death knell of the simpsons ?

Fozzydog3

What episode for you , was the death knell of the simpsons being funny ?

amacachi

Thread title failed to deliver.

Fozzydog3

amacachi wrote: »

Thread title failed to deliver.

Sorry you were probably hoping they were cancelling it or something

MitchKoobski

The one where they ran into a guest star nobody knew while travelling to another country where Homer got a new job.

phasers

Armin Tamzarian.

efb

phasers wrote: »

Armin Tamzarian.

That was a real jump the shark moment

The King of Moo

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.

eroticvultcha

The death of Phil Hartman and the 'Simpsons Spinoff Showcase' pretty ironically marked the downward spiral. While the episode itself was great, it self-deprecatingly pointed out how one day they'd run out of ideas ('Wedding, after wedding, after wedding!'). Who'd have thought they'd have Abe Simpson date Selma after ridiculing such a plotline?

FreudianSlippers

I kind of forgot they still make the Simpsons.

TBH, more gritty and topical shows ruined the Simpsons. IMO South Park: The Movie was the real death knell of the Simpsons.
It brought South Park to a much bigger audience who may have never checked it out before (or not even had cable at that time).

Skyrim

The simpsons is dead for the last 11 or 12 years. The garbage man episode was the perfect time to finish, think it was after the death of the guy who voiced troy mclure, it would have been very appropriate. I always thought the simpsons at its prime was much better than family guy.

FreudianSlippers

Skyrim wrote: »

The simpsons is dead for the last 11 or 12 years. The garbage man episode was the perfect time to finish, think it was after the death of the guy who voiced troy mclure, it would have been very appropriate. I always thought the simpsons at its prime was much better than family guy.

Phil Hartman. If you liked him in the Simpsons, check him out in out in Saturday Night Live (1886 to 1994ish)... his Bill Clinton was the best impersonation I had ever seen back then.

Skyrim

Thanks will do. The arman tanzarian episode was funny enough. My one regret is they didn't film an episode in ireland when the show was at its best.

Downlinz

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.

Ally Dick

The earliest Simpsons were the best. The storylines were simpler and it was far funnier. I lost interest around the time of Who Shot Monty Burns

Kojak

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

Skyrim

Skyrim wrote: »

The simpsons is dead for the last 11 or 12 years. The garbage man episode was the perfect time to finish, think it was after the death of the guy who voiced troy mclure, it would have been very appropriate. I always thought the simpsons at its prime was much better than family guy.

It was actually after this that I stopped watching new episodes on a regular basis. Wrecking Springfield would have been a good way to end the show, but moving the town to another location just made no sense at all.

Cill Dara Abu

That episode when Bart, Nelson, Millhouse and Martin create a band supposed to be a mock of N-Sync, where they try to encourage people to yvan eht nioj (join the navy), that really turned me off.

The early ones are the best.

James T Kirk

In a nutshell:

The Simpsons peaked somewhere in the late-'90s, when South Park came along.

Coincidence? I think not.

James T Kirk

James T Kirk wrote: »

In a nutshell:

The Simpsons peaked somewhere in the late-'90s, when South Park came along.

Coincidence? I think not.

Some things in The Simpsons were considered quite dodgy at the time; Sky heavily edited some episodes as they trying to promote it as a kids show, sex references and even the word "crap" were blocked or else the entire section was omitted. For example, in Mother Simpson, when Abe asked Mona "can we have sex?" ... Sky cut out the entire piece and went to the next scene.

South Park on the other hand proved that The Simpsons is and was quite tame in comparison.

krudler

the Sherry Bobbins episode, its midway through season 9 I think, seasons 3-8 are amazing though.

irishh_bob

Cill Dara Abu wrote: »

That episode when Bart, Nelson, Millhouse and Martin create a band supposed to be a mock of N-Sync, where they try to encourage people to yvan eht nioj (join the navy), that really turned me off.

The early ones are the best.

i hate that eppisode

classic simpsons period was from around 1992 ( flaming moe ) to around 1997 where mulder and scully feature

phasers

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.

corkonion

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?

Big Lar

Haven't watched it myself in years

Ally Dick wrote: »

The earliest Simpsons were the best. The storylines were simpler and it was far funnier. I lost interest around the time of Who Shot Monty Burns

Monty burns got shot ????

Skyrim

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

krudler

corkonion wrote: »

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

er, what? Futurama has been consistently brilliant throughout it run

Bodhidharma

I really, really hate the episode with Alec Baldwin and Kim Bassinger. I mean, who gives a flying f**k about them.

It got bad when it started putting celebrities into the show for no particular reason.

hotmail.com

The last episode of Season 10 - Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo - rubbish episode.

Season 11 was the first season where almost every episode was terrible.

I think that the last couple of seasons have actually been ok. I found "Waverly Hills 9-0-2-1-(Annoyed Grunt)" quite amusing.

Tipsy McSwagger

There was an episode just on Sky about Lisa getting a best friend (voiced by Emily Blunt) and it was awful.

krudler

Bodhidharma wrote: »

I really, really hate the episode with Alec Baldwin and Kim Bassinger. I mean, who gives a flying f**k about them.

It got bad when it started putting celebrities into the show for no particular reason.

when celebrities played characters rather than just themselves it was better, like Dustin Hoffman as Mr Bergstrom, and the various people Albert Brooks has played. small cameos like Leonard Nimoy that were actually funny, stuff like Ron Howard has never been.

Dman001

I don't agree at all that The Simpsons went downhill due to South Park's appearance. South Park, while humorous, lacked any creativity or genuinely hilarious moments The Simpsons have had, and lacks any mass appeal The Simpsons had. South Park just puts a spin on Pop Culture, and puts a ridiculously over the top story to go with it and calls itself a comedy.

mstan

krudler wrote: »

when celebrities played characters rather than just themselves it was better, like Dustin Hoffman as Mr Bergstrom, and the various people Albert Brooks has played. small cameos like Leonard Nimoy that were actually funny, stuff like Ron Howard has never been.

IMO "24 Minutes" is one of the few very good episodes made in the last 10-12 years and the Kiefer Sutherland/Jack Bauer cameo was well done.

FreudianSlippers

Bodhidharma wrote: »

I really, really hate the episode with Alec Baldwin and Kim Bassinger. I mean, who gives a flying f**k about them.

It got bad when it started putting celebrities into the show for no particular reason.

In fairness, they were probably two of the top actors at the time (1998). I think it's stupid that they had celebs in the show playing themselves, but they weren't exactly nobodies at the time.

Richard Dower

Best thing to ever come from the show, RIP Michael Jackson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn6iFw-TkVM

Monty Burnz

Big Lar wrote: »

Monty burns got shot ????

Lolwut?? :eek:

Mr. Denton

The Frank Grimes episode. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer's_Enemy
May 1997.

It's the first ep where you get a full 20mins of relentlessly "careless, stupid Homer" from start to finish. They makers have got positive feedback for it cos they never looked back and stuck with that format to this day.

Tipsy McSwagger

Richard Dower wrote: »

Best thing to ever come from the show, RIP Michael Jackson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn6iFw-TkVM

Huh

Mr. Denton

Richard Dower wrote: »

Best thing to ever come from the show, RIP Michael Jackson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn6iFw-TkVM

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.

eroticvultcha

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.

Benny_Cake

krudler wrote: »

when celebrities played characters rather than just themselves it was better, like Dustin Hoffman as Mr Bergstrom, and the various people Albert Brooks has played. small cameos like Leonard Nimoy that were actually funny, stuff like Ron Howard has never been.

There were some great cameos in the early years,Aerosmith in Flaming Moe's and Red Hot Chili Peppers in Krusty gets Kancelled were genius.The difference was that they were essentially there as background scenery or to support a gag or two - the celebrities weren't the focus of the episode,as happened later on.The Baldwin/Basinger/Ron Howard episode and the Mel Gibson one were where it really started going wrong on that front I thought.

irishh_bob

Dman001 wrote: »

I don't agree at all that The Simpsons went downhill due to South Park's appearance. South Park, while humorous, lacked any creativity or genuinely hilarious moments The Simpsons have had, and lacks any mass appeal The Simpsons had. South Park just puts a spin on Pop Culture, and puts a ridiculously over the top story to go with it and calls itself a comedy.

south park is incredibly overrated , at its peak , the simpsons was the greatest tv show of all time

Dozen Wicked Words

People look at early Simpsons through rose coloured glasses. First Series total sh*t, second series not much better. Then, when it lost the sentiment it was excellent, now it relies too much on "celebrity" voices. There are still some funny moments in the recent series but not many. Not enough Homer.

A recentish episode which was very clever was the oscars one, took off pixar, aardman etc very well, but was SO unfunny it was unbelievable. Still watch it for the odd nugget of gold amongst the cack.

South Park is as guilty as going off the boil as the Simpsons too IMHO.

hotmail.com

irishh_bob wrote: »

south park is incredibly overrated , at its peak , the simpsons was the greatest tv show of all time

Both are good.

hotmail.com

While on the subject, Futurama went off the boil in season 3. It was great up until then.

mikeym

The worst episode of the Simpsons ive ever seen was the one were Ricky Gervais co-wrote and starred in (Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife).

Worst Simpsons Episode ever!

Dman001

The creators talk about The Simpsons at Comic Con, where they discussed how they are thinking about the ending of the series, and the possibility of ageing the characters. By the sounds of things, the 24th Season could be the last in the Series.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/ustv/news/a331394/simpsons-execs-tease-guest-stars-500th-episode-final-season-at-comic-con.html

hotmail.com

They'll end it if one of the main voice actors die.

Monty Burnz

hotmail.com wrote: »

They'll end it if one of the main voice actors die.

I imagine that Dan Castelleneta must already be watching his back for angry, fanatical fans...

Dman001

By the sounds of things, the writers have realised what we have been saying the last 10 years-Everything has been done at this stage. I think they are getting to a stage where the storylines are getting much, much too ridiculous and have realised it's time to move on from it. At least, that's what I hope they are thinking!

Raze_them_all

Dman001 wrote: »

By the sounds of things, the writers have realised what we have been saying the last 10 years-Everything has been done at this stage. I think they are getting to a stage where the storylines are getting much, much too ridiculous and have realised it's time to move on from it. At least, that's what I hope they are thinking!

Just reminds of the south park episode tbh

Simpsons did it,simpsons did it

mstan

They confirmed Kiefer Sutherland will be back in season 23. Wonder if it'll be as Jack Bauer, The Colonel or a completely new character?