From: ctalbott@mksol.dseg.ti.com (christopher j talbott)
Subject: Re: The Simpsons in U.S. culture?
Organization: Texas Instruments
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 22:09:38 GMT

In article <1992Nov14.180528.19002@nntp.hut.fi>, jkp@cs.HUT.FI (Jyrki Kuoppala) writes:
|> I like the TV series The Simpsons a lot.  I was wondering how people
|> in USA perceive it - what audience is it watched by, do people like
|> it, at what time and on what networks is shown, and so on?
|> 
|> I remember George Bush said that a typical U.S. family is not like the
|> Simpsons family - it seems it must be an important part of U.S.
|> culture when the president of the country refers to it in speeches.  I
|> don't think I've ever heard the Finnish president to refer to TV
|> programs in his speeches.

I think the actual reference was from the State of the Union address, where
George said something to the effect of "the American family needs to be more
like 'The Waltons' than 'The Simpsons'."  The Simpsons are a part of American
culture, but more because they're controversial (the sort of thing that
bored Michigan housewives write mean letters to sponsors about).  Personally,
I think the average American boy is a LOT more like Bart than John-Boy.
 
|> Here the series was recently moved to 5 pm on Saturday afternoon, just
|> after Star Trek - a silly thing to do in my opinion.  The TV channel
|> might have a strange concept of the target groups of both Star Trek
|> and Simpsons, I dunno.

Hey!  I watch both shows religiously!  In fact, most of the people I know
who watch Star Trek are ALSO Simpsons fans (or convert rapidly).  To me, 
they are both FICTIONAL universes (yes, that's right, I'm saying that
SPRINGFIELD IS NOWHERE!) that provide an escape from the merciless barrage
of gritty, reality-based TV, or of TV that's quirky just to be quirky.
The Simpsons strike a chord because they take situations that happen in
every day life and push it juuuuuust a bit farther than real-life gets.

|> How about the newly elected president, does he have a different
|> opinion of Simpsons?  Did this come up during the campaign?  Here they
|> just aired the episode where Bart was chosen a career as a police
|> officer (by the central computer) and encouraged by this he had a
|> succesfull (though short) career as a school cop - got part of the
|> loot and all that.  I heard that the new president strongly supports
|> police forces.

I would imagine that the President-Elect probably does not watch the Simpsons.
I would imagine that ANY President-Elect would support police forces, since
the Executive Branch of the US Goverment is the part that ENFORCES laws.  The
reference to the Simpsons (to my knowledge) was not made during the campaign,
nor was it a campaign issue.

|> //Jyrki

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