|
Live via satellite: it's the Simpson Family Smile-Time Variety Hour!
By Chris Wenstrom
Assistant News Editor
Many students find “The Simpsons” to be one of the best television shows on TV. And with this upcoming Sunday being the 300th episode, “The Simpsons” will be the longest running sitcom in TV history, making it hard to deny that many students find this show irresistible.
On Thursday evening the Museum of Television and Radio put on another panel consisting of members of the Simpsons cast and writers. The University Satellite Seminar Series provides private satellite connections for colleges and universities with the necessary technology to view and participate in a discussion with various members of television and radio programs.
Professor Quentin Schultze of the communication arts and sciences department coordinated Calvin’s viewing of the seminar. Prior to the program, Schultze said, “I have seen this [seminar] for about six years now, and participated in a couple of them. And I think in general the Calvin students have asked the best questions compared to the other schools. There tend to be some people at the schools that want to get involved in these things because they’re fans, not because they have anything intelligent to say, and that can really destroy these really rapidly.”
In reference to a previous time in which the program lost most of its educational value, Schultze said, “I got so angry that I almost called up to them [MTR] and told them to cancel all future programs if they can’t control the calls [questions] any better than they were. Otherwise it’s not educational.”
Schultze was concerned because Wednesday’s panel consisted of members who made their living making people laugh, and there was a good chance that laughs would become more important than the content of the program.
The agenda began with Barbara Walters speaking regarding the MTR, which was established in the s by the founder of CBS. Then Barbara Dixon, director of the MTR, sat with the four panelists and started the questioning which was interjected by questions phoned in from colleges and universities from around the United States.
The panelists from “The Simpsons” included Matt Groening, creator and executive producer; Al Jean, current executive producer and head writer; Dan Castellaneta, voice of Homer Simpson and others; Yeardley Smith, voice of Lisa Simpson; and Harry Shearer, voice of Mr. Burns, Smithers and many other characters.
Groening commented on how he came up with the idea for “The Simpsons.” It has been rumored that he sketched the characters on a napkin while sitting outside Jim Brooks’ office.
“Jim Brooks’ production company called me up, after seeing my comic strip, and he liked it,” Groening said. “Yes, I did draw the characters outside the office, not on a napkin--it’s really hard to draw on napkins-- but on a piece of typing paper.”
After being asked how he came up with their names, Groening said, “Because I was on the spot, I did name the characters after my family, with the idea that if they ever got on the air, what an amusing joke to play on my dad and mom. The reason I named Bart Bart, was because I thought that if I went into Jim Brooks’ office and said, ‘And this is a kid named Matt,’ he would think, ‘What an ego.’ So I changed the name to Bart, and my sisters’ names were Lisa and Maggie.”
Concerning his premonitions on what the success of the show would be, Castellaneta responded, “When I got the first script, it exceeded my expectations. The writing was beyond what I expected for an animation show. I felt the first 13 shows would build a cult, but I didn’t know if any America was ready. It was the first show that really had an underground sensibility to it, because Matt had a background in underground comics and culture. I didn’t know if America would take to it, and I was very surprised it did, and how quickly it did.”
In order to describe how a show is put together, Jean said, “This is the most boring question. The writers will come in with an idea, and pitch it to the show runner. The staff thinks about how to turn it into a full story-beginning, middle and end. The writer writes a first draft, which is rewritten five or six times before the cast gets it.”
“When the cast reads it, we learn a lot of things,” Jean added. “They add a lot of stuff that really helps it. We rewrite it again. Then it gets sent off to the animation studio where they do a rough version in black and white. We rewrite that, then it goes to Korea where it gets animated. When it comes back in color we can still add lines, actors will loop-line. In fact we just had a reference to the space shuttle we had to change. Things will happen between the times [being sent to get animated and when it finally comes back in full color as a finished product].”
The panelists mentioned that there were some topics that they wouldn’t allow to be touched, including abortion, as they didn’t know how to make that funny. Also, they said they would never depict Homer physically abusing Marge.
They continued on, saying, “People say, ‘Why haven’t you done George W. Bush?’ and what’s hard for me is he keeps changing every two-three months-- first he was an idiot, then he was untouchable, now I don’t know. You don’t know what it will be like when it [the show] airs.”
Dixon asked, “When something like September 11 [happens], do you try to incorporate anything like that, that’s had such a monumental effect on the country, or do you just try to stay away from it?”
“People do bin Laden jokes, but the actual events might not be that funny,” Shearer said.
Two Calvin students attempted to call in questions but to no avail. The producers of the program that were screening the calls felt that their questions were pertaining to subjects that had already been asked.
After the program, Schultze said that he wished that the questioning would have been better in order to strengthen the educational value of the seminar. His worries were realized as the questioning from the college students turned to simple fan inquiries.
Schultze felt that the best questions deal with content—what the show is about and its goals. “It’s one thing to say it’s about satire, but it’s another to say it’s satire about what?” Schultze said.
|
