death knell of the simpsons ?

I'd have gone for the one where Homer joins the Navy (season 9) the first time I saw it. It was the first new episode I saw (hadn't had the channels before then so had only seen seasons 1-3 on rté and the occasional classic from seasons 4,5 and 6.) Even though now the Navy episode doesn't seem too bad in comparison to the dross that has followed it, at the time the jokes just didn't seem as funny as the older episodes, the animation was too clean and lacking in expressiveness, and there was just something off about it.

In hindsight, the Armin Tamzarian episode is a good indicator of the beginning of the end by taking the programme's irreverence too far. When I first saw it I didn't have any problem with it, just thought it was fairly funny and not as good as the best. But looking at it now in hindsight and in the context of how the programme's gone (particularly it's lack of sincerity and emotionality) it's a good place to pinpoint the death knell.
Similar case with the Frank Grimes episode. I actually still think it's a great episode. But the way it revealed how in reality Homer Simpson would be an incredibly aggravating person ruined the character. Before that episode, Homer's good heart and love for his family made you forgive him a lot of stuff, but after that episode it's hard not to see him as a selfish imbecile. This seems to have affected the writers too as they seem to be making him more and more unlikeable deliberately.

Looking at wikipedia's list of episodes quickly and with hindsight, I'd say season 9 showed a big drop in quality but was still enjoyable (the last episode is the one where Homer and Marge try to put the spark back into their sex life), but season 10 (first episode had Lisa trying to be cool...again...and Homer collecting fat for money) was the first season where I felt the episodes were more bad than good.

Would say personally the show peaked in and around the Who Shot Mr Burns timeframe. Seasons 6 and 7.

It stayed at the top for a while and began a slow decline in Season 9, I'd agree Arman was the beginning of the decline and the 200th (garbage man one) episode would have been a good place to quit while it was still at a high quality but becoming evident its best days were behind it. By season 11 it was getting quite weak and by season 13 even us die hard fans were giving up on it.

Up to the episode with Frank Grimes the simpsons was brilliant imo.

After that it went to shít - haven't watched one of the new episodes in years

phasers wrote: »

I don't see how South Park had any involvement in The Simpsons going to shit, they have completely different audiences. The problem was that the good writers left. A lot of them went to work on Futurama, so really if you want a show to 'blame' then blame that.

futurama!!!!!! surely you mean all the rubbish writers left to go there?

I liked series 9, probably the last good series, when the cartoon became too clean looking and the characters became too yellow looking that turned me off. I liked the rex banner episode and the paddy's day reference at the start of the episode

Mr. Denton wrote: »

Video directed by Brad Bird. Another one who (pardon the pun) flew the coop along with John Schwartzwelder, Conan O'Brien and other notable talents from the shows heyday.

I remember having high hopes for the Simpsons Movie since they recruited a lot of the veteran writers. The film ultimately turning out to be morbidly unfunny could probably be explained by Bird & O'Brien's absences, as well as Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein & David S. Cohen, who all moved to working on Futurama.