Personally I haven’t watched a fresh one in at least 6-7 years, maybe even 10, and when I happen to catch a newer one on reruns, it’s seldom worthwhile. Don’t get me wrong, they’re still amusing, but do I feel the need to be in front of my TV when it comes on? Not remotely. Even when a new one is airing and I happen to be watching TV, I’m watching something else.
Is it time to stick a fork in it?
Not as good as it once was, but still better than most of what’s on the tube. I say let it live forever.
I agree. It may have lost a step and it’s suffering from the fact that just about anything conceivable has been done on the show already, but it’s still a funny show.
This will be my epitath: The worst episode of the Simpsons is far better than the best episode of Mama’s Family.
Not gonna be original here…
Keep it goin, it’s not as bad as some of the other crap out there.
Consider this: do you say that because you were hooked by the genuinely great episodes and the consistent greatness of the 3 - 10 seasons and have just kept watching because you’re incredibly familiar with it, or because you actually think it’s still better than most other shows? In other words, if this season was the first season of the show, would you still care about it? Or would you rather watch anything else?
I think Family Guy these days is funnier.
Say what you will about The Simpsons being repetitive: at least it is still possible to like and have sympathy for the characters, unlike the cast of its dark clone Family Guy.
Should the Simpsons end?
It’s past the time to do that. Now you have to let them continue it’s gone on so long. There are a few worse ones I’d rather stopped.
My Don’t have a Cow t-shirt is 3 sizes smaller than I currently wear. Yes I once had 28 inch waist.
There are so many bad episodes, they have dilluted the pool of good reruns; making it pointless to try to catch a rerun.
I hardly ever ask the tv gods for anything.
Dear TV Gods:
I know the Simpsons are not as great as their Golden Days. But I ask you with all of my heart…please, don’t ever cancel the Simpsons. I love them. Amen.
The writing is sloppy. This is very evident when you listen to the director’s commentaries. There are too many writers and no one co-ordinating the scripts. Ideas have been reworked to death. OK fine, but not at the expense of fresh ideas. Why is it that you can go to a Simpsons fan site and find a hundred new ideas for episodes, yet we are seeing the same ideas written time and time again?
The answer is the writers are sloppy and don’t care. They are just cashing a checks.
It’s not just the Simpsons, many shows have done this. But the Simpsons is in the age of the Internet. There’s no excuse for this, when every episode synopsis is online and can be Googled in two seconds. So if a writer says, “Let’s do XXX” a simple Google serach can find it was done 10 times already.
The Simpsons has so much potential still. They could slightly age the kids (maybe one or two years), they could try a different writing style, (Instead of the B plot leads to A plot and intertwine), they could hire a co-ordinated writing staff.
The bottom line is TV is pretty awful now :), so even a bad *Simpson’*s episode is better than the best of (most of) the rest
I think The Simpsons did go through a truly abysmal period a few years ago. More recently the show’s been a mixed bag: a few gems, a few rough spots, but moderately entertaining and enjoyable overall. I think much of the negativity toward the series comes from people who (understandably) gave up on it when it was at its worst.
I’d be perfectly happy to have it keep going and going until one of the 6 lead actors die–they are essential to the show and are all irreplacable.
Like so many fans who were watching even back in the Tracy Ullman days, I stopped watching years ago. Occasionally I’ll catch a new one, especially Treehouse of horror, but I just can’t get into them. When I catch an older one on reruns, I still like it, so it’s not like I outgrew the show entirely. I still watch Family Guy and South Park.
The movie was pretty decent though, which kind of made me sadder because the episodes don’t come near it in quality.
The horse died in season 9 and they’ve been beating it for a good 13 years now.
I own seasons 1 - 9 and I can school 99% of Simpsons fans at trivia up to season 14 or so, but I’ve been out of it for a good long while. The turning point for me was then they decided there was nothing left in the world to comment on and so decided to parody themselves and their own universe nearly exclusively.
Some of my favorite episodes have come after season 10. I honestly think there’s something in the water making people think seasons 11-12 aren’t “classic Simpsons” quality. I absolutely love those seasons.
These days, it’s often not as great as back them, but there are still occasional gems, and rarely is an episode such a stinker that I’d even turn off a rerun of it. Bart Mangled Banner and E Pluribus Wiggum are among the worst, but BMB’s already several years old and hardly counts toward recent track record anymore.
If this was the first season would I still care? Sure. Season one wasn’t all that great in retrospect itself. Great for it’s time, but I’m sure many of today’s eps will hold up better in 20 years than those do now.
Agreed. All the pieces are still in place so that they can still make funny, entertaining, worthwhile episodes—and they sometimes still do.
I’ve heard this argument, but it doesn’t affect me since I never watch the reruns anyway. Why should I, when I can still watch new episodes I haven’t seen before, and classic episodes uncut and with commentary and deleted scenes on DVD?
Some of each, I think. The Simpsons is the one show I still invariably watch new episodes of each week, partly because I genuinely enjoy the show quite a bit (at least, often enough for me to keep watching), and partly from sentimental attachment and inertia. The fact that I have such a long relationship with the show makes it harder in some ways, but easier in others, for it to entertain and delight me.
Yes, yes I would.
I came into The Simpsons rather late, and I enjoy the old ones as much as I enjoy the new ones. Taking out the propaganda of “the old ones are the best” if this season was season 1 I would still say it belongs right where it is in the Animation Domination and would continue to watch it.
Definitely keep the Simpsons going. I still look forward to each week’s new episode, and I think the shows this season have been consistently strong, with maybe one or two “meh” ones here and there. If this were the first season, I’d be looking forward to season 2. In the 21st, I say, I can’t wait for season 22.