Talks of a "Simpsons" 24-hour channel in the works

[M2nFarisFan]

I don't get the point behind Naked News or the Simpsons 24/7. Me personally, I have enough channels already on my cable that I never seem to run out of (although I like Comcast/Xfinity's HD package; it's nice to be able to see the zits on Jordan Staal's face from the second deck :P ) I always supported making it illegal for any television to use house electricity; given the fact that LED TV's use only about 200 watts, I support making it law that every TV must be powered by exercise bike. It's a good way to get millions of couch potatoes off of the dinner roll and onto the honor roll IMO.

[TheNewNeko]

So... if True Blood isn't comparable... then why did you bring up Naked News in the first place, and speak about the longevity of the female part of it?

Two separate answers:

1) For the "20 seconds a year" quote and 2) to show a contrast between what happened with the male and the female programs. It's also a little bit of a paradox for me. I can't really understand why it's unsuccessful with programs like Naked News but works with shows like The Simpsons. I mean if Matt was gay and is trying to promote a homosexual lifestyle to everyone, it might make some sense because that was his agenda, but otherwise I don't get it.

This has happened before with Joel Schumacher and his Batman movies (Batman Forever and Batman and Robin), which were considered sub-par to the other films. George Clooney actually said Schumacher was trying to promote a gay Batman with those movies -- I know this is a sensitive subject so I have a link for you...(http://www.rottentomatoes.com/news/1..._other_people/)

Matt's probably doing the same thing.

Also, I guess it's worth mentioning there was an entire episode that revolved around Homer and Marge caught outside with nothing on and there was no major outcry for her part in it.

Knowing Matt and his disturbing habits, I bet you saw WAY MORE of Homer than Marge. I don't know why he does it. Again, see above.

And now you want to use the family argument. Well, in that case you might as well get on some of the cases of episodes of classic Nickelodeon cartoons in the 90's and early 00's because they did the same thing. And the primary audience for those shows is children. I don't really have a desire to see that concept stay or go, but saying it's unwholesome or something is going overboard. Especially when it happened as infrequent as it did. Better go after King of the Hill too, pretty sure they did that once or twice as well.

Let's dissect these one at a time.

The things that makes the Simpsons disturbing have been done before -- nudity used to be in Warner Bros. cartoons, the glorification of blatant stupidity was on the Three Stooges, overwhelming arrogance was done on All In The Family, brusqueness and attitude was done on Roseanne and Married With Children, and dismissal of intelligence was done on The Honeymooners. But never beforehand were all of the things fused together into one show and fed to us until the food got rotten sometime debatably between the seventh and 12th seasons, and then were fed to us even to this day.

It also opened the floodgates for all of the other stupid shows, the carbon copy clones that are a dime a dozen and fall short by about two inches of being a blatant rip off (Family Guy, King Of The Hill, American Dad, etc.) that now pollute the TV, and all of which feature the same absolute crap. As for the Nick shows, they wouldn't have gotten away with 75% of what they did had it not been for The Simpsons, so putting your target on that is the proper course of action here.

I don't see this as a big deal. It's not unheard of for students to write papers on TV shows (any kind: soaps, game shows, reality shows, you name it). I don't know the content of this paper but if you can make the show clearly relatable to the subject at hand, then I don't see the problem.

I definitely agree that the show has lost its consistent creative peak. They lost it years ago. Not worth having a show anymore if all you can crank out is 2, if you're lucky, 3 decent episodes tops a season after that point. My issue is the fandom pot-shots. I just don't see how that's necessary.

I guess you're not the type to call a spade a spade. I know the term spade is derogatory to African-American people, so how about "Call it like you see it"?? I have seen some REALLY dumb people follow The Simpsons fanatically. And if the show was on 24 hours a day, I am convinced they would never leave their houses, pass out from lack of sleep, get fired from their jobs for not showing up and possibly die of malnutrition because they can't bear to be away from their show.

Let's put it another way. Let's say that you're working on a construction site and you want someone to hand you a bag of cement but he can't hear you because he's 35 feet away and there's a jackhammer between the two of you. Now if you say "What are you, DEAF?", then I think that would qualify as a pot shot. But say you're standing next to someone and the room is quiet and as it turns out, he is in fact, almost completely deaf. So you sign to him in sign language "What are you, deaf?". It's not really technically a pot shot because you know he's deaf. It is factually accurate.

Most people I know who would actually watch this show 24 hours a day, or 4 hours or even more than about 2 hours a day aren't exactly the sharpest knives in the drawer or the highest wattage bulbs at the hardware store. That's where I have the issue. If someone's galactically stupid and you call them out on it, is it really a pot shot?

[Chameleonwhammy]

Am I a big fan of The Simpsons? Yes. (Yeah I like the show). Do I need 24 Hours of it? No. Would I DVR everything if it came into play? No.

[phimat37]

As I mentioned in the other thread, I am a big fan of the simpsons. I do not need to watch it all the time. There is DVDs. I have most of the early seasons 1989-1999.

[espnews26]

I'm surprised shows don't have channels devoted to them.
If there was a channel, then probably at least 25% would be infomercials with the other 50-75% being real programming.
Would I watch the channel all the time? No. Would I catch some of it from time to time? Probably.

I agree with the other posters that TheNewNeko was out of line for bashing the deaf and homosexuals as well as fans of the show.

[TheNewNeko]

I agree with the other posters that TheNewNeko was out of line for bashing the deaf and homosexuals as well as fans of the show.

The only one of the three I actually bashed was the fans of the show. THe "deaf" example was exactly that, so can it. As for the homosexual comment, I just wanted to know if Matt was gay, and that would explain the disturbing quantity of male nudity on the show as well as promoting another agenda. So it's not really a bash as an inquiry. So you're 1 for 3. In school, you would get an "F".

Turns out the show is going to run until 2014 -- so sadly, the galactically stupid fanbase of the show will still get to avoid seeing the hot yellow thing in the sky and instead will see Matt's agenda to turn all watchers into complete idiots continue. And people wonder why China's crushing us educationally and economically. Chinese students are getting Master's Degrees at school while Americans (generally speaking) are watching reruns of the Simpsons and Survivor.

[racingchick1020]

Turns out the show is going to run until 2014 -- so sadly, the galactically stupid fanbase of the show will still get to avoid seeing the hot yellow thing in the sky and instead will see Matt's agenda to turn all watchers into complete idiots continue. And people wonder why China's crushing us educationally and economically. Chinese students are getting Master's Degrees at school while Americans (generally speaking) are watching reruns of the Simpsons and Survivor.

Wait... So you're saying that even though the show's only on one night a week, they stay home all day?

Some of these people have lives. Let's try that one again.

[TheNewNeko]

It's not just on one night a week. There's five nights a week of syndication plus the talk of a 24-hour channel. And there will be idiots flocking to the idiot box to watch every episode 200 times.

[racingchick1020]

It's not just on one night a week. There's five nights a week of syndication plus the talk of a 24-hour channel. And there will be idiots flocking to the idiot box to watch every episode 200 times.

You really think that all fans watch the syndicated episodes? I barely touch anything syndicated as-is.

I'm going to predict something - if this channel is made, it's going to be on the digital tier. Not everyone has digital cable. So not everyone will be watching it.

[TheNewNeko]

You really think that all fans watch the syndicated episodes? I barely touch anything syndicated as-is.

Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

I honestly hope everyone's right and this channel becomes little more than a pipe dream started by a group of lummoxes who either are too intoxicated or too delirious from excessive consumption of narcotics to ever become reality, or that it will become insolvent inside of a month, but if there's one thing I've learned from movies like Idiocracy, it's that anyone with a brain might become an endangered species inside of 25 years.

Sad to think what the future will hold -- we'll have an entire generation of Simpsons fans who can only count to four...

[racingchick1020]

we'll have an entire generation of Simpsons fans who can only count to four...

And where is your proof that watching this show kills brain cells? Do you know that there are people on this planet who were born slow? Don't go around picking on the true disabled. People like me take offense to it.

[TheNewNeko]

And where is your proof that watching this show kills brain cells? Do you know that there are people on this planet who were born slow? Don't go around picking on the true disabled. People like me take offense to it.

You can't watch a show for 20-plus years that glorifies stupidity and repeats the same jokes hundreds of times and not be affected adversely in some way, shape or form. And that's the problem. When a show that basically says "It's not only okay, but a good thing to be stupid" is on that long, it takes a toll, plain and simple.

TV actually HAS been scientifically proven to kill brain cells as most sitcoms are written at a 6th grade level. And the study is saying that the longer you spend at that level, the more it actually defines you. And with The Simpsons, 6th grade is a bit of a stretch.

Matter of fact, late last year, a British family actually demanded its school stop teaching The Simpsons as part of an English program due to accusations of dumbing down, instead wanting to teach Shakespeare. Admittedly, I wouldn't understand it if Shakespeare was taught but that has truly lasted the test of time.

i know there are people who are born slow. I spent 8 years helping them play Bingo. But even they try to succeed and overcome their disability, which is truly impressive...

But it's sad when a lot of people who are capable of at least good things waste their lives away on really moronic TV like this. They really should do more with their lives, and that's a world different from being born with a real mental disability. You really should watch the movie Idiocracy some time, Mandy. It's a scarily real comedy about a direction that is very plausible for the American way.

[M2nFarisFan]

I'll go on the record and say that I haven't watched Simpsons nor Family Guy in years. I was into the latter a little bit during college, mostly because it was a torrent and I had free time in between other things. Personally, working 40 hours a week and searching for more advanced work consumes most, if not all, of my time. With candor in mind, I think you two might be getting a little obsessed with what 99.9% of the world thinks is a redundant topic. But that's just me....

Anyways, what really kills brain cells is not exercising your brain enough. When I was in high school, I began writing a novel just on the spur of the moment. It took from January 2002 to April 2006 to write it, and until recently to get it to the major level. But after I finished it, I was never able to write even a 20 page short story. At one time, I was writing 10 pages a night over Spring Break....now I'm lucky if I can compose a thought longer than a few pages without bullpuckying my prose. What happened? Well, I got so busy working for Penn State and schoolwork that I had little time for creative compositions; as a result, my brain can't put that long of a coherent thought any more.

[matchgame74fan]

You really think that all fans watch the syndicated episodes? I barely touch anything syndicated as-is.

I'm going to predict something - if this channel is made, it's going to be on the digital tier. Not everyone has digital cable. So not everyone will be watching it.

Agreed.

In general, I like to think of syndication as something that's pretty much both a blessing and a curse, depending on the situation. It has its advantages and disadvantages. In this particular case though, in this area, the only episodes that are rerun of the show are really the same recent seasons over and over. So for me there's little appeal for it now.

Not to mention generally the edits for some shows can be very annoying. It's bad enough older shows can be cut for time but in a lot of instances, jokes/plot points are cut out entirely and episodes can end up not making logical sense as a result of it. It's why I stopped watching syndicated reruns of Golden Girls after getting all the DVD's, and wouldn't watch it on Hallmark anymore if I still had it because they're the worst at editing. There were even episodes of Who's The Boss? where they'd cut to a commercial with a character in mid-sentence! Actually, that can be a drawback if this network actually happens; a lot of fans who have the uncut DVD's don't seem to pay much attention to syndicated reruns anymore, because even episodes of The Simpsons from the early 1990's still have stuff that's cut out. So, you're totally right. Not everyone who even would have this possible channel in the first place would watch it.

[matchgame74fan]

It's not just on one night a week. There's five nights a week of syndication plus the talk of a 24-hour channel. And there will be idiots flocking to the idiot box to watch every episode 200 times.

But really, in the end it sounds like you simply can't understand why something is popular. That in itself is one thing. Saying stuff like the new episodes of the show aren't good now is one thing, too. And I even agree with that, very strongly. But you wanna call folks out for their obsessiveness with the show yet at the same time you make cheap shots at the fandom with every single chance you get. And your entire attitude in general just honestly makes you look just as extreme about the show as any remaining ardent fans who watch the show every week; the only difference is that instead of extreme love or loyalty it's extreme disdain.

I mean, seriously, I watched the first two or three seasons of Two and a Half Men but ended up growing to hate it and haven't looked back since then. But I don't get as butthurt as you do about this show over the possible fact that people still watch it or watched it for longer than I did. Do I question sometimes how people can still enjoy it? Yes. But I don't go to the extreme of trying to find studies on it and such.

Hell, at this point Law & Order and its spinoffs come on WAY more than The Simpsons and probably any show that's rerun at this particular point in time and I don't like that. Even just one version usually gets one marathon too many. And I've never cared for the show, but I don't take that out on the fans. Not to mention a lot of shows come on 5 days a week and get one regular weekly showing on primetime network TV. So when you take any possibility of an exclusive network out of it, really? It's treated no differently than any other show in that position.