On the local Fox station, it seems like the only Simpsons episodes shown nowadays are from the last couple of seasons. Does anyone know their rhyme or reason? Are certain seasons not in syndication anymore?
I have noticed this treand to, and it annoys me to no end. I awnt classic Simpsons. All syndicated episodes whols be from seasons 2-9, and nothing else.
I am unsure of how syndication rights work, but perhaps now that the DVD’s are out for the earlier seasons, it costs a station more to play those episodes than it does to play the newer ones?
Typically, syndication packages have (at the most) about a six-month package. That’s roughly 120-130 eps if they run once a day. That translates into about six full seasons. Most stations aren’t willing to bite off on a larger package, although they could if they were willing to fork out the dough, and make a longer commitment. There are exceptions, though. TNT runs the enire schedule of “ER” (last rotation contained full season 10, and this one will probably contain 11). And the WGN cable station runs the entire “Beverly Hillbillies” series (over 200 eps, but showing them two at a time you show the entire series in about six months.
Our Fox station plays two episodes of Simpsons back-to-back. Recently, they started showing season one episodes in the second slot. So they’re out there.
There’s a pretty shocking contrast, both in terms of the differences in animation and voices, and also in what was considered cutting-edge and controversial when the different episodes were made. My WAG is that most stations don’t play the older shows because yer average viewer would consider them to be of lower quality.
I’ve noticed this too – it’s a pattern that’s been repeated the last few years.
I think what happens is towards the end of the current new season, the prior season’s episodes are released to syndication. The stations that syndicate the show start showing these episodes, before returning to the ‘regular’ syndication schedule.
Where I live I can see Simpsons syndicated on two different channels - one is the local Fox affiliate, and the other is from Canada - CBC. Both of them are currently running last season’s episodes in syndication, so I suspect that maybe there’s something in the syndication contract that requires them to run just-released episodes before going back to older ones.
Just a guess, mind you - I don’t pretend to understand how broadcasting works.
In Chicago, the Fox affiliate is currently running shows from season two. Great shows that they were as well. They actually had a linear plot and a decent conclusion. It was stupid just for the sake of it. Sprinfield actually felt like a real small town with some decidely whacky characters.
Although in some cases, a syndicated television program is syndicated by the distributor in a way that makes all of the stations in the United States air a certain episode on a certain day, The Simpsons is in a syndicated package that allows the local network to choose what episodes they air themselves. My local Fox affiliate, WNYW channel 5 New York, sometimes does promotions (for example, one time they had viewers choose their top 20 favorite episodes, and another time was “brawl in the family month”- one week devoted to each Simpson family member). I’m sure other local networks have done similar promotions with the show, too.
I assumed they were slowly phasing out the older episodes so that people would be more likely to purchase the dvd sets … that’s what I would do anyway 
I’ve got a season one episode playing on my local Fox station right now.
Follow-up: It turns out that about a week after I posted this, my local station switched to reruns from 2000. Which is just fine with me.