Leaving Springfield: The Simpsons and the Possibility of Oppositional Culture

Contemporary Approaches to Film and Media Series

by John Alberti (Contributor), David L. G. Arnold (Contributor), Douglas Rushkoff (Contributor)

Since its first appearance as a series of cartoon vignettes in 1987 and its debut as a weekly program in 1990, The Simpsons has had multiple, even contradictory, media identities. Although the show has featured biting political and social satire, which often proves fatal to mass public acceptance, The Simpsons entered fully into the mainstream, consistently earning high ratings from audiences and critics alike.

Leaving Springfield addresses the success of The Simpsons as a corporate-manufactured show that openly and self-reflexively parodies the very consumer capitalism it simultaneously promotes. By exploring such topics as the impact of the show's satire on its diverse viewing public and the position of The Simpsons in sitcom and television animation history, the commentators develop insights into the ways parody intermixes with mass media to critique post modern society.

In spite of the longevity and high cultural profile of the show, The Simpsons has so far attracted only scattered academic attention. Leaving Springfield will be of importance to both scholars of media and fans of the show interested in the function of satire in popular culture in general and television in particular.

Genres: Tv, Sociology, Cultural

384 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2003

About the author

John Alberti is professor of English and chair of the English department at Northern Kentucky University, and he has published widely in the areas of cinema studies, writing studies, and popular culture. He is editor of Leaving Springfield: The Simpsons and the Possibility of Oppositional Culture, and the author of several titles including Screen Ages: A Survey of American Cinema, Masculinity in the Contemporary Romantic Comedy: Gender as Genre, and The Killing.

Reviews

[Christine Prevas · Rating 3 out of 5]

gonna be honest, I’ve never watched the Simpsons, but I read this cover to cover for an article In writing and I wanted to count it towards my total for the year

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of essays about animation in television and film. It focuses moslty on The Simpsons, asking if such a show, intelligent as it is/was, can be subservsive while also existing in the mainstream. The essays also cover other animation like South Park and Beavis and Butthead. Some essays are better than others, but they are all interesting, and cover topics from like sexuality, enthnic identity, nuclear power and high culture.