Copyright Screen Rant
Although The Simpsons has been around for decades, no show has ever been able to recreate its unique pop-culture impact, although that didn’t stop these seven series from trying their best. With almost 800 episodes and a movie spinoff to its name, The Simpsons is officially the longest-running scripted primetime American TV show in history. It is also arguably the most influential network TV sitcom of all time, since the adult animation boom of the 1990s would never have happened without the success of The Simpsons. Without the original show’s impact, there would be no Family Guy, South Park, Bob’s Burgers, King of the Hill, Beavis and Butt-head, American Dad, Futurama, Disenchantment, Rick and Morty, Solar Opposites, BoJack Horseman, Central Park, Krapopolis, Big Mouth, Smiling Friends, F is for Family, or Daria. However, that doesn’t mean any of these shows were mere rip-offs. While all the shows listed above borrowed from The Simpsons, this is more of a testament to the overwhelming impact of the original series on pop culture. Only a handful of shows truly, shamelessly tried to copy the success of The Simpsons, and none have quite succeeded in the show’s 37 years on the air. 7 Family Dog Family Dog is a pretty obvious carbon copy of The Simpsons thanks to its focus on another dysfunctional cartoon family. However, Family Dog did have its genesis in an episode of Amazing Stories that actually predates the first episode of The Simpsons, even though the show itself debuted well after The Simpsons. Family Dog also boasted some impressive names backing the show's brief run, including future Pixar legend Brad Bird, who worked as a creative consultant on The Simpsons throughout its first eight seasons. Tim Burton designed the show’s characters and Steven Spielberg was a producer, so Family Dog initially seemed destined to outdo The Simpsons in terms of ratings success. Instead, Family Dog was met with universally brutal reviews, with the New York Times calling the series “Mean, nasty, and brutish” and TIME opting for “Inconsequential.” While The Simpsons eventually betrayed its audience with a few truly dark gags, the show’s tone was usually warm and light-hearted. In contrast, Family Dog was too mean-spirited for family viewing, but not as daringly dark as South Park or Family Guy proved decades later. Stuck in this unenviable chasm, the show was canceled after only ten episodes were produced. 6 Fish Police To be fair to Fish Police, the show undeniably had an original premise. Starring John Ritter and Tim Curry, Fish Police was an adaptation of the cult comic of the same name that focused on hard-bitten noir stories that happened to star sentient, anthropomorphic fish. The main issue with Fish Police was that the original comics featured film noir-style mysteries with a surprisingly dark edge, still playing some of the genre's tropes straight. As a comic, Fish Police was funny in an offbeat, surreal way, but it was also gritty and as dark as any of The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror Halloween specials. In contrast, the television adaptation felt more like one of Hanna Barbera’s standard kid-friendly cartoons from the 1960s, albeit with a few unexpected moments of adult humor to justify its later time slot. Fish Police lasted only six episodes and never found its ideal tonal balance in that time. The series was canceled in 1992, and its final three episodes never even aired. 5 Capitol Critters To be fair to Capitol Critters, The Simpsons did feature a lot of political satire in its early years. However, the series was ultimately the story of a small-town family and their bizarre antics, meaning viewers could understand the characters and enjoy the jokes even if they had no understanding of US politics. This proved a problem for Capitol Critters, a show about talking animals that lived in Washington DC. The series predictably used this setup to make fun of very specific political figures and scandals, meaning its gags were almost immediately dated. Curiously, its writing was also relatively toothless when it came to mocking US politics. Although Capitol Critters featured an early role for future sitcom superstar Neil Patrick Harris, this did not stop the series from ending up in the same one-season trash heap as Fish Police and Family Dog. The show might have had an original premise, but this alone couldn’t garner the series any mainstream appeal. 4 Family Guy In an early Treehouse of Horror special, The Simpsons paid tribute to its earlier, fallen knock-offs with cartoon gravestones for Fish Police, Family Dog, and Capitol Critters. However, not all the show’s rip-offs were so short-lived. Family Guy began airing in 1999 and, despite a brief cancellation in the early 2000s, is now on its 24th season. While Family Guy season 24 might look nothing like The Simpsons, the show did start out with The Simpsons as an obvious influence. There was the dim-witted but well-meaning father with a fondness for drinking, his long-suffering wife, the family’s older son and younger daughter, and their baby and dog. Admittedly, Family Guy always had an original spin on this basic setup, with an evil genius baby and a family dog who was a sardonic sidekick for its father figure. However, considering how much flak Fish Police, Family Dog, and Capitol Critters received for imitating The Simpsons, it is worth noting that all of them departed from the original show’s formula much more than its longest-lasting competitor. 3 The Goode Family Released in 2009, The Goode Family was created by King of the Hill’s Mike Judge. Although the recent revivals of King of the Hill and Beavis and Butt-head prove that some of Judge’s cartoon comedy creations are timeless, The Goode Family never enjoyed the same success. The show’s parody of liberal politics never pushed past surface-level observations that would have struggled to hold up an average Saturday Night Live sketch, let alone an entire sitcom. However, its biggest issue was the fact that The Goode Family shamelessly ripped off the formula of The Simpsons, albeit with an added reactionary edge. 2 Game Over An expensive misfire, UPN’s Game Over was an adult animated sitcom that followed the Smashenburn family. Voiced by Family Guy’s Patrick Warburton, Lucy Liu, and comedy legends Rachel Dratch and Elizabeth Daily, the family’s ostensible originality came from the fact that they were all characters in a video game universe. In theory, this meant Game Over could use the sitcom format to affectionately parody the familiar tropes of various video game genres. In reality, this simply meant that the show felt like an overly long sequence from one of The Simpsons’ annual Treehouse of Horror Halloween specials. 1 Bordertown Lasting only one season from January to May 2016, Bordertown might have been one of the most misjudged shows in the history of network TV. The series followed Bud Buckwald, a border patrol agent who lived on the US-Mexico border, his family, and his friendly immigrant neighbor, Ernesto Gonzalez.
