The Simpsons

[Lowerdeck]

I wasn't a big fan of the first couple of seasons, nor have I been of anything after season 9. And really, the only things I can think of good in 9 were "Homer vs. The City of New York" and a few other good ones. But 1-2/post-8 have not been the same as the glory days 3-8.

I got seasons 3 thru 7 on DVD, will get 8, and probably will stop after 9. For any of you out there looking to get previous seasons ... Target has seasons 1-6 on sale right now for $20. That's why I got #3, mysteriously w/out the episode booklet.

My favorites of all time might have to be Treehouse V and VIII, Cape Fear, Homer vs. New York, Homer at The Bat. Damn, I could keep going for a while.

Edited August 17, 2006 by Lowerdeck

[Rashid]

I only own season 1 on DVD, and its great. I may buy season 2 in the future. I personally love the first 11 seasons, and I feel it goes downhill around season 12. My favorite episode from season 10-17 is "Behind the Laughter", the season 11 finale. I cant pick a favorite all time episode. But one of them is the Stonecutters episode.

[Plankton]

Characters who once served as brilliant examples of satire have been destroyed for the sake of cheap jokes . Take Skinner, who was the archetypal disciplinarian (with even his name being a reference to that). The Armand Tamzarian episode (which wasn't that funny any way you slice it) rewrote his past, and then retconned it at the end- all to provide a mediocre 22 minutes. The same is being done with Ned Flanders, though more gradually. When the show started, Flanders and his family were perfect. That was it, no real puzzle. They only served to show how dysfunctional The Simpsons were, and more importantly, to show what a jerk Homer was for hating him. These days, Ned has turned up the bible thumping to the point where he's a tool for the writers to get their own political jokes across ("I finished first in the race for the cure... for homosexuality!").

The show has become cheap joke after cheap joke, like Family Guy. To be honest, I don't think it's horrible, nor do I think FG is horrible. I just think that they're both really, really unmemorable, which is sad considering what The Simpsons used to be.

[apsham]

But in the course of 350 some episodes, it's impractical to have the same characters over and over again, if it happened then you'd just be complaining about that. I personally thought that the Arman epsiode was funny, and at the end everything was back to normal. Of course, all the characters have taken the turn now in the way that the show can now parody itself, but that just opens up all new platforms of comedy, that sadly not all fans let themselves enjoy.

[Skummy]

The Simpsons was relatively poor for a few seasons, but what do you expect from a show with that longevity? Even the later stuff is better than most comedies, though, especially most US comedies. And the more recent stuff is picking up its stride, in my opinion, it's one of very few shows that can get away with being so self-referential, because pretty much everyone has at least a passing familiarity with the characters, and as ApSham said, that whole avenue of self-parody opens up whole new areas of comedy.

Oh, and Screamapiller, ftw.

EDIT: Boulder, what do you expect? The initial characters in The Simpsons were fairly one-sided, and over 350 episodes, there's very little comedy you can extract from that. It's only natural that over time the writers will pick up on little things and run with it, whether in embellishing a once minor character in something entirely different, or in the field of self-parody. If the characters had remained the same all this time, the show would have got far more dull a long time ago, and we'd be complaining even more about it.

Edited August 17, 2006 by Skumfrog

[9 to 5]

Best episode? Many contenders, but the one I could watch all day long has to be Homer at the Bat.

[Boulder]

if it happened then you'd just be complaining about that

Please don't jump to tell me what I would be doing in hypothetical situations.

Of course, all the characters have taken the turn now in the way that the show can now parody itself, but that just opens up all new platforms of comedy, that sadly not all fans let themselves enjoy.

Once again, you're jumping to conclusions about me, assuming I don't "let" myself enjoy the show. The Simpsons was my favorite show pretty much from its inception until 1999. I can't state exactly how big a part the show played in my childhood, but suffice to say that I've spent more hours watching The Simpsons than I have any single show, be it Futurama, Raw, or Nitro. The point is, I never took it upon myself to decide that I no longer wanted to enjoy the show. It simply lost me as the plots became exceedingly repetitive and incoherent, and the humor turned from subversive satire into blatant one-liners.

The initial characters in The Simpsons were fairly one-sided, and over 350 episodes, there's very little comedy you can extract from that.

What you're describing as one-sidedness was, if anything, a consistency. A TV show is, at its core, about its main characters, and peripheral characters like Barney, Moe, and Flanders worked primarily in how they interacted with Homer. If they were one-sided, at least they served as representations of classic behavior we all generally encounter at some point. The one-sidedness that they show today is, again, a product of punchline after punchline being fed out from any available source.

And on another note, as far as I'm concerned, the writers extracted more comedy from their "one-sided" characters in the first 100 episodes than they have in the subsequent 275.

If the characters had remained the same all this time, the show would have got far more dull a long time ago, and we'd be complaining even more about it.

Please speak for yourself, because to me, the show didn't become dull until the change began. And while we're on the subject of dull, even changing the characters hasn't stopped the writers from repeating plots (Let's see what The Simpsons do 10 years in the future... no, 15 years in the future... no, 30 years in the future!).

I would never deny that it must be hard to create new episodes of a show that already has several hundred in the can- but the truth is, there are a few options that are always present:

1) Keep writing funny, original episodes. Sure, as I said, it's hard, but it's possible. There are always writers to be found and ideas to be heard that involve real world situations transposed into an episode. You know, stuff that doesn't involve Groundskeeper Willie getting a makeover.

2) Age the characters. It opens up a whole new world of possibilities in terms of both dealing with familial situations and relationships, and interactions with peripheral characters. It's not ideal, I'll admit, but it beats what we're getting.

Of course, the problems with 1 and 2 are that the plots are only a portion of the problem. My only hope is that more centered plots will help the show rediscover its realness and heart.

3) End it. Remember Seinfeld? I'm really not trying to sound condescending here, but I'm not sure if you guys are old enough/familiar enough with U.S. pop culture to remember the fanfare when the show ended. Personally, I was never a fan, but I respect the originality of both the show and its tactics. NO show was hotter from 1994-1998 (TV Guide named it the best show ever. Literally. EVER), but after only eight seasons, Jerry Seinfeld decided that he wanted to go out on top. Of course, it's hard to turn down more juicy paychecks, but hey, we're talking was to preserve quality. Speaking as a fan, I wish the show went off the air after season 8.

[Skummy]

Thyere's no way they'd allow the characters to age, as the agelessness is the main benefit of an animated sitcom, they don't have to put up with all that.

I agree with point three, though, sitcoms are always much much better if they don't outstay their welcome, and The Simpsons perhaps could have benefitted from ending some time ago, but I don't think it would benefit as much by ending now. They'd need to do one more fantastic season to end on a high-note, in my opinion, if they end now it'll be far more like the slow death of something like Friends, or even Cheers, than a triumphant finale.

Edited August 17, 2006 by Skumfrog

[Corizzle]

1. Getting it for my birthday on Monday

2. Yes, mine included it

3. Off the top of my head I Am Furious Yellow where Bart makes a comic and an internet cartoon about Homer

4. Again off the top of my head, Homer at the Bat from Season 3

[Beeker00Zero]

My least favourite episode, the nadir episode so to speak is Homer vs. New York. I find it mindboggling that someone could name that one of their favourites.

When the funniest joke is 'Crab juice over Mt. Dew.' then the writers aren't trying any more. It's rebounded since then but will never come close to some of those early seasons.

I find the first season hard to watch. And I was old enough to appreciate it the first time around. Yes, I'm dating myself. Then it was pointed and satrical and shocking. Now... it's just an above average comdey. (Which isn't saying much as King of Queens and 2 and a half men are the current poster-children from comedy while Arrested Development gets cancelled. GRRR!)

My personal all time favourite episode ever was early one, season one or two or three. Where the family goes to Dr. Marvin Monroe for Shock Therapy Counselling.

That one makes my belly hurt from laughing every time it's on.

Oh, and I agree with Boulder about overstaying a shows welcome. Seinfeld is a perfect example... and it overstayed it's welcome by one show. I can't express how much I *LOATHE* the final episode of that show.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Which was the episode where Homer relocates for a new job with a criminal mastermind in a volcano? That was fantastic.

I like new episodes. They're weird, often make no sense and generally bizarre. Great stuff.

I must admit I tend to groan whenever channel 4 shows a series 1 or 2 episode (1 is shakey and I've seen series 2 episodes too many times). Also any flashback episodes, stories of how the kids were born and anything based around Lisa or Bleeding Gums Murphy....

My favourite Simpsons moment is probably in one of those hated kid conception stories where Homer tells about the sperm and egg and it cuts to him waving his arms around behind his head like a tail. Brilliance.

[YI]

I haven't seen any new episodes to be honest (The last one I saw was when they came to England...and I was fairly dissapointed). I've heard mixed feelings about the new episodes. But I'm very rarely in when the new episodes are aired, so I basically just never catch them.

As for the best ever episode. Mr Plow is fucking immense, and was the first one that came to mind. I seem to remember quite liking the 'Ugly Moe' (whatever it was called) episode as well. Purely for the Duff Man antics early on.

[Ananas]

For those of you who couldn't possibly endure actually having to watch an episode of the Simpsons to catch it, here is the trailer for the upcoming Simpsons movie. It didn't get awesome until the "caught between a rock and a hard place" bit, but after that I'm sold. Surely they must have planned it well enough that they won't fuck this one up, right?

[apsham]

Simpsons has been fine as hell the past few seasons, and I've been a fan since I could watch television.. the same as my friend and father. I have full confidence that this movie is going to be amazing.

[Guest Kou]

*slight tap of metal on metal*

[Rashid]

I don't see how people call Simpsons bad these days. I still find it one of the best shows on television. Still very funny, and funnier than most shows out there. I say they have gone "very slightly downhill".

Early Simpsons: 10/10

Current Simpsons: 8.5/10

And I really can't wait for this movie.

[Lowerdeck]

Seasons 1-2: 7/10

Seasons 3, 7-9: 9/10

Seasons 4-6: 10/10

Seasons 10-16: mostly 5/10

Seasons 17-18: mostly 6.5/10

I really don't enjoy these new ones as much as I did the older ones.

[NobBe Nobbs]

Six days after I'm 19! IT'S A SIGN

[Fanku Kaibutsu]

Strangely, I found the funniest part of the trailer was how they made fun of how many 3D animated movies there are, but then most of what they showed involved 3D animation.(Not the part in the beginning, but the buildings and wrecker and stuff during the actual scenes from the movie.)

[GoGo Yubari]

Strangely, I found the funniest part of the trailer was how they made fun of how many 3D animated movies there are, but then most of what they showed involved 3D animation.(Not the part in the beginning, but the buildings and wrecker and stuff during the actual scenes from the movie.)

I just wish I hadn't seen essentially the exact same joke in A Series of Unfortunate Events except instead of "horribly pleasant, friendly movie interrupted by announcement that you will actually be watching a rather morbid film" it's "3D movie interrupted with announcement you will be watching a 2D movie."

The bunny dying and the "rock and a hard place" gag were both laughworthy, though.