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ToonsJazzLover — Simpsons Family Tree Connection

#familytree #thesimpsons
Published: 2018-06-15 19:46:38 +0000 UTC; Views: 2576; Favourites: 18; Downloads: 0
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Description I'll be making a few family tree connection to how many popular shows writers get to make their own shows. Sadly for the case of Simpsons, most of them are failures, but there's some expectations.

To start, the Simpsons' origins is something we knew already: they came from the Tracy Ullman shows which had a series of shorts back when Homer had a different voice (it's still Dan Castellaneta). Then they became their own show in 1989 and the rest is history.

Let's start off The Simpsons themselves, as they obviously has several writers that would create or (co-create) their own shows.

The First show to be created by Simpsons crew was The Critic. Al Jan & Mike Reiss both left the show to go work at ABC while creating this. I only know of the crossover episode but I will try to give it a watch one of these days. It should be noted that some of the crew on the Critic did actually worked on the Simpsons while the show was running (for example, A Star is Burns and Round Springfield). After the show was cancelled, they stayed at ABC, creating a show that no one except those who was older than 10 years heard of called Teen Angel. Unlike the Critic it didn't get another season. The cancellation cause them to go back to the yellow family and we know where it goes there. Jean returns in 1999, but eventually became showrunner again for a whopping 17 years! Reiss is just a producer now.

Second and probably one of the most famous case of a Simpsons writer making a show was King of the Hill (no family tree since it's from Mike Judge mostly, and he created a bunch of shows), which is Greg Daniels. It's basically if the Simpsons was down to earth (like the early days) with more dramatic moments. Since both shows are produced by Film Roman, there's bond to be a bunch of writers/artists from each other shows. The main characters cameoed in a Season 9 episode, Bart Star, which Hank asked "We drove 2000 miles for this?".

Continuing the Daniels line, he went to developed the American version of the Office. I heard its good but it doesn't look like my type of show (I will take a look at mainstream live action shows in a decade or so). The only S/KOTH Daniels brought were Paul Liberstein, Brent Forrester, Daniel Chun (well technically he went to wrote for this show after writing for the Simpsons), and Dan Greaney (for two episodes).

To extend it one more time, we have Parks and Recreation, also by Daniels, but with Michael Schur joining him. This show share some of the same writers as the aforementioned (including the titular family tree we're doing here, which even have former showrunner Mike Scully writing a few episodes). To continue it even further, Dan J Goor (not a doctor) and Schur went to create Brooklyn Nine Nine which was on FOX, but got cancelled last month. Luckily since it is from NBCUniversal, NBC got the courage to pick it up for another season. No Simpsons writers, but it does have some of the same crew as The Office and Parks & Rec. Schur also created the Good Place which is doing good in ratings.

We're done with the Greg Daniels family tree, now on to the next and most famous example. I included it because we all knew Conan himself was a writer. It feels surprising that a famous talk show host used to be a writer for one of the most famous show ever. All of his scripts were good (although the college one was a bit flawed at times). That same year David Mirkin took over, he left to make a talk show and no surprise he would guest star as himself in Bart Gets Famous. He stayed at NBC for a decade and a half, but eventually he's now at TBS.

Remember the PJs? it used to air on Adult Swim at one point. I only included it because Steve Tompkins was a writer for the Simpsons and he was co-creator. It lasted slightly longer than the Critic, surprisingly.

And another show many people might remember seeing on AS, it's from Bill Oakley & Josh Weinstein, they created Mission Hill. For a short-lived show, it has a cult following and even the people who work on still talk about it on social media. Lauren MacMullen would later direct Seasons 12-15 of the Simpsons with impressive results.

Lastly from the Simpsons gave us two very short-lived and obscure shows from Mike Scully and his wife Julie Thacker. They're both live action but they didn't have the best luck coming up with a show as they both revolve on families.

Then we have Futurama from Groening and David X Cohen. It share some of the same people and no surprise that some of them would join the Simpsons eventually after its cancellation (both). Jeff Westbrook, Stewart Burns and Bill Ordenkirk are the well known examples of this.

Lewis Morton got to create two shows, but they weren't that successful. Because of this he came back to write a few more Futurama episodes like the Emmy winning The Late Philip J Fry (which is easily my favorite from the Comedy Central era).

And this year Matt Groening finally created another show and it's a fantasy coming to Netflix. No logo has been revealed yet, but I will updated once we hear more info about it. Of course, it have a lot of veterans from his shows, especially the Futurama cast returning to voice characters and our favorite Simpsons showrunners Bill & Josh reunited.
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Comments: 3

DannyD1997 [2018-06-17 00:21:21 +0000 UTC]

Imagine if David X. Cohen made an adult animated show for CBS. 

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

ToonsJazzLover In reply to DannyD1997 [2018-06-17 00:28:10 +0000 UTC]

I heard there's talk about making cartoons for CBS due to the promotion of a development executive who worked for Cartoon Network.

also I forgot to include F is for Family since Simpsons writer Michael Price co-created it (But it felt more like Bill Burr's show than Price's and even then he work at both F and Simpsons at the same time).

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

DannyD1997 In reply to ToonsJazzLover [2018-06-17 00:30:35 +0000 UTC]

I see. If CBS produces new adult animated shows, they would likely air in syndication on MTV and Comedy Central. 

👍: 0 ⏩: 0