That can’t possibly be true. It makes no logical sense.
I’m a fan, and I was definitely down on the show for a while. I think that in its worst seasons it had a ratio of maybe 5% good episodes, 65% OK episodes, 30% awful episodes.
In the past couple of seasons, it’s been more like 35% good episodes, 55% OK episodes, 10% awful episodes.
I’m guardedly optimistic about the movie.
I agree that it makes no logical sense for people to say it, but I don’t see how that means it can’t possibly be true. Are you saying it is impossible for people to say illogical things?
For someone to say " it sucked for awhile, but now it’s better", there has to have been a perception that it sucked for awhile. At the beginning of the suckdom, there was no perception that it had sucked for awhile, so no one would say " it sucked for awhile, but now it’s better."
MaxTheVool could hve meant something different, but that’s what jumped out at me.
Precisely. Although I suppose that someone obviously could have uttered those words… but it’s pretty ridiculous to think that the very first time anyone ever said “hey, the Simpsons isn’t good anymore”, the response from the blindly loyal fans was “oh, yeah, it sucked for a while, but is better now”.
People have been bitching that the Simpsons have crapped out since the Monorail episode. Honestly, I have to say, the Simpsons bitching was a lot better ten years ago then it is today. Aside from the poor use of spelling, grammar, and punctuation the complaints use the same old arguments and just aren’t as ‘edgy’ any more. I really hope that reviews for the upcoming Simpsons movie bring back some of the intelligent belligerance that I remember from such reviews as “Jebediah Crapfeld” and “Behind the Crapter”.
Then it’s impossible to make an argument without sitting you down and having you watch seasons 2-8 and laugh and watch season 9 or 11 or 14 and be insulted.
This isn’t Saturday Night Live where you just remember the good bits, and if you watch that one you taped you laugh twice. The old show, the show I liked is for sale. I went out and bought it. It’s still funny.
And you’re right. The article is bollocks. No one needs to prove that they’ve been phoning it in for the last ten years. I’ll just ignore it. Thank god I don’t watch broadcast television any more.
What’s this about a writer who hadn’t seen the show? At some point I did hear they had hired their first writer who was born after Bart Simpson, but nothing about someone who hadn’t watched.
Defenders, watch Seasons 2 through 6. Then watch Season 11. If you find it funny and still don’t want to commit ritual suicide, then at least neuter youselves for the good of humanity. kthnxbye
First of all - yeah, they definitely DID say that, and second, even if they didn’t, that’s an awfully nitpicky, overly-literal point.
The reason this matters is that the first years of the Simpsons represent high art – among the 2 or 3 greatest works of art to be produced in my lifetime. The debasement of great art is always heartbreaking, particularly when some of the originators are involved in the debasement.
I once heard a quote that said something like ‘in good comedy, the jokes serve the characters; in bad comedy, the characters serve the jokes.’ I think this encapsulates what went wrong with the Simpsons. The original show made you love these characters before making you laugh at/with them. Now the characters are just tools, and I can’t stand to see them abused.
(For the record, I haven’t watched more than a few minutes of the Simpsons in about 12 years, so it’s possible that they’ve undergone a major rennaisance, but the previews from the movie sure don’t inspire confidence…).
SpongeBob is a pretty stringent yardstick. I’ll take that well-dressed little Poriferan over just about anything on TV.
The Comic Book Store Guy’s commentary in “Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie” was a direct swipe at rec.arts.tv.simpsons, back in the Usenet days. In the years before that episode, nearly every new airing was followed by threads declaring it to be the “WORST EPISODE EVER!!!”, and bitching about how horrible the show had become.
That would have been seasons six and seven.
I agree that the show was beginning its slide at that point, and that it got pretty bad for a while before hovering between pretty good and kinda bad for the last few years. But it’s an old story at this point.
Ian-Maxtone Graham- a writer whose episodes are notoriously criticized online- once admitted he had never watched The Simpsons before he was hired to write for it.
No show is ever as good as it used to be. If some people think the early years are its best (because they grew up with that era) then of course they’re not going to like it as the staff changes and the storylines have to fit modern sensibilities.
But those who are now growing up with the current era, they love it and think the earlier stuff is crudely animated, and slow, and take no risks.
Whatever. It’s fine to like or not like whatever you want, but the fact that the Simpsons is still as popular as ever, according to the ratings*, says there’s life in it yet.
*I don’t have any numbers, but it continues to be renewed, at least
So it’s all our fault that we’re not smart and classy enough to “understand” the early Simpsons. But there’s nothing elitist about that observation, oh no. Got it.
I also love how the linked article bemoans the Arman Tanzarian episode as the point where the show went from hip, funny and smart, loaded with classic and intelligent in-gags and subtle cultural and historical references to utter random crap without realizing that that episode is a sly and rather clever re-telling of the story of 16th Century French peasant Martin Guerre. Guess the author wasn’t smart enough to figure that out.
Seriously tho, when I’m faced with pretentious hemorrhoids like the author of TFA and the loudmouthed craptacular Simpsons haters in this thread, I have found that the best response is to just ignore them. Imagine tuning into a show that you don’t like for 8 minutes each week just to reassure yourself that you really don’t like it. That’s some whole new epic version of pathetic that I have never encountered before. I now understand where stalkers come from. Dude, it’s over, let it go. Stop following your former love around and get on with your life.
There was a time when complaints about Simpsons complainers were far better than this. I weep for those days.
[sub]I’m seeing the movie first week it’s out, no question. Yay![/sub]
Maybe they need a new character, like a sexy broad or a gangster octopus.
During one script pitch session Ian suggested naming a couple of new characters Rod and Todd. Another writer chimed in, “Fox, 8 Eastern, 7 Central. Tune in sometime.” What a fuckbag.
Stalkers? Maybe we feel the show needs an intervention so that it may finally escape the enabling codependent pompous douchebags like you.
Haven’t hung out with comic book guys much, huh? The old cliché goes: if you want to start a fight among a group of nerds say these three words, “Hal or Kyle?”
Actually it happens in most fandoms. Mike v. Joel. Generation 1 Pokémon v. Generation 3. Star Wars IV, V, VI v. Star Wars I, II, III. You name it, there’s someone berating someone else for not liking “their” version of something.
Didn’t follow the Studio 60 threads? To be fair, it was mostly people bitching about the show and not at the people who liked the show, but damn if it wasn’t annoying. Worst. Sorekin. Ever.
Wait, there’re people who prefer I, II, III to IV, V, VI? really? Are these the people who prefer newer Metallica albums too?
Hey, anything’s possible. Then again, I’m not a big fan of the Star Wars franchise, so whatever.