The Simpsons (2 Viewers)

[Chad]

season 8 was the last great season. season 9 still had some classics, but it was downhill from there. i cant even remember the last time i watched a new simpsons episode. the last new one shown on sky 1 was one about bart getting a girl pregnant

 

[BC]

for celebrity appearances, tony blair was the most unpleasant. closely followed by n-sync in that dreadful boy-band / navy episode.

Lowest point in Simpsons history?

i still say marge with breast implants for the sheer crass barrel-scrapping of it, but homer getting raped by a panda and marge taking steroids come close also. they even ripped off family guy for a halloween story in which homer became death.

what they did to the characters makes it practically unwatchable: homer was originally an "every man" character, dopey but well meaning, and the important thing was that he could be related to. now all he does is scream, get injured and shout. they even fucked up all the minor characters, with crap like lenny and carl's homosexuality, which is not only pointless but also deeply unfunny.

 

[Franco]

Barney sobering up was the nail in the coffin.

 

[tim]

Some of the things that really annoying me about new Simpsons are those big long montages set to music.

E.g Bart going around a shop using a price gun. Bart playing the drums around town in the style of a White Stripes video. Nothing is actually funny about these things at all.

Other things: Moe's constant suicide attempts and depression. lenny and carl gay.

The show has just become a parody of itself.

One recent episode that I thought was surprisingly good was a cross connecting stories episode they did where it all ended in people trying to steal gold. While it did make unnecessary connections between characters it had its fair share of funny moments.

 

[Gambra]

The show has just become a parody of itself.

It was that from day one but thats another whole thread and tangent..

 

[Ciansy]

Everything past season 11 is actually anti-funny. It sucks the humour out of me. I'd agree with Brian about the breast implants episode, it was desperate. The two killer things though are the montages, which no-one could possibly find funny for more than ten seconds, and the way they've completely bollocksed all the characters. Essentially none of them have any personality now: they're all capable of doing anything at all to advance a single storyline.

The whole point of the Hallowe'en episodes used to be that the characters could do something hugely contrary to their personality, or that the creators could do something out of tone with the rest of the show and then forget about it. Now every episode is like that.

It is a bottle of shit.

 

[tim]

I dont think so, they created parodies of everything in pop cutlure of course but i mean that they actually parodied themselves and their old jokes. They became a former shell of themselves.

(in reference to gambras post)

 

[ann post]

there's apart of the movie website where you can build your own simpson, then screen grab it.

 

[nlgbbbblth]

Hard to believe that The Simpsons began in 1989.

I think that The Simpsons peaked at season 4 - (Homer The Heretic, Marge vs The Monorail, Itchy and Scratchy: The Movie etc).

The quality was sustained right through season 8 which was broadcast in 1997 [ten years ago!!]

Season 9 started really well with The City Of New York Vs Homer Simpson. Rarely aired now as it shows him going for a slash in the twin towers. The remainder of the season was hit and miss.

Season 10 had very few highlights - the finale, Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo was scathing in its criticism of Japanese torture. Homer's cry of 'Why are you so cruel?' during the game show was very apt.

I remember reading an article at the time that said 'Homer Simpson spoke for all POWs who suffered at the hands of the Japanese when he castigated the game show hosts for their inhumanity'.

Since then the show has descended into mediocrity.

 

[ann post]

yeah, but you can draw your own simpson on the movie website.

 

[Richie]

Yeah.. They should have mercy-killed it sometime back around 2000 or 2001. It actually seems to have absorbed a lot from Family Guy now in that the characters are basically used as blank slates to act out the various whacky scenarios\pop-cultural references etc.. In fairness to them I don't envy whoever has the task of trying to come up with fresh ideas for a series that's run for over 400 episodes. Futurama getting axed while the Simpsons staggered into its 5th or 6th year of unfunniness was fairly stupid..

 

[BC]

it should have ended with the "behind the laughter" episode, although it had got very stale even by that point. that episode even feels like an ending.

the family guy thing is amusing, i remember a simpsons episode dissing family guy as "low quality trash", but the simpsons has got incredibly crass: the mummy who shouldnt "get a boner", marge farting, and other such examples. add this to the affore-mentioned blatent rip off of family guy in that halloween episode, the boring montages, awful songs, pointless pop-culture references, complete disregard for sensible plot or characterisation (all criticisms leveled often at family guy, but it should be remembered that family guy started out that way and never had any pretentions otherwise) and the accusation of family guy as plagarists (as one simpons episode put it) seems a little weak... i think there is more than a little jealousy on the part of the simpsons writers in their attacks on family guy.

wonderful, witty episodes like "22 short stories about springfield" and "last exit to springfield" may as well belong to a totally different, long past program than the bilge being churned out over the last decade.

as regards the upcoming film, i dont have much hope for it at all. even when the simpsons were decent, it would have been tricky to stretch it out to feature length. given what its turned into, i'm not expecting it to be anything more than dire.

 

[ann post]

this is me as a simpson. though it could be anyone because noone here knows what i look like and there was no button for MILDLY receding hairline.

 

[ratmonkey]

Season 9 started really well with The City Of New York Vs Homer Simpson. Rarely aired now as it shows him going for a slash in the twin towers. The remainder of the season was hit and miss.

Having to write filler at short notice after Phil Hartman was murdered maybe?

 

[killy kill]

The Phil Hartman murder is easily the most neglected pop culture incident EVAH

 

[killy kill]

Just sayin

 

[Ciansy]

Yeah? Well you can keep your sayings to yourself, fatty.


I do hope you're not really fat.

 

[RSJ]

First time you saw the simpsons? For me it was a video we got off a friend in about early 92, first thing on it was the video for Smells Like Teen spirit (didn't see the big fuss) followed by the christmas episode where homer gets Santa's Little Helper. Good times.

 

[classic seanc]

Th 1st season was pretty crap too.




I first saw the simpsons by renting it out of xtravision. 91 or 92 maybe. Maybe even 93.

 

[Yurn!]

I watched a new episode last week and virtually every element had been pilfered from other 'greats'.

-Homers sets up law enforcement agency
-Wiggum loses job and suffers a personal crisis
-Fat Tony and his goons turn up to Homers (with warning) to kill homer.
-Maggie shoots individuals with a gun.

'ckin unbelievable.