The show that ‘pissed a lot of people off’
Sony Pictures Television
“Married… with Children,” served as satire. It was an elaborate, cynical send-up of sitcoms, unconcerned with pleas for wholesomeness or even common decency. In 1987, audiences loved the show’s baked-in rancor, and “Married…” was a huge, huge hit. Its success paved the way for another notable deconstructionist sitcom of the late 1980s that would come to alter pop culture in ways no one could have predicted. Without “Married… with Children,” there would be no “The Simpsons.”
This sentiment is stated explicitly in the Vice video series “Icons Unearthed,” where several of the artists and executives behind the animated, decades-old juggernaut explain how the pop media landscape had to be arranged perfectly so that “The Simpsons” would have a soft place to land. Vice interviewed voice actor Cooper Barnes, and he recalls that “Married…” was “the first, like, really irreverent family sitcom,” pointing out that “if every sitcom was shot in front of a live studio audience, ‘Married… with Children’ was like the show was shot in front of a live strip club audience.” The show was not merely based on insult humor, but the audience howled and hooted more than they laughed.
Most notably, as Barnes said, it “pissed a lot of people off.” The show launched an infamous hang-wringing campaign from a concerned right-wing busybody named Terry Rakolta, the sister of Ronna Romney, who was once married to Mitt Romney’s nephew. As often happens, her crusade to get the show canceled — spearheaded by writing outraged letters to “Married…” sponsors — only galvanized the show’s place in the pop consciousness. “That’s what made the show popular,” Barnes declared. Once entrenched, the door was now open to allow a new type of sitcom into the marketplace. Enter “The Simpsons.”
How Married With Children Paved The Way For The Simpsons’ Massive Success
Sony Pictures Television
By Witney Seibold/Nov. 12, 2022 9:00 pm EST
The cruelty lasted for 11 seasons.
The show that ‘pissed a lot of people off’
“Married… with Children,” served as satire. It was an elaborate, cynical send-up of sitcoms, unconcerned with pleas for wholesomeness or even common decency. In 1987, audiences loved the show’s baked-in rancor, and “Married…” was a huge, huge hit. Its success paved the way for another notable deconstructionist sitcom of the late 1980s that would come to alter pop culture in ways no one could have predicted. Without “Married… with Children,” there would be no “The Simpsons.”
This sentiment is stated explicitly in the Vice video series “Icons Unearthed,” where several of the artists and executives behind the animated, decades-old juggernaut explain how the pop media landscape had to be arranged perfectly so that “The Simpsons” would have a soft place to land. Vice interviewed voice actor Cooper Barnes, and he recalls that “Married…” was “the first, like, really irreverent family sitcom,” pointing out that “if every sitcom was shot in front of a live studio audience, ‘Married… with Children’ was like the show was shot in front of a live strip club audience.” The show was not merely based on insult humor, but the audience howled and hooted more than they laughed.
Most notably, as Barnes said, it “pissed a lot of people off.” The show launched an infamous hang-wringing campaign from a concerned right-wing busybody named Terry Rakolta, the sister of Ronna Romney, who was once married to Mitt Romney’s nephew. As often happens, her crusade to get the show canceled — spearheaded by writing outraged letters to “Married…” sponsors — only galvanized the show’s place in the pop consciousness. “That’s what made the show popular,” Barnes declared. Once entrenched, the door was now open to allow a new type of sitcom into the marketplace. Enter “The Simpsons.”
This sentiment is stated explicitly in the Vice video series “Icons Unearthed,” where several of the artists and executives behind the animated, decades-old juggernaut explain how the pop media landscape had to be arranged perfectly so that “The Simpsons” would have a soft place to land. Vice interviewed voice actor Cooper Barnes, and he recalls that “Married…” was “the first, like, really irreverent family sitcom,” pointing out that “if every sitcom was shot in front of a live studio audience, ‘Married… with Children’ was like the show was shot in front of a live strip club audience.” The show was not merely based on insult humor, but the audience howled and hooted more than they laughed.
Most notably, as Barnes said, it “pissed a lot of people off.” The show launched an infamous hang-wringing campaign from a concerned right-wing busybody named Terry Rakolta, the sister of Ronna Romney, who was once married to Mitt Romney’s nephew. As often happens, her crusade to get the show canceled — spearheaded by writing outraged letters to “Married…” sponsors — only galvanized the show’s place in the pop consciousness. “That’s what made the show popular,” Barnes declared. Once entrenched, the door was now open to allow a new type of sitcom into the marketplace.
Enter “The Simpsons.”
The bad boys of Fox
20th Television
As “Simpsons” fans know, the character debuted as animated interstitials on “The Tracey Ullman Show,” and it was that show’s executive producer Ken Estin who first learned of a little underground comic strip called “Life in Hell,” authored by one Matt Groening. Estin said in Vice’s “Icons Unearthed” that he loved “Life in Hell”:
Eventually, the planned “Life in Hell” animated segments mutated into “The Simpsons.”
“I said, ‘Gosh, these characters are so weird-looking. They’re drawn poorly. They all have overbites for no apparent reason.’ They were perfect.”
