When I first mentioned the ongoing contract negotiations with the voices of Fox's animated show "The Simpsons" in yesterday's column, I cautioned that you should always take these kinds of things with a grain or two of salt.
It's not unusual to use the media to get public opinion on your side, and this could easily be an example of that, as 20th Century Fox looks for 45 percent pay cuts to keep the show economically viable.
But it's become one of the big topics of discussion, with the most important contribution coming from Deadline.com, raising the question "Would ‘The Simpsons’ Be Worth More Dead Or Alive?" The article suggests that ending the show could free it up for cable or internet distribution that could bring tons of money in to Fox.
This is all about money, of course.
But the discussion allows those of us who've been "The Simpsons" lovers to ponder the show's past greatness, and ask the question whether it's time to let the show go.
It premiered as a free-standing series in December 1989, and it's the longest-running scripted TV show. But it's not what it was.
What do you think? Is it time to let "The Simpsons" go?
After all, you could end up with a cable channel starring Homer, Marge and the kids if the network show ends.
On TV: CBS has give a full-season order to the "2 Broke Girls," which has found ratings success between "How I Met Your Mother" and "Two and a Half Men." I don't think it's very funny, but this isn't about how good the show is – it's about how well it's doing in the ratings.
- The New York Post's Page 6 says there's a chance Eddie Murphy will make his first return visit to NBC's "Saturday Night Live" since leaving in 1984. Ben Stiller, his co-star in "Tower Heist," is hosting the show this weekend.
- Meanwhile, there's talk floating around that this may be Kristen Wiig's final season on "SNL," with her leaving to take advantage of her "Bridesmaids" success.
- Arthur C. Nielsen Jr., who took his father's company and turned it into one of the most important forces in TV, has died at the age of 92. Nielsen Media Research's numbers are crucial in deciding what survives on television – and what doesn't
Lots of baloney about Hank Williams Jr.: I had a couple mentions the past couple days about country singer Hank Williams Jr. comparing the president to Adolf Hitler.
That led to a couple comments from folks who must not have seen the video claiming that's not what he said.
Well, he talked about the president playing golf with Speaker of the House John Boehner. His comparison: "It'd be like Hitler playing golf with Netanyahu."
I don't think he was comparing Barack Obama to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Here's the video of his comments on Fox News Channel:
Tim Cuprisin is the media columnist for OnMilwaukee.com. He's been a journalist for 30 years, starting in 1979 as a police reporter at the old City News Bureau of Chicago, a legendary wire service that's the reputed source of the journalistic maxim "if your mother says she loves you, check it out." He spent a couple years in the mean streets of his native Chicago, and then moved on to the Green Bay Press-Gazette and USA Today, before coming to the Milwaukee Journal in 1986.
A general assignment reporter, Cuprisin traveled Eastern Europe on several projects, starting with a look at Poland after five years of martial law, and a tour of six countries in the region after the Berlin Wall opened and Communism fell. He spent six weeks traversing the lands of the former Yugoslavia in 1994, linking Milwaukee Serbs, Croats and Bosnians with their war-torn homeland.
In the fall of 1994, a lifetime of serious television viewing earned him a daily column in the Milwaukee Journal (and, later the Journal Sentinel) focusing on TV and radio. For 15 years, he has chronicled the changes rocking broadcasting, both nationally and in Milwaukee, an effort he continues at OnMilwaukee.com.
When he's not watching TV, Cuprisin enjoys tending to his vegetable garden in the backyard of his home in Whitefish Bay, cooking and traveling.
