In the past, back when the Simpsons were gold, 99% of their material was making fun of their own characters, whereas in Family Guy,
everything is fair game,
especially the most sensitive of subjects like.
The Simpsons, for example, took plenty of pokes at Christianity, but for the longest time, it was only at the Christians themselves, namely Ned Flanders and Reverend Lovejoy. With the exception of a few Halloween specials, God etc. had only previously made
one appearance in the Simpsons and
one episode of Futurama, and in both incarnations, they were depicted as being wise and understanding even in the presence of Homer's and/or Bender's irreverent stupidity. Family Guy, on the other hand, had an appearance by Jesus in the very first episode.
Then suddenly, after nineteen seasons, the Simpsons saw a large influx in the number of random Jesus jokes.
Also, in the past, the Simpsons never really had a buildup to the large gags. They were a classic sitcom in that there was a small chuckle once every five to ten seconds which would build up to a big gag instead of one great big build-up, and the great majority of their humor was verbal. Family Guy, on the other hand, has a much more nihilistic approach which could only accurately be described as a brilliant combination of irreverence and random stupidity (they cut away to a short skit every time someone says "that's like. . ."). Family Guy gets half of its humor from its short skits and its montages.
Then suddenly, after nineteen seasons, the Simpsons started including short skits and montages.
I don't know if Matt Groening is trying to convince people that Family Guy is ripping off the Simpsons by making the Simpsons more like Family Guy, or if he's just making the Simpsons more awful and more blatantly ripped off to see if someone finally will call him on it. Either way, he's taking one of the greatest programs of all time and driving it headfirst into the ground. Had Groening quit a year or two ago, the Simpsons could have been my #1, but since then he's absolutely ruined it.
Back to the full list. . . Well, some 70-odd of them I wouldn't have put on the list, but at the same time, I can only think of seven that
definitely should have been on the list but were not. They are:
Cowboy Bebop
G.I. Joe
Gargoyles
Ghost in the Shell
SNL's TV Funhouse
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
And, well, as big a fan as I am of Oliver & Company, Bucky O'Hare and the Samurai Pizza Cats, I wouldn't expect too many people to agree with me on them being in the Top 100. Still, they should have crossed over those cartoons before they got to Charley Says, Roobarb and/or Legend of the Overfiend.
What the crap. . .