The Simpsons

[Festoon]

The graph for 'heart' starts at the top with season 1, stays steady until season 5 where it drops at a steady rate until reaching 0 at about season 10, where it bumbles along. The graph for 'funnies' starts low in season 1, climbs until season 4 where it peaks and stays there until season 8 where it drops steadily until season 10 where it's slightly lower then when it started.

I've made a rough graph:

Red is heart

Green is funnies

Blue is overall

And that's the end of that chapter.

That's a good idea. 'Cept some of the heart stuff (the Egyptian music box) couldn't have been carried off in the first season as it's too much.

[Chadruharazzeb]

Series 1 was abysmal. Atrocious animation, bad voicing, not remotely funny. Heart? Pah!

It was just perfect TV series 3~7 inclusive. 8 was pretty good but it was the beginning of the end.

[Eats hoops and leaves]

Guess what, the Simpsons, like most creative works, evolved as it went along. Sometimes it was for the better and sometimes for the worse. It couldn't have stayed where it was as it would have gotten stale in 3-4 years.

Which is why they should have killed it after 4 years.

[Eats hoops and leaves]

I appreciate all that, and I admit I loved them when I was younger.

It's just that in retrospect, most of them really aren't very funny. Good Simpsons episodes I can watch five, ten times. Series 1 always seems really, really stale.

And to be fair, while it's undoubtedly had a downturn, it's not in any way "just another wacky cartoon". It's always going to come off badly compared with its previous form, but it's years ahead of the shite that is Family Guy, say.

I'd rather watch Family Guy than any Simpsons after season 5. At least Family Guy is consistent - you know what you're going to get with it and it doesn't pretend otherwise.

[Eats hoops and leaves]

Series 1 was abysmal. Atrocious animation, bad voicing, not remotely funny. Heart? Pah!

It was just perfect TV series 3~7 inclusive. 8 was pretty good but it was the beginning of the end.

I don't know how anybody can care about the animation and voicing when you've got touching, real stories like The Call of the Simpsons and Life in the Fast Lane. And not funny?

[Sprite Machine]

Season 1 was just more subtle in its humour. "If they think I'm going to stop at that stop sign, they've got another thing coming!"

Also, wasn't the first Sideshow Bob episode in season 1? That's one of the best episodes ever.

[joeplus]

Red is heart

Green is funnies

Blue is overall

And that's the end of that chapter.

Pretty accurate, but I'd give it a bit longer before the dip. There's plenty of good stuff in season 8. Hank Scorpio, dude!

[Rowan Morrison]

By God, the first season of The Simpsons is undoubtedly TV genius. Life on the Fast Lane and Moaning Lisa are two of the highest points of the entire show. The problem, if there is one, is that season one wasn't written for a Simpsons audience - though I think that's actually its greatest strength.

The show improved in some areas and deteriorated in others, and to this day it has some worthwhile moments, though it's clearly well past its sell-by date. But if you denounce season one then as far as I'm concerned you don't deserve any Simpsons.

[Rowan Morrison]

Double post! What an embarrassment.

[Beertiger]

24 Minutes, the last episode to air, was actually really good. Definitely a step in the right direction. Even though it took a different format it felt like it had a more cohesive storyline which actually made sense. No silly pointless side plots and quite a few laughs.

[Eats hoops and leaves]

I appreciate your passion but really, Season 1? That's insane. Surely Season 5 has the best mix of excellent storylines & lolz.

"Homer the Vigilante"

"Homer Goes to College"

"Bart Gets an Elephant"

"Deep Space Homer"

Even Season 6...

"Fear of Flying"

"Treehouse of Horror V"

"Lisa on Ice"

"Lemon of Troy"

"Homer: Bad Man"

I'd could roll off more AMAZINGLY LOLLERSOME quotes for any of the above than I could for the first two seasons combined.

Yes, they're mostly far-fetched, but isn't the beauty of cartoons that they don't suffer the same constraints as other programming.

Also, the film will be ok. You heard it here first.

Yeah I agree with you when talking about anything else, but what made The Simpsons so unique was that it did away with cartoon convention by keeping itself grounded in reality. Stuff like Bart gets an Elephant and Deep Space Homer were funny, but I couldn't invest anything into the characters anymore, because by then they were cartoons. The writers gave in to the format.

[Sprite Machine]

Are you a King of the Hill fan, Hoop?

[Comrade]

Series 1 was abysmal. Atrocious animation, bad voicing, not remotely funny. Heart? Pah!

It was just perfect TV series 3~7 inclusive. 8 was pretty good but it was the beginning of the end.

This is accurate (though I wouldn't say that Series 1 was abysmal. It was still pretty good).

I literally cannot watch any epsidoes from pretty much the last decade. They are occasionally funny, but their total collapse in quality just infuriates me. But I'm not really bitter about it, and I don't mind if they continue making it. Series 2-7 will always be there, and always be great. The Simpsons is an industry now, and hundreds (if not thousands) rely on it for a living. If they want to keep making it, it's fine by me, even if they are terrible. I don't have to watch it, and I haven't.

[Shoes]

Some of your opinions are so fucked up. Should have ended after four seasons? Good up until 13? The first is the best? Jesus.

The first isn't very funny, compared to 2-7, but it does have heart, which makes it fantastic to watch.

[Eats hoops and leaves]

Are you a King of the Hill fan, Hoop?

I've not seen it in a long time, but I remember enjoying it when C4 first started running it.

[Ketchup]

I just watched the 400th episode, to those that haven't, don't bother...actually do. The start shows what i assume is the very first episode ever made, and that is what makes the rest of the episode so bad. Because it shows why the Simpsons became so great and after watching it and seeing the rest of the episode, you see why it is so crap.

[Sabreman]

Thanks to the DVDs and never having SKY (or whatever) I'm now starting to see Simpsons episodes I've never seen before. I'm almost through season 8 now and as far as I'm concerned it still damned good stuff. In fact I can't pick out a bad episode from 7 or 8.

[hughes]

That's because they are the best seasons.

Just wait until you get to season 10+.

[DarhkFox]

yeah upto season 10 its great. It just goes downhill. Its good, just not as good. When you start hitting season 15 onwards, then it gets worse. The last season has been pretty terrible.

The 24 episode wasnt even funny, and the 400th episode was pretty bad... and not in a good way.

[partious]

The graph for 'heart' starts at the top with season 1, stays steady until season 5 where it drops at a steady rate until reaching 0 at about season 10, where it bumbles along. The graph for 'funnies' starts low in season 1, climbs until season 4 where it peaks and stays there until season 8 where it drops steadily until season 10 where it's slightly lower then when it started.

I've made a rough graph:

Red is heart

Green is funnies

Blue is overall

And that's the end of that chapter.

I agree with this graph completely.

[Ketchup]

The 24 episode wasnt even funny, and the 400th episode was pretty bad... and not in a good way.

I felt the 24 episode was the Simpsons being back on form again. It wasn't laugh out loud funny but there was nothing stupid in it or that felt out of place. The Simpsons has always been at its best when it parodies something.

[dam_aks]

I felt the 24 episode was the Simpsons being back on form again. It wasn't laugh out loud funny but there was nothing stupid in it or that felt out of place. The Simpsons has always been at its best when it parodies something.

It wasn't stupid?

Erm... It featured Lisa and Bart using high tech terrorist stopping gismos to catch truents. The whole concept was out of place and wasn't in any way a decent parody because it was totally out of line with The Simpsons. It had absolutely no grounding in reality whatsoever, it was just a load of cobblers tacked together over 23 minutes and if this had of been American Dad doing it people would be calling to have the cast and crew hung drawn and quatered. The South Park episode was a decent parody of 24 - it was ridiculous but didn't drift away from what the show is about. This was just... stupid.

[angel]

Anyone catch the Tony Blair one? It was a virtual blasphemy on all things simpsons, searingly not-funny, and it ended with Homer discovering he has a half sister that looks like him in a dress.

Talk about pissing on your history as a tv show. What about the one where theyre in a reality TV show as maids? God awful. Or the Gervais-penned HDTV episode. The only laugh in that was the song about Lady Di, which was admittedly awesome ("don't die").

When i think back to the greatness of the "uncy herb" episodes, the sheer massive funny of Hank Scorpio ("ever see a guy say goodbye to a shoe?", "once"), i wish they'd end it all now as a dream.

[dam_aks]

Anyone catch the Tony Blair one? It was a virtual blasphemy on all things simpsons, searingly not-funny, and it ended with Homer discovering he has a half sister that looks like him in a dress.

Talk about pissing on your history as a tv show. What about the one where theyre in a reality TV show as maids? God awful. Or the Gervais-penned HDTV episode. The only laugh in that was the song about Lady Di, which was admittedly awesome ("don't die").

When i think back to the greatness of the "uncy herb" episodes, the sheer massive funny of Hank Scorpio ("ever see a guy say goodbye to a shoe?", "once"), i wish they'd end it all now as a dream.

I agree.

The Gervais episode is probably the worst one to date though. Painful to watch.

[Ketchup]

It wasn't stupid?

Erm... It featured Lisa and Bart using high tech terrorist stopping gismos to catch truents. The whole concept was out of place and wasn't in any way a decent parody because it was totally out of line with The Simpsons. It had absolutely no grounding in reality whatsoever, it was just a load of cobblers tacked together over 23 minutes and if this had of been American Dad doing it people would be calling to have the cast and crew hung drawn and quatered. The South Park episode was a decent parody of 24 - it was ridiculous but didn't drift away from what the show is about. This was just... stupid.

I guess you could say the idea was stupid, but the actual characters wern't. Not once did a character say 'This Simpsons are off to *insert place here*. Marge was a lot more tonned down and back to her original self, maggie was just maggie and Homer did silly Homer type things instead of 'Captain Wacky' Homer type things. The Simpsons as it is now reminds me of Friends, around season 7, where they became caricatures of themselves.

[Majora]

I don't agree with that 'heart' graph at all. Season 7 had A LOT of heart from what I remember. Around seasons 4 to 6 the show became very funny but definetely lost touch with its roots. I wouldn't damn it for that at all, it simply evolved, and still felt very human at times, but the storylines became looser and characters would often be compromised for the sake of a joke. But season 7 had cohesive, ambitious plots, a lot of 'emotion' and a much more character driven feel. The internet is very prone to making vast, sweeping statements and generalisations about the show.

And LOL at people who think the show got worse after Season 13 or whatever. Have you even watched Season 11? Most recent episodes I'm quite indifferent to, but Season 11 episodes (and some of Season 12) actually piss me off with how stupid, unfunny and crappily written they are.

[Commander Jameson]

As an aside, I hope Sky aren't going to continue with the "two ad breaks within the show and no ad break between shows" thing.

[utero2001]

Hoop you fight the good fight

for me when Simpsons came out I saw most of series 1 on video, then never saw any more until CH4 or BBC2 ? started airing it years later

so I'm less in a position to judge but series 3 showed signs of going down the wacky route and from season 9-10 it should have really stopped

one of the best episodes I've seen was Bart vs. Thanksgiving from season 2, only seen it once on TV, really had the heart of the first season

[noizu]

As an aside, I hope Sky aren't going to continue with the "two ad breaks within the show and no ad break between shows" thing.

That was really taking the piss. The second ad break caught me by surprise, and then the announcer made a big song and dance about that new Pirate thing coming right up after the Simpsons "without any ads", as if it was this amazing favour to us! Oh, you mean the ads that you've just moved to an even more annoying place than the end of the programme??

Jesus Christ! I was lucky there wasn't anything within arm's reach to throw

[Rowan Morrison]

I've got to wonder if that 400th episode deliberately set out to plunder as many pre-used jokes and concepts as it could in twenty-odd minutes in an all-out effort to annoy fans, but the fact they drew attention to the guest in the house plot suggests otherwise. From the initial win by forfeit / win by default swipe to the Canyonero sell-out at the end, criminal stuff. They even recycled the Marge in the sewers sequence from the air vent piece in the previous episode (which made me wonder if it was all a piss-take from the start). For a 400th episode it was either a bad joke or, well, a series of bad jokes, and a sad indictment either way. I don't know if it was another failed gag, but if not I expect the fact it was listing producers up to five minutes in might have something to do with the problem.

Season one never looked so good, and it's always looked damned good.