Chronicling the history of The Simpsons

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

Chris Turner is a bigger fan of The Simpsons than you are. The proof? The 471 pages of Planet Simpson, in which the Canadian journalist traces the 15 year history of Springfield's first family and how the show took on the world and changed it more than you ever would guess.

Turner might go into depths you never thought possible — typical subhead "A short frank discussion (actually more like a longish rambling examination) of Homer's extraordinary id" — but it's analysis without paralysis.

And reading the book, you are soon inspired to go out and watch every episode on DVD and spend the rest of the summer matching the book's references to the shows which inspired Turner. In Auckland the other day, the affable Turner discussed his long, cerebral love letter to the greatest cartoon series, ever ...

Q. Did you start out to write a book, or just get something out of your system?

A. It began life as a magazine article for a Canadian magazine called Shift, which died a year ago. And it was their 10th anniversary and I believe the phrase was "10 years in the life of the culture" which I sort of thought about for a little while — there is a Simpsons reference for every occasion so maybe I can use that as a sort of linking device.

I was already a big fan of the show but going systematically through where it came from, how it came to be and then particularly looking at the fourth, fifth and sixth seasons — it literally didn't miss a beat for four or five years — I thought this was something that should be acknowledged and discussed and examined to some degree.

Q. The show keeps coming out every year. Did you ever think "only five pages to go" and then write another five hundred?

A. Like, if I keep going on this I will never get it finished and I will have this Moby Dick of a Simpsons book?

Q. Yeah, Homer's Iliad.

A. Yeah. At one point I knew that I wanted to include the bit from the most recent season in North America, where Tony Blair was on, because it was this bellwether moment in Simpsons celebrity guests — the first sitting head of state who plays himself.

Q. How many hours did you spend revisiting episodes?

A. I watched a lot of the show, obviously, and I did my best to verify as accurately as possible every single quote. I realise there is a significant cottage industry which will wind up finding errors here and there. But so it goes.

Q. There will always be a bigger fan than you. But with the book you've still got the ultimate proof really.

A. Yeah the ultimate trump card, right? But it's a different sort of thing. I find the more obsessive sorting through the minutiae of it almost takes the life out of it. I get a bit of that from the book but as a fan I don't sit around checking to see if the continuity is right between one scene and another.

Q. Can you watch an episode now without thinking too hard?

A. Does this fit with my argument this is the social conscience of the show? Yes, actually, and I think that is a pretty strong testament to the resilience of the show and helpful to the way I approached it in the book — that I didn't completely kill it and leave it dead on the page. I do still watch it and still delight in it.

Q. If you were offered a job as a writer on the show would you take it?

A. Yeah, sure, but I think I would be in way over my head. I was very conscious of that writing the book — don't try to be funny too much because you're up against the masters and your work will pale by comparison.

Q. One of the arguments in the book is that The Simpsons was the new rock'n'roll. Is it still?

A. Well, it's done the same thing rock did. It's gone from this incredibly exciting motive force, the thing that the youth and the counterculture think of as theirs and then becomes institutionalised. It's an assumed part of the culture. If you are a teenager now, say, The Simpsons has always been there — it's fun and you watch it and you watch the cartoons that have come in its wake. It's not yours necessarily the way it was 15 years ago.

Q. Which character do you most identify with?

A. I'd have to say Lisa because she says things like I say. The more accurate answer is that I identify with the show's world view. I think of myself as identifying with the writers. The show has a point of view — it's very distinct, it's very ironic and sceptical but ultimately kind of idealistic in a highly qualified way.

Q. How long do you think the show should last?

A. There are so many different ways to answer that one. Like great rock'n'roll bands, you sometimes wish they would finish at their peak — that great frozen-in-time thing that happens to someone like Nirvana.

The show is no longer at the level it once was, it has flashes of brilliance but it is not consistently absolute genius. That said, I don't begrudge its place in the culture and I still watch it fairly regularly. There is talk of them moving into movies which is either a really great idea or a really awful one.

The book: Planet Simpson by Chris Turner (Random House, $34.95)
The show: The Simpsons
The time: Sunday to Friday, 7pm
The place: TV3
The DVDs: Five 25-show "classics" collections are released next week