An Institution
I knew The Simpsons had been around for a while, but I was still taken by surprise when I noticed a message (something along the lines of: “thanks for watching; here’s to the next twenty”) at the end of a recent episode. This means, shockingly, that all of my students are younger than the show; and that, most distressingly, I am now twenty years older (or thereabouts) than I was when I first saw the show in the UK.
When I was in secondary school I felt it was the greatest thing ever produced for American television; and later, when I was in Olympia, home of Matt Groenig’s alma mater, Evergreen College, I still felt that way; and watching it now, in 2010, a day off my 29th (damn) birthday, the feeling persists, potently. And I do hope The Simpsons continues to be funny and wise long into the future, as I have come to rely on it.
(Amusingly, as I was writing this, ‘Way Down in the Hole’ started playing, a track that connects to another truly great television series produced in the last twenty years; all of which reminds me I need to download some episodes of Homicide. On an unconnected note, the new season of 24 is very bad, in many ways, but some of the cast seem to be trying very hard, so I am perservering: foolish, I know.)