Behind The Laughter For Real

He is mentioned a few times, and he does offer quotes, but he's not featured the way George Meyer, Conan O' Brien, John Swartzwelder, and David Mirkin are. About the only insight on Vitti is that he was a fairly quiet person in the writers room.



The book really doesn't go into much detail with them either, but it does say that their tenure produced the last great episodes from the show. It talks about how after inheriting the show from Mirkin, they tried to take it back to it's roots as a family sitcom. But it also talks about some of the animosity with the pair and a few of the other writers, who felt they weren't serious enough in their work, and thought of their term as showrunners as a "fraternity".
 
Interesting. The few times we've heard him in commentaries it's almost as if he resents certain people but is unable to say anything. I guess this book isn't any different in that aspect.

I'll still get it, though.

That seems about right from my expectations, but it seems strange they didn't go into further detail on their era as it seemed 'clickish' and might provide with some interesting stories about that time.

Some people thought they weren't serious in their work? Wow, that's the exact opposite view I've heard about these guys in anything they've ever done.

Thanks for giving me the info. :)
 
I'm pretty sure he means that Oakley & Weinstein thought certain other writers weren't serious enough in their work, not that the other writers thought O&W weren't serious enough. Though the way it was worded, such a comment could be taken either way.
 
Oh, I see.

In that case, I can definitely see it. The way they talk on the audio commentaries and the stories I've heard about their own shows make it seem like they go all out with their work.
 
So this is a pretty legit book right? One of the reviews of it I read seemed to be painting the author as a guy who hates The Simpsons and doesn't know what he's talking about. But it sounds very interesting.
 
Exactly. Many of the stories revolving around O&W talk about how they were such perfectionists and would keep the writers there until the wee hours of the night just for one joke. Remember Colonel Hapablap from "Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming"? The writers spent nearly over six hours sitting there coming up with his name because O&W demanded it had to be funny.



Very legit. There's just a few angry insiders who don't like the existence of the book for obvious reasons...
 
Funny, Entertainment Weekly must have some inside stock with The Simpsons because while they said it was interesting, they tried passing it off as "gossip" instead of a legit book.
 
I just got through the part where the author blasts the episode 24 Minutes for being nothing more than a marketing campaign for both The Simpsons and 24, and I have to say that I agree with him on that. I knew there was always something about that episode that rubbed me the wrong way, and now I see that there really was no reason for that episode to exist, except to promote 24, whereas The Springfield Files, which was about The X-Files, actually parodied aspects and the characters of the show.

He also brings up some the episodes that have the lame social commentary, like See Homer Run(electoral politics), There's Something About Marrying(gay marriage), You Kent Always Say What You Want(FCC censorship, although I actually like this episode), and of course, the last segment of 2007's Treehouse of Horror episode, with Kang and Kodos comparing their invasion of Springfield to the invasion of Iraq. When you look back and think about it, it really does seem like the show was dumbed down a substantial amount, eventually to the point where anybody could pick up on thinly veiled commentary like the Springfield/Iraq comparison.
 
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