{"id":733,"date":"2016-10-10T13:44:47","date_gmt":"2016-10-10T20:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/?p=733"},"modified":"2016-10-10T13:45:45","modified_gmt":"2016-10-10T20:45:45","slug":"george-meyer-simpsons-script-finding-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/2016\/10\/10\/george-meyer-simpsons-script-finding-aid\/","title":{"rendered":"George Meyer Simpsons Script-Finding Aid"},"content":{"rendered":"

For this week I chose to explore a Finding Aid related the George Meyer’s script files in reference to Seasons 2-6 (1990-2004) of long-running television comedy,\u00a0The Simpsons<\/em>. The physical collection of scripts is . stored off-site at the Southern Regional Library Facility (SRLF) at UCLA. The physical collection contains script files, story notes, outlines, and\/or various script drafts written or co-authored by Meyer. In addition the collection also contains a photocopied version of The Simpsons\u00a0<\/em>character design guidelines.<\/p>\n

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George Meyer’s Background<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

George Meyer’s writing background starts during his sophomore year at Harvard where he joined the writing staff of\u00a0The Lampoon<\/em> and established many important long-term relationships. In 1981 he transitioned to writing for the\u00a0David Letterman Show<\/em>\u00a0and eventually ended up writing for\u00a0Saturday Night Live<\/em> as well. Meyer ended up writing for\u00a0The Simpsons<\/em> in late 1981, a few months before the show premiered, and eventually went on to become an executive producer for the show. This short biography which was presented in the finding aid helps paint a picture of how Meyer’s early writing experiences might have helped contribute to his writing style for\u00a0The Simpsons<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Finding Aid Organization<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The finding aid is organized alphabetically, an inconvenience since a chronological order would better allow someone to analyze how the writing style might’ve changed\/incorporated current events of those times.<\/p>\n

It starts out by listing a Censor Notes file based on 1989-1996. This is relevant to showing what factors Meyer’s was unable to incorporate\/work around during those times, but because it is only limited to a time-frame of 7 years it isn’t helpful for any scripts past 1996. To form a good narrative analysis one would have to examine two categories of Meyer’s scripts, those within the Censor Notes time period and those after it in order to understand if there was writing style change.<\/p>\n

Next the finding guide lists a character design guide and episode guide for seasons 1-9 within box 77. An analyst can use this to draw conclusions regarding how character designs might’ve shifted throughout various season changes as well as to the thought processes and insights used in creating various characters, settings, and season narratives.<\/p>\n

The rest of the collection, which features the main bulk of files, contains script files featuring various drafts and outlines for the Season 2-6 episodes. The finding guide only mentions a brief annotation and writer note for each of these.<\/p>\n

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Improvement Recommendations<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

If I were to personally recommend some improvements to the finding guide I would recommend first and foremost to organize it chronologically. My reasoning for this is because this kind of format makes it easier to see what kind of writing style shifts might’ve occurred based on any current events for those time periods. Another suggestion I would make would be to feature maybe a brief episode synopsis note in the annotation section. This additional context can help shape a contextual frame for what each episode pertained to. In addition this ties back to the chronological order where a viewer can then piece together possible season arching narratives.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For this week I chose to explore a Finding Aid related the George Meyer’s script files in reference to Seasons 2-6 (1990-2004) of long-running television comedy,\u00a0The Simpsons. The physical collection … Continue reading “George Meyer Simpsons Script-Finding Aid”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}