Red Mosquito

It started going downhill when Mike Scully took over as head writer, which happened after season 8. But season 9 was still excellent, if slightly less so than the previous 5 seasons.

theplatypus wrote: It feels like the version of the show that Family Guy stole their shtick from.

Ive been making this point for years! kinda.


I don't hate later era simpsons (even current ones) like many of you guys do. But its not GOOD, instead it's mindless slapstick thats good for a cheap laugh, but nothing more.

doug rr wrote:So Harry Shearer has quit

He's back, signed a two year deal with a two year option.

bart wrote:It started going downhill when Mike Scully took over as head writer, which happened after season 8. But season 9 was still excellent, if slightly less so than the previous 5 seasons.

My thoughts exactly. To me the golden seasons were 2-8. Seasons 4-6 were almost entirely satire perfection. The significant decline in quality came around the season 9/10 time frame.

Revelator wrote:

bart wrote:It started going downhill when Mike Scully took over as head writer, which happened after season 8. But season 9 was still excellent, if slightly less so than the previous 5 seasons.

My thoughts exactly. To me the golden seasons were 2-8. Seasons 4-6 were almost entirely satire perfection. The significant decline in quality came around the season 9/10 time frame.

I agree a whole lot with you guys but I have to include season 9 on the "great" list. Some of my favorite episodes.
I'll take 3-9. 10 falls off the cliff minus a few good ones.

I think I've made this argument before

While I in no way want to imply that the recent seasons are anywhere close to the show's prime (but then again, what is?), I do think the recent episodes are, while spotty, usually pretty good.

The problem is that at this point watching the Simpsons isn't an event. There's like 500 episodes in syndication. Which means it's almost impossible for the episodes to have the quotable familiarity that helped make those seasons legendary. If there was a good sight gag or a great line during the 90s everyone saw it, everyone saw it multiple times, and everyone repeated it until everyone knew it. It was a shared language. If you aired the Stonecutters episode today it would still be just as good, but you couldn't share it in the same way, and people wouldn't hold onto it in quite the same way.

that's not the whole story, but I do think it's part of it

You're the stip of The Simpsons.

80% of Simpsons discussion, much like pearl jam, is about how it hasn't been good in years.

cutuphalfdead wrote:You're the stip of The Simpsons.

I think Todd Flanders is the stip of The Simpsons.

lets not say things we can't take back.

Strat wrote:80% of Simpsons discussion, much like pearl jam, is about how it hasn't been good in years.

I'll at least give Pearl Jam the nod for having a longer run of top quality material.

stip is clearly a mix of Principal Skinner and Kirk Van Houten.

What RMr is what simpsons character:

gardenparty wrote:

Revelator wrote:

bart wrote:It started going downhill when Mike Scully took over as head writer, which happened after season 8. But season 9 was still excellent, if slightly less so than the previous 5 seasons.

My thoughts exactly. To me the golden seasons were 2-8. Seasons 4-6 were almost entirely satire perfection. The significant decline in quality came around the season 9/10 time frame.

I agree a whole lot with you guys but I have to include season 9 on the "great" list. Some of my favorite episodes.
I'll take 3-9. 10 falls off the cliff minus a few good ones.

Agree season 9 does have some solid material. New York episode was decent, the Cartridge Family was hilarious as was the Trouble With Trillions. Ironically, some of the better season 9 episodes are the Lisa ones (Lisa's Sax, Lisa The Simpson, Lost Our Lisa). Normally I find the Homer or Mr. Burns-centric episodes to be the best.

Turn the middle side topwise. TOPWISE!

"Hello, this is Moleman In The Morning. Good Moleman to you. Today: part four of our series of the agonizing pain in which I live each day."

I don't really like being outdoors, Smithers. For one thing, there are too many fat children.

Aayy, that's Handsome Pete. He dances for nickels!

"Much Apu About Nothing" is an amazing episode. Maybe the most perfect, dead-on satire in the whole series.