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When did the Simpsons stop being good?

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    #182
    Intensive Care Bear
    Registered Users Posts: 661 ✭✭✭Intensive Care Bear


    The the last good episode of the Simpsons was Trash of the Titans where Homer becomes Sanitation Commissioner. That was in 1998.


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    #183
    iDave
    Registered Users Posts: 3,750 ✭✭✭iDave


    The jockeys as elves episode just popped into my head. Shudder.


    Whats really annoying is I remember discussing how bad the Simpsons had become before I did the junior cert. I'm pushing 30 now and sh1t episodes are still being churned out.
    Its been bad THAT long. Talk about sh1tting on your own legacy.


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    #184
    C14N
    Registered Users Posts: 2,656 ✭✭✭C14N


    Squeedily Spooch wrote: »
    Exactly, Homer used to be a well meaning but stupid everyman. Now, and especially in the movie, he's just a gigantic arsehole who's completely unlikeable.

    Yeah I think this kind of sums it up. I'm kind of just pulling this out of my arse but it seems like older episodes would feature Homer acting selfish or inconsiderate but then he usually felt bad about it and did something to redeem himself and it got worse once that changed and he started doing things that were just really mean (Co-depenants's Day being a particularly bad case).
    Davidius wrote: »
    It's really not just nostalgia, there is an appreciable difference from the earlier seasons. I was born after the show started airing (I'm 23) and probably started watching around the time most people think the decline began. Most of the older episodes jokes naturally went completely over my head but it seemed to be even then that the older re-run episodes were simpler better and this was when both were essentially fresh to me. I still enjoyed newer episodes but the decline became notable enough that I just stopped actively watching newer episodes when I was about 10/11 or so.

    I'm kind of the same as you, I must have been about 7 or 8 when I started really liking the Simpsons (so around 2000 or season 11) but the thing was, most of what I watched was re-runs of older episodes. Sky had new episodes on Sundays for half the year but I often didn't get to see those because my parents were watching something or we were just out of the house so the majority of what I did watch was just weekday evening broadcasts on RTE or Sky1. I never really had any concept of "seasons" and which were good and which were bad until just a few years ago. Also, the Principal and the Pauper never stuck out to me as a problem any of the times I saw it. It was only from Wikipedia I found out that it was a widely despised episode that many thought destroyed the show.
    iDave wrote: »
    The jockeys as elves episode just popped into my head. Shudder.

    The main plot was terrible but I still liked the subplot with Lisa that culminated in Bill Clinton appearing.


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    #185
    Welsh Megaman
    Registered Users Posts: 72,140 ✭✭✭✭Welsh Megaman


    As boardsies have already pointed out, the decline begins when celebrities appear as themselves and offer nothing.

    Gone are the days when a famous actor would actually PLAY a character, a great example being Donald Sutherland as the curator of the Jebediah Springfield museum.

    The Simpsons is competing against the memory of itself...and losing.


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    #186
    GerB40
    Registered Users Posts: 2,047 ✭✭✭GerB40


    Welsh Megaman wrote: »
    As boardsies have already pointed out, the decline begins when celebrities appear as themselves and offer nothing.

    Gone are the days when a famous actor would actually PLAY a character, a great example being Donald Sutherland as the curator of the Jebediah Springfield museum.

    The Simpsons is competing against the memory of itself...and losing.

    Although I do agree about celebrities appearing as actual characters (Dustin Hoffman as the teacher was excellent), James Woods appearing as himself was, in my opinion, the best celeb cameo. He was hilarious..


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    #187
    DB Cooper 23
    Registered Users Posts: 47 ✭DB Cooper 23


    I remember watching an episode where the main plot consisted of Marge's hair turning grey. When that is the best story line that you can come up with I think it's time to call it a day


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    #188
    suicide_circus
    Registered Users Posts: 19,802 ✭✭✭✭suicide_circus


    iDave wrote: »
    The jockeys as elves episode just popped into my head. Shudder.


    Whats really annoying is I remember discussing how bad the Simpsons had become before I did the junior cert. I'm pushing 30 now and sh1t episodes are still being churned out.
    Its been bad THAT long. Talk about sh1tting on your own legacy.
    I'm same age as you and you are correct.

    The Simpsons has now been shiit longer than it was good.

    Really sad.

    South Park are doing it too.


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    #189
    KungPao
    Registered Users Posts: 4,781 ✭✭✭KungPao


    suicide_circus wrote: »
    I'm same age as you and you are correct.

    The Simpsons has now been shiit longer than it was good.

    Really sad.

    South Park are doing it too.
    The current season is pretty fantastic I think.


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    #190
    somefeen
    Registered Users Posts: 1,657 ✭✭✭somefeen


    I remember the first time I watched an episode of the simpsons and thought it was crap.

    It was the episode where they find smithers' fathers remains in a quarry. Thats where I noticed they had lost it.


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    #191
    UCDVet
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,894 ✭✭✭UCDVet


    For shows that run for a few years - I think you can talk about a bad season (like Dexter - Julia Styles or whatever her name is - that was a bad season).

    With shows that run for decades though, I think it's a lot less about how good or bad the show is and a lot more about when you discovered it and how you developed. Most of my friends loved the early seasons because that's when they started watching it. Now, they've got wives, houses, jobs and children....and they don't think the cartoon is as good as it used to be.

    I didn't watch the Simpsons at all growing up. I binge watched them in college, and I thought the early seasons were crap. I haven't watched the last 2-3 seasons, but I honestly didn't see any decline in quality.


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    #192
    Burky126
    Registered Users Posts: 476 ✭✭Burky126


    UCDVet wrote: »
    I didn't watch the Simpsons at all growing up. I binge watched them in college, and I thought the early seasons were crap. I haven't watched the last 2-3 seasons, but I honestly didn't see any decline in quality.

    There's your problem,you binge watched them.There's tons of gags and details that you probably missed the first time around in the early seasons (2-9). The newer seasons don't have those subtleties in the writing that warrants a second viewing. There's a reason the early seasons are regarded as classics in television.


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    #193
    C14N
    Registered Users Posts: 2,656 ✭✭✭C14N


    Welsh Megaman wrote: »
    As boardsies have already pointed out, the decline begins when celebrities appear as themselves and offer nothing.

    Gone are the days when a famous actor would actually PLAY a character, a great example being Donald Sutherland as the curator of the Jebediah Springfield museum..

    But that's still not an iron clad rule. Celebrities still played themselves in classic episodes (James Woods, as someone pointed out, the parade of quick celebrities in the Gabbo episode, all 3 living Beatles getting token appearances, Aerosmith, Sting, Leonard Nimoy and countless others) and they usually weren't that well developed or important to the plot but they didn't make it bad.

    At the same time, newer ones have had celebrities in to play actual characters who matter to the plot (like Ricky Gervais, Stephen Colbert or Jeremy Irons) and they still turn out rubbish so it's very hard to blame the celebrity appearances.


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    #194
    MakeEmLaugh
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,356 ✭✭✭MakeEmLaugh


    Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »
    It's impossible to pick an exact moment, although many have tried- the episodes with Armin Tanzarian or Jay Leno are two of the ones people have pointed to. I think it was a slippery slope, they gradually became less consistently funny until they just weren't funny at all.

    Those episodes are great.



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    #195
    C14N
    Registered Users Posts: 2,656 ✭✭✭C14N


    MakeEmLaugh wrote: »
    Those episodes are great.

    I can't see how someone would think the Jay Leno episode was bad. I mean the cameo was pretty lazy, sure, but the episode itself with Krusty becoming a sort of Carlin/Hicks type comedian was brilliant. Not to mention that legendary ending.


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    #196
    Duffy the Vampire Slayer
    Registered Users Posts: 5,378 ✭✭✭Duffy the Vampire Slayer


    I think part of the problem is that the celebrity guests are portrayed in a higly flattering light now, whereas in older episodes they were often self-deprecating.


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    #197
    harry Bailey esq
    Registered Users Posts: 4,814 ✭✭✭harry Bailey esq


    Super-Rush wrote: »
    Seasons 1 to 13 were fantastic. All the great quotes and episodes were from that period, particularly the Conan O'Brien years. Since then its relied way too much on celebrities.

    This. After Conan o Brien left,the show began to lose direction. Anything made from the late 90s onwards is generally unwatchable drivel.That said,i still get my fix of the Simpsons daily.


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    #198
    Dirty Dingus McGee
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,631 ✭✭✭Dirty Dingus McGee


    harry Bailey esq wrote: »
    This. After Conan o Brien left,the show began to lose direction. Anything made from the late 90s onwards is generally unwatchable drivel.That said,i still get my fix of the Simpsons daily.

    Conan O'Brien wrote about 3 or 4 episodes of the show (admittedly some brilliant episodes) and was on the writing staff for a couple of years.He wasn't there when the show started and gained it's mass following.Him leaving had nothing to do with the show declining he left in 1993 and the show was top class for another 5 years after he left.


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    #199
    Duffy the Vampire Slayer
    Registered Users Posts: 5,378 ✭✭✭Duffy the Vampire Slayer


    Yeah, people often overstate his importance to the shows glory days. He was a great contributor to it but they did fine without him for quite some time.


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    #200
    C14N
    Registered Users Posts: 2,656 ✭✭✭C14N


    Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »
    Yeah, people often overstate his importance to the shows glory days. He was a great contributor to it but they did fine without him for quite some time.

    I don't really know why people think he was so important. Not that he wasn't a great writer, but he was one amongst many at the time and he certainly wasn't the one guy carrying or leading the team. I can only imagine people single him out because he's by far the most famous person to work on the show but even then, he's only the most famous because of what he did after, he wasn't a bigshot when he was on the writing team.


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    #201
    ROAAAR
    Registered Users Posts: 316 ✭✭ROAAAR


    Friends is a another show that got absolutely terrible. Only the very early episodes do I find it entertaining. It's hard to see why people hold it in such high regard really. It's not the greatest writing to be fair.


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    #202
    wendell borton
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,336 ✭✭✭wendell borton


    ROAAAR wrote: »
    Friends is a another show that got absolutely terrible. Only the very early episodes do I find it entertaining. It's hard to see why people hold it in such high regard really. It's not the greatest writing to be fair.

    After the monkey left is when friends got ****.


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    #203
    Bhopkov
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 14 ✭Bhopkov


    ROAAAR wrote: »
    Friends is a another show that got absolutely terrible. Only the very early episodes do I find it entertaining. It's hard to see why people hold it in such high regard really. It's not the greatest writing to be fair.

    Friends got sh1t in series 5. The first 4 series are brilliant.


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    #204
    6781
    Closed Accounts Posts: 431 ✭✭6781


    In the mid to late 90s not sure what season that would be.


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    #205
    Bhopkov
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 14 ✭Bhopkov


    New episode on now. Decided to give it a chance. It's awful so far.


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    #206
    razorblunt
    Registered Users Posts: 17,300 ✭✭✭✭razorblunt


    Bhopkov wrote: »
    New episode on now. Decided to give it a chance. It's awful so far.

    Ah it wasn't that bad. Better than episode 1 anyway.

    "Well I had a mimosa for brunch two and a half years ago".


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    #207
    ToddyDoody
    Registered Users Posts: 4,421 ✭✭✭ToddyDoody


    Kermit.de.frog wrote: »
    When did it all go wrong?

    When the pope said they were Catholic. They just seemed to get lazy after that. :)


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    #208
    cloud493
    Closed Accounts Posts: 11,835 ✭✭✭✭cloud493


    Sure Conan obrien has stated himself his input was minimal.


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    #209
    Mint Aero
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,570 ✭✭✭Mint Aero


    GerB40 wrote: »
    Only Fool's and Horses doesn't count because it's the greatest sitcom of all time.

    No shut up a second and stop typing while I type. Only Fools & Horses was good for the first few seasons but when they got into the Yuppie stuff and Rodney with Cassandra it took a huge nose dive in quality and the dead horse was kicked repeatedly for another decade.


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    #210
    suicide_circus
    Registered Users Posts: 19,802 ✭✭✭✭suicide_circus


    wendell borton wrote: »
    After the monkey left is when friends got ****.

    I think it went shiit after Chandler quit smoking


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    #211
    Baked.noodle
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,014 ✭✭✭Baked.noodle


    I haven't watched every episode of The Simpsons but I used to enjoy it years ago. I would have to agree it's terrible now. I think the big difference is there used to be stories which covered the entire episode, and developed the wider themes that built a somewhat believable world. When I watch it now it's mostly one liner gags and poor writing, and there isn't much story to pull you in.


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