The Simpsons

 

The Simpsons is a sitcom animated cartoon series that has been running for over 25 years. It was created by Matt Groening and has 24 seasons and over 525 episodes. Each episodes running time of an episode is roughly 21 – 24 minutes. Since 2008 each episode costs around $250,000 after the production company 20^th Century Fox demanded a budget cut as the episodes were costing $400,000 each to make. Back in 1989 when the first Simpsons episode was created and aired, it used to cost around $750,000 - $1,000,000. In the UK the only place you can watch The Simpsons is on channel 4 which is free to few and then sky 1 which you must pay for. Last Thursday the 4^th of April on channel 4 The Simpsons had over 1.3 million people watching.

Target Audience

Age: 16-40

The age of the target audience is 16 – 40 because of some of the language they use and they why they act with each other and the violence. Some people over 40 will watch it if their children watch it but I think it is up to 40 years old as after you have been watching it for so many years you will begin to get bored of the show.

 

Gender: Male

I think the target audience of The Simpsons is mainly men because of the violence, the language and some of the reference used in The Simpsons. However it sometimes appeals to a female audience because of the characters that are female like Marge and Lisa that people in real life and relate to.

 

Culture: All Cultures

The Simpsons is not a culturally specific show. It is an American show but on they show they make jokes about Americans, they also make jokes about every culture but that is the type of jokes that they use on the show. They also travel to different country’s all the time and you see their culture on the show but they are always making jokes about the country when they are there and taking the mick out of there accents and the way they act.

 

Social Class: C1, C2, D, E

You can tell the social class of The Simpsons is low and at the bottom of the social class scale as it is a family oriented show and people with a small or big family who don’t have a great amount of money. You can also tell this by looking at the advertisements in the middle of the episodes and see what people are trying to sell and they won’t be trying to sell really expensive things to people as they watch the programme.

 

Lifestyle: Family orientated

The Simpsons is a family oriented show I can tell this because they show is all about one family called The Simpsons. The Simpsons appeals to a lot of family because people can sometimes relate to them as The Simpsons are not a well off family as Homer is working all the time, Marge is always at home doing house work and taking care of the kids, Lisa is the smartest child that is the only hope for the families future, Bart is the troubled child who is constantly misbehaving and always getting in trouble and finally Maggie the baby, she is the one that need to be looked after all the time by the mother Marge.

 

Location: World Wide

The Simpsons was made in America but has been broadcast all over the world because it is a family show and families all over the world watch it almost every day. In the Simpsons it has lots of types of different cultures for each of the countries it broadcast in.

 

Sexual Orientation: All

The show is not aimed at any sexual orientation so weather your gay straight or bi- sexual. It will not be offensive to watch the Simpsons as it has gay and straight characters in it. 

 

Analysing the generic codes

Language used: The languages used in the Simpsons can sometime be quite rude. The show sometimes has swearing in it but this is rare in an episode. There has not been any strong swear words used as it is a family show, and families watch it with their children. Some parents don’t want their children to be hearing strong swear words but they don’t mind hearing a little bit of rude language. This is why they watch the Simpsons.

 

Narrative structure: The Simpsons is a mixture of linear and non-linear as sometimes the show has flash backs. The show does this in some specific episodes like special episodes or anniversary’s. Some episodes are in linear order and this is where everything in the episodes goes in order such as the introduction then the problem in the episodes then them sorting out the problem in the episodes.

 

Characters: All the characters in the Simpsons can relate to some people and families in real life.

For Example, Homer is the father that goes to work and brings the money in to the house for the family; Marge is the house wife that does all the cooking, cleaning and looking after the kids. Bart and Lisa are the children that always fight with each other, Lisa is also the really smart one of the family and Bart is the troubled child that gets in trouble all the time. Finally Maggie is the baby of the family that is always being looked after by Marge.

 

Style: The style of this TV show is a comedy sitcom as it is funny and you can watch it with your family. It is also an animation cartoon so this is why it appeals to kids. Sometimes it has rude humour that sometimes isn’t suitable for children and then also some of the language that is used isn’t suitable for children. The style of it also is like family, because people’s family are able to relate to the characters in some way.

 

Camera Angles: Because The Simpsons is an animated cartoon so it doesn’t really have any camera angles but the way they animate the characters the angles of that are always in a long show so that you can see the whole family because they are normally sat in the front room and always talking so there is a long shot of the whole family sat on the sofa normally. Sometimes on special episodes if they are making it in the style of a movie and the movie is all close up shots they will make the characters face fill up the whole screen.

 

Music: The only music that is on every episode of The Simpsons is the opening title which has a theme tune that has been written especially for The Simpsons. It was written back when the show started about 20 years ago and has never been changed because it is very distinctive to the show and everyone knows the tune. The only other music that is in The Simpsons is only when they have special episodes where there are famous singers singing in the show and the family is singing because it is a musical episode.

 

Mis en Scene: The show is very bright as the animator uses bright colours for the houses, also the characters and their clothes. The clothes on the characters never change all the characters always have the same cloths on unless they have to wear a suit or they have to act as something else. Its set all in one town called Springfield which is a real place but this is not where it is set so this is a made up town where everything is held. It is mainly set in The Simpsons house and around there neighbourhood.

 

I enjoy the show because I have been watching it since I was young and I like the humour in the show. All the characters are different and I like some of the storys behind the characters and I also just find most of the characters really funny and this is why I like the show. I think the animation of the show is very well done by all of the animators, especially Matt Groening who actually created The Simpsons and Futurama.

 

Matthew Cooper

M1201595