Was The Simpsons always horrendous?

Nope it was utterly fantastic for a long time.
It definitely isn't now, although it still has an occasional good episode.

It was brilliant for 177 episodes. The episode Homer's Enemy was peak Simpsons.

The 178th episode “The Secret War of Lisa Simpson” was a personal turning point. It marked an episode in which I was, in hindsight, merely watching instead of enjoying. Bart get’s sent to military school while Lisa, insufficiently challenged at Springfield Elementary, joins him there. The jokes (e.g. “Company L? But sir! They smell!”) were still there but were stretched and intermittent. That episode was the season 8 finale. Season 9 marked the beginning of the decline after a celebrated run of seasons that remain a benchmark for comedy writing, voice acting. The jokes were still funny but the plots became more and more outlandish and contrived. What’s interesting is that a celebrated episode preceding “The Secret War of Lisa Simpson”, the aforementioned “Homer’s Enemy” contained a veiled message from staff writer John Swartzwelder that the series had very much run it’s course and was becoming more and more reliant on the outlandish plots alluded to earlier.

That episode marked the Simpsons reaching it’s peak and a prescient scene is where Homer invites Frank Grimes to his home and is giving him a tour of the house where Grimes bears witness to some of Homer’s history. He won a Grammy, he toured with the Smashing Pumpkins, he’s friends with Gerald Ford, he’s been to Space. This is Swartzwelder forewarning the audience that the show is becoming stale and will be more outlandish and contrived going forward to try and maintain a semblance of quality. The Armin Tamzarian episode is frequently cited as the beginning of the end in terms of subjective quality I'm the show but for me, Schwartzwelder called it correctly in that coded scene but to suggest the preceding seasons were horrendous is wrong. The Simpsons was consistently excellent during the 1990's (season 4 is my personal favourite, the writers found their stride), it really should have ended two decades ago but it's a cash cow. It was a significant asset for 20th Century Fox but hopefully now that the rights lie with Disney they will simply cease producing it.

I remember watching it religiously every evening on Sky One, then waiting for the new episode at half 6 on a Sunday. The mid 90s were the absolute peak, I still kept watching it on and off as I got older but the movie was where I stopped, I can't remember the last time I watched a new episode.

I have watched a lot of the older ones on Disney plus recently and they're still great.

I think in my own case who has a pretty crude sense of humour when I started watching family guy and southpark my interest in the Simpsons wained straight away. When I went back I found it too vanilla for my taste. I suppose age probably has something to do with it. When I was 10 a cartoon character pulling down his pants was hilarious, not so much now.

Season 6 episode 24 lemon of Troy. For me the pinnacle of the simpsons.

AllForIt wrote: »

Noting worse than when Simpsons fans go on a roll recounting this scene, than scene, the other scene, laughing hysterically along the way, and just when you think his memory has failed him a quarter of an hour later, off he goes again not realizing your not following any of this until eventually you're forced to make an excuses and leave or he'll never stop otherwise.

It has now been bad for longer than it was good.

I watched one of the newer episodes recently. It was OK, I wasn't watching it thinking this is dreadful but I certainly didn't laugh at any of it.

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

AllForIt wrote: »

Noting worse than when Simpsons fans go on a roll recounting this scene, than scene, the other scene, laughing hysterically along the way, and just when you think his memory has failed him a quarter of an hour later, off he goes again not realizing your not following any of this until eventually you're forced to make an excuses and leave or he'll never stop otherwise.

Yeah, like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on ‘em. “Give me five bees for a quarter,” you’d say. Now where were we? Oh yeah – the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn’t have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones.

I never liked that Grimey episode. Homer was too much of an oaf in it, I think.

The one where Bart and Ralph become friends was on Channel 4 this morning. It has one of my favourite lines from any show. "What is your fascination with my forbidden closet of mystery?"

tom1ie wrote: »

Season 6 episode 24 lemon of Troy. For me the pinnacle of the simpsons.

valoren wrote: »

It was brilliant for 177 episodes. The episode Homer's Enemy was peak Simpsons.

The 178th episode “The Secret War of Lisa Simpson” was a personal turning point. It marked an episode in which I was, in hindsight, merely watching instead of enjoying. Bart get’s sent to military school while Lisa, insufficiently challenged at Springfield Elementary, joins him there. The jokes (e.g. “Company L? But sir! They smell!”) were still there but were stretched and intermittent. That episode was the season 8 finale. Season 9 marked the beginning of the decline after a celebrated run of seasons that remain a benchmark for comedy writing, voice acting. The jokes were still funny but the plots became more and more outlandish and contrived. What’s interesting is that a celebrated episode preceding “The Secret War of Lisa Simpson”, the aforementioned “Homer’s Enemy” contained a veiled message from staff writer John Swartzwelder that the series had very much run it’s course and was becoming more and more reliant on the outlandish plots alluded to earlier.

That episode marked the Simpson reaching it’s peak and a prescient scene is where Homer invites Frank Grimes to his home and is giving him a tour of the house and Grimes bears witness to some of Homer’s history. He won a Grammy, he toured with the Smashing Pumpkins, he’s friends with Gerald Ford, he’s been to Space. This is Swartzwelder forewarning the audience that the show is becoming stale and will be more outlandish and contrived going forward to try and maintain a semblance of quality. For me, he was correct but to suggest the preceding seasons were horrendous is wrong, The Simpsons was simply excellent during the 1990's (season 4 is my favourite), it should have ended two decades ago but it's a cash cow so it's still being made.

You sound like Patrick Bateman reciting his morning routine

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.

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”

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.

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