Was The Simpsons always horrendous?

JohnnyFlash

Homelander wrote: »

It was amazing until around Season 11 or 12, and there are a few half decent seasons after that where it has plenty of the old charm about it.

It's only after about Season 16 or so that it becomes flat out weak, and a complete abomination with very few redeeming qualities by around Season 20.

Family Guy is on what, Season 20 or something as well? At this point I just pick the highest rated two episodes and find them easy enough to watch.

I've tried doing the same with the Simpsons a few times but even the apparent 'best' episodes are just awful.

Family Guy was never funny.

cian68

punisher5112 wrote: »

It's gone with the pc times and following the trend....

Snowflakes.

Something can be bad and have nothing to do with PC snowflakes. They used Lisa, who's always been the pc character, to have a dig at people complaining about Apu then stare at the camera. Rubbish.

CPTM

It was better before they turned Homer into complete moron altogether. Remember the episodes 'Do it for her' (about Maggie) or when he found his mother and the episode finished with them looking up at the stars. I'm all for jokes but those sentimental moments humanized it and it hasn't been the same since.

razorblunt

The actress behind Marge is really struggling with the voice now, it sounds bad.

The 4th July “new Lisa” episode today and it’s still amazing. Marge unpacking the groceries that Homer bought, all a ruse so he could get illegal fireworks ... “< unpacking large pack of condoms, 2 enemas, sanitary pads and a copy of Jugs magazine> Jeez Homer, whatever you have planned count me out”

Capt'n Midnight

Grab All Association

CPTM wrote: »

It was better before they turned Homer into complete moron altogether. Remember the episodes 'Do it for her' (about Maggie) or when he found his mother and the episode finished with them looking up at the stars. I'm all for jokes but those sentimental moments humanized it and it hasn't been the same since.

That actually happened very early on when Simon, Groening and Brooks left. David Mirkin was the showrunner when we first seen jerk ass Homer. When Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein took over in season 7-8 they toned this down and tried to bring the show back its roots. Oakley and Weinstein left in season 8 (3 episodes carried over to season 9) and that's when Mike Scully took over as showrunner and it went downhill from there. Weinstein and Oakley thought the show had run its course at this point. Under Scully Jerkass Homer was back and to the max (pun intended). I don't want to mean about Mike Scully as we've communicated a number of times on Twitter and he's a really sound guy. He did write a number of great episodes starting in seasons 4/5, but as a showrunner he became too personally involved putting in "gags" for his friends and children. The show was still salvageable after Scully took a back seat. The problem was Al Jean took the helm full time. Al Jean is obsessed with celebrity cameos and has been since the early seasons. Under Jean it became less about the storyline/humour and more about what celebrity or pop culture reference they can use in the episode.

razorblunt

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

That 3.9 rated one was the Lady Gaga episode and it is horrific. The latest series or two have trimmed the running time and it’s helped it somewhat.

Rothko

punisher5112 wrote: »

It's gone with the pc times and following the trend....

Snowflakes.

It was great to about I'd say season 14 and anything previous was brilliant.

If they kept it like that I'd still watch the new ones today but do enjoy watching the old ones....

New stuff is absolute dirt....

It went downwill long before the PC era

ctrl-alt-delete

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

I love how i found this thread because of the "thanks" and so my first reading of the post you quoted ended up being in comic book guy's voice, i believe my life is all the better for that

coinop

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

When Conan left it went down gradually, its absolute tripe now and has out stayed it's welcome.

You don't know what you're talking about. People always over-state Conan's contribution to the Simpsons. Maybe because he is their best known writer? He wrote a handful of episodes and then split when he was offered his own late night talk show. https://simpsonswiki.com/wiki/Conan_O%27Brien

Ipso

CPTM wrote: »

It was better before they turned Homer into complete moron altogether. Remember the episodes 'Do it for her' (about Maggie) or when he found his mother and the episode finished with them looking up at the stars. I'm all for jokes but those sentimental moments humanized it and it hasn't been the same since.

Great episodes. And Maggie’s first word, for all the anti family guff about it from the usual prats it had some great family moments.

The Tetrarch

The Tetrarch wrote: »

The show gets old, but the actors never get older.

This is part of the issue. When the first film came out, they should have aged the characters. Lisa at College, Maggie at school, Bart on the dole, Homer retired, Marge off doing her own little jobs and such because she's not babysitting anymore..

Would have been an opportunity to freshen the whole thing up, give new opportunities for storylines, etc.

Lyan

[Deleted User] wrote: »

This is part of the issue. When the first film came out, they should have aged the characters. Lisa at College, Maggie at school, Bart on the dole, Homer retired, Marge off doing her own little jobs and such because she's not babysitting anymore..

Would have been an opportunity to freshen the whole thing up, give new opportunities for storylines, etc.

But the Simpsons had already done that...

El Tarangu

The Tetrarch wrote: »

The show gets old, but the actors never get older.
Ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching.

This is true. But The Simpsons has gone on for so long that some of their cast members have died of old age.

Strumms

punisher5112 wrote: »

It's gone with the pc times and following the trend....

Snowflakes.

It was great to about I'd say season 14 and anything previous was brilliant.

If they kept it like that I'd still watch the new ones today but do enjoy watching the old ones....

New stuff is absolute dirt....

It’s gone from being happy to offend, be outrageous and outrageously funny and original and ground breaking, outrageously controversial, witty, clever and entertaining... to going the opposite of all that... unwilling to take a risk, unwilling to offend... trying way too hard to be amusing, non offensive and appealing to every demographic of individual... it’s the opposite of what made it great.... it’s safe, amusing in parts, bland... just needs to be over probably...

JupiterKid

The Simpsons was pure gold in the 1990s, its first decade, especially from around 1992 to 1997. Incredibly original at the time and very very memorable. Then it got okay - some very good episodes, others meh.

After about 2004/5 it was rubbish. It should have been canned at that stage...

DanielODonnell

I considered boycotting The Simpsons when I seen that they included orange men in an episode but they won me over again when I noticed that they included The Giants Causeway in their Irish holiday episode and they called the plane 'Derry Air', they easily could have left Ulster out of that episode. I focus on the important things.

TheValeyard

I liked it up until that episode where Skinner wasnt really Skinner but another dude called Armin Tamzarian.

Badly Drunk Boy

Rodney Bathgate wrote: »

Futurama much better than The Simpsons. They didn’t get the opportunity to destroy by keeping it on life support for 20 years.

Even though I watched it, Futurama was always rubbish.

JupiterKid wrote: »

The Simpsons was pure gold in the 1990s, its first decade, especially from around 1992 to 1997. Incredibly original at the time and very very memorable. Then it got okay - some very good episodes, others meh.

After about 2004/5 it was rubbish. It should have been canned at that stage...

It's like music. In your formative years, what you experienced there will always be great and never be bettered. And yeah, while The Simpsons' quality has obviously dipped, it's popular to automatically say "It's not as good as it was in my day!".

Series 31 rocks!!! :pac:

peddlelies

snoopboggybog wrote: »

I started watching all the episodes I remember from child hood and my god its absolutely shocking. I loved them in my younger days

Maybe till I was 14 it must of been entertaining but now watching any of the famous old episodes its horrendous.

Jaysus its ****ing awful.

DS86DS

The first 9 seasons or thereabouts were very good, though it's being downhill ever since.

Strumms

Looking at the overall credits, there have been over 130 people who have written for the Simpsons. Maybe so many newbies brought in to keep things fresh, getting other and outside insights into characters, storylines etc... but... over the last say 3 years they have had Tim Long and Matt Selman, John Frink as well as other very old faces return to write... maybe in acknowledgement that things weren’t going so well with so many newbies...maybe needing to get back to the heart of what made the show and everything so funny...

razorblunt

DanielODonnell wrote: »

I considered boycotting The Simpsons when I seen that they included orange men in an episode but they won me over again when I noticed that they included The Giants Causeway in their Irish holiday episode and they called the plane 'Derry Air', they easily could have left Ulster out of that episode. I focus on the important things.

The same episode has a clip of a petrol bomb being thrown in through the window of a pub with Union Jacks all over it.
It was exactly that kind of stuff that made them brilliant.

razorblunt

TheValeyard wrote: »

I liked it up until that episode where Skinner wasnt really Skinner but another dude called Armin Tamzarian.

It’s been done. That episode wasn’t at all as bad as made out to be. You may as well complain that Homer didn’t die from the injuries sustained in failing to make it across the gorge on a skateboard.

Homelander

razorblunt wrote: »

The same episode has a clip of a petrol bomb being thrown in through the window of a pub with Union Jacks all over it.
It was exactly that kind of stuff that made them brilliant.

I hadn't seen that part until recently actually. It was obviously censored when being shown on Sky back in the day.

It's from Season 8 though, it's this episode - the one where Homer becomes a bootlegger and Rex Banner is sent to try and stop him:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_vs._the_Eighteenth_Amendment

ERG89

Its probably one of the most quotable pieces of media ever made but the last 20 years have went from fine to being sh!t at times.

So many reasons why; changeover of writers all of which have had different visions for the show, not being able to top their highs creatively, character burnout and utter failure to create any memorable new characters while also losing memorable ones along the way and instead of playing characters many celebrities are now pandered to. A lot of good YouTube videos have looked closer at the decline.

Stuff like this kinda sums up the Simpsons in 2020

https://twitter.com/SimpsonsWWE/status/1262142369006342144?s=19

padd b1975

Rodney Bathgate wrote: »

Futurama much better than The Simpsons. They didn’t get the opportunity to destroy by keeping it on life support for 20 years.

Neither of them compare to King of the Hill.

Better Than Christ

Jordan 199 wrote: »

Having Disney+ is excellent for The Simpsons fans.

Useful if you want to try and pinpoint the exact second that it stopped being good.

Ipso

Better Than Christ wrote: »

Useful if you want to try and pinpoint the exact second that it stopped being good.

I choo choose that.

Strumms

padd b1975 wrote: »

Neither of them compare to King of the Hill.

Brilliant show, completely underrated too.