If I Only Knew Then... by Charles Grodin

Author:Charles Grodin [GRODIN, CHARLES]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BIO000000
ISBN: 9780446501330
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2007-11-01T04:00:00+00:00

WHAT I LEARNED

Trust your instincts. Something told me that this was not a good idea. All my defenses were talking to me and telling me to stop—my legs, my racing mind, my inability to sleep, my family and those who loved me. Finally, I woke up to the signals and let my instincts take over.

RICHARD ZOGLIN

Time Magazine Critic

Critics don’t like to admit mistakes. Indeed, it’s part of the critic’s very DNA to try to maintain the illusion that you’re incapable of them. A critic’s job is to convince readers, in the most colorful and convincing language possible, that his or her opinion is the only one any sensible person could hold. And nothing that happens afterward can prove you wrong. So what if the gritty police drama you hailed is canceled after two weeks, or the sitcom you trashed becomes a runaway hit? It’s the audience that fouled up, not you.

For a dozen years I was the television critic for Time magazine. I privately cheered when shows I praised from the start—Thirtysomething, ER—went on to have long and acclaimed runs. I was just as happy when I was a lonely voice of dissent. I still think Amerika—the 1987 ABC miniseries about a Soviet takeover of the United States that bombed in the ratings despite my raves—was an underrated gem. And my snarky review of Friends in 1995? I still wish I could have strangled that show in its cradle. But one review remains a thorn in my side, mainly because I dumped on a show that later became one of my favorites, the only network series that today, nearly a decade after I left the TV beat, I still make sure to watch or tape every week: The Simpsons.

I watched Matt Groening’s animated segments on the old Tracey Ullman Show, which introduced the Simpsons characters, and I was unimpressed: lots of belching and shouting, juvenile jokes, and crass drawings. When the half-hour series debuted on Fox in January 1990 and became a pop culture phenomenon—high ratings, T-shirts, catchphrases like “eat my shorts”—I was even more turned off.

I resisted even reviewing the show initially, then included it in an April 1990 story on “anti-family sitcoms,” lumping it in with Roseanne and Married with Children. I had a few nice things to say about the show, but I made my dissenting view clear: “The Simpsons, however, is strangely off-putting much of the time. The drawings are grotesque without redeeming style or charm and the animation is crude even by TV’s low-grade standards.” I refused to put The Simpsons on my 10 Best list at the end of the year. Instead, I found Bart Simpson a place on another list—as the “Most Overexposed Underachiever” of the year. (Bart still wound up on Time’s cover that week. Ah, the follies of newsmagazine cover making. But that’s another essay.)

I started to come around a year or two later. I still insist the show got better, as the emphasis shifted from Bart, the wisecracking brat, to Homer, the doughnut-loving dunderhead.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.