The Simpsons

Doh! Never before has there been a series that has run for so many seasons. This crazy cartoon family is adored by audiences everywhere even after decades on the air. This illustrated institution has even predicted current events in pop culture with laser precision. But, don’t have a cow man. However you slice it or dice it, it seems these lovable yellow yahoos are here to stay! Excellent! We’ll stop by Springfield and visit The Simpsons on this week’s episode of FYI! 

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no never before has there been a series that has run for so many seasons this crazy cartoon family is adored by audiences everywhere even after decades on the air this Illustrated institution has even predicted current events in pop culture with laser Precision but don't have a cow man however you slice it or dice it it seems these lovable yellow yahoos are here to stay excellent we'll stop by Springfield and visit[Applause][Music] on this week's episode of FYI welcome to for your info English you got it you got it[Applause][Music][Applause] thank you hello hello hello and welcome to another exciting edition of f y i for your English where you can learn about anything and everything and if you haven't heard a topic that you want to hear about remember you can send me a message any time of the day it doesn't mean I'm gonna read it in the middle of the night but I'm always open to suggestions and some of the greatest episodes have been suggestions from my students so keep up the great work and a quick reminder if you haven't rated the show if you haven't given it five stars please do so right now pause it right now don't worry I'll wait for you and that really helps this show this podcast become more visible and as many of you know we are on the cusp of or on the verge of half a million downloads believe me two years ago that was Unthinkable in Pennsylvania or did I just make that word up in Spanish anyway let's take a look at the intro we started out hearing perhaps one of the most popular characters on the show and that's Homer Simpson and did you hear that sound that that's his famous catchphrase and that word became so popular in the English language that in 2001 it was added to the Oxford English Dictionary and the word is defined as expressing frustration at the realization that things have turned out badly or not as planned or that one has just said or done something foolish in the initial script it was described as an annoyed Grunt and a grunt is kind of sound and anoid is molesto then I said never before has there been a series that has run for so many seasons and we're going to take a look at the Simpsons in numbers they are whopping numbers whopping us enorme then I said this crazy cartoon family is adored by audiences everywhere even after decades on the air well I should put a little disclaimer in there this show is loved by everybody except Barbara and George Bush they didn't have very nice things to say about the show well let me tell you something we are going to keep on trying to strengthen the American Family to make American families a lot more like The Waltons and a lot less like The Simpsons but truth be told I don't really have very nice things to say about them either so as my mother taught me if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all but there's one thing we can be sure of it's a crowd pleaser you're not on the air for decades you're not a cultural institution if nobody likes you then I went on to say this Illustrated institution has even predicted and to predict this current events actually in pop culture with laser precision and I know you recognize the word laser but we don't pronounce it lasil we say laser laser precision and then we heard Bart Simpson with one of his catch phrases and we're going to take a look at all the main characters and their catchphrases a little bit later on but one of Bart's favorites is don't have a cow man and he popularized this expression which means really calm down[Music] and then I used one of my favorite Expressions however you slice it or dice it it seems these lovable yellow yahoos are here to stay and what does that word yahoo mean I'm sure you guys are all familiar with the word from Yahoo the website the browser but what is a yahoo well this is usually an unsophisticated person and then we heard Mr Burns remember we don't say Mr Barnes we say Mr Burns and he said one of his catchphrases excellent excellent Smithers and who hasn't done that I know I'm guilty when I say the word excellent sometimes it comes out in Mr Burns's voice and then I wrapped up the intro saying we'll stop by you can also say pop by Springfield and visit The Simpsons and if you noticeon it's Simpson pecado Al final Simpson oh and do you know where the word came from I learned this preparing this episode and I'm a huge Simpsons fan I remember when I was in high school watching them on TV and sometimes I catch the repeats these days but I never knew that the word Simpson the last name was chosen on purpose and it's a reflection of the word simpleton simp or simpleton I think in Spanish the translation would be simplon and I think there's no better way to describe the Simpsons well except for Lisa Lisa's a brain she stands out in the family there's always one so is everybody ready to go to Springfield all right everybody on board or as we say get on the bus Gus next stop Springfield but wait where is Springfield in the United States I imagine right some American Town well the reason he chose this and when I say he I mean the Creator Matt Groening interesting because if you look at his name you want to say groaning but it's really graining it's raining and Matt graning is the creator of The Simpsons and he decided since Springfield was a very common name in the United States well that would keep the fans guessing and as we've just seen there are a lot of Winks in there there are a lot of uh little little things that you can notice cameos as we know there are so many different famous people that have been on the show so I think more than a cartoon it's a cultural institution oh and if you notice Springfield the one on The Simpsons not Springfield Illinois or Springfield I don't know where they are I think there are 14 or 15 Springfields in the United States but the town where the Simpsons live where they reside it has Rivers deserts Farmland mountains or whatever the story requires for that matter so I guess it's the picture-perfect town I said we were going to take a look at the Simpsons in numbers so let's take a look at some stats in the Year 1997 the show surpassed The Flintstones The Flintstones as the longest running Prime Time Animated Series in America and you know what Fred Flintstone had to say Pedro Pica Piedras I'm sorry I'm sorry I couldn't help it well that's right when the Simpsons hit their 167th episode they surpassed The Flintstones and they became the longest running Prime Time animated series it is also the longest running American anime series taking out the word prime time now since then it's also gone on to become America's longest running sitcom period so The Simpsons have broken every record in the book and they show no signs of stopping in 1999 The Simpsons was named the best series of the entire 21st century by Time magazine that was in 1999 some Simpsons purists have said that the show has lost a little bit I mean I guess it's hard to keep it fresh after so many seasons but some people say the Golden Age was in the 90s now they said there's kind of a decline in the content I honestly haven't seen it enough to be able to make a judgment call and on January 14 2000 the Simpson family was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and they they've won dozens of awards since it has debuted I'll give you a little short list 35 prime time Emmy Awards 34 Annie Awards two Peabody awards I don't even know these Awards and they've got a whole office full of them but where did it all start well I guess we're gonna have to rewind here we are back in 1987. April 19th to be exact and here we are in our living room watching the very popular comedy show called The Tracy Ullman Show and then all of a sudden this sketch comedy show is interrupted by a little short cartoon and that changed the world now it wasn't that simple it wasn't it wasn't something that happened overnight but in general the response was really good people wanted to see these little shorts these little sketches of this crazy family in between these sketches of real people and I remember we used to watch the Tracy Ullman Show religiously in my house well now we're gonna fast forward a little under two years to December 17 1989 so let me repeat the dates there the shorts for first joined the Tracy Ullman Show in April of 1987 and The Simpsons first aired as its own show on December 17 1989 and now how many episodes have they made I took a look at numbers and I don't want to say it since this is a podcast and they're constantly producing more let's say somewhere around 750 episodes and they just signed on for another two seasons The Simpsons has six main cast members now I don't mean characters I mean cast members voice over artists we've got Dan castellaneda and he does Homer and many other voices as we'll see we've got Julie kavner she does Marge and her sisters Nancy Cartwright does the voice of Bart Simpson what wait a second a girl does the voice of Bart Simpson a woman yep Nancy Cartwright then there's weirdly Smith Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer and as I said before there are many many people who participate but these are the main voice over actors the main cast and at first they were paid around thirty thousand dollars an episode and now they're being paid around four hundred thousand to a half a million dollars for an episode so that's great as the show has grown so have the salaries of its main cast that doesn't always happen like that but let me give you an example Shearer okay Harry Shearer voices you can say does the voice of voices Mr Burns Smithers Principal Skinner Ned Flanders Reverend Lovejoy and Dr Hibbert who's no longer on the show but every main cast member that I just mentioned has won a prime time Emmy award for outstanding voice over performance I guess they really know what it feels like to be a part of a winning team let's take a look at this lovable yet dysfunctional family and a dysfunctional family is a family that is not very healthy as I said before we're going to take a look at some of the characters and their catch phrases in this dysfunctional family we'll start with Homer and I think when the show started the main focus was Bart Simpson but Homer stole the show he stole his Thunder an interesting fun fact is you know Homer has two or three hairs on his head right well those hairs are matte graining's initials if you notice it's an m and a g and The Simpsons have a lot of hidden messages they've even predicted world events such as the election of Donald Trump as president and so much more and we're going to take a look at all that stuff in the bonus episode we're going to take a look at more fun facts we'll take a look at Bart Simpson and his crank calls or prank calls yamadas de broma where we'll look at words or names that have double meanings we'll also take a look at some of the predictions that have come true we'll look at Family vocabulary and so much more and all of that is in the bonus episode remember if you want access to the bonus episode every week it's real simple you can join us over on patreon.com slash Alberto Alonso and for just three Euros a month you'll get access to the bonus episode and so much more and if you're in our higher levels you'll get PDFs with all the vocabulary and expressions in every episode you'll get weekly review classes with me their group classes and we have a lot of fun in those classes and if you're in our highest level you can get a monthly master class with me so think about this if you're in our Interstellar level you'll have a weekly group class with me and a monthly private class take a look at it I think it's really affordable and I think we're all having a great time and I'd like to send a shout out to all my patrons you guys are kicking butt and a special shout out to my super duper students Javier Paco Roberto David Jose Maria Mila and Alex and don't forget about my Interstellar students the ones who get a monthly private class with me and those are Carmen Lena Issa Paco and Elgar if you guys want more information go to patreon.com Alberto Alonso and join our curious Community now where were we oh right we were talking about some of the characters now Homer here's another thing I didn't know this Homer is Matt Groening's real dad's name and I already told you the Simpson part because it has the word simp or simpleton in it then you've got Marge the loving wife with the Beehive haircut and I love her voice oh me I don't know how she does it without losing her voice but she's got a very raspy voice in English oh homie and let's be honest okay Marge is a sexy mom in her own way well hey I'm not saying it's not just me she graced the cover of Playboy magazine in 2009. hey some guys like that blue-haired big look and then we've got Bart Simpson who when the show started I think was the main focus of the show but as I said that organically changed and Homer became a favorite but Bart is an anagram for the word brat ninato and Bard as I said before is voiced by Nancy Cartwright a woman one of his catchphrases we already said one in the intro don't have a cow man he also said I caramba he also said eat my shorts eat my shorts and many many other expressions and I remember the t-shirts were huge but they were banned in my school yeah there were two T-shirts that my school banned us from wearing one of them said Bart Simpson underachiever and the other one said Bart Simpson oh no it said I'm Bart Simpson who the hell are you I had both of those t-shirts but I was not allowed to wear them to school and what did that do that forbidden fruit just made The Simpsons more popular I even remember knowing all the lyrics to the song I do the bot man I do the BART man hey you're laughing and you're thinking it's a corny song but this song was written and produced by Michael Jackson okay he's uncredited but everybody in the industry knows that Michael Jackson was behind to the bot man then we already talked about Lisa I think Lisa is the only normal one if that I mean if there is a normal sin and she's intelligent kind passionate she loves all living things unlike her brother who's a brat as we already said and we all know she loves to play the saxophone[Music] one of my favorite characters is Maggie and I remember calling my daughter Maggie when she was a little kid because when she had her pacifier El chupete you we say pacifier in the United States the British people say dummy and I remember my daughter Lara used to make the same sound and I I used to call her Maggie and now I shouldn't admit this here on the show but my daughter is a huge Simpsons fan she loves The Simpsons we watched The Simpsons together I know what you're thinking she's three years old she's watching The Simpsons at three years old I know I know in fact the other day there was a scene where Homer was strangling Bart estrangoland and I said oh no and she goes poppy why is he doing that and I go because Homer's a bad dad and Bart is a bad boy be like Lisa oh and here's a a fun fact and as I said we'll take a look at some more in the bonus part but baby Maggie when she said her first word which was daddy she was voiced by the one and only Elizabeth Taylor then you've got Krusty the Clown and did you ever notice that Krusty Bears a striking resemblance to Homer that's not an accident in fact they were supposed to be the same person but then they abandoned that storyline let me explain what Matt Groening was trying to do here was trying to show people that this kid Bart Simpson had no respect for his father but he worshiped clown who looked exactly like his father so I guess it was like playing with the idea of who your role models are don't forget about Principal Skinner that if he's got to do it he'll skin you he'll pull off your skin this tripod I always forget that word oh wait no it's this and check that one out we don't say the director of the school we say the principal and I noticed that the Simpsons love playing with numbers as well so they love these little hidden things they love predicting the future but they also play with numbers a lot and principal Skinner's prisoner number when he was in Vietnam was 24601 now did anybody recognize that number two four six oh one that is the same prisoner number as Jean Valjean from Les Miserables and also used again in Twin Peaks with Hank Jennings and that number comes up again because Krusty's Krusty the Clown his former sidekick Sideshow Bob also had that very same prisoner number so as you can see they're always playing with numbers another one Bart's Locker combination the locker is takiya and the combination is Los numerous that makes sense you lock things in a locker with a lock the combination of Bart's Locker is 36 24 26. any AC DC fans in the house Dirty Deeds Thunder cheap Dirty deeds and the danda cheap they repeat that over and over in the song 36 24 26. so there are a lot of Winks a lot of nods all right you consider yourself a Simpsons fan here's a trivia question The Simpsons have four fingers they are one digit short of having a full human-like hand there is only one character that has five fingers what character is it[Laughter] foreign[Music] do you give up it's God and before we wrap up the first part here we'll take a look at another fun fact have you ever stopped and asked yourself why the residents of Springfield are yellow that wasn't a mistake either it seems like Matt Groening left nothing to chance and he said that this yellow color would attract your attention when you were flicking through the channels with your remote control and if you saw a flash of yellow on your screen you would instantly know that you were watching The Simpsons so it was a branding Choice it was a color that he thought would be eye-catching and was he right well I think the numbers speak for themselves The Simpsons is here to stay I sure hope you'll join us in the bonus episode of today's f y i foreign[Applause][Music][Music]