So Modern Family is about to hit cable and the rerun planet by the end of this month as you will see the show not only on ABC, but also on FOX and on the USA network among other places. Expect the ratings of the new episodes to essentially explode because once this awesome show hits the masses; expect the interest to increase dramatically.
Seriously, best comedy on television right now.
Big Bang Theory accomplished the same thing, once the reruns began on the pre-Conan hours on TBS. Now it is the top comedy on television (regardless of its subtle depleting quality this past season) and is the third most-watched show in all of television. Want to know who is first?
NCIS of course, which also went on the upswing once the reruns started popping up on USA---one of the most-watched cable networks out there. Believe it or not, its ratings actually increased during the Writer’s Strike because of the catalog of great episodes that had been thrown at the viewers to make up for the lack of new content. Reruns may have a negative connotation, but in recent years shows like George Lopez, Futurama, It’s Always Sunny in Philedalphia among others enjoyed a new breath of life because of the increasing exposure through the past episodes.
So where am I getting at?
Well, if Fox had not been so stingy on its greatest show, then The Simpsons would not be where it is today—a mere shell of what it used to be.
Hear me out, because this is more theory than fact, but The Simpsons had awesome, awesome ratings during the first couple seasons. And they were well-deserved ratings because the first several seasons were pure gold. Bart Gets an F, one of the Simpsons classics, got 33.6 million viewers upon first airing. People were tuned in, people were watching, and the show was one of the biggest moneymakers on the planet.
So usually when a show hits episode 100, it’s time to expand to cable and branch out its audience and try to nab some new ones. However Fox decided to cling to The Simpsons for as long as they possibly can, getting greedy and trying to absorb as much money and viewership as possible without having to share the love with channels like TBS, TNT, USA, etc. So instead of The Simpsons hitting TBS, Cartoon Network, Comedy Central (the three channels I predict would have benefited most from getting the reruns at the time), Fox was the only network with the cartoon.And its ratings were slowly beginning to plummet.
And even after watching other shows in its own network receive new fame upon cable viewings like Futurama, King of the Hill and (especially) Family Guy, Fox still did not even consider moving the cartoon to cable. And with this, the show began to suffer because the show was forced to find other means to obtaining a bigger audience---resulting in the show being more focused on celebrities, being less risky with touchy subjects, being a bit more family-friendly, and ultimately missing the rough edges that made the first seven seasons of The Simpsons absolutely amazing. Going from 30 million viewers to 6 million in a multitude of years would scare any major network, but there are ways around this. Its just that Fox chose the wrong method.
Watch the older Itchy and Scratchy cartoons and watch the social commentary violence dwindle. Watch the older Halloween episodes and tell me they are more gruesome and even scarier than the new ones. Watch the older episodes in general and notice that the language was heavier, the violence was tougher, and the overall content of the show was always on the fun borderline. And while it makes me sound like a violence lover, the appeal of The Simpsons is that nothing was too taboo, nothing was too risqué, and nothing was too harsh for them to show—and I applauded them for that. And in the midst of the carnage were plenty of feel-good moments and plenty of beautiful messages attached.
Now, without the cable ratings giving the show the boost it had desperately needed in the mid-to-late 90s, we saw a cartoon losing to other primetime cartoons, we saw a cartoon that needed good news and wasn’t receiving it, and ultimately felt that they had written themselves into a corner and had to alternate the strategy. Now we get episode after episode of The Simpsons jumping the shark, and its output of current pop culture references increase by 800%. I can g.u.a.r.a.n.t.e.e. you that if The Simpsons had gone to other networks in the mid-90s and gotten the boost of ratings it definitely would have received, and then it could have garnished enough money on its own to maintain its writing staff, maintain its humor, and see that America didn’t want to see The Simpsons change. America probably wanted to see The Simpsons on other days of the week as opposed to Sundays, which is a terrible timeslot because newsflash this isn't the 80s anymore.
Of course, this is all theory.
But I firmly believe if Fox had not been so greedy, The Simpsons would have been even bigger than it is now, and it would not have dipped into the pathetic levels that we are currently witnessing. Maybe they would have ended the show earlier (as opposed to not seeing an end until they reach episode 93982940). And then we wouldn’t see millions of pointless celebrities, jumping-the-shark moments, recycled storylines, and ill-timed-for-the-sake-of-ratings character deaths. No scripted show can ever run for more than 10 years and still remain good and relevant, that I can promise you. But The Simpsons could have prevented it’s terrible evolution if it had expanded to cable. Ratings would have increased, and no necessary developmental changes would have occurred.
Of course….this is all theory. But I promise you the world would have been drastically different if Fox had allowed Simpsons reruns to exist in 1995…or 2000….or 2005…..or 2010……
The reruns are finally happening, but its too little too late.
One of the greatest primetime shows in the history of television deserves much, much better than this fate.
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