TV: The Simpsons Guy

“Lets just agree to stay half an hour away from each other”

So here it is the Simpsons/Family Guy crossover, seeing Peter and the family landing themselves in Springfield. I entered this episode as a Simpsons lover and a Family Guy tolerator, afraid that the episode would attempt to ruin what is for me one of my favourite shows even after all this time. Not surprisingly the episode isn’t able to live up to the hype that has been going on for months now.

Although it is a double-length episode it does little to justify the added screen-time. For one the episode takes a while getting going, beginning with a storyline about Peter becoming a comic strip artist that includes only a few decent gags and has no bearing on the overall plot. In a way it does feel like a bit of a callback to the way the Simpsons often starts with a totally irrelevant plot but they could have benefitted from getting to the meat of the episode much faster. 

As it stands the gang only end up in Springfield about 10 minutes in, but are quick to put to come face-to-face with fan-favourites like Apu. The plot is (as per-usual for Family Guy) a bit thin, seeing the Griffins have their car stolen leaving them stranded in Springfield. The real focus of the episode however is seeing how the Simpsons and the Griffins play off each other, splitting each of them off into groups of two. 

The Homer/Peter pairing works very well for much of the episode, but unfortunately devolves into one of the show’s chicken fights - a personal hate of mine. The highlight of their team-up is the ‘sexy’ car wash scene which is a great mixture of gross out humour and brilliant animation. It’s also one of the better ways of bringing in the Simpson’s classic characters in the special. While the show works to point out the two character’s similarities in doesn’t focus much on their differences, the main one being that Homer is generally a kinder person, his cruelty being heightened to make him and Peter seem more alike. 

The Bart/Stewie storyline does a better job of presenting the two character’s contrasting personalities. While Stewie idealises Bart’s bad-boy ways, he fails to see that Bart is still a good person at heart whereas Stewie is a complete psychopath. The prank phone call effectively highlights the disparity between The Simpsons’ more wholesome humour and Family Guy’s shock value non-PC vulgarity. 

Lisa and Meg’s segments are rather short, revolving around Lisa trying to find something Meg is good at and failing miserably. These sections really point out how un-Simpsons-like the character of Meg is, to the show’s writers she has no decent qualities and deserves the constant putdowns and abuse she gets from her own father. That they can so flippantly suggest Meg cuts herself shows how tasteless Family Guy can be. 

The other main cast get much smaller plot lines, with Brian and Chris losing Santa’s Little Helper and trying to hide it from everyone else. This plot at least sees Brian confronting his dislike of other dogs but little is actually done with it. Meanwhile Marge and Lois bond over being housewives with boring lives… or something. In fact Julie Kavner almost seems a bit angered to be barely involved and gives very little to her part in return.

The animation throughout the episode is rather superb, the Family Guy animators working hard to recreate the Simpsons’ classic style. Somehow they are able to rather seemingly transition from one style to the other, the two meshing rather well. The only times the different animation team is noticeable is in the use of CGI to add a third dimension during several shots of the town, something The Simpsons doesn't utilise. 

It is when the special decides to create conflict between Homer and Peter that it truly flounders, using an argument about originality to push the two men to the limit. While some of these jokes work rather well, with some of Peter’s comments about people giving up on the Simpsons’ recently mirroring comments I have heard a lot throughout the years - namely that the show has long passed its prime. The courtroom scene, while forcing as many characters as possible into one sequence, pokes some fun at itself by showcasing all the character types ripped off by Family Guy. While they try to suggest that in fact both shows are ripping off The Flintstones, Family Guy has more overtly stolen character types from its rival (not to mention that really they’re all ripping off The Honeymooners). 

This comes down to the ridiculously dragged out, out of place and totally unneeded Homer/Peter showdown, which has to be the longest of these fight scenes to date. The battle goes from mildly amusing, to off-putting before becoming out and out boring. The best part is undeniable when Homer begins attacking Peter with all the show’s Emmys, Peter being unable to defend himself as they have earned none. 

At the end of the day this episode just feels like a poorly done marketing ploy, and no amount of jokes about how forced it is could help that. The Simpsons Guy does little to justify its own existence but at least we can just pass it off as being a Family Guy episode that has no bearing on The Simpsons proper.