It's been a long time since I made a post this long. But trust me, I really got a lot to talk about. Also take as many breaks as needed.
Hello everyone I'm XboxClown89, as a huge Simpsons fan I went a notably long time knowing so much about the show. I recently found out two particular channel in the 90s attempted to cash in on The Simpsons' success. I will be talking about three failed animated sitcoms. I may bring up some stuff not a lot of people knows that's strangely interesting.
https://screenrant.com/simpsons-rip-offs-family-dog-capitol-critters-fish-police-explained/1. Capitol Critters
The first cartoon show to take a stab at The Simpsons is Capitol Critters just a month before Fish Police. Although I will confirm both shows ended after each other literately on March 13th and 14th in 1992. Also before I even start talking about either show. I would've give a shout out to Cathal Gunning on screenrant.com for writing that article that inspired this blog entry.
The premise is a mouse named Max was forced to leave his home. He move in with some relatives while dealing with cats from both the President & Vice President. One weird fact is former president George H. W. Bush got into a feud with Homer Simpson on The Simpsons. Also why would you bring up racial segregation & mortality in a cartoon during the 90s?
It took a long time for more animated shows to display both of those. Here it just felt unwanted quickly turning people off. Capitol Critters did last long enough to get some Burger King toys. The fact it got canceled in less than two months yet still get BK toys is rather impressive. I also another reason was Muggle, he plays off people who been through experiments or a lot of treatments in life.
Which quickly could be shown as the show making front of those people. Honestly never joke about any mental illness, seriously it's not funny. Damn Capitol Critters already has those problems going for it. No wonder why The Simpsons simply rolled over them. This is an example it was too early for some concepts, also some of what they done very likely can be taken quickly out of context.
There's another weird fact not a lot of people doesn't even realize. One of the companies helped in getting the show out so happens to be you guess it 20th Century Fox themselves. WOW who saw that coming because I didn't. Honestly, there's some questions but not enough answers scenario. Then again do I wanna remember this is an entirely different topic altogether.
2. Fish Police
The second cartoon show to attempt cashing in on The Simpsons is Fish Police. Before I go any further the 90s sure had some crazy shows that simply wouldn't happen today. Which is also why when people looked in that era, they often question what were these companies on? This is virtually that in a nut shell or should I say in a fish tank?
Fish Police is virtually about a fish named Inspector Gil played by the late John Ritter. Ritter also played another character named Bill. The sad thing is this show only lasted for six episodes. Like Conker's Bad Fur Day stood out for the game company Rare. This show stood out among many Hanna-Barbera Productions.
Yes even one of the big animation companies of all time tried cashing in on The Simpsons. This also marked CBS' first shot at them as well. I think they focus too much making it an adult show without how to make it entertaining like The Simpsons. Even The Ren & Stimpy Show had a better balance on that despite how crazy it gets at times.
I should mention this show also based on comic series of the same name. Which also predates by two years before The Simpsons shorts aired on TV. It lasted from 1985 to 1991, it suffered the same fate as Sam and Max cartoon show just several years before. I should mention, there's three unaired episodes as well.
3. Family Dog
The last show had more mid 1993 called Family Dog. There's a few weird things to discuss here. The actual concept of Family Dog was in one short that predates The Simpsons shorts. The same shorts originally aired on The Tracy Ullman show that led to getting it's own show. This is a rare case, The Simpsons shorts came second but show wise The Simpsons did it!
Back to Family Dog, it occurred during season 2 of Amazing Stories show. Funny enough, Danny Elfman the same guy who created The Simpsons theme song also wrote music for this too. This show could actually be seen as a clone of The Simpsons. Oh wait, it gets even crazier both Steven Spielberg and Tim Burton were involved.
The 90s had both directors finest movies in my opinion. Who knew they were involved with this show? It originally was going to have thirteen episodes but got cut down to ten episodes. They also had notable problems during production including a recasting of a character. It didn't help some episodes go two of them aired the same dates.
Season 1 of The Simpsons had some unexpected things that came up. Which is why to this day, it remains as the shortest season of the show. A similar situation happened on the show Supernatural with Season 3 respectively. Another unexpected surprise is only Family Dog gotten an video game. Yeah it wasn't common a short lived cartoon show gotten their own video game.
If anyone wondered about a particular Treehouse of Horror joke from Treehouse of Horror III not IV as the blog I mentioned. Which was strange because that episode aired seven months after both Capitol Critters and Fish Police got canned. Keep in mind, Family Dog show didn't start until the following year. Yes I widely heard about this show predicting the future with so much to support that.
Reviews
Now you probably notice something was off by now. Above this section wasn't any reviews. Oh don't worry I'm reviewing all three of them together. Of course, I'll directly mention one or two if necessary to help prevent confusion. Also because all of them were created for the same purpose, they should be judge together.
Capitol Critters was a weird case because seven episodes got aired on ABC. But in 1996 on Cartoon Network reaired those episodes plus six additional episodes. Shows like Family Guy got canceled but got brought back twice. But a better comparison would be King of the Hill because it got canceled on Fox.
It later got allowed to aired a few episodes that originally supposed to air on that channel among Adult Swim. This is because Adult Swim had more people watching the show than it was on Fox. King of the Hill is Mike Judge's longest animated show. Although more people talk about Beavis and Butt-Head, another famous 90s cartoon show that gotten a few brought backs to TV over the years.
I should mention Beavis and Butt-Head had a movie as well as several video games. Beavis and Butt-Head had a short on a show called Liquid Television that led to getting their own show. Which later got a spin off show called Daria with Mike Judge not being involved other than granting permission for the character Daria. Which in itself was considered a success back in the day.
Back to Capitol Critters, wow they went out of their way showing a mice family being killed. Stuff like that is more common in those shows today. But why would you start a show off with something so bad? If they had to do it, they could've made it a very brief thing. Capitol Critters could been seen as offensive to people as well.
The last six episodes aired before season 8 of The Simpsons did. Mostly mice & roaches are the creatures you are going to see. Although, we do see human politicians from time to time, one of them got voiced by Tim Curry. Mr. Curry has a rather odd animate show role history. Also the show mostly takes place inside the walls of the White House.
Eventually animated sitcoms like American Dad or Inside Job. More recently politics is heavily referenced in a lot of animated sitcoms. Personally I rather watch either show over this. Who can compete with Roger the Alien? Back to Capitol Critters, it's the only show in that strategy to not be based on anything prior.
This show to me felt the most off in what it's trying to be. Clearly they wanted to make it an adult sitcom yet it has notable traits of a cartoon made for the younger crowd. I felt Capitol Critters had this issue the most. I will give em credit to making a show within the wall of the White House was not something people expected to see.
I will say the animation is notably better quality than Family Dog. One interesting thing is Jammet is voiced by Charlie Adler whose in a lot of cartoon shows. Which includes SWATKats, Captain Planet, Sonic SatAM and several others. Capitol Critters is true to it's name, more so than Family Dog. Don't worry I may be throw the last show under the bus a few more times.
Another interesting fact is if you put all the episodes of these three shows together. You will have twenty nine episodes combined. Now the first episode of Season 34 of The Simpsons would be episode 729. Which means The Simpsons will have exactly 700 more episodes than all shows together. Capitol Critters does show how a lot of critters survive an attempt from exterminators, which was interesting.
Yes you will see rooms within the White House too. I didn't expect to see someone cleaning the President's office while listening to a stereo or what Jammet calls a boom box. This show kinda reminds me of Tom & Jerry shows. There's plenty of differences despite a lot of interactions between the animals.
The main character is Max whose still recovering losing his family. His cousin so happens to be a hippie mouse. We get to see the House of Congress at work too. I felt parts of this show like The Simpsons was simply ahead of the curve what eventually became a stable within adult sitcoms. Although it worked wonders for Night Court.
The original dates was almost two months. Which is a common theme among these shows. I am surprised the comedian Bobcat Goldthwait was also on this show as Muggle. He later was on a particular episode of Tales from the Crypt. One weird thing is that show got an animated younger audience spin off show called Tales from the Cryptkeeper.
There's no question this show features all kind of creatures that talks. Which also applies to our next show. I should point out, parts of this show is away from the White House as well. This is already got things blowing away Family Dog. Briefly mentioning Fish Police for a moment, that show seemed like a master piece compared to Family Dog.
Max's new home is like a mix of his old home but parts of it are like a city with humans. Obviously the mice have to steal food from the White House to survive. Which easily could be taken out of context yes I said it. The show is surprisingly aging better than expected. At least it isn't over doing cat and mice puns.
We don't see one of them cats eating a mice but it happened. There's also a section of not pleasant creatures. It is a little weird the V. P. Cat wears a long tie. This show isn't afraid to show a bath room which wasn't as common in cartoons at the time. Also this show has guts to have a gun stolen from federal agents.
The mice actually considered directly killing the cats. There's no way ABC, Fox and CBS would air it otherwise if that happens. If anything this would've canceled the show in record time at that time. They also failed to realize even if they do kill the cats. There's nothing preventing the staff of the White House getting more cats.
The not pleasant creatures so happens to be you guess it roaches. Which also can be taken out of context for obvious reasons. Capitol Critters does have some interesting characters. From my point of view, this does have stuff that kinda works. They somehow got a small tombstone for their friend who got eaten by one of the cats.
The same tombstone says "Can I come? Huh Huh Huh." I get the joke but some people could blow this out to something it's not. Eventually a spin off of The Animaniacs called Pinky and the Brain aired on TV years later. Which is kinda interesting because Muggle, Pinky and Brain were all lab mice. They sure made riding cans looked fun.
They did made a mistake to play off of racism. Which is never okay to begin with. Now I know stuff like X-Men: The Animated Series was around this time. Where normal humans dislike and afraid of those called mutants. The big two differences is X-Men always centered around that concept. Also we do get to see all sides of it.
Which includes groups of good & bad mutants. Of course, some politics gets thrown in as well. Other than that X-Men is incredibly different from Capitol Critters. Personally I rather watch X-Men, it's such a great show. A quick mention X-Men '97 is a revival of that classic cartoon coming soon. Back to Capitol Critters, it's disgusting how roaches eats on the show.
It's mind blowing they even allowed talks about that on television back in the day. This too eventually became stables in adult sitcoms especially among Netflix shows like Big Mouth. Now there's a great animated sitcom everyone needs to watch. Capitol Critters could easily be seen as a gem among early 90s animated shows.
What's weird is roaches have their own vehicles. Mice & rats had to do things the hard way on foot for the most part. They don't make it clear what necessary is their neighbor hoods. I do like the artwork of this show as well. The voice acting works for the most part. I am more surprised they actually shown parts of a riot.
Another episode had mice from Japan. They came in through someone's luggage who traveled through six countries. This too becomes a stable within adult sitcoms. I do enjoy watching Capitol Critters more than I was expecting. I felt the animal group PETA won't like this show either for a lot of reasons. Capitol Critters does focus on lessons it is teaching people in these episodes.
At an airport, a lot of cats got loose. For once, the cats had the numbers. Not something I was expecting to see. As someone who been around cats for years, they are weird creatures. Even one dog ran away from a group of cats. Honestly, Capitol Critters does play on real issues. I know a little late to be mentioning that.
Parts of the intro of Capitol Critters could be compared to the intro of American Dad. Oh come on you knew this was coming. Also the big cat is still recovering from his injuries. Which wasn't common among these animated shows because either quickly within an episode they seem to be fine. I do like we get to see how the White House sets up for Easter.
I gotta mention this squirrel named Opie. Do I even need to say the obvious here? He comes off as someone whose on drugs. He also been giving Jammet some acorns. It turns out Jammet been giving caffeine pills to him. I will say the stories are better written than expected. Thankfully not weird as Fish Police saying stuff "When it's bad, it's bad and that's good it's good."
One episode we get to see more roaches do things. There was thousands of them that later saved one of the rats like an army. This was one of the more common stuff to expect from 90s cartoons. Honestly, I didn't expect the cast nail their characters this well. Capitol Critters have some unique ways of doing things.
In another episode, a baseball between rats & roaches got so ugly. Some of them got arrested then thrown into roach prison. I didn't even consider this show would do this kind of episode. This happened because Jammet got caught rigged the game for the rats. I should point out, there's a lot more roaches than rats on this show.
Surprisingly the roaches have a court system. Which is something the rats don't have. Honestly, there's a more clear line of things being serious than those being a more light tone. In a few ways I felt this was better than Fish Police. This show does deserve more respect. Not because it was the first show to take a shot at The Simpsons to failed.
They do have something unusual that works enough to get into. This was years before similar concepts got done in shows and movies. Which is more common today than it was in the 90s. Capitol Critters is a thought out show I can respect. I don't have many direct issues other than what was previously stated.
They even do an entire episode over a power outage. Then those with electricity takes advantage of people. Also one of the rats had to go in a cat litter to find something. Personally the color for cat litter looks more like sand. Not to criticize the animators or anything. It's hard to believe the entire show got aired on Cartoon Network years ago.
They even do an romance episode with a rat and an hamster. It makes sense because both are rodents. Other than that, it's hard to believe this was the show's last episode. Honestly, Capitol Critters has some surprising moments. Like the V. P. Cat got convinced to solve the electricity problem was very mind blowing.
Fish Police is a cop show that played too heavily on fish jokes. Also the late Phil Hartman who voiced several Simpsons characters. Also played Inspector C. Bass on the show. Of course, I gotta mention the legendary Tim Curry. They kept up a particular on and off relationship between two characters. What's strangely interesting is several years later in 1999 is another famous cartoon set under the sea.
By now you know which one I'm talking about. SpongeBob SquarePants, which also is still airing episodes today too. It also gotten two spin off shows as well. Back to Fish Police, they kept moving around days during it's original airing. Honestly I rather watch Night Court, now that's a funny court show about the law.
Inspector Gil's badge has a living star fish. Partly related, CBS previously had problems came up with The Flash show. I'm talking about the 1990 show not the more recent 2014 show. Although, the newer show continues in some ways to reference it. Maybe CBS just wasn't cut out for shows like those. Especially true in Family Dog's case.
One weird thing is most humans you never face very much of these faces. Which is the exact opposite on Family Dog's case. It's kinda similar on Cow and Chicken's parents until a particular episode revealed they're missing their upper half. One of the weirdest cartoons in early days of Cartoon Network.
Cow and Chicken also got a spin off show called I Am Weasel. One of my favorite characters was Boneless Chicken, a cousin of Cow and Chicken. I know that show doesn't make much sense but I loved it as a kid. The important thing is somehow that show lasted three seasons while these shows here only gotten one season each.
Fish Police tried to be dangerously close to real life. Just wasn't the right time to attempt such a concept. What is annoying there's a particular character who kept constantly over talking with Detective Gil. Personally this just doesn't work, you can tell they aren't matching their performances well. The stories are alright likely the best among the three shows.
Of course, they had to make a criminal they can't arrest no matter what they done. In this case, we have Biscotti Calamari whose a squid crime boss who owns a club. He also has some servants that's loyal to him. Honestly, crime shows that were animated during the 90s wasn't common. Fish Police could offense some people, a major reason why it lacks necessary views to keep airing on TV.
At least I can say the police are more doing their jobs than those on The Simpsons lol. Chief Wiggum is still one of the funniest cop characters ever. The characters are alright at best but not many of them are terrible. Fish Police tried so hard taking itself seriously. You can tell the writers didn't quite have the proper balance to pull it off.
My favorite character is Mussels Marinara, he's a comic relief villain character. Honestly, I had more fun watching the better portions of Street Sharks show. Which also had a toy line, obviously a rip off of TMNT in a few ways. Still one of the more successful attempts at that. Street Sharks had some hybrid of humans and sea creatures.
Another major reason Fish Police failed was Sharky & George. Sharky & George was a similar concept show that aired from 1990 to 1992. However it was aired in the United Kingdom rather than in the United States. It ran for two seasons for fifty two episodes, a longer cartoon show for a younger audience.
Fish Police to me seems alright, it might be worth a rewatch in the near future. The cast works for the most part. The stories works well enough for the show. The animation is mostly decent with a few times was a bit off. But it did held up better than expected. Honestly, this is the best of those failed attempts despite having some major problems of it's own.
Family Dog aired on Wednesdays, I checked calendars of that year online to make sure. Some dates had two episodes, not a great idea with production problems they had. Even the writers didn't know what they were doing. This is a major issue because how can anyone like those characters? If they had no structure to work around or any form of complexity.
God this family is incredibly selfish. To the point you just become disgusted with them very quickly. Years later we got F is for Family which has some similarities. Trust me, a way better show than this. The first episode the dog is thirsty & not able to drink anything. Clearly PETA the world's largest animal rights organization greatly going to dislike this show.
It's very sad other people shown much more kindness to this dog than the family themselves. Honestly the writers didn't even understand the very concept of the show. Family Dog isn't even a good name for the show. Yes it follows the dog a little too much at times. But with Family in the title, you expect it to be well more of a family show right?
The boy is more of a selfish prick than Bart Simpson but not Cartman from South Park. For an odd reason, the main character they chose to focus on is the dog. There's better 90s cartoon shows with dogs like The Ren & Stimpy Show or CatDog back on Nickelodeon. Even Santa's Little Helper had his moments on The Simpsons.
The concept is similar to The Simpsons. We have a dysfunctional family that has a dog. Although The Simpsons also has a cat named Snowball II. Usually I'm board with Tim Burton's drawing style but it just doesn't work here. Some Burton movies has similar looking dog characters. Although I have to bring up Family Guy here for a few obvious reasons.
Both are animated sitcoms with the word Family that started in the 90s. Both families have a dog character as well. One episode done on both shows had dog shows as well. Also not a lot of people knows Seth MacFarlane made two shorts with a notable time gap. The Life of Larry with a toned down follow up called Larry & Steve.
Which eventually led to the creation of Family Guy. I also can tie this in with South Park, they also had two two pilot episodes. Oddly about Jesus facing Santa Claus and Frosty respectfully. Back to Family Dog, this family really doesn't even care about their lone pet. I felt very bad for the little guy in every episode.
Indirectly I'm feeling something but not for the right reasons. I haven't felt like this since how F is for Family ended, it got canceled after five seasons. Family Dog actually showed a dog pooped out a ring. Before that, we actually see the ring moving through inside the dog. Honestly that's truly disgusting & not funny.
Family Dog does have surprise not a lot of people are expecting. Family Dog had a short aired through Amazing Stories, just one short. In the case of The Simpsons on The Tracy Ullman Show for a few seasons. They aired a total of 48 shorts. The weird part is that one short being usual cartoon episode length while these Simpsons shorts were around a minute long.
If you want disgusting humor that does works, go watch The Ren & Stimpy Show. This dog tried to help finding the ring but his owners blamed it on him instead. WOW, I am going to be brutally honest I really don't like this show. Family Dog more like Dog You Don't Belong Here!!! How the hell did CBS aired this garbage on television?
Can you believe even the SNES game based on the show is guilty of animal cruelty and animal neglect to a degree? Even The Simpsons video games around that time had more respect shown to it's characters. Sure they weren't necessary home runs either. At least, they had more things going for them in the long run.
WOW they almost showed an elephant using the bathroom in a zoo. There's no way of any channel would air moments like that back then. Although in a particular episode of The Ren & Stimpy Show, Stimpy once farted that became his son no lie. The way this family treats the dog reminds me of a particular cartoon short back in the day.
Buy One, Get One Free short from What a Cartoon! show. Which had several pilot episodes of many cartoon shows. Such as Courage the Cowardly Dog, Johnny Bravo, Powerpuff Girls, Dexter's Laboratory and several others. Sorry you will be surprised how common it was making shorts for cartoon shows in the 90s.
Speaking of Courage the Cowardly Dog, it still one of my favorite shows ever. I would even say Courage still one of my favorite cartoon pets ever. Family Dog only left a very unpleasant taste in my mouth from start to finish. Even those eggs eaten on the pilot short of Courage the Cowardly Dog looks better in comparison.
In this particular short, we have a man who hates cats. But he wants to impress this lady whose a cat lover. During the short these two polar opposite cats do things that upsets the man. By the end of it, he gets sent to the hospital following his animal cruelty to his own cat. Keep in mind, I seen this as a kid but more recently got to watch Family Dog.
Also they bring up a divorce, which is something not common among 90s animated shows. Let's be honest, when divorce ever pleasant? Right now the actor Johnny Depp is in court facing his ex wife Amber Heard. The less said on the matter, the better please. Also making the kids a little too young didn't help for a more adult animated sitcoms.
One guy who was a neighbor with a dog got called Saddam at a airport. For those that doesn't know who Saddam Hussein was. He was a terrible person in his country that South Park parodied heavily. Now that's a joke it shouldn't even been allowed at that time to aired on television. I got to mention the ending credits for Family Dog is one of the most boring I ever seen in an 90s cartoon show as well.
I can even argue Frosty Returns which is owned by CBS along many Christmas specials is better than this. Frosty Returns is not great either even with John Goodman. Thankfully Goodman had a promising career in the 90s to greatly make up for that. I had more reason to like Spunky from Rocko's Modern Life.
Which so happens to have it's own bad SNES licensed game. More recently Rocko's Modern Life got a movie on Netflix. By the way, Rocko's Modern Life aired a few months later. It lasted four seasons with fifty two episodes. Another great cartoon show I highly recommend. Back to Family Dog, sadly the only character I like so happens to be the dog.
Family Dog SNES game was developed by Imagineering Inc. The same company responsible for some Simpsons video games, an Rocky and Bullwinkle game on Game Boy. They also made some Ren & Stimpy video games. The same company made Home Improvement on SNES, a famous bad SNES licensed game.
Home Improvement was a live action sitcom. More recently Tim from that show cameo on Last Man Standing where Tim Allen had to play his two famous sitcom characters in one episode. I know I am getting off track here. But considering The Simpsons is a huge name among sitcom shows it couldn't be helped.
I rather watch The Toxic Crusaders cartoon show, which is also a TMNT rip off. Not only that it got three different video games as well. Also it had a few characters I like. But take it from me, if you want the best Toxie has to offer stick with the main movie series. Family Dog is amazingly bad, I rather talk about other things more than even acknowledging it's very existence.
Now that's a rock I wanna live under. It feels more like an unpleasant punishment than a chore to watch it. Even shows that feel more like chores to watch had more things pleasant to talk about. Honestly, this show is flat out ugly to me. Let's be more brutally honest here, this show never had a chance against The Simpsons.
I got to talk about a particular mess up moment they allowed to be aired on TV. The family goes to the beach, at one moment another, bigger dog ate their dog. Not long afterwards, that family with their dog got driven out of there. Keep in mind, there's several similar moments. However here the dog was slowly being forced down it's throat, the kind of imagine to give some people nightmares.
This has to be the worst thing with both Spielberg and Burton's name on it. Not to mention both versions of The Animaniacs shows also had direct involvement with Spielberg. Oh wait there's more, both versions also had related shows with the same job. We are talking about stuff like Pinky & the Brain, Tiny Toon Adventures, The Plucky Duck Show, Freakazoid!, and Pinky, Elmyra & Brain.
I kept bringing it up, of course some of these got video games. Clearly Spielberg had some success away from his movies in the 90s like Jurassic Park series. I should point out the newer version of The Animaniacs is mixed received. But considering that got beyond season 1, it's already better than those show's runs.
I gotta be more brutally honest, the only moment I truly liked from Family Dog was the ending. No not because it's over which helps after how terrible the cartoon turned out to be. No because their former neighbor was a pilot who forgot to check gas for his plane. This led to his dog land safety nearby the main dog, the closest thing he had to an girlfriend.
Honestly, that moment suddenly made it the one moment I would rewatch on that show. But then I quickly remembered how most characters treated that dog horribly. It just isn't enough reason to punish myself through again. Family Dog is more about a family who cleverly doesn't want or even knows how to properly take care of a dog.
Now that's sad with a show named something family in the title. I can tell you there's so little moments that could count as such. I could accept more unpleasant moments from The Angry Beavers. Trust me, that show is also worth watching. Just one episode from The Angry Beavers after watching the entire show of Family Dog, you are already feeling better in the long run.
Of course, we got to ask what went wrong with all these shows. All of them aired on Saturdays rather than Sundays. This was a problem because the 90s had a lot of rememberable animated shows especially on Saturdays. Thus the competition was even tougher than usual for them. Plus the expectations of trying to rival The Simpsons was simply too high.
Not to mention, each show didn't have the proper counter balance between kids and adults. The general way things played out made most people who watched them not care to quickly change the channel. Also Family Dog in particular was too similar to the show. Keep in mind, The Simpsons at the time was in their prime.
Most these shows aired between The Simpsons' Season 3 and 4. It also could be their failure kept all companies included a bad name as well. CBS alone tried cash in on The Simpsons twice. I think another likely reason was each show got rushed out without even checking scripts with the people in charge.
These shows came a few years later. But I could argue all of them are very likely better than another famous rip off show of The Simpsons that came much later. For those wondering what show I'm referring to, The Samsonadzes created in Georgia, no not the state as in the country Georgia. Just based on how little I seen of it, I rather watch all three shows over it.
Currently, The Simpsons surprisingly still on the air. A few years back, Disney bought many franchises including The Simpsons. It still one of the most successful animated shows in the entire world. Clearly the legacy of this show is essentially legendary in it's own right. Late 90s slowly moved toward with animated sitcom shows starting with South Park.
Speaking of South Park, it done a similar strategy to those shows on Comedy Central. Just like Fox with The Simpsons, South Park was major success that's surprisingly still airing on TV as well. Also Acclaim Entertainment made licensed games on both franchises. I believe there's several factors why South Park worked but those shows were essentially doomed to fail.
Starting with South Park to up, similar shows are mostly a success. Netflix recently became an platform with some amazing animated sitcom shows. Clearly it took some time to figure stuff out. The Simpsons has a lot of awards as well as world records. A true testament of being a timeless classic.
I will rank all those shows from worst to best. The worst actually being very difficult to watch even once. The best is more maybe worth a rewatch but no more. Also even worser season of The Simpsons held up better in comparison. I virtually broke down all of them greatly saving us time for this ranking. One more thing, these shows shouldn't been a part of a crazy business strategy to take on The Simpsons.
3. Family Dog
2. Fish Police
1. Capitol Critters
