Stupid Tv, Be More Funny

Alan Siegel's Stupid Tv, Be More Funny is a history of The Simpsons during the 1990s, the decade in which the animated series became a national fixture. It covers the show's first run of years, from 1990 to 1998, and argues that this stretch matters more than the long run of seasons that followed.

The Simpsons is still on the air after 33 years, and Siegel contends that its current reputation as a sometimes sharp but mostly safe sitcom hides how radical it once was.

The book is part pop culture criticism and part reported behind-the-scenes account. Siegel draws on interviews with the show's creative team and writing staff, with anecdotes from people such as Conan O'Brien and Yeardley Smith. These give a view from inside the making of the series.

Siegel places the show in its moment. Its rise runs alongside post-Cold War America, and it helped turn Fox into the network powerhouse it is now. The series mocked the country's culture wars while ending up caught in the middle of them.

Its humor reached across generations and changed how people talked, in schools, at work and in political campaigns. Siegel traces how the show built its particular sensibility, one that was subversive for a primetime cartoon and yet wholesome at heart. It suits readers who want a detailed account of a single decade of television.