By Andreas Trolf Wired.com guest blogger
Like a rusted but still mostly reliable old jalopy, The Simpsons ‘ odometer clicks over this season, marking the show’s 20th anniversary with a shiny new coat of HDTV paint. To commemorate the occasion, Fox hired filmmaker Morgan Spurlock to helm an hour-long documentary about America’s pre-eminent Springfielders.
The obvious question is, how the hell can you tell the story of the most beloved (and certainly most merchandised) TV show of all time in less than 60 minutes?
The obvious answer is that you can’t. It’s simply not possible. But Spurlock does a passably decent job in satisfying some of our more superficial curiosities. And superficial is precisely what Spurlock’s documentary is at times. Less a voyage of discovery than a saccharine salute, The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special: In 3-D! On Ice is fueled primarily by a halcyon nostalgia. It’s a largely enjoyable nostalgia, but nostalgia nonetheless.
The special, which airs Sunday night on Fox after Episode No. 450 — “Once Upon a Time in Springfield” — opens with a musical montage intercut with interview soundbites. We see various well-known (and sometimes unknown) musicians covering The Simpsons theme song alongside memorable guest stars, outspoken fans and writers, and producers past and present.
Despite the show’s gimmicky title, you won’t need 3-D glasses to watch the anniversary special (and you won’t be subjected to an hour of ice skating). Viewers may marvel, however, at the occasionally gimmicky production value. Spurlock’s obvious talent aside, one can’t help but wonder what a different documentarian — one who hasn’t spent years on Fox’s payroll — might have made from this rich source material.
Imagine the story of The Simpsons told by Ken Burns or Barbara Kopple: The cheap laughs of Spurlock’s everyman imitation of Homer in Brazil might have been replaced with some insight into the “why” of the show instead of the “what.”
Unsurprisingly, the show is shot largely in the documentary style Spurlock used to great effect in Super Size Me and 30 Days, by which I mean it is often the director himself who takes center stage. We can forgive him this misstep, however, because of his own professed devotion to the animated series.
Logically enough, Spurlock begins with the story of how The Simpsons got on the air. Some 20-odd years ago, a young and considerably less doughy Matt Groening turned his comic strip rabbits into a yellow family modeled on his own. Legend has it that he came up with the characters off the cuff, in an elevator ride up to meet with producer James L. Brooks, and the two soon thereafter began making short and somewhat inane bumper clips for The Tracey Ullman Show.
Talented though she may be, Ullman is now best remembered as a footnote in the saga of The Simpsons. Such is the fickle finger of fame, my friends.
While the show’s history is certainly the pretext for the anniversary special, what really stands out is everything other than matters historical.
The rest of the fast-paced special focuses on the global impact the show has had over the past two decades. The funny thing is that, early on, Spurlock mentions a reluctance to be “too congratulatory” in the tone of his documentary, but for good or bad that’s exactly what this is. We see a rapid-fire montage of magazine covers, original-score albums and merchandising of every imaginable kind (from cereal to Krusty Brand home pregnancy tests).
Next we see celebrities discussing their favorite Simpsons characters. Spurlock picks interesting people to put the show in perspective. For example, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom opines on Mayor “Diamond Joe” Quimby, calling him corrupt and patronizing. Newsom’s mention of Diamond Joe’s “sexual escapades and heavy drinking” especially shines, considering the real-life politician’s real-world experiences on similar terrain. There’s got to be a joke in there somewhere.
Finally, we meet Catholic League President Bill Donohue, who seems to take very seriously the idea that the church is not to be the object of lighthearted joking. Donohue comes across as a hilarious parody of religious zealots and, true to form, misses the point of even the most innocuous satire.
“It leaves the impression in the mind of the viewer,” the serious gentleman complains about The Simpsons, “that the Catholic Church really is something that’s fair game to be ridiculed…. It eats away at the moral prestige of the church.” Yep. Segments such as these could have been readily expanded upon to give us more insight into the actual significance of The Simpsons as arbiters of culture rather than the minstrels they’ve occasionally been turned out as.
Simpsons. Photos courtesy Fox" title="simpsons_tattoo" width="670" height="377" class="size-full wp-image-26435"> Superfans like this tattooed fanatic take the spotlight in The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special: In 3-D! On Ice.
Photos courtesy FoxBut more than Groening or two decades of writers, producers, guest stars and cultural figureheads, Simpsons fans get top billing throughout most of the special. We meet superfans the world over, including Glynn Williams (pictured top), who has amassed more than 30,000 pieces of show memorabilia, and others who sport Simpsons tattoos. It’s a testament both to the appeal of the show and the seemingly bottomless ability of the Fox network to sign off on licensed products.
(Licensed products, however, will only get you so far. In Argentina, for example, where copyright infringement seems to be a national pastime, unlicensed products and advertisements abound, including an actual Duff brewery.)
While the fan’s perspective is an important and true one, I’m left questioning the validity of the countless man-on-the-street interviews upon which Spurlock relies so heavily. A guy in a parka believes that Smithers is gay? Really? Homer is a glutton? Get right out of town, opinionated pedestrian!
The documentary closes with interviewees opining on what the world would be like without The Simpsons. Musician Sting phrases it poignantly, imagining a world without Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie.
“Desolation!” he says. “Without The Simpsons, it would be like a Cormac McCarthy novel. Scorched earth. I don’t want to imagine it.”
Thankfully it’s a fate we’ve been spared.
WIRED Hilarious interviews with Simpsons voice actors, especially Marcia Wallace (Edna Krabappel), who appears to inhabit her role with almost superhuman prowess.
TIRED Giving short shrift to anything at all “behind the scenes.” Everyone associated with the show in a production capacity seems to be working the press line. The corporate shadow of 20th Century Fox looms large.
Rating: 
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