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The Simpsons - When Did They Lose it?

post #1 of 258
11/12/08 at 4:37pm
Thread Starter 
Or when did you stop watching and/or caring about the show?

I know it varies for a lot of folks. Although there are a few moments fans point to like "Armin Tamzarian" or the death of Maude Flanders.

For me, it was just a matter of how many times they've repeated themselves plot-wise (i.e. 3-4 episodes now set in the future and God knows how many detailing Homer and Marge before they married!?!)
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post #2 of 258
11/12/08 at 4:41pm
I stayed with it through some misguided loyalty up through 2005 or so, but the truth is it's been on fumes, in my opinion, since the 98-99 season. I still enjoy way too many episodes from 97-98 to declare it dead then.
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post #3 of 258
11/12/08 at 4:48pm
I gave up around 2000/2001. I haven't even watched a single episode since then with the exception of when Richard Dean Anderson guest starred 10 years too late. Other then that, no new ones, no re-runs. I've been Simpsons free since I gave up on it.
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post #4 of 258
11/12/08 at 5:01pm
Armin Tamzarian is when the wheels finally came off. Alot will say the episode where Homer gets a racehorse...but it's Tamzarian.

I still watch it though. There is an occasional bright spot.

Oh, and the movie was pretty good. Easily the best thing they've done in 8 years.
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post #5 of 258
11/12/08 at 5:05pm
The last truly *great* episodes I saw were where Homer and Mel Gibson remake Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and the Behind the Laughter episode. That was around 2000-ish I think. Since then it's pretty incredibly bland, though there are a few eps I catch here and there that have a few laughs in them.

Not sure if any show live-action or otherwise can hang with the run the show had up until season 7 or 8. They're like a pro player that had a no-doubt Hall of Fame run, but now are still playing past their prime and everyone gives them a pass even though they've clearly lost it.
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post #6 of 258
11/12/08 at 5:12pm
Lincoln's Gold.

Or when they did a Native Casino episode a season after Family Guy did it.
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post #7 of 258
11/12/08 at 5:14pm
You can't pinpoint it to a single episode. It was a gradual transition from a cleverly-written show to a mess of self-references. Watch any of the old episodes now, and there are so many great little moments that anyone could enjoy, now or 100 years from now.

Watch the show now, and the plots are all driven by throwaway pop-culture or celebrity guest stars, and there are at least 3 in-jokes that only long-time fans could appreciate, like one-note background characters suddenly being thrown into the spotlight with some tacked-on backstory, or Nelson using a tuning fork to correct his laugh. It's painful to watch now, but the first 8 or 10 seasons are still perfect.

Homer has also changed from a sweet yet stupid family man to a retarded jerk. That certainly doesn't help.
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post #8 of 258
11/12/08 at 5:16pm
I remember stopping early in high school so around 2000. What's funny is that on the rare occasion I catch a new episode, I do laugh quite a bit.
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post #9 of 258
11/12/08 at 5:22pm
Personally, I think the Armin Tamzarian episode is fine. Not a great episode, but not deserving of the criticism it gets. No, the real moment The Simpsons was finished was when the brought in the Loch Ness Monster.

I still regularly watch all the classic seasons and love them just as much as ever. I refuse to let shoddy later episodes ruin it for the rest of them.
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post #10 of 258
11/12/08 at 5:26pm
Trying to think of the last episode that really stayed with me, the whole thing, not just a collection of good bits, and it might have been the Angry Dad episode.

But, I also confuse that episode with the one with Tom Savini, that ends with the radioactive ape slapping Flanders around in the car.

Jesus, I can't remember my parents' birthdays, but I've got all this useless Simpsons trivia running free in my brain. I regret nothing.
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post #11 of 258
11/12/08 at 5:30pm
Behind the laughter should be craved on binary in the next Voyager mission.
I deserted after the crying caterpillar. After that I stopped watching.
Since FOX in South America doesn't rank the episodes they spend most of the reruns with the worst episodes and neither of the earlier ones. But this show has so many classic moments than most of us in our late 20' will never wipe The Simpsons out of our heads.
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post #12 of 258
11/12/08 at 5:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scratch View Post
Homer has also changed from a sweet yet stupid family man to a retarded jerk. That certainly doesn't help.
This right here. The whole dynamic changed for the worse for me. It's the same thing that ruined 'Married...With Children': Al changed from a grumpy asshole into a loveable loser.
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post #13 of 258
11/12/08 at 5:42pm
While it was funny, there was certainly a turn during the Frank Grimes episode. This was the episode in which people tolerated and loved Homer's idiocy.

But as it was said, there is no specific episode. It was a gradual process of utter crap.
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post #14 of 258
11/12/08 at 5:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by EdHocken View Post
While it was funny, there was certainly a turn during the Frank Grimes episode. This was the episode in which people tolerated and loved Homer's idiocy.

But as it was said, there is no specific episode. It was a gradual process of utter crap.
That's the one. Homer's Enemy. Someone (may have been someone on the boards even) described that as the "God is Dead" episode. From then on the show stopped taking itself seriously (which was why it worked to begin with) and became a self-parody. That's where Homer's persona changed and everything started getting too...out there. It was gradual and there were still great episodes after it, but that episode is when the whole tone of the show changed.
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post #15 of 258
11/12/08 at 5:53pm
It's weird, it took itself seriously (Not to the extent it was in Season 1 in which the show was essentially a cartoon sitcom) but there were tons of great moments that were completely off the wall in the early seasons. I guess it was more of the fact the family and the characters to lesser extent were likeable and shit didn't get run into the ground. (I.e. GIL). And because those jokes were ya know...funny.
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post #16 of 258
11/12/08 at 6:00pm
Does anyone honestly enjoy the first season for anything more than nostalgia? Maybe I'm just too ADD, but the pacing is BRUTAL in that first season.

Growing up, I was not allowed to watch the Simpsons. It was one of those bullshit things that I never bothered calling my parents out on. I could watch King of the Hill, I could watch Futurama, but not The Simpsons. By the time I was old enough to watch it, I didn't really care. But a year ago my friend lent me the 5th and 6th seasons, and then I got the brilliance of it all.
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post #17 of 258
11/12/08 at 6:01pm
Thread Starter 
To be fair, Homer's Enemy has one brillantly funny closing shot...
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post #18 of 258
11/12/08 at 6:01pm
Like I said, the first season is not good. (Although Lisa's substitute gets me misty eyed) The show was finding it's footing. But it amazes me that there is effectively ten years of crap out there.
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post #19 of 258
11/12/08 at 6:03pm
I probably walked away around 2002. I can't pick a certain episode or anything, I just gradually lost interest.
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post #20 of 258
11/12/08 at 6:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Ripoll View Post
Growing up, I was not allowed to watch the Simpsons. It was one of those bullshit things that I never bothered calling my parents out on. I could watch King of the Hill, I could watch Futurama, but not The Simpsons. By the time I was old enough to watch it, I didn't really care. But a year ago my friend lent me the 5th and 6th seasons, and then I got the brilliance of it all.
Damn, Patrick, that sucks. I have great memories of sitting down with the family and watching the Simpsons on Sunday nights back in my younger days. Particularly the Itchy and Scratchy Land episode.

I think the show had a serious dip in quality somewhere near the end of season 8/beginning of season 9, and that was also around the time I started losing interest anyway. Was the episode with Grimes around that time?
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post #21 of 258
11/12/08 at 6:06pm
After season nine. Have only caught an odd episode here and there since.
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post #22 of 258
11/12/08 at 6:07pm
The Grimey episode is one of my favorites of the whole run. It makes perfect sense as the death knell of the classic episodes. Wasn't the Simpson's Smile Time Variety show spinoff spectacular from the same season?

I hate falling into the nostalgia trap, but sometimes I'll catch a favorite episode, like Sideshow Bob Roberts for instance, and it hits me harder than any song or movie or anything like that ever could.
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post #23 of 258
11/12/08 at 6:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by EdHocken View Post
Like I said, the first season is not good. (Although Lisa's substitute gets me misty eyed) The show was finding it's footing. But it amazes me that there is effectively ten years of crap out there.
Isn't Lisa's Substitute Season 2? I think so. And yeah - objectively, Season One isn't very good, but it showed the series' potential and it laid a LOT of groundwork for the characters. Foundation-wise it was fantastic and then the later seasons just capitalized on it. We still watch "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" (The S1 Christmas Special) every Christmas Eve at my house.
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post #24 of 258
11/12/08 at 6:11pm
Speaking of that, you can also track the show's downfall just through the Christmas themed episodes.

Bart shoplifiting- Brilliant.

The Funzo bullshit- Not so much.
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post #25 of 258
11/12/08 at 6:11pm
I gave up around 2002 also, but I had been missing it more and more frequently before that. I remember really noticing the show going bad when they killed Maude Flanders. It just felt so wrong and mean-spirited, which is something the show had never really been before (you could also say this about the Grimes episode, but I actually enjoy that one), and after that the show didn't seem to have any heart.
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post #26 of 258
11/12/08 at 6:16pm
I would say that I stopped watching it consistently in 01-02. Even then I mostly stuck around out of loyalty and it being programmed into my head to watch the Simpsons on a Sunday night.

They still can bring out the odd fantastic joke every once in a while. But the comparison of a great ballplayer staying well past his prime is the best example. It's like the Jerry Rice of comedy. The biggest thing I miss is how amazingly human the older episodes are. The aforementioned Lisa's substitute is a great example of that. So are the older Marge and Homer episodes.
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post #27 of 258
11/12/08 at 6:24pm
It just seems so arbitrary. They kill off Maude and Milhous' parents divorce. But they aren't willing to have any kind of permenant change to the family itself.

Oh and every third episode seems to involve a family member in some kind of new job.
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post #28 of 258
11/12/08 at 6:26pm
Simpsons decline hit as soon as it reached double digits (though season 9 showed some initial ropeyness). Season 10 has a couple of good episodes but it really starts to fall apart. I own seasons 3-9 on DVD and that's all I'll ever want or need.
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post #29 of 258
11/12/08 at 6:32pm
I own seasons 3-5. Eventually, I'll stop buying after season 8.
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post #30 of 258
11/12/08 at 6:38pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by EdHocken View Post
It just seems so arbitrary. They kill off Maude and Milhous' parents divorce. But they aren't willing to have any kind of permenant change to the family itself.
Let's not forget they had Milhouse's parents get back together about a year or so back. Ditto with making Barney a drunk again...
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post #31 of 258
11/12/08 at 6:42pm
Wow. I had no idea.

Once again, if you pull shit like that. You might as well have the kids age. It just gets ridiculous after a while.
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post #32 of 258
11/12/08 at 6:44pm
Milhouse's parents divorce was still during the classic run wasn't it? No, they never really did much with it, but they at least got some comedy gold out of it, unlike most of the recent 'big changes'.

"Weekday Dad wanted a DVD player."
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post #33 of 258
11/12/08 at 6:48pm
All I know is that during the late 90s. The show had some kind of hate against Arby's. Does that still continue?
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post #34 of 258
11/12/08 at 6:48pm
Thread Starter 
I'm all for having the characters grow and/or change. But the fact that they won't stick with it just makes it one big slap-in-the-face to the audience...
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post #35 of 258
11/12/08 at 6:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by JGButler View Post
That's the one. Homer's Enemy. Someone (may have been someone on the boards even) described that as the "God is Dead" episode. From then on the show stopped taking itself seriously (which was why it worked to begin with) and became a self-parody. That's where Homer's persona changed and everything started getting too...out there. It was gradual and there were still great episodes after it, but that episode is when the whole tone of the show changed.
Now that it's being mentioned, I vividly remember watching this episode when it originally aired and thinking - maybe for the first time - that Homer wasn't just stupid, but that he was kind of an asshole.* Yeah, the show definitely tanked, but it was a gradual decline that accelerated over time. Elements of sentiment remained for awhile, but eventually the self-parody just took over.

Ever now and then I might turn it on for a few minutes, but nothing I've seen has been all that compelling. Honestly, I'm continually suprised that it keeps going on and on. Apparently people still watch it.

*Ironically enough, the Frank Grimes episode was funny. Just not in the usual Simpsons' way. It was like an early Family Guy. Felt like a differnt show.
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post #36 of 258
11/12/08 at 6:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith F View Post
Milhouse's parents divorce was still during the classic run wasn't it? No, they never really did much with it, but they at least got some comedy gold out of it, unlike most of the recent 'big changes'.

"Weekday Dad wanted a DVD player."
Can I borrow a feeling?

Do you get to sleep in a race car?
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post #37 of 258
11/12/08 at 6:55pm
I remember a couple years ago during a hurricane the family was watching a Simpsons re-run where Homer tries to introduce Ned to some new women after Maude's death. No one in the room remember Maude dying at all. But we had all seen episodes that broadcasted after the fact. It wasn't until last year that I caught the re-run that she actually died in, and I don't even have the slightest hint of remembering it during the original run.
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post #38 of 258
11/12/08 at 6:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richason View Post
Elements of sentiment remained for awhile, but eventually the self-parody just took over.
I wonder if the cause of that was because, by Season 10-11, they were getting writers on the show who had grown up watching The Simpsons, and were more interested in parody then the family dynamic that had made the first 8 seasons so great.

Quote:
Originally Posted by BillyG View Post
I remember a couple years ago during a hurricane the family was watching a Simpsons re-run where Homer tries to introduce Ned to some new women after Maude's death. No one in the room remember Maude dying at all. But we had all seen episodes that broadcasted after the fact. It wasn't until last year that I caught the re-run that she actually died in, and I don't even have the slightest hint of remembering it during the original run.
Was this the ep. where Homer took Flanders to Vegas? I hated that episode.
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post #39 of 258
11/12/08 at 7:00pm
I can't believe anyone sane could dislike Homer's Enemy (especially not now in hindsight). I don't think the Homer in that episode is like anything seen before or after (seriously). Yeah he's a super-enhanced jerk, but it's kinda like how Homer is during a boring work day when he isn't eating or sleeping, and it plays perfectly against Grimes. I just find the whole episode hilarious, and Homer somewhat endearing in his annoyance.
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post #40 of 258
11/12/08 at 7:00pm
Was a long-time fan, but the tone of the show started changing around Season 8-9. I personally blame Ian Maxtone-Graham, although I have no proof.
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post #41 of 258
11/12/08 at 7:02pm
Richason made a good point about the original Grimey episode that I was trying to make, but I've got Homer like skills. It was the first, that I remember anyway, truly meta Simpsons episode. It was about The Simpsons, and why the fans liked the Simpsons so much, and how stupid some us were to actually get behind Homer like we did. Worshipping an idiot and all that. I don't think it's Family Guy like in it's comedy, the episode is still too smartly written to fall into that trap.

Or I'm way off base.

One thing I know, I don't ever need to be reminded of the Vegas wives again.
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post #42 of 258
11/12/08 at 7:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richason View Post
Now that it's being mentioned, I vividly remember watching this episode when it originally aired and thinking - maybe for the first time - that Homer wasn't just stupid, but that he was kind of an asshole.* Yeah, the show definitely tanked, but it was a gradual decline that accelerated over time. Elements of sentiment remained for awhile, but eventually the self-parody just took over.

Ever now and then I might turn it on for a few minutes, but nothing I've seen has been all that compelling. Honestly, I'm continually suprised that it keeps going on and on. Apparently people still watch it.

*Ironically enough, the Frank Grimes episode was funny. Just not in the usual Simpsons' way. It was like an early Family Guy. Felt like a differnt show.
Homer's always been kind of an asshole though. Back to Lisa's Substitute there was "Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand!" And the bowling ball fiasco on Marge's birthday (I forget which ep that was), and the list goes on. What made it work though was that he was always called on it. Marge or Lisa or someone would always pull his card and make him realize that he was indeed being an asshole. That's where the realism and the drama came into play. With the Grimey episode, Homer's assholery was amplified and then celebrated. "That's our Homer!" That was the first time that had happened and it started becoming the theme as the show went on.
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post #43 of 258
11/12/08 at 7:03pm
The funny thing is that after some further thought. There were pre-cursors to Frank Grimes. I remember Homer just be an asshole during the cult episode.

"Out of my way, jerkass". Seriously?
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post #44 of 258
11/12/08 at 7:06pm
I fucking love that line.
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post #45 of 258
11/12/08 at 7:07pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by EdHocken View Post
"Out of my way, jerkass". Seriously?
"Na-na-na-na-na-na-na Leader!"
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post #46 of 258
11/12/08 at 7:08pm
Fair enough.

BUt the "Na Na Na Na Na fishing" was kind of annoying. For some reason towards the later seasons. They would have segments of Homer just doing something either irritating or annoying for very long stretches of time. Best example: Homer screaming after he remembers finding a body that turned out to be Smither's dad.
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post #47 of 258
11/12/08 at 7:11pm
The screaming thing was season 13.

I love the cult episode. "Hover bikes!"
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post #48 of 258
11/12/08 at 7:11pm
Not to mention the horrible acts of child abuse.

Homer's not a very good guy, despite his occasional moments of humanity.
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post #49 of 258
11/12/08 at 7:34pm
I stopped watching the show around season 11, and felt that it had finally reached it's final breaths with the "behind the laughter" and mel gibson episodes.

From that point forth I sort of wrote off the show, occasionally hearing from friends when there would be a good ep, etc.

I was still loyal enough to go see The Simpsons movie opening weekend, on my wedding night but didn't think much of it.

But last season, when I tried to watch an episode where they ret-conned Home and Marge's early relationship into the 1990's, I truly became disgusted. The Simpsons is dead to me.
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post #50 of 258
11/12/08 at 7:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wadeisdead View Post
But last season, when I tried to watch an episode where they ret-conned Home and Marge's early relationship into the 1990's, I truly became disgusted. The Simpsons is dead to me.
Especially because they already had two episodes set in the early 90s. One where Marge is pregnant with Maggie and when Lisa got her Sax.
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