Synopsis:
The real story. From shaky beginnings, to reinventing pop culture.
Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie Simpson are household names around the world thanks to the longest-running scripted primetime television series of all time – The Simpsons. Icons Unearthed: The Simpsons highlights who and what has kept this beloved series rolling for so long, unpacking backstage stories and the continual comedy gold that has made this series the ultimate animation juggernaut!
What We Thought:
I’m a fan of The Simpsons and have been since day one. I’ve owned T-shirts, toys, stickers, games, cups, wallets, keychains and everything else they could put a Simpsons character (especially Ralph Wiggum) on. To say Icons Unearthed: The Simpsons is right up my alley is an understatement. I binged the six episodes over two days and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Just like with Icons Unearthed: Star Wars (another great box set from Mill Creek Entertainment), Icons Unearthed: The Simpsons dives deep into the beginning of the series, its take-off into pop culture stardom, its lean years, The Simpsons Movie and everything in between. It’s as much about The Simpsons as it is about television production, writing, creating and controlling the chaos of making TV history.
Like the Star Wars set, each disc on this one tackles something specific. The first disc is about the series starting on The Tracey Ullman Show and being shorts to play as bumpers between skits. Originally they wanted something else from Matt Groening, but he didn’t want to give up control of his work so he came up with The Simpsons family. The shorts became so popular it had to become a show, but primetime TV hadn’t seen animation in decades. It goes into how the series was created with Groening, Sam Simon and James L. Brooks, but it wasn’t smooth sailing.
That’s what I liked about this Blu-ray set, they didn’t hold back on who didn’t like each other and what those clashes caused. Groening was the sort of punk rock cartoonist. Jim Brooks was TV royalty and Simon was the TV writer who knew how to create shows. They all butted heads especially with those involved with trying to make Fox one of the top networks despite only having limited content. Fox wasn’t the big network we think of today with very few programs beyond Married…With Children.
Other discs take on animating the series and how one rogue director changed the start of the show. His episode was so bad they had to push the premiere back months and what we consider the first episode, the Christmas themed Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire, was never supposed to be the premiere. It’s what fans remember first, but it should have been a mid season episode instead it was released months before the show’s delayed start. Klasky Csupo did the animation for the first three seasons with Film Roman taking over before Fox Television Animation started doing it.
One disc talks about writing the show and how some wanted it to be grounded like a real family where others wanted big adventures that you couldn’t do with a live-action series. It gets deep into showrunners like Al Jean, Mike Reiss, Bill Oakley, Mike Scully, Josh Weinstein, David Mirkin and writers like Conan O’Brien, Jon Vitti, George Meyer, John Swartzwelder and more. If you’ve ever wanted to learn about show running, writing, and TV creation you’ll dig this.
Another disc talks about the show heading into the 21st century and outliving all expectations. Characters were killed off, stories became about today’s topics, voices were changed because of cancel culture and the white male writers room had to diversify. People involved in the show talk about how the show has changed and the legacy of the longest running scripted program in TV history.
Icons Unearthed: The Simpsons is made for fans of The Simpsons. I knew a lot of it already, but it’s still a cool collection to have in one box set. It’s a nice trip down memory lane especially seeing some of the early merchandise we all bought and seeing how often it was going to end, but still hasn’t. If you are a fan of the show then this is a must own.
The Nerds Templar 