Almost nine years ago in the early days of this blog, I wrote about the decline of The Simpsons which was my favourite television show growing up. I pointed out then that the show had declined in quality significantly around Season 10 and despite this, had continued for another fifteen. At the time I wrote it, I had assumed it would be cancelled within the next few years but I was very wrong and just this year it has been renewed for another four seasons which will take it to forty years on broadcast television.
As I also state in the same post, it has carried on well beyond its cultural relevance as I still have never failed to “get” a reference to the show because they are always from seasons through the 1990s which most people of my generation are familiar with. I don’t know anybody who watches it today and I am only reminded that it exists when it comes into the news from time to time.
In the late 1990s, South Park became a hit and could be seen as the successor to The Simpsons. People might prefer to point to King of the Hill, The Family Guy or Matt Groening’s own Futurama but it was South Park that had the more comparable success; especially as it reached beyond the United States. Similarly to The Simpsons, it had a run of about a decade where I regularly watched it. As a young and morally uncertain teenager, it’s deliberately offensive social iconoclasm certainly appealed to me. And it is South Park that I’ve very lately noticed, has also lasted much beyond it’s cultural relevance.
