Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 262
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜
978-1-5381-1616-6 • Hardback • June 2019 • $44.00 • (£35.00)
978-1-5381-8816-3 • Paperback • October 2023 • $22.00 • (£16.99)
978-1-5381-1617-3 • eBook • June 2019 • $41.50 • (£35.00)
Moritz Fink is an independent scholar and librarian, who holds a doctoral degree in American Studies from the University of Munich. He has published on The Simpsons, contemporary media culture, and popular satire. Fink is the coeditor of Culture Jamming: Activism and the Art of Cultural Resistance.
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Yellow Planet
PART I: FROM COUNTER CULTURE TO COUCH CULTURE
Chapter 1: “So, We Meet Again, Mad Magazine”: Bart Simpson’s Comics Ancestors
Chapter 2: Three Men and a Cartoon Show: The Birth of The Simpsons
Chapter 3: The Simpsons’ Road to Success
PART II: SPRINGFIELD ON THE MAP
Chapter 4: At Home at 742 Evergreen Terrace
Chapter 5: A Town Called Springfield
Chapter 6: Pop Culture Institution
PART III: SIMPSONIZED
Chapter 7: The Renaissance of Animation
Chapter 8: Merchandising The Simpsons
Chapter 9: The Simpsons in Remix Culture
Conclusion: The Future of The Simpsons
Appendix: 30 Years of Simpsons—30 Landmark Episodes
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
“This entertaining book provides both scholars and casual fans alike with a great deal of insight into the ways in which The Simpsons has impacted our culture and defined our way of life. Fink effectively demonstrates that The Simpsons is much more than a smart television show; its worldwide popularity is evidence of a unique moment within our globalized culture. The Simpsons is a television series to be celebrated, and Fink’s exploration provides a meaningful analysis of the ways in which the show has influenced our lives.”
— Steven Keslowitz, Author of The World According to The Simpsons
In this affectionate look back, Fink evaluates the lasting influence of the show, crediting it with legitimizing animated sitcoms. He skillfully guides readers through 30 culturally relevant episodes, demonstrating that The Simpsons was groundbreaking, quality programming. VERDICT Fans of the show will enjoy revisiting classic episodes, and media scholars will find this a useful survey of television's changing landscape.
— Library Journal
The Simpsons: A Cultural History does not only shed light on the show’s roots and its development but also dissects the characters with surgical precision from a variety of angles – be it subversion, pop cultural phenomena, comic strip traditionalism, comedic lineage and histories, transcending boundaries between worlds through carefully orchestrated cameos and the influences and sources of inspiration along the way.
— Scene Point Blank
"It’s time for a new appraisal of the cultural significance of the longest-running scripted prime-time series in television history, and Fink, a media scholar and unabashed Simpsons fan (and critic), is just the guy to write it. . . . Combining scholarship and goofy fun, it’s a book that should satisfy The Simpsons’ most loyal fans and its harshest critics.”
— Booklist
Valuable for both the serious fan and serious scholar of The Simpsons, Moritz Fink gives us a lively, witty, and deeply informed overview of maybe the most influential program in American TV history. He not only provides deft readings of the multiple ironies at play in The Simpsons, he also places The Simpsons within the larger cultural evolution from the pre-digital world of its origins to its central role in the development of digital cultures. A must read for anyone who cares about The Simpsons and the evolution of popular culture over the last thirty years.
— John Alberti, editor of Leaving Springfield: The Simpsons and the Possibility of Oppositional Culture
Mmmmmm … cultural history. A fun, expansive, and highly recommended telling of the Homeric epic of American television’s most important family.
— Jonathan Gray, Professor of Media and Cultural Studies (University of Wisconsin – Madison) and author of Watching with The Simpsons: Television, Parody, and Intertextuality