What show is the successor to 'The Simpsons'?

A few years ago, I read an interview where the creators of 30 Rock said they wanted to make a live action show that’s as dense as The Simpsons. From what I’ve seen, 30 Rock is dense with allusions but is not on the level of The Simpsons. Another show has taken up that show’s brilliant legacy.

The real successor to The Simpsons is Parks and Recreation. I am a broken record about my fandom for the show and I must sound sometimes like I am a paid plant by NBC to talk up their show. But I just … I love Parks and Rec. I thought the third season was one of the best sustained seasons I’ve ever seen on TV. Episode after episode, the creative force behind the show knocked it out of the park. That season was, for me, close in quality to the glory years seasons of The Simpsons from about 1992 to 1996. (The Simpsons does still have an edge in my mind because it’s as brilliant a thing as you’ll ever see on TV but Parks and Rec is definitely up there.)

In contrast, I find 30 Rock to be closer to Family Guy, a show I do not care for. There are just too many cutaways and pop culture references in each show and a little of that stuff goes a long way for me. I think 30 Rock is horrifically overrated anyway. It can be clever but it seems mostly like, “Let’s see what wacky antics they’re up to this week!” Then the characters do the same damn thing over and over and I have no emotional investment in them. The show seems like all snark and no heart, like Family Guy and snark can be fun but it's not sustainable forever. I just never saw the appeal and a large part of that was that I was sick of having Tina Fey shoved down my throat. She’s OK. “Oh, but you both grew up in the same county! YOU HAVE TO CARE!” I’m all for Philadelphia area pride but knowing someone is from here doesn’t make me like her more. By the same token, I’m not bowled over when I hear Patti LaBelle bray the national anthem at some Philly event. It’s not much of a “get” for the organizers when she lives down the street.

But anyway. More than in terms of quality, Parks and Rec has carried on the flavor and comedic technique of The Simpsons. The writers have built an entire world with its own mythology. Pawnee has all kinds of local businesses, government figures, town characters, pioneer history and unpalatable secrets, just like Springfield. The show even has Eagleville, a parallel to the rival town of Shelbyville.

When it’s at its very best, the humor on The Simpsons derives from the characters, and that’s also true of Parks and Rec. As we get laughs out of the relationship between Homer and Marge, we are amused at the relationship between Leslie Knope and Ron Swanson. Neither show is just a bunch of jokes strung together; they’re both grounded in something real. Somebody wrote that Parks and Recreation has characters who are “weirdoes who care” and that seem also true of The Simpsons.

There are also some touching moments along with comedy on both shows. I still mist up a little at little moments on The Simpsons: When Marge and Homer lose custody and Bart and Lisa make a fake newspaper headline saying “Simpsons kids miss mom and dad” and when Homer hangs up pictures of Maggie at the nuclear power plant with a sign saying “Do it for her.” On Parks and Rec, I’ve been moved by some of the courtship between Leslie and Ben, like when she realized he was perfect for her when he liked the same wildflower mural she did.

Each show also has moments that are not just funny but stupid-funny; things that are totally absurd but make me howl. The Simpsons has “It’s the Curies! We must flee!” and Krusty the Clown singing “Send in the Clowns.” Parks and Rec had a scene during Leslie’s political rally when the entire staff was walking across a skating rink and kept falling repeatedly as the campaign song, Gloria Estefan’s “Get on Your Feet” kept stopping and starting. The scene was just so ridiculous and kept going and going and getting funnier and funnier, and I thought, “This is like when Sideshow Bob kept stepping on rakes.”

Although Community is coming back next month and that makes me happy, it's reportedly replacing Parks and Rec temporarily. Thanks, NBC. Those are my two favorite shows on your network and they're forced to time-share some sort of condo.

Wow. I think way too much about TV.