The Ashlee Simpson Show
| The Ashlee Simpson Show | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Starring | Ashlee Simpson |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 18 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 25 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | MTV |
| Original release | June 16, 2004 – March 30, 2005 |
| Website | |
The Ashlee Simpson Show is a television reality show about the life of Ashlee Simpson. The first season, taped from 2003 to mid-2004, focused on the beginnings of her career as a singer and the recording of her debut album, Autobiography. A second season, taped from late 2004 to early 2005, focused on her career after the album's release.
Consisting of eight half-hour episodes, the first season ran on MTV in the U.S. in the summer of 2004. The show proved quite successful and helped to establish widespread recognition for Simpson, whose album was released on July 20, 2004, a month after the show began airing, and debuted at number one in sales. Jordan Schur, the president of Simpson's record label, Geffen, said that "There's no question that it really helped expose her and her music. She's got a tremendous personality; people gravitate toward that. They want to watch her and listen to her music." The second and final season, consisting of ten episodes, aired in early 2005.
The show consists of pseudo-reality footage interspersed with clips of Simpson talking to the camera about herself and about the various events in the show. It begins with Simpson signing her record deal with Geffen; the first season ends with the U.S. release of her album, and the second season ends with the launch of her first tour. Simpson's song "Autobiography", the title track from her album, plays during the show's opening, which is composed of clips of Simpson from the show mixed with brightly colored backgrounds and handwritten lyrics, words and scribblings. The first season's opening includes only clips of Simpson with blonde hair, while the second season's opening starts with blonde clips and eventually progresses to clips of Simpson with dark hair, reflecting Simpson's change of hair color halfway through the first season.
Much of the show deals with the process of writing and recording songs. Episode one shows some of the early stages of songwriting, and in episode two Simpson records some demos which are not received favorably by Schur. He wants Simpson to work with other people, and she is seen meeting with several in episode three: John Feldmann of the band Goldfinger, Guy Chambers, and the producing team The Matrix. Later in the same episode, Simpson first works with John Shanks, who became the producer of Autobiography, and who had previously worked with Alanis Morissette, Sheryl Crow, and Michelle Branch. Simpson and Shanks work together on a song called "Surrender", which Simpson says they wrote in about two hours and calls a "great song"; later, however, Simpson becomes upset because she thinks Schur wants the song to have more of a "pop" sound. She is told by Thom Panunzio that Schur thinks she should sound "prettier", although at the same time Panunzio tells her that it's "probably good" that Schur compared what he heard to the music of the band Garbage. Throughout the show, Simpson expresses her preference for rock music and that she wants her album to reflect that; she says she does not want her album to sound like the pop music of Hilary Duff or her sister Jessica. At one point, when she is very upset after talking with Panunzio, she says that she would rather not have a record than do that kind of music. However, Simpson and her father Joe Simpson (who is also her manager) subsequently discuss the matter with Schur, and things are worked out.
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