little bit in terms of the tchotchkes that were out there,” says Jennifer Coleman Thieroff, director of marketing and communications for the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association. “They’re managing it much better now.”

OBSCURITY SELLS
When the show debuted, Thieroff notes, the licensing industry was in its nascent days and marketers wrongly thought a cartoon would have its biggest market in kids’ merchandise. A revived licensing push since 2000 has implemented some lessons Fox learned — most notably that adult merchandise often has the hottest potential, particularly the collectible action figures made by Playmates Toys. Playmates’ strategy was to create, with Fox’s help, not just obvious figures but special editions and dozens of secondary characters. The attention to detail hasn’t gone unnoticed. And the show has joined in the fun. One episode turned Comic Book Guy (who began as a parody of zealous fans) into a superhero — “The Collector” — who encased an animated Lucy Lawless in an oversized plastic pouch. Playmates then turned The Collector into an action figure. “They ended up making money off of something that was making fun of making money off someone,” LaRue notes.
Fox, too, is savvy about the need to exploit those minor characters — and to choose carefully. Ned Flanders has been a marketing whiff while dunderheaded Ralph Wiggum is a runaway hit, and is set to be printed on girls’ underwear.
And, hints Byrne, “there’s still a few characters we haven’t brought out of the shadows just yet.” Would he care to give any hints? He laughs, then adds a terse “No.”

SLOW-BURN STRATEGY
If the initial frenzy surrounding “The Simpsons” is long gone, that has ended up being a brand-building boon. Part of the show’s endurance rests in its hot-but-not-scalding appeal. It never sizzled like some other properties, which kept consumers from “Simpsons” fatigue. “It was never at the point of a Tickle Me Elmo,” says Thieroff.
The economics of that slow-burn strategy also remain a key draw to all those TV executives the show likes to parody. Not only has “The Simpsons” proven itself to be fatigueproof with viewers, but while shows like “Friends” and “ER” have spiraling costs as casts and crew raise their salary demands, most salaries on “The Simpsons” go to writers, who have more modest expectations. That allows Fox to recoup its costs through ad sales from the original runs of the episodes: Syndication and licensing fees are just gravy.
“You’re making money on the first run as well as on syndication,” says Friedman. “On other shows like ‘ER,’ you’re losing money on the first run.”
With that sort of momentum, it seems almost incidental whether Fox continues to produce original episodes. Ending the show’s production would unquestionably have an impact. But “Simpsons” DVD sets, rolled out a season at a time, are selling millions of units. And like other properties — think “Star Trek” — that grew beyond the screen, there almost certainly will be movies and books and ... well, endless possibilities. Plus, its syndication run could easily last another 20 years. All that gives Fox plenty of reason to feel as contented as baby Maggie with a brand-new pacifier. “No brand is bulletproof,” Byrne says, “but from our perspective there’s still a lot of mileage and a lot of opportunities.”