CHUD.com Community › Forums › ARTS & LITERATURE › Books and Magazines › Behind the Scenes of the Simpsons
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Behind the Scenes of the Simpsons

post #1 of 8
11/5/09 at 3:24pm
Thread Starter 
I really want to read this book now.
Reply
post #2 of 8
11/19/09 at 2:20pm
I've read it. It's entertaining, but it's also curiously 'light.' Ortved injects himself into the narrative too often for my taste, and he explains things that would have been better served being explained by the people he's interviewed for the book. His opinion on the ongoing quality of the Simpsons intrudes early and often - to the point where half the purpose of the book seems to have been for Ortved to complain about the dip in quality after seasons 5 or 6. Also, he doesn't offer first-hand accounts from any of the show's originators (we get talk about Brooks, Groening and Simon, but we never hear from them outside of excerpts of other interviews).

There's a fair amount of dirty laundry that's aired, but its typically the laundry of obviously-disgruntled former writers.

Worth reading if you're a fan, but I was a little underwhelmed by what Ortved chose to include. The AV Club's review sums up my thoughts pretty well.
Reply
post #3 of 8
11/19/09 at 5:08pm
Thread Starter 
Kind of silly of me to get hung up on it, but Kyle Ryan kind of comes off as a tool for ragging on Ortved over Wayland Smithers' name, which Ortved gets right.
Reply
post #4 of 8
11/19/09 at 5:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Prankster View Post
Kind of silly of me to get hung up on it, but Kyle Ryan kind of comes off as a tool for ragging on Ortved over Wayland Smithers' name, which Ortved gets right.
Err...no he doesn't.

I think Ryan's larger point is sound, any potential tool-ishness aside - if you're going to write an unauthorized bio of The Simpsons, it behooves you to make sure you've got your I's dotted and your T's crossed. Waylon's name is small potatoes in any other context, but it's hard to give Ortved's opinions respect when he's mangling the details in his own book.
Reply
post #5 of 8
11/21/09 at 5:59pm
Thread Starter 
Smithers' first name is one of those weird things that everyone gets wrong, but it's very definitely WAYLAND in the first few seasons. The name "Waylon" is more common, hence the confusion. The character is named after Wayland Flowers (as even the Wikipedia entry, which calls him Waylon, acknowledges) and Mr Burns pointedly pronounces the "D" a few times.

Given the show's lackadaisical continuity and general sloppiness, it's possible that later seasons have begun officially referring to him as "Waylon"; I wouldn't know. I mean, fuck, the guy changed race at one point. But he was originally Wayland.
Reply
post #6 of 8
11/21/09 at 7:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Prankster View Post
The character is named after Wayland Flowers (as even the Wikipedia entry, which calls him Waylon, acknowledges) and Mr Burns pointedly pronounces the "D" a few times.
Just to note, the Wikipedia entry also notes that "I Married Marge" in season 3 was the first episode to use his first name, so I just pulled it off the shelf for a quick watch and when his name is said, by Burns, it's very clearly Waylon.

But as you mentioned, the dude was black for all of a day, so no need to argue over trivialities.
Reply
post #7 of 8
11/24/09 at 6:06am
Yeah, this isn't very good but it's enjoyable enough. All of the oral history parts are good but when Ortved decides to throw his opinion in it just stops the book in its tracks. Makes you think how good a thorough oral history could be though. Definitely not Live From New York good.
Reply
post #8 of 8
11/24/09 at 6:54am
I'd be interested in reading this but I get the feeling this whole thing of the author throwing in his own opinions all the time would drive me up the wall. I read this Bob Dylan biography a while back which did this all the time - even when I agreed with him I wished he's just shut up and just tell the story straight. Like that review says, you don't read these things to find out what some random guy with an axe to grind thinks.
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Books and Magazines
CHUD.com Community › Forums › ARTS & LITERATURE › Books and Magazines › Behind the Scenes of the Simpsons