Best Seasons of shows

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porto rox my sox

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Not the shows taken as a whole, but which seasons of your favorite shows have the most favorable ratio of great/very good episodes to mediocre/bad episodes.

The Simpsons: Seasons 4-5-6

This is when the show truly hits its stride, and most of the all-time great Simpsons episodes can be found in these seasons (specifically season 6)

Family Guy: Seasons 2-3

The cutaways are a dominant force, but the episodes in these seasons strike the perfect balance between gag-based and character-based humor. They're funnier than Season 1, but more substantial and hold up better to repeats than most of the episodes that come later.

Spongebob: Seasons 1-2

I can watch nearly every episode in the first two Spongebob seasons over and over again and not get bored. The writing is sharp, the characters are at their best. Season 3 isn't quite as strong taken as a whole.

South Park: 1, 4-5-6-7-8, 12

South Park is a weird case. I like most of Season 1 mostly out of nostalgia. But I feel seasons 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 12 have the most favorable number of repsective outstanding episodes. The others generally have bigger stretches of mediocre or subpar episodes.
 
Ren & Stimpy: Season 2. While I love season 1 ("Space Madness" is still a classic), the season had way too many animation errors and fluctuating quality from a host of studios still learning how to make the show. It wasn't until season 2, when Rough Draft was added, when we got a cleaner, more refined R&S without sacrificing its visual fluidity. And Carbunkle really stepped up this season, producing far far better work than in season 1 when they had to share duties with Fil-Cartoons.

And while the season still had some funny shorts, there was also some experimentation with largely dramatic ones as well ("Son of Stimpy", "Stimpy's Fan Club", "A Visit to Anthony"). There's lots of variety here.

King of the Hill: Season 3. Pretty much all of the episodes here are winners. It's also arguably when the show got more ha-ha funny. Cases in point: "Sleight of Hank", "A-Firefighting We Will Go", "The Wedding of Bobby Hill".

The Simpsons: It's a close tie between seasons 5 & 6 (Mirkin) and seasons 7 & 8 (Oakley/Weinstein). Mirkin's comedy was more consistent and convention-defying than Jean/Reiss's (plus his era had the two best Treehouse of Horror specials ever), while Oakley/Weinstein had a perfect balance of surreal comedy and down-to-earth characterization, particularly with Homer, who wasn't a cartoonish eating machine. All four seasons have a lot of replay value.

Rocko's Modern Life: Season 2. While season 1 is often lauded as the best, due to its exaggerations of the annoyances of life, season 2 combined that with better comic timing/tighter animation and more creative plots than "Rocko goes shopping!", "Rocko goes to the laundromat!", "Rocko goes to the crooked carnival!" I still love season 1, but season 2 is when the show got hilarious.

Rugrats: Seasons 2 and 3, aka when Paul Germain's influence was most evident. These episodes had surprisingly dark tones for a show about babies, turning the ordinary plots into tense adventures. The artwork was far better than season 1, as well.

SpongeBob SquarePants: Seasons 1 & 2, and parts of 3, for the reason Super Leviathan already mentioned.

Family Guy: Seasons 1-3. Sorry to be so predictable. But they really did have a good balance of cutaways and character-based humor. And no, that's not just nostalgia talking.

Futurama: Season 3 (production order) I decided to break up Futurama into production order, since its airing order was so screwed up on Fox. Season 3 was almost perfection, with few stinkers in the bunch. From the emotional (but still comical) episodes like "Godfellas", "Luck of the Fryrish", and "Time Keeps on Slipping", to the wacky outings like "Insane in the Mainframe", "Bendless Love", "Amazon Women in the Mood", and "Roswell That Ends Well", this is when the crew really hit their stride.

Duckman: Seasons 1 & 2. Some of the most rapid fire banter and sharpest satire on TV. There's not a single bad episode in the bunch.
 
TMNT 80's: Season 1 and Season 7. It doesn't get much better than that. The show had the perfect blend of action and comedy in those two seasons.

TMNT 2k3: Season 1 and Season 3. Those two seasons were handled extremely well, and had some of the best written episodes in both.

Pokemon: Season 1. Even after 10 years, the original Kanto is still the best. Although I've enjoyed every season aside from the abysmal Johto era, I have to say Kanto is the only one you can watch over and over again and not get bored. No wonder everyone hated Johto so much, the loss of quality from Kanto/Orange into Johto was absolutely staggering.

Justice League Unlimited: Season 1 and 2, the Cadmus story arc was superb.

Teen Titans: Seasons 1 and 2. Slade was at the top of his game here.

Batman: TAS: I don't separate this show by "seasons," I consider the entire series to be pure gold. God bless Bruce Timm and his co-workers, truly the best superhero cartoon ever made. Bravo.
 
Home Movies seasons two and three.

The switch from squigglevision to Flash greatly improved the animation quality, and they feature some of the show's best episodes: "Party", "The Wedding, " "Shore Leave", "Renaissance" and "Coffins and Cradles", to name a few.
 
The Simpsons - Seasons 5-8: Everything before felt kind of unfocused. And everything after just feels rather forced.

South Park - Seasons 6-7: I just thought that most of the jokes were really good in these seasons.

Family Guy - Seasons 2-3: Like the Simpsons, season 1 suffered for being unfocused. To me, season 2 was when the writers honed their ability to use cutaways. And while season 4 was still kind of good and season 5 was okay, I just don't think they really hold up.
 
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