Simpsons notes from Fox's 25th Anniversary Special

[That Don Guy]

Anybody else catch that Fox 25th Anniversary Special? Personally, it was pretty much what I expected a two-hour special to contain, but I did notice a couple of Simpsons-related things:

First, they aired the "bountiful penis" line from the movie, which is cut when Fox actually airs the movie on the network.

Second, when Zooey Deschanel appeared animated, who thought that it looked anything like her?

[zach]

watched it for a couple minutes, it was just american idol clips.

[The Angry Animated Comedy Nerd]

I thought it was funny that the family got the worst table at the party next to the bathroom.

[HRH Sir Prince Charles]

it was ok to fast forward through

the kind of thing they'll be embarrassed by when they do the 50th anniversary and realize how much time they devoted to MacFarlane

[The Angry Animated Comedy Nerd]

it was ok to fast forward through

the kind of thing they'll be embarrassed by when they do the 50th anniversary and realize how much time they devoted to MacFarlane

Why, he'll own the network by then.

Anyway, I agree it was good to DVR and fast forward through to the few good bits.

Seeing all the characters from different shows at the party reminded me of Braks Adult Swim new years bash all those years ago.. but just not as good or funny.

[HRH Sir Prince Charles]

These things always skew towards current hits, so obviously Family Guy got 10 minutes and American Idol got all the attention and there was an extended, unfunny New Girl clip. I still think these sorts of specials are neat, though, if only for cast reunions.

You can sum up Fox's first 25 years and how it became the 4th major network in the following numbers and words: Simpsons, Married With Children, 90210, X-Files and football. Add in Idol and that's pretty much it. Everything else is filler, even memorable shows like Melrose Place, Alley McBeal, The OC and Glee were basically 1 season wonders. I like that they were so self deprecating, though. That really is Fox's style, even if all the CHEVY CHASE SHOW! and TEMPTATION ISLAND! gags are seriously past their sell by dates.

[HRH Sir Prince Charles]

also, it reminded us of a simpler time when 40 million people would voluntarily watch the finale of Joe Millionaire

and then they trotted him out and he had a cane and it was surreal

[Captain Squid]

I watched it, it was decent. Best bits were clips from long forgotten shows and the Simpsons and X-Files segments. I was excited to see Bob's Burgers getting an animated bit, and then it freakin ended! It must have been longer, but got cut because Family Guy needed to take up so much time. :P

I thought it was funny how Futurama and Arrested Development got the shaft, AD had one clip I believe. Considering how big both shows have gotten, I would have thought they'd get bigger mentions. But then I remembered that FOX canned both shows, and had little to do with their resurrections. So of course, FOX will ignore them. Why give Comedy Central and Netflix free press?

[J Dog]

I watched it, it was decent. Best bits were clips from long forgotten shows and the Simpsons and X-Files segments. I was excited to see Bob's Burgers getting an animated bit, and then it freakin ended! It must have been longer, but got cut because Family Guy needed to take up so much time. :P

I thought it was funny how Futurama and Arrested Development got the shaft, AD had one clip I believe. Considering how big both shows have gotten, I would have thought they'd get bigger mentions. But then I remembered that FOX canned both shows, and had little to do with their resurrections. So of course, FOX will ignore them. Why give Comedy Central and Netflix free press?

How about King of the Hill? Second-longest running animated program on FOX, and it only got a fleeting shot in the opening run of various images. And Futurama had no mentions whatsoever.

Personally, I was hoping for a tiny mention of FOX's Saturday morning programming, whcih I had considered the last bastion of that genre, but some of the bellwethers of that group, like Power Rangers and Digimon, now belong to Disney, airing-wise. Pretty much the same thing if they bothered with that.

I also was hoping for FOX bashing some of its bigger failures besides the "New Girl" skit and showing the opening to the Family Guy episode where they spoofed "North by Northwest". But, then again, do we have to suffer from seeing "Allen Gregory" or "Sit Down, Shut Up" again?

[Zombies Rise from the Sea]

And Futurama had no mentions whatsoever.

Well it got a mention in a promo...

Haven't watched it yet, I do have it recorded on my computer for later viewing.

[D DEBBS]

Didn't watch...saw Wallace and Gromit instead.

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

Didn't watch...saw Wallace and Gromit instead.

Good choice.

[biffwestwood]

They did not have anything about Prime Time quiz shows. Fox did have quite a few of them since there were some that lasted a few years such as "Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader" and "Don't Forget the Lyrics". There was even "The Rich List" which only aired one episode before it got axed.

Oddly, they did not show any "Simpsons shorts" or any Tracey Ullman Show footage.

[The Governor]

They did not have anything about Prime Time quiz shows. Fox did have quite a few of them since there were some that lasted a few years such as "Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader" and "Don't Forget the Lyrics". There was even "The Rich List" which only aired one episode before it got axed.

Oddly, they did not show any "Simpsons shorts" or any Tracey Ullman Show footage.

Probably Ullman wanted too much $$$ for her clips and the shorts.

[Flimpson Tide]

I turned it off about 20 minutes in after realizing I was completely wasting my time. It was extremely pointless; mainly a slew of clips more than actual information. I could understand up to maybe one minute at most for montages of Family Guy or animal attacks, but they went on and on. A documentary would have been much better. Anyway, I didn't brave it long enough to see The Simpsons get mentioned. Was there anything actually informational?

[HRH Sir Prince Charles]

I have no idea what people were expecting, a retrospective of every show on FOX ever?

[J Dog]

I have no idea what people were expecting, a retrospective of every show on FOX ever?

Well, I was really hoping more for a retrospective on the creation of the network and some of the ideas (does anyone want to know the origins of "Werewolf" and "Bob's Big Ass Show"?). What we ended up was gushing over a few shows and skipping out on some details.

It's alright to discuss Family Guy, but nearly 5 minutes of clips? And the whole "when animals attack" segment on their reality TV shows was overkill, and strangely enough, while they mentioned "COPS" and "World's Wildest Police Videos" (something I still actually love to watch on truTV), I didn't see any mention of "America's Most Wanted" during that bit.

[kidpresentable]

in the show they said that family guy was the first show of its kind to win an emmey whats the deal with that?

[biffwestwood]

in the show they said that family guy was the first show of its kind to win an emmey whats the deal with that?

In the category of Best Comedy.

[Dark Homer]

the only emmy award family guy has won that the simpsons hasn't also won is "Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy Series or a Special"

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

in the show they said that family guy was the first show of its kind to win an emmey whats the deal with that?

They were nominated for best comedy in general, which was either the first time for a cartoon or second, I don't remember if The Flintstones was ever nominated. The Simpsons tried to be nominated for the same award in Seasons 4 and 5 but were turned down proving if nothing else how much higher the Emmy standards must've been back then...or maybe the competition was just better I dunno.

[Dark Homer]

they lost, though?

[Shaunbadia]

The Flintstones got nominated first and then Family Guy. The reason they made such a big deal about it was because of how long it had been since a cartoon had got to "Compete with the live-action big boys" as it were....and honestly...I'm surprised that out of all the FG episodes out there that could have had a damn good shot at an Emmy through the years..."I dream of Jesus" got them nominated into the Comedy category? Jesus Christ! (No pun intended)

[TheOttoThe]

I watched Space Cowboys on channel 11 (CHCH) instead LOL