Syndication at its finest

The Simpsons, one of the greatest shows of all time is at it again with its debut on FXX cable network. With a whopping 530 episodes, the Simpsons can be played for 52 weeks without repeating one show.  As a conglomerate trying to air a syndicated show, the Simpsons is definitely one worth looking into, but how much is it worth it? The financial terms with FXX were not disclosed yet it is estimated that anywhere from 800 million to 1 billion dollars was spent on its purchase. Not bad for a animated T.V. series don't you think? The show has never before screened on a cable network so it is bound to grow an even larger audience than it already has. Other media conglomerates like Time Warner Cable Adult Swim, and Viacom bid for the show but ultimately left empty handed. To have a syndicated show is a cash cow for everyone involved. The owners of the show make millions off the 200+ channels who purchase rights to air the show, the affiliates make money off advertisement money, companies make money off the advertisements selling products, and the viewers are happy they get to view a popular T.V. series. It's not always as perfect as it may seem though. Many times in hopes of reaching syndication many shows are dragged out with poor scripts just so they can reach that 100 episode mark. Many could argue that the newer Simpsons episodes are not as good as they use to be but that comes down to personal opinion. Overall FXX made a very large purchase and I hope it works out the way they planned. 

Shows To Watch Over the Duration of What Will Hopefully Be a Rather Long Lifetime

Over the years, a great many people have asked, "Ryan, what television shows are worth watching?" (Editor's Note: Only one person has ever actually asked him this.) I have spent much of my own time pondering what one's time would be put to best use, in terms of television gazing. 

And so with nothing else to do, (Editor's Note: He wrote this about an hour before a final he had not studied for at all up until that point. And he spent half an hour writing this.) I wrote up a guide to shows that deserved to be watched. Hope it is of some use to someone someday:

Essentials

- The Sopranos (My pick for the best TV show of all time.  It’s about a mob boss in New Jersey named Tony Soprano who is stricken with panic attacks. He goes to therapy to try and solve them. Through both his therapy sessions and his life, we see him struggle with sin, lust, greed, anger. Basically everything that makes us human. And it’s about whether he can overcome those things, or if he’ll be crushed by them. If Freud, Shakespeare, and Martin Scorsese all made a show together, it’d be this. There’s much more to it than that (He’s not the only character), but all this is what that’s what makes the show interesting to me.)

- The Wire (The general consensus pick for the greatest show of all time. Slow, but so worth it. It’s a very smart dissection of the drug war on a Dickensian scale, analyzing every single possible angle of “The Game”.  If you want to understand that’s wrong with the drug war, this is where to find out.)

- Deadwood (The other pick that sometimes people make for the greatest television show of all time. Of the top 3, it is probably the most optimistic, but that is not saying much. Takes place in a gold mining town in South Dakota during 1877. All about how societies slowly grows. Think Shakespeare if Shakespeare used the word cocksucker every thirty seconds. )

- Mad Men (It is The Great Gatsby on television. All about people and their attempts to acquire happiness, or what they believe is happiness, during a very iconic era of this country. Riveting stuff.)

- Breaking Bad (Favorite show of the last five years. What does it take to break a good man?)

- The Simpsons (Trust me, early Simpsons changed the game. They’re brilliant. For the 90’s, greatestAmerican satire there was. I mean, they’ve invented words that are now in Webster’s Dictionary. That’s how good it is! THEY MADE UP WORDS.)

Not Quite in Top 6 But Might As Well Still Be Essential

- The Shield (Ifyou combined The Wire and Breaking bad. Plus, best series finale to a showever. Taking place in a drug ravaged area of L.A. called Farmington, it’s all about this small squad of cops that is allowed to deal with drug dealers by anymeans necessary. Sometimes they do the right thing. Other times, they don’t. But then, what price are you willing to pay for your safety?)

- Arrested Development (If you haven’t seen this, I’ll be disappointed.)

- Battlestar Galactica (The newer one. I haven’t actually seen it yet, but the general acclaim surrounding this inclines me to say to watch this one.)

- Game of Thrones (Lord of the Rings with more blood, sex, and modern themes of power and politics. And lots of incest.)

- Louie (Modern day Woody Allen basically. Funny but introspective. I love this show to death, and one episodein particular had a massive impact on me emotionally… I am a dork.)

Some Random Great Shows That Are Not Necessarily Essential

- Justified (This show is so good that even when it is slow it is still better than 90% of what’s on tv. But I don’t want to say essential because it’s still on and they could mess it up. I doubt they will at this point though.)

- Terriers (Little known, it only ran a season, but holy shit was it great. Think a modern noir films about two shaggy private eyes working for scraps in southern California. Most fun you’ll have all year. Please watch this show, it deserves to be known!)

- Veronica Mars (Film noir that takes place in high school. Witty and dark, it is a compelling private eye shows. BUT WATCH TERRIERS FIRST.)

- Firefly (I’ll just use what Joss Whedon said. “It’s about nine people looking into the blackness of space and seeing nine different things.”)

- Comedy Bang Bang (You can knock this show out in a day. Parody of late night talk shows, really absurd humor. May not be up your alley, but I love it.)

- Cheers (Not as crazy or manic as current sitcoms and more character based, but great stuff in here if you can get into it.)

Great But Flawed Shows Worth Watching

- Buffy/Angel (Great, great character work. Amazing dialogue. And some wickedly inventive plotting. That said, when it's bad, it's really bad. Which is unfortunately something that happens more often then I'd like to admit. Especially in the beginning, Buffy's rough to get through. I would just skip season one entirely, but many would disagree. Ultimately, it's your call. I haven't seen Angel, but understand that it is of equal merit.)

- Lost (People either love or hate this show. Watch it to enjoy the stellar character work, but do not expect a perfect resolution to all your questions.)

- Friday Night Lights (Another series I have not actually seen but I understand is very good, the only reason I put it on flawed is that a certain subplot in season 2 is still, to this day, routinely mocked by the TV watching populace at large.)

- West Wing (Great in the early seasons, but the seasons not penned by Aaron Sorkin are apparently lacking.)

- Scrubs

- Boardwalk Empire

- Homeland

- Malcolm in the Middle

- 24

Bob's Burgers or The Simpsons?

Which do you prefer: classic Simpsons, or modern-day Bob's Burgers? In 2011, Fox premiered its newest animated family sitcom " Bob's Burgers". This show is based around a dysfunctional family of 5 that own, run, and live above a burger joint. Bob, the father of the family, is constantly going through the struggles of trying to provide for his family, remain on good terms with his nagging yet loving wife Linda, and somehow be a role model for his three children Tina, Louise, and Gene all while dealing with the daily conflicts of life.

Bob's Burgers has a tough reputation to beat when being compared to The Simpsons. Airing in 1989, The Simpsons has been the classic " All-American, dysfunctional family". As time went on, the writers of The Simpsons had to up their ratings. Complaints about the show losing its relatable plot lines and character development, have been brought up by fans for years. The show now has taboo and out of the ordinary episodes, but still manages to maintain some of its original spark.

Bob's Burgers has lost quite a number of viewers from the airing of season 1 to season 2, however season 3 has been bringing back many of the shows original viewers, and welcoming newcomers. 

Bobs Burgers is one of my personal favorites because it is so relatable. The plot lines are not all over the place and abnormal, they are everyday situations and sometimes with some extra spark.



http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2014/01/bobs-burgers-tops-the-simpsons

South Park - 6 Days To Air

Last week I watched a documentary about Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of the hit animated comedy series, South Park. The documentary was titled, "6 Days To Air" and It followed the South Park creators over the six days that it took them to create the season 15 premier episode for the show. The documentary took the viewer through the entire pre-production, production and post production process and explained just how an episode of South Park is created. I think the most interesting thing about the documentary was that Parker and Stone created an entire episode of South Park in just 6 Days! It usually takes similar shows, like Family Guy and The Simpsons, approximately 9 months to create a whole episode and they are doing it in less than a week.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone had just finished making their new Broadway musical, The Book of Mormon. I saw the musical over the summer by winning lottery tickets to the show. I won 475 dollar tickets for only 30 bucks, it was sweet! The Book of Mormon was without a doubt the funniest show that I have ever seen, better than any TV show or movie. The songs were incredible and the acting was great. It was hilarious and I highly recommend it to everyone. I also recommend trying to win the tickets through the lottery because they are very expensive.

After completing The Book of Mormon, Parker and Stone had to get back to focusing on South Park. The documentary took you into the writers room and showed the viewer how they came up with the ideas for the episode. The documentary also took the viewer through the storyboarding process, voice recording process, the animating process and the distribution process. I thought that it was incredibly how these guys could create an entire episode in under week. They worked day and night for that week but were able to pull it off.

The episode was called, "Humancentipad" and it made fun of Steve Jobs and Apple. I thought that it was one of the best South Park episodes of all time. This documentary was very interesting and I really liked how it took the viewer through the whole process of creating an episode of South Park.

Futurama

Futurama is an animated television series that originally aired on FOX and currently airs on comedy central.  Matt Groening is the creator who is best known for creating the Simpsons.  Futurama premiered in 1999, but was cancelled  by FOX in 2002 and then comedy central picked up in 2009.  I didn't start watching Futurama until senior year of high school, but I fell in love with it instantly.  My friends were the ones that pushed me to watch it and now whenever we are bored we watch it together and we never have a problem re-watching old episodes.

Futurama is about a man named Philip J. Fry who lives in 1999, but he is then frozen for 1000 years leaving him to wake up in the year 2999, minutes before it turns to the year 3000.  When he refuses to accept his job, he is chased by Leela who becomes a main character and love interest for Fry.  He also befriends Bender during the first episode.  Fry then finds out that he has a nephew named Professor Farnsworth.  Farnsworth owns a company called Planet Express where most of the action takes place.  There are only about seven main characters, but like the Simpsons there are many other characters who return frequently.

What I love about Futurama is its abilities to have you laughing during the entire episode, only to pull at your heart strings at the very end.  There are many episodes that will make you want to start crying.  I think the writing is brilliant.  I think this because the jokes are spot on and the characters remain true to themselves.  The adventures they go on are amazing.   Futurama is one of my all time favorite shows and while if you compare the prime of Futurama to the prime of the Simpsons, the Simpsons might have them beat, it is still a very close call.   It is a must watch show.

Here is a video of one the shows best characters.

The Simpsons

It looks like the longest running sitcom is coming to a close in two seasons. The Simpsons have been on my entire life but disputes over pay have the voices of the characters calling it quits after 25 seasons. The Simpsons premiered as shorts during the Tracy Ulman show and three years later in 1987, the showed began running as a primetime sitcom. the new season premiered earlier

Creator Matt Groening voiced all of the characters in the first episode and the animation has come a long way. The Treehouse of Horror episodes have become a halloween tradition and those in my generation have associated the show with many major events. The movie was a huge sensation and there are talks of another movie after the show ends.