Cultural products can brainwash people to be things that glorious leaders like Lisa don't like (but banning Itchy & Scratchy is misguided and will lead to people banning Michelangelo's David lmao). The problem is it never gives a good arguement for that; it just does a joke where Marge says the exact thing the doll says, then carries on as if it's proved its point.
>but banning Itchy & Scratchy is misguided and will lead to people banning Michelangelo's David lmao
Not sure if this is the best example given exactly that happened in Florida last year. Like it's so exact to the cartoonish events in Itchy and Scratchy and Marge that I wasn't sure if it wasn't a parody of the episode at first.
It's probably down to the writers and their priorities at the time. Itchy & Scratchy & Marge was done by John Swartzwelder who was really influenced by the ongoing backlash to Married....With Children in 1989 and the Senate hearings in the 80's on "Explicit" music and wrote with that in mind. Lisa Vs Malibu Stacy was written by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein who wanted to do a Malibu Stacy episode as Oakley's wife was a massive Barbie fan and he was writing the episode during the middle of a Barbie convention so Oakley was seeing opportunities for gags everywhere (Smithers being the owner of the largest Malibu Stacy collection was based off a real guy who owned the biggest Barbie collection in the world who Oakley actually met)
The former owner of Malibu Stacy throwing the full glass of whiskey into the fire is still one of my favorite visual gags
Kathleen Turner's delivery of "Release me from your kung fu Grip" kills me every time. Lisa Vs Malibu Stacy isn't the strongest episode but the gags in it are superb.
1 month ago
Anonymous
Stop, you're going to blow the zoomers' brains that Simpsons wasn't "one person".
1 month ago
Anonymous
It is interesting to see all their perspectives and world views in the "Golden Era" that influence the writing. Like, I don't think Lisa Vs Malibu Stacy is a strong episode but it's got a lot of great gags and the "Inside Baseball" aspect to it where Oakley was openly drawing on his research and knowledge of knowledge of the Barbie fandom at the time makes it an intriguing time capsule.
It also makes Itchy & Scratchy & Marge a neat little time capsule as well because it was written in the heyday of "Morality policing" of the 80's that even The Simpsons was eventually targeted in. John Swartzwelder is a conservative man with an interest in classical art as well so it was interesting to see him tackle an episode where his freedom of expression views conflicted with his more conservative views. Hence Marge's difficulty with Michelangelo's David and "should kids see this piece of art that's foundational to human history itself because it's also offensive".
Golden Era Simpsons was full of things like that that made it essential viewing. It's what I miss most that almost completely disappeared with the zombie Simpsons era. It wasn't just reeling off gags. There was an interesting depth to them.
1 month ago
Anonymous
What was wild to me when I found about about it is that the bit with the Spider-Man voice box was a thing that actually happened:
no, you're arguing the opposite thing to the thing you think you're arguing here
you're saying Lisa Lionheart shouldn't exist because people can buy what they want, and using the fact that only one kid buys the doll in the end to justify not offering choice to the consumer - non causa; but you're also claiming that the doll and Marge saying the exact same things isn't a problem because you don't see the problem with it, which is dishonest on your part since you clearly *do* see the problem, you just don't want it to be a problem because you disagree that it should be
your parents should've tied the sack tighter when they tossed you in the river, all they've gone and done is give you the moronic
nta but the point is that no matter how in the right you think your cause is, sometimes it's going to fail (especially in the face of the competition being a major corporation) and you just have to take happiness out of the singular person who appreciated it. Could be zero, after all.
The Barbie jokes do get boring and trite, though, there's no real original or mindboggling observation about Barbie in the episode.
It's amazing that after sucking Lisa's dick for the entire episode it actually gets a shit in about her taking other people's money for granted like a politician.
I think the point was the show is funnier when Lisa isn't on screen. That joke about jiggles and how she loves to close the door with her bum made me laugh. I also remember laughing about all the ageism jokes in the episode.
Is media literacy that thing where if you laugh at funny satire, you're a fascist?
I don't even like Starship Troopers but I'm willing to defend it against people like you.
Something really cracks me up about Lisa going to consult Smithers on how to find Stacy Lovell, and then he shows up at the end and completely ignores Stacy Lovell. That hat really has some cosmic marketing powers.
came here to post this, except for the "mean spirited" part, I don't give a shit about that I just don't like how bart screwed the pooch and got away with it
Why the frick do people know episode titles
that's so bizarre
In the 90s they aired simpsons reruns like 3 times a day, I watched literally over a thousand episodes a year of repeat golden age simpsons for years, which is why I have practically every line memorized, but I don't know any goddamn episode titles because it's not like they ever SAY the episode title in the beginning. maybe they do during the end credits but no one is reading that shit, we've all gotten up to piss and get something to drink
>Why the frick do people know episode titles
DVDs and modern reruns. I watched a ton of simpsons on the season sets as a kid and modern channel guides say the names now.
My dude, I think you have a narrow view of the 90s. TV Guides, Magazines, News Papers Ads, all had advertisements with air-times with episode titles for most prime-time shows, like the Simpsons. And the Simpsons itself was a cultural phenomenon that people take for granted today. There were multiple books (both official and unofficial) just dedicated to facts about the show and cataloging the episodes (with titles, crew credits, synopsis, and more). Just because the internet wasn't as common place, didn't mean us dorks didn't have resources to binge.
The one where Sideshow Bob's brother appears, for me the only worth it Bob episodes are the first three ones (Krusty's disguise, Selma's wife and the Cape Feare parody)
Agree on Bart's Girlfriend. It seems to be a popular episode among the fans but it always just makes me cringe. It's just Bart getting yanking around for 25 minutes.
I like the episode because it pairs Homer with a non-standard group, similar to Homer's Barbershop Quartet. >A close friend: Moe / Barney >A close acquaintance: Apu (wouldn't call him Homer's friend by this point in the Simpsons timeline) >Someone related to Springfield Elementary, with whom he barely interacts: Otto / Skinner
Nowadays, they would just go straight to Barney, Moe, Carl and/or Lenny.
>Nowadays, they would just go straight to Barney, Moe, Carl and/or Lenny.
Which really sucks, honestly, because Carl and Lenny were always only good for one off jokes. They're not really all that great for character focus.
>Basically all Lisa episodes
pretty much. At least the early instances used to be way better written and in them Lisa used to learn something herself. In the zombie era she's always the sole voice of reason and her ideologies are immaculate
Whacking Day is very weird and surreal because George Meyer started with the "Whacking Day" concept and wanted Springfield to have a weird small-town vibe but he was too busy and handed off the concept to Swartzwelder who only got ten pages in the first act with the idea that Bart would be expelled from school, get homeschooled and stop "Whacking Day". The writer's room just ran out of juice on the concept and they shuffled a lot like putting the actual "Whacking Day" concept in the second and third acts so it's a very weird and discordant episode compared to before. Barry White had offered to guest star before and they offered him this episode but they were afraid he wouldn't get on board with how weird the episode was. But he was totally in on the humour and ad-libbed a live version of "Can't Get Enough Of Your Love" for the episode.
It's interesting in a way because it was almost a proto-Adult Swim show in how surreal the episode was and how far out they went for the gags.
The fourth season is full of episodes like that, where they start with a normal premise and run out of ideas for how to make the story work, so they keep shoveling in gags to distract from the story falling apart.
Bill Oakley has said that when they started writing "Marge in Chains," Al Jean gave them a copy of Camus's "The Plague" to help them with the flu epidemic plot, and encouraged them to think seriously about how they would feel if their mom went to jail. And then they had a bad table read, the staff went to work, and both those plots lost any substance and were buried under an avalanche of wacky jokes.
Everything about season 4, both offscreen and on (like almost every episode running short, the constant use of redubbed footage, etc) has every sign of being an exhausted burned out show... except the writers were all brilliant joke writers and the jokes are almost all funny, so none of that matters.
Easily explained. The writing staff _was_ extremely burned out after Season 3 and many of them were planning to leave the show once Season 4's production was complete so they were a bit loose and sloppy compared to Seasons 1-3.
David Mirkin's commentaries make him sound like almost a parody of a Boomer, but I give him credit for keeping the show together while assembling an almost entirely new writing staff (and losing Conan O'Brien after like five episodes, plus John Swartzwelder refusing to be in the writer's room). You can see some growing pains in season 5 but it would have been easy for the show to implode after almost everybody who knew the characters left.
Easily explained. The writing staff _was_ extremely burned out after Season 3 and many of them were planning to leave the show once Season 4's production was complete so they were a bit loose and sloppy compared to Seasons 1-3.
It's a testament to the writers that not only were they able to keep the stories from falling apart. They added more depth while keeping the gags. Last Exit To Springfield in particular keeps the story simple, but with emotional depth (Homer staying head of the union even though he hates it because he needs to for Lisa) but keeps the gags rolling at an incredible pace.
What was wild to me when I found about about it is that the bit with the Spider-Man voice box was a thing that actually happened:
Like said above. It's not the strongest episode but the writers having access to the Barbie fandom littered the episode with tons of insider jokes that work on the surface level, but are inspired by real things in the Barbie fandom that make it a bit more than a parody. At the end of the day it's another "Lisa learns how the real world works" episode but there's something really genuine about that episode, that you could tell the writers room were having a blast being able to work in a reality that's stranger than fiction.
There's a bit in Charlie Sweatpants' Zombie Simpsons book about the writing team getting almost completely replaced twice around season 4 and 8. That they managed to do it so well the first time was a real goddamn miracle, and a testament to how good Mirkin was at his job. It was never gonna happen a second time, sadly.
Funny you should say that, BTF is my least favorite classic Simpsons episode. There's not really any memorable jokes or lines, and the entirety of "Krusty comes back under a fake identity, no one believes Bart, Bart and Lisa convince him to come back" is dealt with in literally five minutes.
I never found Homerpalooza particularly funny. I'm usually fine with the musical references and guests like in other episodes of this era, but this one did nothing for me.
Also, depending on how late you consider "classic", theres this one part about Mike Scully's run I loathe: how he kept using this no name, meh band for music just because he was a fan.
The Day the Violence Died because the plot is actually moronic. How did Bart not realize that going against Itchy and Scratchy in court would be a bad idea?
I also don't like Secrets of a Successful Marriage or Homer goes to College because Homer ruins both episodes.
Homer Goes To College has (of course) a lot of funny gags but it's really uncomfortable to see what a complete unredeemed jackass Homer is for the whole 22 minutes.
Even though Conan O'Brien wrote the script it's very much a story right out of David Mirkin's anti-sitcom "Get a Life," where Chris Elliott played an idiot manchild who keeps confusing reality with fiction. Homer is just Chris in this episode.
I forgot to add I don't like A Star is Burns only for Al Jean and Mike Reiss shamelessly promoting The Critic which was completely forgettable except for Duke who was the only funny character. I like everything else about the episode where it has some of the best Mr Burns moments between Boo-urns and his movie in general and Football in the groin is one of the greatest gags in Simpsons history but knowing the behind the scenes stuff I don't blame Matt Groening getting upset about it.
My Sister, My Sitter because too mean-spirited and it's really pushing believability to think Marge would be dumb enough to think having Lisa babysit Bart was a good idea. Homer would be that dumb yes, but Marge? Really?
Hate Homer's brother episodes. He encouraged Homer to design the car he wanted and scolded the real designers who tried to stop the madness, then the car flopped and somehow Homer is at fault? And they gave two episodes to this fricking idiot? Never made sense that they blame Homer for him going bankrupt when it was his fricking moron brother's idea to bring him in.
I heard the 2nd episode was created because people felt bad for Herb. Even read that Danny Devito kinda half assed the 2nd time, so he probably knew it was a bad idea.
Fear of Flying is one of the few episodes I don't particularly care for. The Guy Incognito and lesbian bar jokes are great, but once we end the "Homer seaches for a new bar" goes right into "Marge's fear of flying" storyline, I check out.
I think it was just an edgy parody of "family is the most important thing!" shtick in sitcoms. Herb instantly acts like family is the most important thing and he loses everything. It's also about the decline of the American car-making industry. Herb's failed company is bought by a Japanese company at the end.
Yeah, people remember season 2 for being schmaltzy but it was also the darkest and most likely to subvert familiar sitcom tropes. Starting in season 3 they got lighter, which is easiest to see comparing the first Herb episode to the second, which was made because Brooks and co. decided the first one was too bleak.
See also the unstated black humor that Abe is neglected and unhappy in his old-folks' home but he doesn't deserve any better because he was a bad father.
I recall that the alt.tv.simpsons newsgroup largely viewed season 2 as the peak of the show, and if "Bart vs. Thanksgiving" or "Lisa's Substitute" are your favorite episodes then you're not going to be happy with how crazy the show started to get in season 3.
The writers themselves mostly seemed to think season 3 was their best because it had the perfect balance between season 2's story substance and season 4's craziness.
Herb was a geniune moron and it was odd how the two episodes he's in the writers desperately try to paint the situation as if Homer has any fault whatsoever.
Homer Goes to College.
Maybe this is because I haven't watched Animal House or whatever it is parodying, but that episode is just Homer being an butthole for 20 minutes.
Mine is Burns Verkaufen Der Kraftwerk
Other than the land of chocolate fantasy and the German workers vaguely threatening Mr Burns after he buys the plant back, I struggle to think of any memorable parts or gags
I disagree. Homer's Phobia isn't really soapboxy compared to the zombie era. It's got a moral but it's done with comedy in mind and the resolution is still really funny. Also has some of the most phenomenal gags and lines in the show's history.
Like, there's way worse moral grandstanding in the golden era like Lisa The Vegetarian. Homer's Phobia is just plain funny the whole way through.
The Otto Show. I just found it bizarre that Otto of all side characters got his own episode before most others. He's not that funny of a character in large doses.
Also, the first 1/3rd of the episode basically being a Spinal Tap ad.
homosexual detected
well that's a funny lookin' strike
The Principal and the Pauper
>The Principal and the Pauper
>Classic
Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy is preachy propaganda that doesn't even make its point but acts like it does.
What do you think the point was?
Cultural products can brainwash people to be things that glorious leaders like Lisa don't like (but banning Itchy & Scratchy is misguided and will lead to people banning Michelangelo's David lmao). The problem is it never gives a good arguement for that; it just does a joke where Marge says the exact thing the doll says, then carries on as if it's proved its point.
>but banning Itchy & Scratchy is misguided and will lead to people banning Michelangelo's David lmao
Not sure if this is the best example given exactly that happened in Florida last year. Like it's so exact to the cartoonish events in Itchy and Scratchy and Marge that I wasn't sure if it wasn't a parody of the episode at first.
I'm referring to another episode of the Simpsons. The two episodes clash completely in their attitude towards culture.
How so? I'm curious on your take on it.
It's probably down to the writers and their priorities at the time. Itchy & Scratchy & Marge was done by John Swartzwelder who was really influenced by the ongoing backlash to Married....With Children in 1989 and the Senate hearings in the 80's on "Explicit" music and wrote with that in mind. Lisa Vs Malibu Stacy was written by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein who wanted to do a Malibu Stacy episode as Oakley's wife was a massive Barbie fan and he was writing the episode during the middle of a Barbie convention so Oakley was seeing opportunities for gags everywhere (Smithers being the owner of the largest Malibu Stacy collection was based off a real guy who owned the biggest Barbie collection in the world who Oakley actually met)
Kathleen Turner's delivery of "Release me from your kung fu Grip" kills me every time. Lisa Vs Malibu Stacy isn't the strongest episode but the gags in it are superb.
Stop, you're going to blow the zoomers' brains that Simpsons wasn't "one person".
It is interesting to see all their perspectives and world views in the "Golden Era" that influence the writing. Like, I don't think Lisa Vs Malibu Stacy is a strong episode but it's got a lot of great gags and the "Inside Baseball" aspect to it where Oakley was openly drawing on his research and knowledge of knowledge of the Barbie fandom at the time makes it an intriguing time capsule.
It also makes Itchy & Scratchy & Marge a neat little time capsule as well because it was written in the heyday of "Morality policing" of the 80's that even The Simpsons was eventually targeted in. John Swartzwelder is a conservative man with an interest in classical art as well so it was interesting to see him tackle an episode where his freedom of expression views conflicted with his more conservative views. Hence Marge's difficulty with Michelangelo's David and "should kids see this piece of art that's foundational to human history itself because it's also offensive".
Golden Era Simpsons was full of things like that that made it essential viewing. It's what I miss most that almost completely disappeared with the zombie Simpsons era. It wasn't just reeling off gags. There was an interesting depth to them.
What was wild to me when I found about about it is that the bit with the Spider-Man voice box was a thing that actually happened:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbie_Liberation_Organization
no, you're arguing the opposite thing to the thing you think you're arguing here
you're saying Lisa Lionheart shouldn't exist because people can buy what they want, and using the fact that only one kid buys the doll in the end to justify not offering choice to the consumer - non causa; but you're also claiming that the doll and Marge saying the exact same things isn't a problem because you don't see the problem with it, which is dishonest on your part since you clearly *do* see the problem, you just don't want it to be a problem because you disagree that it should be
your parents should've tied the sack tighter when they tossed you in the river, all they've gone and done is give you the moronic
You think that bit's about brainwashing? good fricking god you're dumb
Marxist "social construct" beliefs do amount to the idea that people are brainwashed by just about anything and everything.
Consoomers think a hat on an old product makes it a new product
nta but the point is that no matter how in the right you think your cause is, sometimes it's going to fail (especially in the face of the competition being a major corporation) and you just have to take happiness out of the singular person who appreciated it. Could be zero, after all.
The Barbie jokes do get boring and trite, though, there's no real original or mindboggling observation about Barbie in the episode.
>you just have to take happiness out of the singular person who appreciated it
I just hope that girl paid $80,000 for that doll.
Shut up, Stacy.
It's amazing that after sucking Lisa's dick for the entire episode it actually gets a shit in about her taking other people's money for granted like a politician.
this one and Vegetarian Lisa have some of my favorite jokes, but damn she's really annoying so i end avoiding them
I think the point was the show is funnier when Lisa isn't on screen. That joke about jiggles and how she loves to close the door with her bum made me laugh. I also remember laughing about all the ageism jokes in the episode.
This is the kind of person who thinks Starship Troopers isnt a satire.
Is media literacy that thing where if you laugh at funny satire, you're a fascist?
I don't even like Starship Troopers but I'm willing to defend it against people like you.
>xe/xem never read the book
I thought leftists were supposed to be media literate?
meds
Something really cracks me up about Lisa going to consult Smithers on how to find Stacy Lovell, and then he shows up at the end and completely ignores Stacy Lovell. That hat really has some cosmic marketing powers.
The episode has many gunny gags but the main story is bullshit.
The former owner of Malibu Stacy throwing the full glass of whiskey into the fire is still one of my favorite visual gags
the Grampa subplot is great, also the bit with GI Joe kills me because of how unhinged he sounds.
I know people overuse the term "mean spirited," but I really think miracle on evergreen terrace deserves that description
came here to post this, except for the "mean spirited" part, I don't give a shit about that I just don't like how bart screwed the pooch and got away with it
Why the frick do people know episode titles
that's so bizarre
In the 90s they aired simpsons reruns like 3 times a day, I watched literally over a thousand episodes a year of repeat golden age simpsons for years, which is why I have practically every line memorized, but I don't know any goddamn episode titles because it's not like they ever SAY the episode title in the beginning. maybe they do during the end credits but no one is reading that shit, we've all gotten up to piss and get something to drink
>Why the frick do people know episode titles
DVDs and modern reruns. I watched a ton of simpsons on the season sets as a kid and modern channel guides say the names now.
>Why the frick do people know episode titles
Boomer here, the TV guide used to have them.
>it's not like they ever SAY the episode title in the beginning
newbie
Also 'The Telltale Head'
I miss when Latin America didn't have Internet access.
rent free
My dude, I think you have a narrow view of the 90s. TV Guides, Magazines, News Papers Ads, all had advertisements with air-times with episode titles for most prime-time shows, like the Simpsons. And the Simpsons itself was a cultural phenomenon that people take for granted today. There were multiple books (both official and unofficial) just dedicated to facts about the show and cataloging the episodes (with titles, crew credits, synopsis, and more). Just because the internet wasn't as common place, didn't mean us dorks didn't have resources to binge.
I had that guide as a kid. Back before there were autistically-dedicated wikis this was basically the closest thing and it honestly kicked ass.
Man I had that guide, I wish I still did
I remember they got up to season 20 with it. Wonder how far it is now...
I watched them all on DVD a decade after most of the good episodes aired and the episode titles are all on there
the one in which Bart steals the videogame from the store and got caught
I agree,the way all the other city folks trashed them was unpleasant
The one where Sideshow Bob's brother appears, for me the only worth it Bob episodes are the first three ones (Krusty's disguise, Selma's wife and the Cape Feare parody)
Usually skip Colonel Homer, The Front and Bart's Girlfriend when they come up. I don't hate them, they're just kind of boring.
Agree on Bart's Girlfriend. It seems to be a popular episode among the fans but it always just makes me cringe. It's just Bart getting yanking around for 25 minutes.
>Agree on Bart's Girlfriend. It seems to be a popular episode among the fans but
it's as if they all want to frick Jessica or something
Cape Fear.
I loved it as a kid but it just doesn't hit the way it use to.
I think it holds up
>mfw springfield minimum security prison
He was looking for an African Elephant on short notice?
What was the joke here? Was he saying he was looking for a hung black actor for a porn or something?
>What was the joke here?
Whenever you sell stuff you'll always get timewasters
It's got good jokes but yeah I found most of it kind of lacking.
I like the episode because it pairs Homer with a non-standard group, similar to Homer's Barbershop Quartet.
>A close friend: Moe / Barney
>A close acquaintance: Apu (wouldn't call him Homer's friend by this point in the Simpsons timeline)
>Someone related to Springfield Elementary, with whom he barely interacts: Otto / Skinner
Nowadays, they would just go straight to Barney, Moe, Carl and/or Lenny.
>Nowadays, they would just go straight to Barney, Moe, Carl and/or Lenny.
Which really sucks, honestly, because Carl and Lenny were always only good for one off jokes. They're not really all that great for character focus.
The one where Lisa babysat Bart made me feel anxious as frick. Homer getting trapped in the fountain is one of the GOAT visual gags though.
I have honestly never watched a single episode of the simpsons
I don't care for the dumbass dad cartoon genre
am I missing out on anything?
You're missing out on a lot, zoomer satan.
thats because you're a homosexual
Why are you here?
Two Bad Neighbors
It's just kinda mean-spirited, dated, and not particularly funny.
>mean-spirited
>I bet I'll get a little respect once I get that Harvard diploma
One of the top ten gags in all of Simpsons
Might be classic, but golden age simpsons was 2-6
The one with the israeli teacher. Basically all Lisa episodes.
>The one with the israeli teacher
yeah that one stank, felt out of place
>Basically all Lisa episodes
pretty much. At least the early instances used to be way better written and in them Lisa used to learn something herself. In the zombie era she's always the sole voice of reason and her ideologies are immaculate
I just never liked Whacking Day. IDK what it is but the episode is very weird and surreal. The whole vibe of it doesn't click with me.
I get this vibe from all the episodes of the 8th season,dunno why
I find all of the 4th season very comfy tho
Whacking Day is very weird and surreal because George Meyer started with the "Whacking Day" concept and wanted Springfield to have a weird small-town vibe but he was too busy and handed off the concept to Swartzwelder who only got ten pages in the first act with the idea that Bart would be expelled from school, get homeschooled and stop "Whacking Day". The writer's room just ran out of juice on the concept and they shuffled a lot like putting the actual "Whacking Day" concept in the second and third acts so it's a very weird and discordant episode compared to before. Barry White had offered to guest star before and they offered him this episode but they were afraid he wouldn't get on board with how weird the episode was. But he was totally in on the humour and ad-libbed a live version of "Can't Get Enough Of Your Love" for the episode.
It's interesting in a way because it was almost a proto-Adult Swim show in how surreal the episode was and how far out they went for the gags.
they loved Barry White because Fox owned his catalog so they could use his songs on the show and not have to pay for them
The fourth season is full of episodes like that, where they start with a normal premise and run out of ideas for how to make the story work, so they keep shoveling in gags to distract from the story falling apart.
Bill Oakley has said that when they started writing "Marge in Chains," Al Jean gave them a copy of Camus's "The Plague" to help them with the flu epidemic plot, and encouraged them to think seriously about how they would feel if their mom went to jail. And then they had a bad table read, the staff went to work, and both those plots lost any substance and were buried under an avalanche of wacky jokes.
Everything about season 4, both offscreen and on (like almost every episode running short, the constant use of redubbed footage, etc) has every sign of being an exhausted burned out show... except the writers were all brilliant joke writers and the jokes are almost all funny, so none of that matters.
Easily explained. The writing staff _was_ extremely burned out after Season 3 and many of them were planning to leave the show once Season 4's production was complete so they were a bit loose and sloppy compared to Seasons 1-3.
David Mirkin's commentaries make him sound like almost a parody of a Boomer, but I give him credit for keeping the show together while assembling an almost entirely new writing staff (and losing Conan O'Brien after like five episodes, plus John Swartzwelder refusing to be in the writer's room). You can see some growing pains in season 5 but it would have been easy for the show to implode after almost everybody who knew the characters left.
It's a testament to the writers that not only were they able to keep the stories from falling apart. They added more depth while keeping the gags. Last Exit To Springfield in particular keeps the story simple, but with emotional depth (Homer staying head of the union even though he hates it because he needs to for Lisa) but keeps the gags rolling at an incredible pace.
Like said above. It's not the strongest episode but the writers having access to the Barbie fandom littered the episode with tons of insider jokes that work on the surface level, but are inspired by real things in the Barbie fandom that make it a bit more than a parody. At the end of the day it's another "Lisa learns how the real world works" episode but there's something really genuine about that episode, that you could tell the writers room were having a blast being able to work in a reality that's stranger than fiction.
There's a bit in Charlie Sweatpants' Zombie Simpsons book about the writing team getting almost completely replaced twice around season 4 and 8. That they managed to do it so well the first time was a real goddamn miracle, and a testament to how good Mirkin was at his job. It was never gonna happen a second time, sadly.
Miracle on Evergreen Terrace. Too mean-spirited.
I don't particularly fancy "Like Father Like Clown" because it was obvious tryhard award b8.
Two Bad Neighbors
I fricking hate Sideshow Bob. I absolutely cannot stand him. Every single episode he was in was unfunny. Every single one.
Bart of Darkness. It's just kinda bland.
I watched this for the first time a few days ago and MILPOOL made me laugh for like 20 minutes straight
Marge in Chains
Skip every Krusty episode except for Bart the Fink.
Funny you should say that, BTF is my least favorite classic Simpsons episode. There's not really any memorable jokes or lines, and the entirety of "Krusty comes back under a fake identity, no one believes Bart, Bart and Lisa convince him to come back" is dealt with in literally five minutes.
Lisa's Substitute. It just feels "off" somehow.
Because she's thirsty for his ass and she's like 10?
Too sappy, too.
I will make my own suggestion, the Itchy and Scratchy movie? I guess I don't remember. I hate itchy and scratchy so whichever one had the most.
Life on the Fast Lane
Really what I'm seeing are a lot of Marge and Lisa ones. Like the characters, the episodes tended towards self-important and lame.
Scenes From A Class Struggle in Springfield.
I never found Homerpalooza particularly funny. I'm usually fine with the musical references and guests like in other episodes of this era, but this one did nothing for me.
appologize
>fat but gaunt
God cursed him
I'm not a huge fan of The Old Man and the Lisa. It's still worth watching just for Mr. Burns in the grocery store though.
Also, depending on how late you consider "classic", theres this one part about Mike Scully's run I loathe: how he kept using this no name, meh band for music just because he was a fan.
The Front. Not bad, just boring.
The Day the Violence Died because the plot is actually moronic. How did Bart not realize that going against Itchy and Scratchy in court would be a bad idea?
I also don't like Secrets of a Successful Marriage or Homer goes to College because Homer ruins both episodes.
Homer Goes To College has (of course) a lot of funny gags but it's really uncomfortable to see what a complete unredeemed jackass Homer is for the whole 22 minutes.
Even though Conan O'Brien wrote the script it's very much a story right out of David Mirkin's anti-sitcom "Get a Life," where Chris Elliott played an idiot manchild who keeps confusing reality with fiction. Homer is just Chris in this episode.
I forgot to add I don't like A Star is Burns only for Al Jean and Mike Reiss shamelessly promoting The Critic which was completely forgettable except for Duke who was the only funny character. I like everything else about the episode where it has some of the best Mr Burns moments between Boo-urns and his movie in general and Football in the groin is one of the greatest gags in Simpsons history but knowing the behind the scenes stuff I don't blame Matt Groening getting upset about it.
My Sister, My Sitter because too mean-spirited and it's really pushing believability to think Marge would be dumb enough to think having Lisa babysit Bart was a good idea. Homer would be that dumb yes, but Marge? Really?
Hate Homer's brother episodes. He encouraged Homer to design the car he wanted and scolded the real designers who tried to stop the madness, then the car flopped and somehow Homer is at fault? And they gave two episodes to this fricking idiot? Never made sense that they blame Homer for him going bankrupt when it was his fricking moron brother's idea to bring him in.
I heard the 2nd episode was created because people felt bad for Herb. Even read that Danny Devito kinda half assed the 2nd time, so he probably knew it was a bad idea.
Fear of Flying is one of the few episodes I don't particularly care for. The Guy Incognito and lesbian bar jokes are great, but once we end the "Homer seaches for a new bar" goes right into "Marge's fear of flying" storyline, I check out.
I think it was just an edgy parody of "family is the most important thing!" shtick in sitcoms. Herb instantly acts like family is the most important thing and he loses everything. It's also about the decline of the American car-making industry. Herb's failed company is bought by a Japanese company at the end.
Yeah, people remember season 2 for being schmaltzy but it was also the darkest and most likely to subvert familiar sitcom tropes. Starting in season 3 they got lighter, which is easiest to see comparing the first Herb episode to the second, which was made because Brooks and co. decided the first one was too bleak.
See also the unstated black humor that Abe is neglected and unhappy in his old-folks' home but he doesn't deserve any better because he was a bad father.
>How to make all of Cinemaphile hate you
I didn't care for it. I'm sorry.
You're in good company, Harry Shearer and Julie Kavner both thought it sucked (Shearer has pretty much never liked the show since then).
Shearer has complained about the show since season 3. He wanted more schmaltzy stuff like the first two seasons.
I recall that the alt.tv.simpsons newsgroup largely viewed season 2 as the peak of the show, and if "Bart vs. Thanksgiving" or "Lisa's Substitute" are your favorite episodes then you're not going to be happy with how crazy the show started to get in season 3.
The writers themselves mostly seemed to think season 3 was their best because it had the perfect balance between season 2's story substance and season 4's craziness.
Kavner can be explained by her having only a couple of lines in the episode.
Kavner also hated the Gabbo episode. Marge doesn't have a single line in it.
It was the beginning of the show sucking celebrity's dicks.
Homer Goes To Space. Even most of the writers thought it was a bad idea.
I just never liked any Krusty episodes.
Boy Scoutz 'n The Hood
Herb was a geniune moron and it was odd how the two episodes he's in the writers desperately try to paint the situation as if Homer has any fault whatsoever.
>the two episodes he's in
Unfortunately they continued to bring him back in later seasons, but I suppose the thread excludes the zombie era.
He's only been in one, as a vocal only cameo.
Homer Goes to College.
Maybe this is because I haven't watched Animal House or whatever it is parodying, but that episode is just Homer being an butthole for 20 minutes.
Mine is Burns Verkaufen Der Kraftwerk
Other than the land of chocolate fantasy and the German workers vaguely threatening Mr Burns after he buys the plant back, I struggle to think of any memorable parts or gags
The season 1 episode about Homer dancing with a not-a-striper was pretty bad. It ends with an unironic "and then everyone clapped" moralizing speech.
Homer's Phobia is grating, it feels like it something the writers would've crapped out post S10+
soapboxers gotta soap
I disagree. Homer's Phobia isn't really soapboxy compared to the zombie era. It's got a moral but it's done with comedy in mind and the resolution is still really funny. Also has some of the most phenomenal gags and lines in the show's history.
Like, there's way worse moral grandstanding in the golden era like Lisa The Vegetarian. Homer's Phobia is just plain funny the whole way through.
Gay Steel Mill is legitimately one of the best Simpson's gags of all time, the escalation before it goes full moron is magnificent
Itchy and Scratchy Land
The Otto Show. I just found it bizarre that Otto of all side characters got his own episode before most others. He's not that funny of a character in large doses.
Also, the first 1/3rd of the episode basically being a Spinal Tap ad.
>side character stays with the Simpsons episode
Only good time that happened was with Apu
Does season 1 even count as "classic" Simpsons? I recognize it for the landmark cultural artifact but I find very little of it actually entertaining.
Of course it does
I know they technically don't count, but Im suprised to not see any of the clip shows mentioned in this thread
ALRIGHT YEAH!