I religiously consider seasons 1-11 to be the essential Simpsons, with 3-8 being the greatest era, but I have to say this is the real beginning of the end. Not even Principal & the Pauper, which can be shrugged away with the way they wrapped it up. But this is the first episode where it was like “tune in for the Simpsons with x and x celebrity!” Instead of it being “x celebrity cameo”, the entire plot revolves around “hey look who it is!” Obviously gets worse in the zombie era, but the DNA for such a crappy selling point starts here.
What episode was the beginning of the end for you guys?
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It’s hard for me to pick a specific episode because by the time I was watching simps they were already on like season 14, but I could easily binge watch episodes for the first 8 or 9 seasons. The last episode I remember sitting down and wanting to try and watch was a future episode where Lisa is president and barts a loser, again. I think I kind of guessed at this point they’re running out of steam if they’re going to be recycling episodes this blatantly and I’m pretty sure this was like season 12. They’ve done that same premise like ten times now from what I’ve seen.
Yeah I can't think of any single moment that made me say "No I'm not watching this anymore." It was just kind of gradual. I used to really race home to catch new episodes but as the quality declined I just sort of became more and more "OKAY" with missing them till it reached a point where I just sort of forgot to watch.
>"No I'm not watching this anymore."
screamapillar.
That episode has some great lines, it's a shame.
I still dip in now and then. A lot of the 'classics' have lost their shine through over-watching over the years.
Recently saw the IT parody/remake they did and that was... odd, but not bad?
The worst ones of all are the "future" episodes they do. Lisa's Wedding was a fun one off but they've done so many now.
There was a lot of fuss a few years back about that season opener where Marge and Homer get a "divorce" in a dream, but the episode was actually good. Thoughtful, well-written, sensitively performed. I liked it. In fact I think I liked most of that season; if it was the very experimental one they did (they may have done multiple experimental seasons and I'm all for that, it's better than getting Kid Rock back to remind everybody Joe C's been dead longer than he was alive). The one where Homer ended up having feelings for a single mom was iirc pretty good too, despite the outrage it generated here at the time 11 years ago ffs. B-story about Lisa unionizing the local cheerleaders was good?
Anyway, if you want a recommendation for non-classic episodes, The Scorpion's Tale, Not It, Million Dollar Abie (last one because it has a surprisingly dramatic/cinematic moment for Grandpa, which is well animated, and despite being ridiculous plot wise is a good story; better than Homer Badman or Deep Space Homer for plot/plausibility).
I don't remember that episode at all. I even looked it up and it was a s13 episode which I feel like I should have still been somewhat passingly aware of.
now thats a shit episode
This is common, for many shows, but is sometimes accompanied by catching an episode much later and being repulsed. Like Marge watching hardcore sex on Fox.
I don't hate this episode. Yes Bassinger and Baldwin's roles were bad but Ron Howard was good.
OP here. I don’t HATE it by any stretch, but I can feel the “they’re here just because” point of the guests. And yeah agreed, Howard is great.
I think it's mostly a fine episode. The Terminizor is a great joke.
If they had played the dynamic straight like Homer with Bush or Homer with Grimes, it would have been much funnier.
Who was the first celebrity who appeared as themselves? Tony Bennett?
All of the ringers in the softball episode.
Oh, nope. You're right.
Michael Jackson if you want to be technical. If not, then Aerosmith in Flaming Moes
Jackson didn’t play himself really
For 99% of the episode Michael Jackson voiced someone named Michael Jackson
Sure but it wasn’t actually him within the episode
I know. I’m just being a silly goose.
I get why people dislike this one but the ron howard jump bit had me fricking howling
Honestly, I liked most of the celebrity cameos from the Scully seasons. The writers actually attempted to make jokes with their appearances instead of sucking their dick bone-dry like in the Al Jean seasons.
I can't remember what producer said it before but they used to not really be too hot on special guests after Season 3 unless they were really cool on the plots getting a bit "out there" and they had a lot of potential guests turn it down simply because. They had a few guests in mind for "Last Exit To Springfield" to play Lisa's dentist but all of the actors they approached shot it down because the episode was really wacky for the time. Which when you consider that episode is in the conversation for the best TV episode of all time is wild to think about these days.
Freakazoid was a show for TV nerds to bully computer nerds which is why it ruled.
9 still has some of the leftovers from Season 8 like The City Of NY Vs Homer Simpson and one of the best Treehouse of Horror episodes. So I can't fully hate it like I can season 10 or 11 when it properly went Zombie era.
>So I can't fully hate it like I can season 10 or 11 when it properly went Zombie era
NTA, but I would argue season 9 can be called the last true good season (at least, in my opinion, as the good episodes still outnumber the bad ones).
Season 10 and 11 are the transition era. 50/50 in terms of good and bad episodes. (Following the zombie analogy, you are bitten, but have not succumb yet, you are still functional but are rapidly deteriorating)
Season 12 onwards, it is full zombie.
Funny enough, in my head, I always think the Simpsons didn't go full zombie until much, much later (20 or something), and it isn't until I re-read the episode lists that I come back to my senses and see how early (as in, we are currently in the 35th season) Zombie Simpsons began
ive always pinpointed this episode as the start of the decline, and new kids on the blecch as the point where i lost interest in the show
It still blows my mind that they waited so long to invite Jim Varney and George Carlin onto the show
The Simpsons didn't just have a hard cutoff where it suddenly turned bad. While the golden age is definitely the first 6 seasons, I still found The Simpsons funny even up to like season 16.
It just slowly became insufferable as they introduced overtly woke talking points.
As a LatAm Anon, I must say that, for many of us, Zombie Simpsons starts exacly in Season 16, i.e. the Season where they replaced the whole dubbing cast for a new one.
Thus, no more Humberto Vélez (Homer), Nancy MacKenzie (Marge), .
Not saying those later seasons up to the 15th one were not composed of some major stinkers, but thanks to Humberto and his fellow castmates' charm, they were tolerable for us.
is there just one dub for all of latam
Yes. In the Simpsons case, it is made in Mexico (where the best LatinAmerican Spanish dubs come from).
TV Shows and movies usually have a single dub that is distributed all over the continent. However, back in the VHS era, it wasn't unheard of certain countries (like Colombia or Argentina) releasing a VHS version with their own dub. Many are considering lost media, so uncovering them is a huge feat.
I never would have thought about this. Interesting.
I genuinely think if Behind the Laughter had been the finale, Simpsons would be an impenetrably perfect show.
Like a lot of people, there wasn't one episode or even one season, it was a gradual tuning out after too many lame ones.
But if I had to go back and pick a cutoff point, I'd go with season 8 and the last one I would want.
Marge’s characterization is a good parameter for me. She becomes so unphased by the family’s shenanigans that she loses her charm as the “straight man”
What was the point of this?
Shock value when zombie Simpsons was ramping up. And also her voice actress complained about travel and her contract so they just killed her.
Honestly looking back it's kind of depressing how petty a lot of the creators and show runners could be and often were. I remember hearing on one of the commentators that one of the writers were actually shocked that people even cared about the characters at all.
They were at least self-aware enough to make the in-universe cartoonists to be petty, narcissistic low lifes
That doesn't really make them good though
Good people? Maybe not. Good cartoonists/writers? Yeah lol
It doesn't though. They do far more damage to the show for the sake of personal spite and quick gags than if they just were to quietly leave behind the scenes crap behind the scenes. Would anyone really complain too much if Maude Flanders suddenly just didn't appear as much? Not really. But turning Ned into a widower does hang a negative cloud of the character from that point on.
I can excuse it to a point because for them this is just a job especially by season 11 when I think the original writers were all gone, but the jabs at fans for DARING to criticize the show in the Itchy Scratchy and Poochie show were definitely always cringe. We give TTG and Thunder acts Roar shit for doing it but, like everything, Simpsons did it first.
Was Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie legitimately a jab at the fans though? I always assumed they were making fun of other shows that shoehorn random “wacky” characters in to try and appeal to the youth
Bart saying “you owe [the writers]” for “free entertainment” to comic book guy and the nerds being obsessive we’re definite jabs at a popular Simpsons forum at the time complaining about the shows quality
That’s funny though. Animaniacs did it too.
I didn’t think so. Barts being an obvious mouth piece for the writers and even if I agree some fans can be obnoxious just ignore them. Using your show to complain about them is so hacky.
Freakazoid ripped into people. What a weird time when the internet was just for nerds.
Lol I feel like they made freakazoid JUST to bully nerds
I keep wondering if they deliberately gave the nerds the wrong color scheme
Homer is a bell-weather for overall quality.
>Homer is slightly disconnected from the reality or gravity of the situation and reacts based on his internal understanding
Classic Simpsons
>Homer understands the situation reacts inappropriately or overreacts
Shit
The series fricking died with the principle and the pauper only contrarians pretend otherwise.
There was so much good stuff after principal and the pauper though, and that episode genuinely works as a self contained joke episode. I’m convinced the writers did it just to troll, since they tied the real skinner to a train and heartlessly shipped him out of town
>There was so much good stuff after principal and the pauper though
Like what? Homer getting raped by a panda?
NTA, and it might be cheating given it is the very next episode... but I love "Lisa's Sax" (probably one of the last good Lisa episodes).
Are you implying that homer getting raped by a panda wasn't funny?
only normalgays seethe over that
Principal and the Pauper is fine. Only normalgays care about muh continuity in the Simpsons
In Spain we had the coincidence the last episode dubbed by the original spanish Homer voice actor (he died after) was "Behind The Laughter" and Homer's last line was "THIS WILL BE THE LAST SEASON"
And it fits because the next season was the panda rape
only soiboy homosexuals seethe over that
So is that pre- or post-krump?
Way, way before
Okay, as far as I'm concerned, THAT'S the real divergence point.
Marge krumping was like in Season 19
Good to know.
Are you moronic?
I grew up with the good stuff and was watching til around 15-16. Wasn’t as good as the golden era but I think there’s great stuff there. Around 2007, around the movie is when it really went off the deep end for me and felt like they were just making episodes to make them.
I stopped watching the Simpsons after around season 14 or 15, I can't say there was any specific episode but the series in general just kinda lost the magic for me and I just started watching it less and less.
That being said later on I did end up catching this episode with Lady Gaga and hated it. It really felt like the show had dropped off in a big way since the last time I saw it and it was trying way too hard to kiss Gaga's ass. It doesn't help that it was a Lisa episode.
her train looked gay
It started going downhill after the Tracy Ullman shorts
When Futurama started.
I mean, yeah. Whether on purpose or not. But somehow futurama just annihilated zombie Simpsons with its gags and stories those first few seasons
>What episode was the beginning of the end for you guys?
Behind the Laughter
That should have just been the final episode. It was a perfect bookend.
>I was so gay. But I couldn't tell anyone!
So I kinda realized a lot of groening’s works seem to have characters who are just a bunch of buttholes with nothing more to give while living in a shitty universe
I think they’re tragically flawed but tend to still learn how to live in their hell. That’s why I like them 🙂
I grew up loving the Simpsons and laughing hysterically at every syndicated rerun or Sunday night premiere, but everytime I rewatch as an adult I find more beauty in Homer. He’s a cathartic character for me.
The early episodes where a jab at the kind of overly cheery saccharine family sitcom that was popular at the time. The Simpsons characters were more flawed as people as a result and their morals where, while not completely cynical, far from overtly optimistic. For as much as people praise S2 as the real start I love that Season 1 had this melancholic malaise that sort of hung over it. Things in the simpsons lives were far from perfect, they lost, they messed up and things never worked out how they wanted, but somehow things were still sort of okay. They didn't always have what they wanted but on some level they did have what they needed. Bizarrely, especially with what come later, it actually felt more real.
Homers Odyssey sure was dark for the 3rd episode
personally I feel while there is a tangible decline in quality after somewhere in the Season 9-10 range, I also feel there's more good than bad episodes in every season through Season 14, Season 18 is what I'd consider to be the show's nadir what with it having some of the worst episodes in the show's history like "Jazzy and the Pussycats" and "Boys of Bummer", I stopped watching with regularity somewhere around Season 20 or 21, and bowed out entirely somewhere between 2013 and 2015(so somewhere between Season 24 and 27)
>What episode was the beginning of the end for you guys?
When they changed the whole cast from the Hispanic dub
>What episode was the beginning of the end for you guys?
The one where Lisa kills cats
>I religiously consider
Watching through the series episode by episode now, I'd agree that it's more gradual. Even the good seasons had not as great episodes. For me 6 is the last stone cold all all gold season. 7 and 8 are still mostly good but you start seeing the first cracks.
At what point did the Simpsons lifestyle on a single income become an economic impossibility?
Season 8 was the last consistently good season for me. By 9 the bad began to outweigh the good and there were a lot of episodes I just couldn't stand.
Seasons 1-9 are the golden years, 10 is the beginning of the decline but the show is still decent up to season 13 after that good episodes are few and far between until maybe season 25 onward where if you can bring yourself to care enough your just looking for gems in a giant shit pile
I've been rewatching and there's a defiinite shift between Season 3 and 4. Not quite sure what it is
i was a big simpsons fan growing up and i do remember this was one of the episodes i watched and thought "frick that was bad"
it kept getting worse and worse until i dropped the show completely around 2004
Honestly, while Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin have all the charisma of sandpaper, I feel celebrity appearances on the Simpsons work better when they actually give the celebrities something to do rather than just showing up for a quick cameo where everyone just gasps the celebrity's name in awe.
Mind you, the quality of episodes in general has declined sharply over the years, and that's how we get shit like the Lady Gaga, Elon Musk or the Billie Eilish episodes, but some celebrity episodes are fun, going all the way back to stuff like Stark Raving Dad or Homer at the Bat. I'd say the last celebrity-focused episodes I really liked was Beyond Blunderdome, the Mel Gibson one.
4-6 were the zenith.
7 is mostly good but the cracks are starting to show.
8 is very hit-or-miss and was the last season with good episodes.
9 and onward is zombie Simpsons.
Objective truth, any debate is nostalgiagay cope.
sneed