TVSquad

please ...

like the Simpsons didn't copy any ideas for show from any of the thousands of TV shows that came before it.

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And yet each week I laugh out loud a few times at Family Guy and am fortunate to get a chuckle out of the Simpsons anymore.

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I think they should do a Family Guy special episode to explain that since the Simpsons have run for so much time and had episodes about almost every subject you can think of, it is impossible to do an animated show that won't make you think of the Simpsons at one point.
But it's fine, because even if there are similarities between the shows, the way subjects are trated is different, and it is this difference that make each show unique.

but wait, it was already done in South Park...

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As Roger Meyers Jr. once said, “You take away our right to steal ideas, where are they going to come from?”

That aside, I love both shows; when it first aired however, I refused to watch Family Guy (assuming it was just a copy of Simpsons), but it definitely makes its own territory.

Although there are several similarities, such as the generic one dog / 2.5 kids, and the clip above; I believe there aren't that many conflicting ideas. With one exception; that dog track seen is a bit too similar to be a coincidence.

But come to think of, after 18 seasons, what hasn't the Simpsons done?

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Looks like The Simpsons haven't done anything worth copying for the past 8 seasons. You still watch it? And South Park had an episode where it parodied elements from The Simpsons because the writers will come up with an idea only to be told The Simpsons already did it.

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Alright, so people are saying that since the Simpsons have been running for like, 20 years, all other shows don't have a choice but to copy them? That is wrong in so many ways...for if people don't remember this one show by the same creator, you know, the show that actually made people laugh and had original ideas, than you should also know that original ideas are still possible. (Btw, show is futurama...*cough*). I mean yes, i do admit that while the similarities are there, it's not like thats happened before.

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That video was well researched. I had forgotten many of those Simpsons bits so I didn't recognize the repeats on Family Guy.
In fairness however, it should be noted that it has gone the other way, too. A few years ago there was a Treehouse of Horror where Homer becomes the Grim Reaper. This was AFTER Family Guy's episode Death's a Bitch where Peter has to do Death's job while he is injured.

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I'm sorry as much as Family Guy hasn't been consistently funny since it came back I still got to defend the fact that although the premise is similar the punchlines are usually different.

A show that has 15+ seasons is bound to have premises copied now and again. And don't act as if the Simpsons is 100% original. A guy so stupid he "hits" on 21? I'm pretty sure Simpsons wasn't the first to do it. Child services taking away a child? Simpsons not the first to do it. And if you still can't get that through your head, watch the South Park episode everybody here has mentioned. It would put things in perspective

You want to talk about lazy writing. Pushing your personal biases without knowing the facts first, that's lazy writing.

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I'm a huge Simpsons freak, and in fact for years thought it was sac-religious to watch Family Guy.
But you know what, it's a great show.
However, after 400 episodes, it's pretty daunting for The Simpsons to not repeat itself, never mind another cartoon.
Everything repeats or gets covered in a new way. I personally don't think its an argument.

http://www.tvdeuce.com

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Hey guys! I found a freaky thing which I think is total solid proof that The Simpsons totally freaking sucks and steals from Family Guy and Family Guy is awesome! ROFL, LOL, WTF, etc.

Here's the thing: in the Family Guy episode "Let's Go to the Hop" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let%27s_Go_to_the_Hop), Peter at one point imitates The Fonz by trying to start a jukebox by punching it, and shatters the glass display, getting shards in his bloody hand. That episode aired June 6, 2000. In The Simpsons episode "Homer the Moe" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_the_Moe), Homer imitates The Fonz by trying to start a jukebox by punching it. He then punches through the glass, and shards cut into his hand. That episode aired November 18, 2001.

So, I guess that, compared to the video of vaguely similar situations, we now have an actual, specific joke that The Simpsons stole, and is thus a poor man's Family Guy, as you implied that plagiarism of this sort means. I guess that it could just be a coincidence that the writers of The Simpsons used the exact same specific joke, but good writers never let that happen. Or maybe that it's all just a bunch of coincidences and that anyone who puts so much time to make a video or blog post about how animated show steals from another animated show is just being an idiot? Or maybe that someone blogging such stuff should put a little more effort into researching this before going "Hey, look. Once and for all proof that this show has lazy writing. Just look at this example. This better show would never do that". I guess that's just lazy blogging.

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But viewdrix...speaking of the same Family Guy episode, Simpsons already did toad licking on February 20, 2000 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missionary:_Impossible). Oh noes! Fair trade?

What I'm trying to get at? Nothing really, all ideas are repeated at one point or another whether blatantly or just by mere coincidence.

Besides, people can also argue that they wrote it months/years before they aired it.

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You know, one bad thing about the internet is that it brings together people who would or should never discuss things with eachother otherwise. Some people just can't hold an intelligent conversation. For the most part, I don't think anyone is going to be convinced by this video. I think the people who were smart or knowledgeable enough to realize why the golden age of the Simpsons was cerebral and witty and innovative, are the same people who understand the superficial as well as the more weighty imitations of the Family Guy already. I could probably kick around a theory that the same part of the brain processes each thing. I read an interview once where Seth went into detail of what exactly Family guy did take, or even learn, from the Simpsons including the static reaction shots, and the type of humor, and so on. I think those points and that interview in particular are much more damning than storylines that were probably taken, I'm sure not deliberately, from the Simpsons, but obviously reconstructed in a different way (since the people laughing at the Simpsons bits aren't the ones laughing at the Family Guy ones, and vice versa. There's your difference.)

Just to note though, South Park made one of their best loved and most creative episodes out of the frustration of creating new storylines. That's what seperates South Park from Family Guy and other shows that have a hard time not ripping off the Simpsons. Their creators remain inspired where lesser shows give in.

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Even past Simpsons, toad licking was done in Beavis and Butt-head's "No Laughing" on June 2, 1993

(Can't actually verify this because I didn't watch many of them; info from a wiki) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beavis_and_Butt-head)

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And now Family Guy is worth at least one good guffaw each week and The Simpsons is a moral thinkpiece

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i don't know how anybody can really defend family guy. besides "it makes me laugh"

the show is, in every other way, terrible.

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Please. Some of these "exact scene copies" had maybe 1 or 2 elements out of 10 that were "exact." This video was a huge stretch of the imagination past the first 2 or so clips.

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i don't know how anybody can really defend family guy. besides "it makes me laugh"

oddly, for me, this is a satisfactory defense, for, you know, a frigging comedy show.

I've never missed an episode of either of these shows, and I love them both, but if they were on different channels I would watch Family Guy every time, because I'm exactly kind of mean spirited bastard that they write their jokes for, and I can actually see through the layer of nostalgia that I have for the Simpsons for when it was actually funny, all the time. The sad thing is that they could be that funny again if they wanted too but apparently being heart warming is more important to them now.

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Let me quote "South Park":

SIMPSONS DID IT!

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This was funny, but it's not that serious, guys. Relax.

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Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

... or is that flatulence?

Either way it works.

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