The Golden Age of animation came to an end in the 1960s, as television sets became more affordable and consequently more commonplace in many households, which meant that there were other entertainment options than going to the cinema or theatre, the main places where animations were shown. In its place, the Silver Age was born, as TV provided a new platform to broadcast programmes of all types, including animation.
The Simpson's, created by Matt Groening, is a notable example of animation created for television in that it is one of the longest running television animations, being first broadcast as full length episodes in 1989 and at the time of writing still going.
At the time The Simpsons was first broadcast, animation on American television was largely viewed as more appropriate for children than adults, yet while the programme's universal storyline of a dysfunctional family and satirical approach are aimed at adults, the animation style of bright colours and bold shapes makes it appeal to a broad spectrum of audiences. The intentional evasiveness as to the location of the programme's setting, the fictional Springfield, allows the show to act as a microcosm for the whole of the USA, to make scathing social and political comments, while younger viewer's attention will be held by the physical humour and amusing voices.
In terms of animation style, the town of Springfield and it inhabitants are most definitely two dimensional, with no attempt to use shading and tonal colour to suggest depth and shape, with minimal shadowing and colour change to suggest an alteration in light. Instead, the illusion of depth and weight is achieved by rarely depicting characters directly in profile or from the front or back. Instead, the figures are most often drawn from a three quarter view, as in the still above. This technique, which is a part of the solid drawing principle of animation (one of the 12 principles) provides the 2D animation with depth and contributes to the programme's distinctive visual style.
The Simpson's, created by Matt Groening, is a notable example of animation created for television in that it is one of the longest running television animations, being first broadcast as full length episodes in 1989 and at the time of writing still going.
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| How the Simpsons originally appeared on the Tracey Ullman Show |
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| The updated design for The Simpsons |
The success of the show has widely been credited with opening the door to other animated programmes being broadcast on prime time TV, such as Family Guy and Futurama. Seth McFarlane, creator of Family Guy, said 'The Simpsons created an audience for prime time animation that had not been there for many, many years...As far as I'm concerned, they basically reinvented the wheel'. It is strange to think that without The Simpsons the landscape of television animation may have been quite different.
In terms of animation style, the town of Springfield and it inhabitants are most definitely two dimensional, with no attempt to use shading and tonal colour to suggest depth and shape, with minimal shadowing and colour change to suggest an alteration in light. Instead, the illusion of depth and weight is achieved by rarely depicting characters directly in profile or from the front or back. Instead, the figures are most often drawn from a three quarter view, as in the still above. This technique, which is a part of the solid drawing principle of animation (one of the 12 principles) provides the 2D animation with depth and contributes to the programme's distinctive visual style.
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