Interesting thought from Family Guy tonight (yes its Futurama related :p!)

[Reply #40 on:]

All basically true....but I think its fairly understandable that the Simpsons guys would be bugged by it considering.  They've put their heart and soul for years into this show for years and years, and then see this other thing that steals a lot of their ideas come along.  Regardless of its own merits, its hard to blame them for feeling ripped off by it, especcially when the merits and style of FG aren't to their tastes anyway.  Its like another show featuring a loudmouthed, smoking, drinking, stealing robot (which hasn't happed yet, I don't think)....even if that character turns out to be genuinely funny, it would be hard to blame Groening and Cohen if they got angry that the character they put so much effort into was just blatantly ripped off for someone else's financial gain.

It would of course be different if Family Guy was merely inspired by The Simpsons in certain ways (a lot of shows have been, including ones the staff likes, like South Park and King of the Hill), but since there's just so much taken from it....its easy to understand why they'd want to take potshots at it now and then.  Of course, I can only imagine how the "Jimmy Corrigan" creator (someone who hasn't gotten a whole lot of recognition outside of a cult audience) feels....

Think of it this way.....the Flaming Moe was really good, but its hard to blame Homer for being angry about it.