The Simpsons Reaches Episode 400

As The Simpsons reaches its 400th episode, Joe Strike chronicles the rise of the longest running sitcom's rise from a symbol of the fall of Western society to a symbolic American icon.

By Joe Strike | Thursday, May 17, 2007 at 12:00 am

Posted In | Magazines: AnimationWorld

The Simpsons is the bullet that started the revolution. It awakened the world to fact that animation and cartoons could be the future. ™ & © 1999 20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved. Cr: Fox.

There's conjecture how FOX will promote the last season. That'll be decided on a very high level. You have to notice their strategy with some of the other shows like Family Guy and King of the Hill, they didn't give them a big fanfare goodbye. They went away, then the network decided to bring them back.

They left the door open, so that's another strategy. For FOX, The Simpsons is their Bugs Bunny, their Mickey Mouse. Why would Warner Bros. retire Bugs or Disney retire Mickey? Now Mickey does go kind of away until they decide it's time to bring him back; FOX has the opportunity to be using these characters for 50, 60 years.

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We need a nation closer to the Waltons than the Simpsons.

-- President George H.W. Bush

We're just like the Waltons -- we're praying for an end to the depression too.

-- Bart Simpson

When I worked at MTV on Beavis and Butt-Head as an artist and director, I wouldn't have had a chance if The Simpsons weren't there first to open the door. The American public was ready for something like that, and Matt Groening happened to be the first one to be there and open the door for everyone else.

-- Miguel Martinez-Joffre, Director, The Venture Brothers

I do think there would've been an Adult Swim without The Simpsons, but I don't think it would've been nearly as good had we not all been raised on the smartest show ever to grace television. I will say The Simpsons is the greatest show produced during my lifetime to this date.

-- Mike Lazzo

Ich bin ein Springfielder, ™ & © 1998 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. Cr: Fox.

The secret of The Simpsons' success is so simple, there is no secret: We all live in Springfield. (The town's name was chosen because there's a Springfield in practically every state in the union -- hinting at the actual state has become another of the show's running gags.) The Simpsons is us, all of us. Whether you're a teacher, doctor, lawyer, politician, policeman, comicbook guy, stay-at-home mom, working-stiff dad or just a kid, you can turn on the show and see yourself -- Ich bin ein Springfielder, to paraphrase Mayor Quimby and President Kennedy.

For 18 years, The Simpsons has balanced on a knife-edge between honest sentiment and scathing satire, between verbal wit and cartoon slapstick. At its best, the show doesn't just alternate gags from either side, but merges its yin-and-yang humor into a seamless entity. (Inside the show, it's referred to as "cutting the treacle.") With wit and affection, we're reminded that we're less than perfect, and that imperfection, for better or worse, makes us who we are. The next time someone angers or disappoints us -- or we do it to ourselves -- perhaps we should chalk it up to an inner Bart or Homer Simpson or J. Montgomery Burns, laugh as we would at them, and move on.

D'oh!

Joe Strike is a regular contributor to AWN. His animation articles also appear in the NY Daily News and the New York Press.