Book #47: “Planet Simpson” by Chris Turner

 

Planet Simpson

Chris Turner

 Released: October 12, 2004

My 17th book for 2024 was Chris Turner’s “Planet Simpson”.

I was browsing around the Gaithersburg Wonderbook  when I stumbled upon this book.  The subject was super interesting.

I love "The Simpsons".  It was released the year I was born, so it's been pretty cool to grow up with the series, and still see new episodes released even today.  It truly has made a strong pop cultural impact on both a national and international scale.  

I always remember watching The Simpsons at 6:00p & 6:30p weeknights on Fox 5 in southcentral Pennsylvania.  Even more so were the nights when a severe thunderstorm came roaring through the area.  I vividly recall the many adventures of Springfield as a red ticker ran off an alerting buzz and we received the weather report scrolling across the bottom from the National Weather Service in State College, PA.  

Since I've always seen the series as a sort of safety blanket (due to all the thunderstorms), I've had dreams where a huge thunderstorm hits, and I go to a sort of "Panic Room" (just like the movie) and there are multiple screens (like Shredder's hideout in the 1990 TMNT movie) all featuring Bart doing something with his friends at Springfield Elementary.

I picked up the series again when I was working supported living in Vancouver, WA.  One of our individuals enjoyed watching the show, so we would go through the different episodes with them.

I remember going with my friend Katie in 2007 to see The Simpsons Movie at the Regal Theater in Hagerstown, MD.  The film had some funny moments but is more in the vein of the more recent eras of the show vs. the classic era that a lot of us grew up with.  The reason this night stands out so much is, after the movie, we were driving back to drop her off, and we went down this haunted road near the MD-PA border, and as I attempted to scare her with the spooky tales, she mentioned "Maybe we shouldn't have come down this road."  I reassured her that nothing was going to happen.  Suddenly, we rounded a bend, and right smack in the middle of the road was a Cow.  I missed making my own personal ground beef by inches.  After that, I was pretty sure that maybe I needed to avoid that road.

The book starts off strong, and there are some vivid memories of classic episodes that as soon as Turner mentions them, it all comes back to me.  I have seen the episodes described easily a dozen times, and the more I read, the harder I laughed.

Turner forewarns us in the Introduction about just how in-depth and detailed he goes.  He really does a good job linking some of the characters to traits and situations that fit the descriptions of the real world.  He is a Canadian liberal, and the tone of the book is written as such.  The creators of the Simpsons are of a more liberal persuasion, so it makes sense for the book to be written in that light.

The funniest part of the book is where he describes a loose run of things Homer has done which caused me to bust out laughing:  

"Homer is never more than a microsecond away from sheer panic or total out-rage. At the interview that eventually lands him his job at the nuclear power plant, Homer flees the room in a blind panic when presented with the mere scenario of a problem with the reactor. When Bart uses a transmitter to broadcast details over the Simpson family's radio of a phony Martian invasion, Homer has his shotgun loaded and at the ready before taking the briefest moment to question. whether it's a hoax. Another time, more or less unprovoked, he picks a fight with the garbage collectors, and they retaliate by canceling his service. Lisa asks whether this is one of those situations that could be solved with a simple apology. Homer responds, "I never apologize, Lisa. I'm sorry, but that's just the way I am." Later in the same episode, Homer runs for garbage commissioner under the slogan "Can't Someone Else Do It?" And wins. And spends the entire year's sanitation budget in a month, which he was helpless to prevent, he explains, because he was permitted to sign checks with a stamp. "I don't think anything I've ever done is wrong," he explains after Marge expresses a moment of hesitation at their newfound fondness for exhibitionist sex.”

Homer is seen as the stereotypical Boomer American.  Bart is more of a 1980's punk rocker.  Lisa is the liberal brain.  Marge is more of a 1950's housewife.  Burns is a caricature of corrupt conservative businessman America.  Turner even goes into smaller discussions about Krusty the Clown, Apu at the Kwik-E-Mart, Kent Brockman, Troy McClure, and several other characters.  The detail is exceptional, but at times, it lost me.  I learned some good facts from the book, and enjoyed the overview of the series to that point in time (considering the book was written in 2004 when the show had 15 seasons, and in that time we have over double the episodes).

At some points, the information is so strung out that you forget that you're reading a book about The Simpsons.  That was the most difficult part that I had to overcome.  While it didn't reach Jimmy Carter depth (See Keeping Faith review on Camp David Accords), it gets pretty detailed, and it becomes a chore.  The print is also considerably small for a 438 page book, which presents an additional challenge.  Thankfully, there are smaller foot notes in the bottom of the page that talk about examples in various episodes regarding what the author is talking about in the main book.

Here is what I learned:

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• People used to hold Simpson Parties at bars in college towns.

• The Simpson’s were once considered “Appointment” television, where people planned their schedules around the show.

• The “Golden Era” of the Simpsons was 1992 - mid-1997.

• Each Simpsons episode has a unique production code that is based on which batch it was produced in, followed by what order.

• The Simpsons originally aired on Thursday nights, but moved to Sunday nights in the fall of 1994.

• “D’oh” is an official word in the dictionary.

• Matt Groening was 33 when he pitched The Simpsons.

• James L. Brooks was the executive producer of the Mary Tyler Moore show.

• Groening worked odds jobs in LA such as chauffeur, clerk for a punk record store, and circulation manager for the L.A. Weekly.

• Matt’s original project was “Life in Hell”.

• The Simpsons debuted as a cartoon short for the Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987.

• The Simpsons debuted as a series on December 17th, 1989.

• At the time, Fox was a relatively fledgling network.  12% of Americans homes could not even get Fox.

• The rewrite studio at Fox is known as “The Room”.

• The show because so big that Fox had sold $750 million worth of Simpsons merchandise in 1990 alone.

• Krusty the Clown is based on the old Portland, Oregon TV Clown “Rusty Nails”.

• Luke Perry is Krusty’s half-brother.

• The Simpsons was moved from Sunday night to Thursday night for Season 2 to go head-to-head with The Cosby Show.  They were behind by 1/10th of a ratings point, showing their strength.

• The Cosby Show went off the air in April 1992.

• “Mr. Lisa Goes To Washington” was the first sign of the Golden Age. By “Homer At The Bat”, it was in full swing.

• The Simpsons entered syndication in fall of 1994.

• Fox has a policy about non-cooperation with writers of books about The Simpsons.

• Most A-list comedy writing teams since the late-1960’s have included Canadians.

• Canadians tend to be more introspective and self-effacing than Americans.

• In one episode, Mr. Burns answers the phone “Ahoy-hoy.” This is because it was Alexander Graham Bell’s original answering word for the telephone.  Thomas Edison’s “Hello” eventually because the standard instead, but aging Monty Burns never adapted.

• The most widely held theory for why humans laugh is called the “incongruity theory”.  This is the “surprising disproportion between what one expects, and what one sees.”

• The shows writers have a competition to see who can write a line that “represents Homer at his singularly most stupid.”  The present front runner is the time he forgot the name of Jesus.

• The author goes into a detailed outline of who and what Homer is.  Essentially he is the Boomer equivalent of the every day man.

• The author describes Bart as the ultimate punk kid.  He has no respect for authority and follows his own beat.

• The punk record store Matt Groening worked at in LA was called “Licorice Pizza”.

• Nirvana’s 1989 debut album cost $606.17 to produce.  Something mentioned in the album’s own liner notes.

• The author draws ties of DIY punk rock of the 1980’s to Bart and life in general.  When you cannot beat the system, create your own system.

• Mr. Burns is a Yale alumni.

• Burns owns shares of stock in “Confederated Slavery Holdings”.

• The author draws comparisons of Mr. Burns to the heart of capitalistic America.  

• Otto, the school bus driver, almost got tenure at Brown University.

• “If Homer is the quintessential boomer, and Bart is the punk-age nihilist, then Lisa is the embodiment of so-called Generation X.”

• Homer is a huge fan of the Grand Funk Railroad.

• The sense of what is “cool”, even in its most rebellious poses, has always been a marketing strategy as well as a cultural force.

• Enrollment is misspelled on page 211.

• Marge is considers very bland and 1950’s wife in vein.

• The Hindu God is Ganesha.  

• The B-Sharps’ 1985 hit album was called “Bigger Than Jesus” spoofing an infamous John Lennon quote, and the cover spoofing the Beatles’ Abbey Road.

• Bill & Marty broadcast on KBBL

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The book isn't a terrible read, but after a strong start, it gets lost in a tremendous wealth of information.

If you are a fan of the series, you'll enjoy how Turner states his cases and makes his comparisons.  If not, you probably won't enjoy this book.

Another thing too is, if politics drives you a bit harder, and you're of a more conservative influence, you would probably not appreciate how this book tears down your side of the aisle.  If you're of a more liberal persuasion, you'll very much enjoy this book.

Good book, but only for hardcore fans who want extreme depth analysis on the show.

On to Book #48: "Jaws" by Peter Benchley.