posted
It seems that as the years go by The Simpsons becomes more of a random joke collection and less of a sitcom where you care about the main characters. Yesterday I was watching the first-season episode in which Marge has an affair with Jacques the bowling instructor and was surprised at sorry it made me feel for Homer. I can't imagine Homer ever being in scenes like these today:
(after Homer has realized Marge is having an affair) Bart: Hey Dad, want to play catch? Homer: Son, I don't know if I can even lift my head, let alone a ball.
(after Homer, in a last effort to win back Marge, tells her how much he likes how she makes peanut butter sandwiches (which is funny)) Homer: I just---thought I'd tell you how I feel. I don't believe in keeping feelings bottled up.
Posts: 781 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
It is hard to keep the Simpsons fresh for so long. How many more times can we watch episodes hammering home that Homer is a irresponsible jerk with a heart of gold, Marge is a worrywart, Lisa is a know it all, Bart is a an underachiever, etc.
Moreover, the Simpsons has not aged well against other quality animated shows.
South Park provides edgier social satire. King of the Hill has better stories and character development. Family Guy and Duckman have more frentic energy, pop references, and random gags per second.
Futurama still manages to surprise me once in a while. Can't say the same for the Simpsons.
Posts: 4116 | Registered: Apr 2002
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I think it started to really go downhill after season 9. Seasons 7 and 8 were mostly pretty funny, though the dud episodes started appearing with more frequency at that point. Lately, when I even bother to watch a new episode, I rarely crack a smile.
As for Family Guy, I daresay that the new comeback episodes haven't been all I've hoped for. I'm even kind of hesitant to buy the newest DVD set for season 4.
Posts: 1855 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I admit that Family Guy as begun to rely too much on the "flashbacks", but I was still really pleased with season 4.
The Stewie Griffin dvd I thought was excellent, much more in tune with the orignal spirit of the show.
Posts: 8741 | Registered: Apr 2001
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The movie was good, I admit. Stewie and Brian's travel episodes have always been among my favorites. I'm not saying it's all bad, just that overall I've been kind of disappointed. Maybe that's not really fair of me. The writers must have been under a lot of pressure, with all the buzz and expectations surrounding the return of the best cartoon since The Simpsons.
The show still has great moments. I loved Fast Times at Buddy Cianci Jr. High. The episode where Brian works for Stewie was also damn good. But, like The Simpsons, the somewhat crappy episodes are popping up with greater frequency, and I fear that the negative trend will only continue.
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If you don't expect character development, plot, etc, The Simpsons is still great. I still occasionalyl laugh out loud long enough my wife looks at me strangely and leaves the room. But, I laugh a lot more often with South Park
Posts: 880 | Registered: Nov 2005
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I can't stand Family Guy because it's just too random. I saw one episode this year where in the middle of nowhere the father and a giant chicken get in a fight for like five minutes, and then the father walks back to his conversation as though nothing had happened. That's too much for me.
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Yeah, I swear, if I see another episode where Marge gets mad at Homer and leaves the house or whatever, I'm going to scream, and then write a letter to the creater. There have been what? like 10 of those episodes in the past 2 seasons? The first 9 or so seasons were definitely their best. Even now, when it's a bit repetitive, it's still so much better than anything else out there, which drives me insane.
I think there needs to be more unique stories, stronger stories, less Marge/Homer fights, and more episodes that have Mr. Burns as a major character. Or at least go back to their roots, where Bart is a cool trouble maker, and doesn't yeild to authority, and Marge deals with Homer's actions without saying something like "I can't belive you would do that! I deal with you all the time, but this is the last straw!".
Posts: 879 | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote: in the middle of nowhere the father and a giant chicken get in a fight for like five minutes
It's funny that you mention that clip as a reason why you dislike the show, when for so many family guy fans, that is one of their favorite scenes in any episode. This is assuming we're talking about the original chicken fight in the Y2K episode, as the rehash wasn't nearly as good.
Posts: 1855 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
The Simpsons has been going downhill for almost ten years now, with only occasional upswings. I intend to stop buying the DVD collections after season 7.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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The Simpson's has been going downhill. The young upstarts at South Park and at Family Guy (I hate King of the Hill) have been kicking the Simpson's creaturers for quite a while. But, last night's South Park episode to me was not that good.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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quote:Originally posted by TomDavidson: The Simpsons has been going downhill for almost ten years now, with only occasional upswings. I intend to stop buying the DVD collections after season 7.
Same here Tom As an upside, it will be a lot easier on the bank account.
Posts: 1412 | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
I hate the Simpsons. Never could get into it.
My roommate forced Family Guy on me. I'm growing to like it but it still has its off-moments.
Give me King of the Hill anyday. I like that its not as random as other shows. And it doesn't rely on dirty or "edgy" jokes to be funny. Its a high-quality sitcom that just happens to be animated. I guess it helps though that I grew up in Texas and knew people like the characters on the show.
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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There was a time when the writers of "The Simpsons" had heart, and cared about their characters. Now, all they care about is riding that gravy train. It's one cheap shot after another, and there's not a thing that happens that we care about.
Remember when Homer ate blowfish, and everyone thought he was going to die? That was a touching episode. Or when he had to have heart surgery, and no one was sure he was going to make it. It felt real at the time, and we really cared about what was going to happen to him.
Now they can completely sever his thumb just for a cheap gag, and frankly, we don't give a damn whether it ever gets reattached or not. The writers no longer care about their characters, so they don't make us care.
Remember when Bart learned he was going to get held back, and all the emotional turmoil he went through not knowing whether he could pass the fourth grade? How long ago that all seems now.
I stopped watching "The Simpsons" years ago. The callousness and cheapness and stupidity of the writers turned me off so much that I can't even enjoy the old classic episodes anymore. My lack of caring for the characters has become so thorough that I actively hate every one of them, and those old emotional scenes now leave me absolutely cold.
It's like having an ex-girlfriend where you can remember the good times you had fondly enough, but when you see her face now, or a photo of her during those good times, you grow so bitter that you just want to live the rest of your life without thinking about her again. That's "The Simpsons" to me.
Posts: 1814 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Does anyone remember the Thanksgiving episode of The Simpsons from one of the early seasons, where Bart burns Lisa's centerpiece? His parents try to make him apologize, so he runs away and spends most of the episode dodging them. Then at the very end, Bart and Lisa have a confrontation on the roof. As he's talking to her he suddenly says something that makes him realize how she feels, and he turns to her and apologizes. That moment always makes me cry.
Sure, the show can still usually give me at least one chuckle per episode, but moments of real truth and beauty like that are all in the distant past.
By the way, I don't have to wait until season 7 to stop buying the DVDs. When they switched to the hideous, bulky Homer-face packaging, I'd decided I'd had about enough.
Posts: 127 | Registered: Aug 2004
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quote:Then at the very end, Bart and Lisa have a confrontation on the roof. As he's talking to her he suddenly says something that makes him realize how she feels, and he turns to her and apologizes.
I used a line from that episode as my senior quote in my highschool yearbook.
quote:I don't know why I did it, I don't know why I enjoyed it, and I don't know why I'll do it again.
posted
My problem with the Simpson's is how many more episodes can I take of Homer doing something stupid and heartless and marge forgiving him? Or Marge nagging, or Lisa nagging and Bart just be ing a jerk? Plus, nowadays something absurd aloways happens in a way that works for South Park, but makes just urks me in the Simpson's. Though the one where they went to China was amusing with the dragons and the Catholic episode was pretty funny too. This season of South Park hasn't been as amusing as Season 8. The episode where Cartman dresses up as a robot and the Ninja weapons episode and the animal Christmas episode alone were priceless. But, King of the Hill annoys me. I used to like it until it started to just get on my last nerves.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I don't think anyone has pointed out that fact that Tv has in some ways moved on from this concept.
I loved the simpsons, and they were the first strike on a gold mine of comedy, but Family guy and other similarly freneticly paced shows dug that mine down to the very bottom, and i don't think there is much to be had in this genre anymore. What am I? I don't know anything about producing a Tv show, but I do know that the simpsons has suffered the effects of being cut down by several minutes each episode, (down to like 19-20 minutes an episode), and they have been picked on by various comedy vultures for 15 years and survived. Suprising they've lasted as long as they have.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Simpsons had a few glory years. From season two right up until the Who Shot Mr. Burns episode, it was the greatest half hour show on television ever.
I remember what Who Shot Mr. Burns (WSB). Something just felt wrong. It felt ominious. But I shrugged it off.
Turns out WSB was the begining of the end. It's been such a terrible show ever since, and it keeps getting worse.
Posts: 1515 | Registered: Feb 2002
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As an upside, it will be a lot easier on the bank account.
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Steve, that is one of my favorite episodes.![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
