Child's play

Speaking of '80s television (see previous post), my editor and I were arguing about whether "The Simpsons" counts as a children's show.

She argues that the show's humor and topics are clearly aimed at adults. I counter that although it airs in primetime (as"The Flintstones" did originally), the overwhelming number of "Simpsons" fans are kids and it was among kids that the show had the biggest influence (witness the number of 12-year-olds wearing "Don't have a cow, man" t-shirts back around 1990).

I am unswayed by the fact that much of the show's humor is too sophisticated for children -- much of the humor in Pixar's "The Incredibles" was too sophisticated for anyone who hadn't studied Nietsche, but it didn't keep the crowds away.

Anyway, weigh in with your opinion and I promise not to dismiss it out of hand*.

*Dismissing opinions out of hand doesn't allow me the pleasure of crushing their flimsy logic in the iron grip of my logic. And so forth.
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One other semi-humorous '80s aside: While I was writing Thursday's column, I needed to look up when Dana Carvey first did his "Nah ganna do it. Wouldn't be prudent" riff on the first President Bush. The only reference I could find to the actual date was in David Halberstam's book "War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton, and the Generals." I find that seriously weird.