h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"I don't know if 'freedom of speech' really goes that far here, after experiences I have had this year"

Try this, Della.

Everyone here has the right to say what they think. Everyone else has the right to agree or disagree, as long as the House Rules are unbroken. You also have the right to take an attack on your ideas and opinions as an attack on you personally, as does everyone else. Everyone has the right to take that badly and engage in comment and counter-comment warfare.

You also have the right to not be concerned when someone disagrees and Yikes them if they really upset you.

Personally speaking there's not a darn thing you could say that would offend me and I would LOVE to hear your comments on the Simpsons, so please please? Pretty please? Please that's spent the entire day shopping in some rather exclusive stores with a credit card, the limit of which rivals the GDP of some nations, and has also had a spa treatment and is now so far beyond pretty it's simply fabulous, dahhhhling?

I can't believe someone thinks 6 Feet Under is trashy - it may be too pretend-deep and dark sometimes but it has some of the finest writing of any show and it's way too intelligent to be classed as trashy
I used to be a massive fan of the Simpsons, but after 15 years it's lost its edge. It still has its moments though.
The West Wing is arguably the best political drama ever made, you'd be hard pressed to find better writers of actors, it is simply superb and very educational.
Even when some things are trashy it doesn't stop them from being high quality - has anyone here seen The Shield, it looks like trashy TV but is intelligent and thought-provoking
I think that to dismiss American TV out of hand is to deny yourself a lot of great shows, yes the Yanks make a lot of trash but that's because they make a lot more TV than Britain, there's going to be more cr*p.
One last comment - Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the finest programme ever to have graced our screens

Yes, there's a lot of trash on American TV, but the same's true with the TV in England. They both have their high and low points.

Speaking of the Simpsons, rumor has it they might finally be canceling the show. Apparently, some of the main voice actors want $360,000 PER EPISODE instead of the paltry $100,000+ PER EPISODE that they get now. I think that they're just being greedy, and it would be a shame to see the show go under just because of something stupid like that.

Read that a few years ago when they wanted an increase from $36K, the producers auditioned people from around the country for replacements.

Its amazing isn't it? I mean surely there comes a point where there's simply no point in having more money, because you can live off the interest anyway?

You would think so, but actor types who are paid well probably have 'expenses' they think they need that the average Emee doesn't - personal assistant, personal trainer, chef, housekeeper (this is the first I'll get when *I'm* rich & famous ) - higher real estate costs on the coast as well.

Just thought of something else too - think of it in relative terms. How much revenue has that show brought to the producers? To Fox? The actors probably think they deserve to be compensated in a manner proportionate to the revenues.

Think of it in these terms...those actors have been working for peanuts or less for their working lives before The Simpsons, weren't paid very much for the first few series, and the $36,000 deal ain't that old either. The Simpsons has earned Fox over $1bn. Yes, I think they're entitled to make hay when the sun shines - it's their retirement plan, for Bob's sake. D'you think they'll walk out of The Simpsons into another high-profile, high-paying voice-over job for yellow animated characters when The Simpsons finally finishes? (Hint: Futurama.)

RF

I'm sorry, Freddy, but Futurama officially finished last year.

B

Exactly - their voices are too well known. And because of copyright issues, they won't be able to trade on them at all. Any $$ they make now will have to be saved against a long, non-working future.

That was kinda my point, B. Their only possible future employment has already folded.

RF

Della, get dowwwwwn off that soapbox girl.



In regards to post 55, you've got it completely wrong.

>>>"Oh, and I really don't see what's so clever about the urban middle classes enjoying 'satirising' the working classes (not one of whom they actually *know* in person!)"<<<

It's not a case of the "middle class" satirising the "working class" I've noticed it's usually only urban middle class people that make that kind of comment in the first place. Us lower classes don't need protecting from you lot thanks, and I am not particularly offended by The Simpsons. This seems to be a case of you only seeing one section of people satirised, as opposed to everyone (much like the facile "anti-semetic" charge thrown against Mel Gibson recently).

That's right. EVERYONE is made fun of in The Simpsons.

Smart people, fat people, thin people, beautiful people, white trash (like myself), rich people, Republicans, Democrats, Liberals, racists, hippies, kids, adults and teenagers. Black people, white people, Asian people. All and everyone is laughed at.

It's a satirising of AMERICAN CULTURE - about how stupid it can be sometimes. The writers of this cartoon have the sharpest wit I've come across in the last 10 years or so that I have been watching it, and unlike pretenders to the throne (remember when South Park came along, and everyone was so afraid that TS would go down the pan? It didn't, and for a very good reason.), it has outlasted everything.

And if you don't get it by now, you need to gain a little self-deprecating humour. The ability to laugh at onesself if an admirable trait.

Back to the subject in hand, I don't really see any questionability.

The Brits have nothing to compare with the likes of Simpsons, Frasier CSI and the like. Only when it comes to Science and Sport does the UK do it any better.

I have no problem with televisual imports as long as it keeps David Dickinson off our screens.

B

Do you know what is horrific about that statement Master B?

He's HERE TOO.

I must admit I have a real problem with American sit coms. A lot of them seem to be a series of one liners vaguely strung together, which is ok for a bit but becomes very boring very quickly.

Researcher PSG

I don't like "Will & Grace".

There, I said it.

RF

I hate Will & Grace too. Very over-rated.

B

Why isn't Dharma & Greg on terrestrial TV?

RF

Send Black Books to America - see what they make of it!

Nobody likes Will and Grace.