When and why do you think The Simpsons started to decline?
djfunnyman
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What are your thoughts on this subject matter? I think The Simpsons started to decline around about season 13, with episodes becoming completely unwatchable around season 20. The decline has probably happened due to the writers running out of stories and coming up with very far fetched stories instead
Also, do people have a favourite episode and season of The Simpsons? Season 5 is probably my favourite season, so many classic episodes
Also, do people have a favourite episode and season of The Simpsons? Season 5 is probably my favourite season, so many classic episodes
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By not allowing the characters to age I feel they may have hamstrung themselves a bit.
They were able to spin stories out of supporting characters like Apu and Mrs. Krabappel.
As for running out of ideas, IIRC when the show really hit its stride (second season), they were producing more than the standard 22 episodes.
(25 or so, plus Tree House of Horror)
So they may have burned themselves out a bit, too.
Favorite episode: the one where Homer is accused of sexually harassing the babysitter (the Gummi De Milo ep.)
I'm not sure I agree with this - in fact, one of the ridiculous things about this terrible show (or I should say, the terrible show this has become) is that Bart and Lisa are essentially teenagers in children's bodies. The writers are quite happy to have Bart involved in teen pregnancy storylines (yes, this happened) despite the fact he's allegedly ten. Lisa is a bitter college student (yes, this happened) trapped in an eight year old's body. They have aged the characters without actually ageing the characters.
Seasons 10 and 11 aren't great but season 12 is very good. The moment where The Party Posse meet N'Sync is an all time classic
They've resorted to the "flash forward" showing the older versions of the characters,
the first of which was GREAT, (that Hugh Grant-ish ep. where Lisa is to be married.)
Yvan Eht Nioj
Matt Groening and Fox seem to want to keep it going forever though so presumably it's still pretty successful?
It was then I thought - wow this is crap!
There were good and great episodes since those but that double whammy was the start of the decline for me.
The Armin Tanzarian ep is controversial ... but I actually love the fact they couldn't be bothered resolving it - so they tied the guy to a train while a band played and then pretended it never happened.
Thats a cartoon thing on a different level; chatacter loses job - has it back in next episode ; scratchy gets blown up - is alive in next scene and so on.
Agree with poster above about Bart & Lisa being teenagers in children's bodies. The one where Lisa climbs the tree would make more sense if she was 12 or 13!
Ditto the gymnastics one.
Bart has lost all focus as a character.
Also they are now rewriting "history" left right and centre. Its a pain. That 90s show is a particular low.
And the future episodes? Ugh just ugh.
Lisas wedding was a good one and they've pissed on it ever since.
Anyway, I'll still watch ...
A good few of the clips didn't even work well with the set ups. It was like they only had access to some episodes and had to make do with them
I remember the weekend they were on as well, as I taped them and had them on video for many years.
My favourite season is too hard to choose, it's probably a tie between 2,3,4 and 5. Too many great episodes make it impossible to choose a favourite.
One of my favourite episodes is Homer the Heretic, Homer is brilliant in this episode.
I agree.
Before this abomination I was aware there were patchy episodes, but there would be a funny moment and I always thought even a soso episode was much better than most stuff on TV at the time.
Now all the episodes seem to be Homer in a new job.
I'm no longer fanatical about catching every episode but sometimes the new episodes have really good moments.
I still like The Simpsons and prefer it to the likes of Family Guy which I lost interest in a lot earlier when they began to rehash the same gags over and over again and became a lot more crude.
... Even Justin Timberlake is embarrassed by that episode but it was a chance to be on The Simpsons so they took it.
I find that episode with the boyband and trying to bomb Mad magazine absolutely dire.
The ending was a bit silly but other than that the Party Posse episode was great and wccurately showed the boy band culture which was popular at the time
The ending was a bit silly but other than that the Party Posse episode was great and accurately showed the boy band culture which was popular at the time
The show became something of a joke when it completely rewrote its past and its history. Every episode about the family's history tells a different story, as do the future episodes.
Particular lowpoints for me include the episode where Homer gets raped by a panda, the Principal Skinner weird episode, the episode where Fat Tony dies and gets replaced by Fit Tony and the episode all about the rag from Moe's pub. I couldn't believe what I was watching.
And there's a whole episode dedicated to the new Lego available to buy?! It's a shame that the show sold out. 10 seasons would have made it's legacy brilliant.
The episode that shocked me due to how little I enjoyed it was the one where Bart gets chased by a vicious dog and meets this drunken cowboy who used to be an actor. A quick look on google says that the episode was 'The Lastest Gun in the West' from season 13. I remember thinking 'God this is awful', since then I've barely watched more than 10 episodes.
When I read that their motivation for carrying on was to beat the record of the most seasons of a TV sitcom (or something) I knew that they had their priorities totally arse-backwards. All about quantity and not quality.
I think perhaps they should have stopped doing the show 10 years ago, get together all their good stuff and only made Simpsons movies. That's if they had enough good stuff to make more movies?
The actual Simpsons movie was better than I was expecting and people lapped it up because it's The Simpsons, though it's certainly not as great as a Simpsons movie would have been when the show was in its prime.