Which Simpsons episodes remind you of other animated shows?

[TriforceBun]

As any fan could tell you, The Simpsons has a fairly wide variety of styles through it's 16-season run. The first couple seasons feel very down-to-earth, while a few years ago, they were wacky as ever. In-between, we've had parodies, satire, musicals, and emotion-based episodes, keeping the variety fresh.

So I was thinking, which episodes of the show remind you of other shows? Like, which eps. could you see logically fitting in style-wise with other cartoons (after swapping a few characters around, of course)? And I don't mean story-wise (like Strong Arms vs. Family Guy's Lethal Weapons), but in the execution. Here're my picks:

South Park: New Kids on the Blechh
-Nothing to do with Fingerbang, just the show itself. The story, like many South Park episodes, starts off fairly normal, then goes nuts in the latter third with some very loud parodying and hit-or-miss satire. I think most SP episodes are better than this, though (though I do think New Kids is a tad underrated).

King of the Hill: Bart Gets an F
-Season 2 was one of the most "realistic", emotional seasons of the show, and at times it reminded me very much of KoTH. Bart Gets an F is a very standard, down-to-earth showing that I could easily see as a KoTH episode.

Futurama: Lisa's Wedding
-For extremely obvious reasons

Family Guy: Catch 'em if You Can
-Homer and Marge really reminded me of Peter and Lois, in that they were more "outrageous" and less endearing than their normal selves. They're also abnormally sex-crazed, and don't seem to care about the well-being of their children most of the time. Everyone's a jerk in this episode, and a lot of the gags revolve around someone being put-down. Finally, the Catch Me parody--while clever--did go on a bit long and reminded me of FG's trademark cutaways.

What are your picks?

[Mira]

Homer the Moe: I don't know, but other than "I had a hat... Suckers!" no joke belongs in The Simpsons, I luaghed at a few of them, I still think some were kind of funny but they were really odd coming from The Simpsons, all so crude, that could pass for a Family Guy episode.

Brawl in the Family- Malcolm in the Middle. Both are dysfunctional familes, but that kind of "we all hate each other" fighting is in every episode of Malcolm and The Simpsons usually aren't as mean and haetful toward each other.

I'll think of more later.

[DotheBartman]

The non-THOH "trilogy" episodes (especcially the Moses one in "Bible Stories") always remind me of a lot of the Saturday Morning-type cartoons I watched as a kid, where they would swap out the usual format and show the characters in a different setting (Peanuts characters in the old west, Rugrats retelling the story of Moses-stuff like that), often with kind of cheesy "adventure" humor and whatnot. A few of the THOH shorts do the same, like "Easy Bake Coven". I think that's partially why I've never cared much for those types of episodes; they always seem almost a little childish to me (and I never liked the basic format behind them in the old cartoons either, even as a kid).

Good call on "New Kids" and South Park; I think a few others like "Bart Mangled Banner" fit that as well, since they get progressively wierder and sometimes rather preachy.

[Postmaster]

I'd disagree with the Catch em if you can family guy comparison Homer and Marge's dialouge is still true to their character.

[Crotis Jivefunk]

I agree with New Kids, Homer the Moe, and the non-THOH shorts. Ironically, South Park's episode on boy bands was down to earth and funny.

Simpsons Safari: It's South Park-esque with gags like the hippo, the monkey miners, the evil scientist, and the caption about the bagboys was like the one from the rainforest episode.


I can only think of a few others, plotwise:

All's Fair in Oven War: Basic plot could be something seen on King of the Hill. I can see Peggy competing in a baking competion, and a Playboy-esque life seems like something Bobby would like. Replace Lisa with Hank and it could work.

My Big Fat Geek Wedding/The Bart Wants What it Wants: I've seen this done on Full House, the forumlatic love triangle. The characters are kind of flat, and they all end with the female deciding not to go with either guy.

[Binky]

Hmm, let's see. A Star is Burns remind me of The Critic. That's about it.

[Hydro]

There are a few episodes that could be translated directly to King of the Hill with little effort. A lot of these are things like "The Springfield Connection" or "The Twisted World Of Marge Simpson" where Marge reminds me quit a bit of Peggy and Homer settles comfortably into the Hank role.

"The Springfield Files" is the closest they got to Family Guy's style, between jettisoning a complicated story in favor of extraneous references and parodies that feel detached from the characters (Speed, Waterworld, Donkey Kong, The Shining, Psycho, The X-Files), things like the sudden reapperance of Scully and Chewbakka at the end, and the quick "oh, that explains everything" resolution.

I also think "Blood Feud" was making a deliberate effort to emulate The Flintstones, among other shows, with the aim of turning them upside-down.

Now, to pose the opposite question -- What Simpsons episodes are there which are so distinctly crafted in the show's style that they couldn't work on any TV show before or since? I'd nominate "Lemon of Troy," "The Simpsons Spinoff Showcase" and "Rosebud" (could any other show take a tender story about a teddy bear loved equally by a baby and an old man, mix in George Burns, the Ramones, Citizen Kane, Charles Lindbergh, and The Planet of the Apes, and still make it stick together cohesively?)

[Homer Jay]

Refering to Hydro's question about episodes that wouldn't work with other shows, I think that the election episodes like "Two Car..." and "Sideshow Bob Roberts" couldn't work because they span entire election seasons which could never happen in other shows which generally take place within a period of a couple of days.

Neither could Deep Space Homer for obvious reasons.

[Handsome Peter]

"Bart to the Future", along with "Lisa's Wedding", is also very Futurama-like, as well as Jetsons-like. With a title like "Future Drama", the upcoming flash-forward-to-a-few-years-later show's connection to Futurama is self-explanatory, even though none of us have seen it yet.

And how can we forget the opening scene in "Marge vs. the Monorail"? If that doesn't remind you of the Flintstones, nothing does.

[Hydro]

And how can we forget the opening scene in "Marge vs. the Monorail"? If that doesn't remind you of the Flintstones, nothing does.

Thank you, Dr. Missing-The-Point.

[Mike Scully]

A lot of the Jean era episodes (particularly seasons 13 and 14) strike me as similar in style to The Critic, when many episodes contained very obvious somewhat detached parodies within the story, and a mix of very surreal goofy gags with some heart and characterization. Some examples would be Jaws Wired Shut, Strong Arms of the Ma, and Special Edna.

[Galalimit]

Alot of the Scully era episodes reminded me of South Park actually.