Hello and welcome back to picsandportraits.
As a child of the ‘90s, I grew up on television.
My childhood coincided with a boom period of both kids and adult oriented animation
that instilled in me a lifelong interest.
Today, I’d like to look back on the year 1999, and revisit some of the cartoons that
made this time so special, specifically shows that were produced for FOX Television.
Now to further clarify, we are going to be looking at adult-oriented primetime animation,
so no FOX Kids, at least not in this video.
I’m interested in exploring how shows debuted, the way they were received as well as the state of
existing shows during that year.
So to get you in the proper headspace or mood, to start, lets take a look at the aesthetics
of FOX around this time.
This was the future, the millennium.
Their promos and bumpers featured overlays of the characters in the shows with the FOX logo
in the background.
Also tons of filters.
They occasionally work around colour themes.
If the show is sexy or steamy, they used red, dramatic previews were in blue, comedy in
purple, but for the most part they defaulted greens and blacks.
Very Matrix-y.
They would often use the credits to promote other shows or the news.
Most of the time, it would be a preview for an upcoming episode of something but sometimes
it would be a piece of unique content, like Matt Groening teaching you how to draw Bender.
Some of the live-action shows on the network, included Action, an inside look at Hollywood
that lasted one season, while X-Files, That 70s Show and Ally McBeal were amongst the
network’s most critically acclaimed shows.
Reality-based programs were also taking off.
FOX is where COPS and World’s Wildest Police Videos aired, which I can’t see going over
that well here in 2020.
Content aside, YouTube has virtually killed this format.
When you were watching FOX in 1999 you may have seen commercials for the Sega Dreamcast
or the marketing blitz surrounding Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace.
This was everywhere the summer of ’99, as were numerous collect call services.
C-A-L-L A-T-T.
What can I say, advertising works.
In terms of FOX’s branding, they had two slogans at this point, Non-Stop FOX and the
Just One campaign.
Both would be parodied in the cartoons were going to be looking at.
The first is the show that made the network, The Simpsons.
Now The Simpsons has been covered ad nauseam on this channel and this period found them
at a very interesting point.
They had been on the air for a decade now and fans were beginning to tune out.
This year was their 10/11 season, because we are going by year there is going to be
some overlap so we are going be looking at both the winter/spring season and the fall.
A lot of the The Simpsons’ heart was thrown out in favour of cheap gags and guest stars.
This year alone saw Stephen Hawking, Mel Gibson and Isabella Rossellini.
Mike Scully was the show runner at this time and he takes a lot of flack for ruining the
series but I still think there is some good stuff here.
Like Viva Ned Flanders and the holiday special Grift of the Magi though there is definitely
a dip in quality.
Still, its very much presented as the network’s shining star.
Playing second fiddle was King of Hill.
This was Mike Judge’s followup to Beavis and Butthead.
It offered a satirical look at rural America, specifically Texas.
1999 was King of the Hill’s 3/4 season.
The major story arc between these two seasons was Peggy falling out of an airplane and basically
breaking her body.
This happened during an attempt to spice up her and Hank’s relationship for their anniversary.
King of the Hill always had great cliff hangers.
In the season 3 finale we see her jump and fall, ending with the question, well, did
she die?
She didn’t and much of the early fourth season is dedicated to her learning how to
walk again.
The fourth season also gave us some of my favourite episodes.
Aisle 8A, in which Hank, babysitting Connie, has to walk her through her first period,
and Hillenium, where Arlen navigates Y2K hysteria.
Check out our Pokemon video for more on that.
The Simpsons spawned several attempts to capitalize on primetime animation throughout the ‘90s
but almost all of them were cancelled after just a season, with the exception of Duckman,
but that held a niche audience and has not maintained the same relevance King of the
Hill has.
The success of King of the Hill proved the concept could be embraced and in my opinion
really paved the way for the cartoons that debuted in 1999.
Now these were The PJs, Futurama and Family Guy.
Each had their own identity but compared to King of the Hill, presented considerably edgier
content.
They were produced post-South Park and so the envelope had been pushed further and would
continue to be, especially by Family Guy.
Family Guy was created by Seth McFarlane, who got his start in animation on Fred Seibert’s
What a Cartoon!
His short, Larry and Steve featured an oafish man and his intellectual talking dog.
These served as templates for Peter and Brian on Family Guy.
The series premiered after the Super Bowl on January 31, 1999.
The Broncos beat the Falcons.
Now obviously given it debuted, 1999 held the the first and second seasons.
i have a ton of nostalgia for this period of Family Guy.
I bought it the DVDs as soon as they were available.
As it was animated and focused on a dysfunctional family, many claimed it was a ripoff of the
Simpsons.
I can see that criticism.
This show unrecognizable when compared to its current form, particularly Stewie.
I feel like they thought he was going to be the breakout star.
He’s in a lot of the promos with his evil genius gimmick, which was largely abandoned
after the first couple of seasons.
A few weeks earlier, The PJs premiered, on January 10.
It was created by Larry Wilmore, Steve Tompkins and Eddie Murphy, who also provided the voice
of the show’s star, Thurgood Stubbs.
Thurgood is the super of an inner city housing project, hence The PJs, and the series revolves
around his interactions with the building’s eclectic tenants.
It followed in the tradition of Sanford and Son, The Jeffersons and Good Times, Ja’net
Dubois actually provided the voice of Mrs. Avery on The PJs, in being a sitcom that portrayed
working class African Americans.
The animation was done at the iconic Will Vinton Studios, the same studio behind the
California Raisins.
It’s excellent.
Like Family Guy, 1999 hosted The PJs first season.
It was just 13 episodes, but it would return in time for a Christmas special, How the Super
Stoled Christmas, a parody of the Grinch.
Its second season ran into 2000 but FOX dropped the show that year.
The WB picked it up where it ran until 2003.
Futurama premiered in the spring of 1999.
This was Matt Groening’s followup to The Simpsons and just like it, it’s been discussed
a lot on this channel.
To add to what’s already been said, it was not a smooth debut.
FOX executives were unhappy with the character Bender, an alcoholic robot.
They felt he was too offensive for television.
They also opposed the idea of suicide booths, believing it was too dark.
I think it would be very difficult to live up to the hype set by The Simpsons success.
Instead of simply riding the their coattails, Futurama set out to create its own identity.
Though it took place in the 31st Century, it parodied the 21st.
I love the first few seasons.
They do such a great job at establishing characters and building a world that feels like a logical
future of the time it was produced.
I’m planning on doing a full video on Futurama for our other series Retrofuturism and Animation
in near the future so we will leave it at
that for the time being.
The three series that debuted in 1999 were not long for this world.
None made it passed 2003, at least initially.
This could be attributed to the fact they moved their time slots around constantly.
At different points all aired on Sunday.
They usually would air alongside one another, the PJs and Futurama aired on Tuesdays in
the Fall, while Family Guy moved from Sundays to Thursdays to Tuesday which, in a different
world, made appointment viewing difficult.
Many people believed FOX dropped the ball with these shows, though the network did attempt
to cross promote them, The Hills had previously appeared on the Simpsons, The PJ’s would
eventually referenced on Futurama and they all came
together for this bit on the Simpsons episode Missionary Impossible, in a parody of PBS
telethons.
Now I know this crossover is from early 2000 but it is the last time these cartoons would
come together.
As we saw, the PJs moved to the WB that year, Futurama was cancelled in 2003, but was later
revived on Comedy Central, and King of the Hill went off the air in 2010.
Family Guy and The Simpsons are still going strong though, as of June 2020.
That just about wraps it up here.
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