D'oh! Fox Might Kill the Simpsons!

Crazy, mixed-up Simpsons

Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie have been on television a really long time. Consider this, the year The Simpsons first aired on Fox:

• George H.W. Bush (the smart one) took the oath of office.
• The Soviet Union (not the U.S.) ended a decade of occupation in Afghanistan.
• A new sitcom called Seinfeld premiered (and it has now been in reruns for 13 years).
• Nintendo released the revolutionary GameBoy system.
• Pete Rose was banned for life from baseball.
• The Berlin Wall began to fall.
• U.S. Open Golf Champ Rory McIlroy and Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe were born.

According to Wikipedia (of course the show has its own Wikipedia page), The Simpsons is the longest-running sitcom in the history of American television.

The Fox Sunday night anchor is in it's twenty-third year, but this may be its last. Fox executives claim the show's current financial model is no longer viable, and they have asked the cast of the show to take a 45% pay cut to keep The Simpsons on the air. Contract negotiations are underway now, but this may well signal the end of the Simpsons era.

Many complain that the show "jumped the shark" years ago, and it's time to pull the plug. I don't know if I completely agree, but I know The Simpsons no longer reigns in the world of cutting edge animated television. Newer players like Family Guy, American Dad, and a host of others that I'm not hip enough to know continue to push the envelope of intelligent cartoon satire and they-can't-say-that-on-TV moments.

My honest opinion - Fox should let The Simpsons go, but they should not go gentle into that good night. The Simpsons Movie from 2007 was hilarious and reminiscent of the best political and cultural wit the television show ever had to offer. Bring on Simpson movie sequels!