So, When did it happen(for the simpsons)

S

Saturn 5

New member
Can anyone pinpoint when exactly The Simpsons jumped the shark?

For me, it was about season 12 or 13, this is when writers grew proud of plots that didn't make any sense(I recall an episode that featured Mr. Tinie saying as such) and the series went from clever satire about American family life to typical cartoon.
 
For me, it was around the time they did the episode where Bart, Millhouse, Nelson and Ralph Wiggum became a boy band, the Behind the Music parody show and the infamous Maude Flanders' death episode. Those were the last Simpsons episodes I watched in their entirety.
 
Homer's Enemy (people seem to like it, but it was too meanspirited and unfunny for me), The Principal and The Pauper started the fall. Bonfire of the Manatees was the point I stopped watching.
 
Let me put it this way...

It strapped on the skis in Season 9, rode headlong towards the shark in Season 10, and skidded up the ramp during Seasons 11 and 12, but then the motor on the boat stalled during Seasons 13 and 14...and then took off again at top speed throughout Seasons 15, 16, 17, and 18.

The reason why is simple enough - Mike Scully had a sick sense of humor, John Swartzwelder's scripts are being revised by novices without his input, Al Jean is completely burned out, Matt Groening's mind was on "Futurama" from 1997 to 2002, and The Simpsons Movie required everyone to phone it in on the series for the last four years. The show needs a new executive producer more than anything, but frankly, with the forthcoming release of Bender's Big Score, I'd be delighted if "The Simpsons" threw in the towel in favor of new "Futurama" episodes. At least that show still has potential.
 
Then, honestly, you didn't understand the dark humor of the episode. Personally, I think Homer's Enemy is one of the very best episode of the entire series.



Now that I know the writer's intent, The Principal and the Pauper has gotten a heck of a lot better in my eyes.



This I'll agree on. Bonfire of the Manatees was a steaming pile of crap.
 
I still am a faithful viewer, even with the crop of just poor quality episodes they've been cranking out lately. I think it was about 12th season for me too. They had some nice pick and choose ones from time to time, but other than that we had horrid Lisa-centric episodes (that Spell-ympics one), horrid Lisa-centric episodes that are Musical parodies, and the same Homer gets a job for no reason but to have a B story that seems tacked on. And the fact that they just make characters like Sideshow Mel and Cletus say random things because they talk funny.

Cheap laughs over logical plots. Ew.
 
I still like The Simpsons......While the epsodes from the last few seasons aren't as good as the "classics"(I can't quite pinpoint when it went downhilll,because nowadays I usually catch the episodes only in out-of-order syndication,so I'm not sure which episodes go to which season) they usually make me laugh at some point.....
 
Started in Season 9 for me...but I continued watching, thinking "maybe it's just a bad season, and will get better"...hehehehe, RIGHT. No, the minute I thought it officially hit rock bottom was during that episode where Bart pretends to get kidnapped, after the whole rap thing. For me, that took Simpsons from boring and poorly written to completely tasteless. And IMO it hasn't improved a whole lot since that point.
 
Man, how many times have we done this topic?

I'd say season 10 onwards. The writers got too cocky, knowing they'd basically be renewed no matter what. So we started getting more mean spirited humour, plot reuse and they continuity issues (making fun of their fans and history, dragging down classics by making episodes heavily connected to them, etc).
 
The first episode I remember outright disliking is the one where Lisa gets lost trying to get to a museum. It felt somewhat aimless, and not very funny. From this point on, characters I used to love started to get annoying, and, as others have pointed out, the plots made no sense. I agree with what HellCat said about the new episodes as well, and I haven't watched the show in years.
 
Yeah, I feel the show is still enjoyable, but hardly as well written as past episodes were. And then of course we get the paninfully poorly written episodes like that Suds MacDuff one (which made me even angrier, since that reruns was shown after the last Futurama episode), and the one where they go to Africa. Allong with the Lisa Spellympics episode, those are my three least favorites in the entire series.
 
Bart's Comet in season 6. The only episode to that point that I didn't immediately like. From that point the show wasn't the same for me.
 
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