Watching the Simpsons I've noticed that there is a definate generational cycle depicted on the show.

Lost Generation-Montgomery Burns
GI Generation-Abe Simpson and the other old guys at the retirement home.
Boomer Generation-Homer, Marge Simpson, Ned Flanders and most other adults in the series.
Millenial Generation-Lisa (not sure about Bart, Strauss and Howe identifies him in their Book as representative of Gen Xers).

Originally Posted by General Mung Beans

Watching the Simpsons I've noticed that there is a definate generational cycle depicted on the show.

Lost Generation-Montgomery Burns
GI Generation-Abe Simpson and the other old guys at the retirement home.
Boomer Generation-Homer, Marge Simpson, Ned Flanders and most other adults in the series.
Millenial Generation-Lisa (not sure about Bart, Strauss and Howe identifies him in their Book as representative of Gen Xers).

Back in the 1990s when I watched the Simpsons, I think this was true. However, I am wondering if it is the same today being that the typical parents for young kids today are Xers who have Millennial/Homelander children and Silent/Aquarian parents. Has anyone noticed any changes in the generational behavior over the years? If not, then the generational dynamics have likely remained the same.

Originally Posted by Wes84

Back in the 1990s when I watched the Simpsons, I think this was true. However, I am wondering if it is the same today being that the typical parents for young kids today are Xers who have Millennial/Homelander children and Silent/Aquarian parents. Has anyone noticed any changes in the generational behavior over the years? If not, then generational dynamics likely have remained the same.

No changes really, except Lisa got more into technology. However for the most part she's still predominately an early Gen Y cusper stereotype.

It's like with Peanuts, they'll always be Aquarian kids. Zits will always have a Nintendo-wave Xer teenager with Aquarian parents.

For Family Guy I'd say this:

Joneser parents, with two Millennial teens & one Homelander.

~Chas'88

Originally Posted by Chas'88

No changes really, except Lisa got more into technology. However for the most part she's still predominately an early Gen Y cusper stereotype.

It's like with Peanuts, they'll always be Aquarian kids. Zits will always have a Nintendo-wave Xer teenager with Aquarian parents.

For Family Guy I'd say this:

Joneser parents, with two Millennial teens & one Homelander.

~Chas'88

Thanks Chas'88, I was thinking the same thing. I just was not sure since I have not watched it much since 1997.

Pretty much every family sitcom and animated comedy from the late 80's to late 90's involved some kind of prophet parents and a mix of nomad/civic kids. The older kids lean to the nomad side and are seen as troublemaker, the younger kids leans to the civic side and are seen as smart & motivated or nerdy and awkward - well, some combination of that.

Late 80's/90's

• Eddie vs Urkel
• Kelly vs Bud (but he's like '73-75 trailing edge at best, doesn't act academic until late in the show)
• Bart vs Lisa
• Louanne (Buckley) vs Bobby (Connie)
• Todd vs Beavis & Butthead
• Becky -> Darlene -> DJ (aimless, partying nomad -> semi-political comic artist -> awkward movie enthusiast whose somewhat-racist prophet parents attempt to cleanse of prejudice)
• Hillary & Will vs Carlton & Ashley (Prophet Uncle Phil's transition from free-loving hippy to corporate lawyer is a recurring theme as well)
• In Home Improvement, I'm pretty sure Brad was the one to cause 90% of the trouble and Wilson acts like a wisened artist/civic mentor.
• And of course, despite 'officially' being a '73 character, Doogie Howser is probably the first millie-inspired lead role

2000:

• Malcolm in the Middle does away with prophet-parents as Hal & Lois are more early-nomad in demeanor. Hal is a cusper who can navigate between slacking in the corporate world and binging at the nomad's keggers, but Lois is firmly stuck working McJobs and is absolutely unable to fit in with the other suburban-prophet mothers. Francis & Reese are also nomad enough to set up a constant power-struggle for alpha-nomad, while Malcolm is the "perfect Millie" (who is implied to go on to a distinguished academic & political career)

Dynamic:

• The main character (kids) in South Park are autobiographical sketches of the nomad writers & their prophet parents. When the show first came out, the other kids in school were also nomadic and the prophet parents were young, but in the last few seasons the prophet parents have gotten older and the other kids are acting more like civics (vampire kids vs goths, high school musical). Oddly enough, the autobiographical main characters remain sort of nomad despite everyone else transitioning around them [Cartman as Glenn Beck vs. Civic Wendy = instant classic].

And I officially watch too much syndicated, cheesy comedy. Then over-analyze it.

Principal Seymour Skinner: a stereotypical middle-aged Silent administrator/teacher from the cold-war era. I'm old enough to remember when his type was very common, back in the day when very few principals or superintendents were women. For that matter, Superintendent Chalmers fits the same type.


Moe Syzlak, aka Moe the Bartender: a plausible Silent who grew up in an old-style urban ethnic neighborhood.


Montgomery Burns: definitely some kind of Lost/Interbellum cusper, and an obvious anomaly for the show's time period. The idea that a nuclear power facility--the height of postwar Civic modernity--would or could have been run by this kind of mean-spirited, autocratic old man is laughable (in the good sense).


Abraham "Grampa" Simpson: unquestionably a core GI, although the show plays fast and loose with his real age via his senility (like when he claims that he was spanked by Grover Cleveland "on two non-consecutive occasions").


Homer Simpson and Ned Flanders: two core Boomers who represent opposite extremes of the middle-class suburbanites who were raising families the 1980s. Homer was a high-school fuckup who smoked, drank beer, drove a muscle car, and worked fast-food jobs during his should-have-been college years--and is now working a menial (but apparently well-paying) industrial job. Flanders is simply Mr. Perfect, and more than a bit of a yuppie (at least in the first few seasons, before they turned him into a fundamentalist Christian caricature).


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Well "Blondie" has just perfectly preserved the Silent Generation POV--Blondie & Dagwood are quintessential Silents, which I'm sure the Grey Badger would agree. In fact I think she mentioned it once. Their kids also have kept the "golly gee whiz" reactions of Boomer kids despite the passage of time.

As to the Atari teens vs Nintendo children, that's played out in nearly every Gen X popular teen movie from the '80s that I've seen. It's even in the nostalgia movies set in the time period (like Donnie Darko), as well as the children's books from that time period: Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. Fudge is definitely a quintessential late-wave Xer tormenting his older Xer brother.

The pattern kinda sticks when it shifts to Nintendo teens & Gen Y/early Millie kids; only the Gen Y kids learn that terrorizing alone doesn't work & turn to using the "MOM!!!" card to get older Xer siblings to bend to their will/make their life harder. A perfect example would be the movie Hocus Pocus, set in 1993.

~Chas'88

I've noticed this too. I mentioned on another thread that the differences between Lisa and Bart are perfect examples of how late wave Xers and early wave Millies differ.
Another thing I've wondered about is what generation Bongo from Life in Hell belongs to. It doesn't help that he doesn't have a definite age. He'd probably be a cusper too.

Bart's definitely an Xer, Nintendo wave.