"The Simpsons" - Best Showrunners

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foofy2u2

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Since I've recently been listening to a lot of "Simpsons" DVD commentaries, I thought it'd be a good time to finally analyze the various showrunners/executive producers that the show's had over the years to determine which era came out the best due to their influence.

- James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, and Sam Simon (Seasons 1 and 2): This was the learning time for the show, when it blossomed beyond its roots as "Tracey Ullman" filler and began evolving into something much more akin to Groening's vision. There's genuine emotion and real depth to the characters as they bounce off each other. Admittedly, some things don't work - observe Lisa's vestigial brattiness in 7G04 "There's No Disgrace Like Home", left over from the Ullman era, or the seemingly aimless plot of 7G03 "Homer's Odyssey" - but by Season 2, the family's personalities are all ironed out, and the plots are direct outgrowths of those personalities. Groening's sense of humor combines with Brooks and Simon's sense of story to create memorable adventures that continue to hold up.
- Al Jean and Mike Reiss (Seasons 3 and 4): It was in this season that the humor got ratcheted up to its rapid fire pace that we all know and love. Jokes are more clever, wit is sharper, and the show is completely unafraid to take shots at every aspect of American culture. Jean and Reiss have a penchant for skewering pop culture on the sword of satire, a trait that they also wielded on "The Critic", while still maintaining the characters' personalities and keeping them true to themselves. The main problem with this era is that, for some reason, just about every show that Jean and Reiss did came in too short. Filler material shows up in episodes like 9F16 "The Front", recycled animation is pulled from old shows to create new scenes on the fly, and even the most memorable gag from the Jean/Reiss era - the infamous "rake scene" from the Season 4 holdover 9F22 "Cape Feare" - was a result of not having enough to fill 21 minutes. It was this era that spawned the circus couch gag, first appearing in 9F08 "Lisa's First Word", that got reused every time a show failed to reach its minimum required running time. It's worth mentioning that the gag reappeared three more times in the Jean/Reiss run.
- David Mirkin (Seasons 5 and 6): If Jean and Reiss introduced over-the-top satire to the show, David Mirkin brought it even more over the top than before. Right from the get-go, Mirkin's first two episodes (1F01 "Rosebud" and 1F02 "Homer Goes to College") exhibit an outlandish style of rapid-fire humor that propels the show straight into the stratosphere. Mirkin pulls no punches, using the show to tackle more and more controversial topics. Season 5 includes 1F13 "Deep Space Homer", the episode that many thought would spell the end of the show by introducing the seemingly untoppable premise of Homer becoming an astronaut. The season also spotlights what many consider to be the show's first truly outlandish idea, 1F15 "Bart Gets an Elephant", but still it works. Season 6 digs even deeper into the controversy barrel, taking on Republican politics (2F02 "Sideshow Bob Roberts"), sexual harassment (2F06 "Homer Badman"), virility enhancers (2F07 "Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy"), and the entire nation of Australia (2F13 "Bart vs. Australia"). And amid it all, Mirkin still keeps the characters true to Groening's vision, even producing shows of great emotional caliber like 2F15 "Lisa's Wedding". Plus, how can you badmouth the man who showran the brilliant mystery that was "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" Mirkin brought a revolutionary new angle to the show that made it even more razor sharp than it was before.
- Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein (Seasons 7 and 8): Every showrunner says they're going to bring the show "back to the family", but Oakley and Weinstein truly pulled it off. Focusing more heavily on character than ever before, the duo perfectly balanced humor with emotion in a way that has never been seen on the show since. From their first episode, the surprising and touching 3F01 "Home Sweet Homediddily-dum-doodily", Oakley and Weinstein made us believe that the Simpsons were real people with real feelings. From Bart's self-struggle in 3F02 "Bart Sells His Soul" to Homer's heartfelt reunion and subsequent separation with his mother in 3F06 "Mother Simpson" and Marge's passive disappointment with Bart's shoplifting in 3F07 "Marge Be Not Proud", and plenty other episodes between and after, Oakley and Weinstein's ability to tug at the heartstrings and tickle the funnybone at the same time was clear. They also brought about the convention of exploring the personalities of minor characters, from Jebediah Springfield (3F13 "Lisa the Iconoclast") and Troy McClure (3F15 "A Fish Called Selma") to Apu (3F20 "Much Apu About Nothing") and Ned Flanders (4F07 "Hurricane Neddy"). And they weren't afraid to shake things up, either - observe the hilarious multiple storylines of 3F18 "22 Short Films About Springfield", or the long-lasting divorce of the Van Houtens in 4F04 "A Milhouse Divided", or the unlikely romance between Skinner and Krabappel in 4F09 "Grade School Confidential". And towards the end of their run, they were just as strong as they were at the beginning - they turned the show's universe on its ear by introducing "real" character Frank Grimes as a hapless Greek chorus in 4F19 "Homer's Enemy", and unleashed the experiment that aired in Season 9 as a testament to how attached people get to minor characters on the show, 4F23 "The Principal and the Pauper". Oakley and Weinstein weren't afraid to try new things, and the show became much deeper as a result.
- Mike Scully (Seasons 9-12): Many people blame Mike Scully for ruining "The Simpsons". Did he really? Well, there's no denying that the show's sense of humor changed distinctly under his reign. Scully's "anything for a laugh" approach to the show resulted in a lot of dark humor and occasional bouts of discarded characterization (observe Lisa's laziness in 5F08 "Bart Carny" for a prime example). After about a year, the plots began to weaken too - often, the show returned to the old standby of Homer getting a new job, and Homer himself became more boorish and self-centered than he had been in the past. Episodes like AABF04 "Homer Simpson in: Kidney Trouble", AABF12 "Make Room for Lisa", and BABF08 "The Mansion Family" show Homer not as the lovable dimwit of earlier seasons, but as a brick-stupid loudmouth with no sense of right and wrong. This isn't to say that the Scully era was a complete waste of time, mind you - he did produce some memorable episodes, most often the ones that played with the show's universe (the Bible-skewering AABF14 "Simpsons Bible Stories"; the biting VH1 parody BABF19 "Behind the Laughter"; and the story-bending CABF14 "Trilogy of Error"). But when Scully missed, he missed big - all sorts of jokes fall flat on their faces in episodes like BABF09 "Saddlesore Galactica", BABF16 "Kill the Alligator and Run", and CABF13 "Simpson Safari". Scully thought that anything unexpected was funny, but in some cases, it was just annoying.
- Al Jean (Season 13-present): Working independently of his former partner Mike Reiss, Jean seemed to lose something on his own. Gone are the superb satires of Seasons 3 and 4, and in their stead is a string of attempts to amalgamate the efforts of all the previous showrunners into one big ball of "Simpsons" potpourri. There's no denying that Jean has made an effort to listen to the fans, but this has resulted in his endeavors to please everybody at once, which is downright impossible. From his early Oakley-and-Weinstein-esque efforts to restore the show's family focus in episodes like DABF01 "Brawl in the Family" and DABF09 "The Old Man and the Key" to his Mirkin-like slams on controversial topics as seen in DABF10 "Blame It On Lisa" and DABF11 "Weekend at Burnsie's", Jean seemed to have no real direction in mind for the show - just throw everything at the wall and see if it sticks. His current aim, it seems, is to undo everything that's been done to the show since Season 5, and this is where Jean has made his biggest mistake - a return to the classic styling of the show does not mean getting everything back to square one. Setting up a climax to the Skinner/Krabappel relationship in EABF02 "Special Edna", Jean led us to a disappointing anticlimax a year later in FABF12 "My Big Fat Geek Wedding". Trying to cancel out Apu's marriage and Flanders' widowerhood, Jean gave us DABF14 "The Sweetest Apu" and EABF08 "A Star is Born Again". To give closure to an episode that was intentionally left open-ended, Jean gave us EABF18 "My Mother the Carjacker". To malign Oakley and Weinstein's efforts at character development, we got GABF19 "Milhouse of Sand and Fog". Literally every other episode returns to the convention of Homer and Marge having marital trouble, a thread that was much more common in the early seasons, but now it's devoid of the right level of emotion to make us care. And throughout it all, the old Jean/Reiss trademark of episodes that keep coming in short reared its ugly head, resulting in an unholy amount of filler for episodes with 21 minutes to fill and only 18 minutes of plot. The two-minute couch gag became a standard sometime around Season 16, eating up time that couldn't be filled with actual story. Some people call Al Jean "the savior of the Simpsons", but if anything, he's just proven that he doesn't know what the heck we want and he's got no idea how to give it to us anyway.

Who did it best? Personally, I favor Oakley and Weinstein, as their episodes hold up the greatest to repeat viewings, and the characters are much more relatable. Feel free to agree or disagree with the above points - this is purely my opinion.
 
David Mirkin.

My favorite seasons were helmed by him, he more-or-less created my sense of humor with episodes like "Homer Goes To College". His episodes are easily the most quotable and memorable. I pop in his dvds more than any other season. Plus he's my favorite in the dvd commentaries.

Oakley & Weinstein are probably second as they were a bit less crazy as Mirkin and had a bit more character in their episodes. Episodes like "The Lemon Of Troy" still stand strong today. And I agree with their assertion that all showrunners should stick to 2 seasons as after that the episodes blur together and the showrunner starts to care less about the quality of the episodes. That definately applies to Mike Scully.

Mike Scully's first 2 seasons were undoubtedly his best, as the quality really dipped in seasons 11 and 12.

I don't consider Al Jean "The savior", but I do feel season 13, 14, 15 and the current season are very enjoyable and are much better than season 11 and 12. (Simpson Safari is worse than ANYTHING Al Jean will EVER put out.) I have actually enjoyed these seasons a lot in reruns. But I do think it's time for someone else to take over.

However, the Mike Reiss & Al Jean team solidified the excellence in their two seasons before any of the others. Season 3 & 4 have a nice combo of Mirkin's crazy humour and Oakley & Weinstein's heart.

The original 3 (Groening, Simon and Brooks) were good, no doubt. But I really don't think season 1 was as good as anything that came later (except season 11 and 12) but season 2 was really enjoyable. They really laid the foundation for the excellence to follow, but the episodes just aren't as strong as later stuff.
 
There is something I always wanted to know: Why did they stop doing the practice of changing the showrunner every two seasons? It seems to me that by having two seasons to work with, the showrunner can present his ideas and not have to worry about rehashing plots or running out of ideas.
 
I wish I knew, I remember Bill & Josh said in the audio commentary that they were so out of it by the end of season 8 that there was no way they could've continued to make good episodes.

After rewatching season 9 on dvd with Mike Scully, I better understand his approach to his seasons. But, he really should've hung it up like Mirkin, Reiss with Jean, and Oakley & Weinstein did. They knew when they were done.

Al Jean started doing the same thing with season 16 and 17, too. Even though 18 seems to have a bit more focus it, I still think it's time for someone else.

I really think the 2-seasons per showrunner method is a good idea.
 
Actually season 3 was showrun by Groening, Brooks and Simon.

And I guess my favorites are Groening, Brooks and Simon & Oakley and Weinstein. Oakley and Weinstein's stuff preceded Futurama IMHO.
 
Nicely written, J.B. I think you summarized the core elements of the different showrunners quite well. Here's how I break it down: (from favorite to least favorite)
1. TIE: David Mirkin & Bill Oakley/Josh Weinstein: Depending on my mood, I switch back and forth between which era I like better. There are classic, hilarious episodes from both, as well as ones that deepened the characters. Seasons 7 & 8 probably had the best characterization of Homer in the whole series. Plus, seasons 5 & 6 had the best Treehouse of Horror specials ever.
2. Al Jean/Mike Reiss (Seasons 3 & 4): Season 3 rules. It's really hard to top a lot of the episodes in there, like "Homer at the Bat", "Homer Defined", "Flaming Moe's", "Separate Vocations", and "Bart the Lover". No matter how many times I watch them in reruns or on DVD, they never get old. Season 4 had a lot of good material, too, even if many episodes happened to run short. Many of my all-time favorites come from this season: "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie", "Mr. Plow", "Homer the Heretic", "Last Exit to Springfield", "Selma's Choice", and more.
3. Matt Groening/James L. Brooks/Sam Simon: It may have been a learning process, but there was still lots to love in here. Season 2 was a HUGE step over season 1, with its more intricate plots, social commentary, far better voice acting, and their ability to make us care about the characters. Not a laugh riot yet, however, especially season 1, which went for more subtle humor.
4. Mike Scully: Season 9 was all right, and certain episodes in season 10 were decent, but seasons 11 and 12 were VERY hit or miss. Mostly miss. I didn't much care for the "anything for a laugh" philosophy that resulted in questionable characterization for numerous characters during this era. There were still laughs, no doubt, but they often came at sacrifice of plot (which became noticeably schizophrenic during many episodes). It was around this time that the animation got noticeably stiffer and less creative as well, which was something I always enjoyed about seasons 3-8.
5. Al Jean (Season 13+): Extremely uneven, moreso than the Scully era. I never know from week to week whether to expect a good or a bad episode, and I can honestly say that only a small handful of episodes from the last six years are what I'd consider "great". The rest are either decent, below par, or just bad. There are a lot of forced/obvious/awkward jokes, too many musical montages, noticeable problems with plot structuring and pacing, and still problems with characterization left over from the Scully era. And I didn't care for the execution of many episodes which tried to take a story arc in a new direction but failed ("My Big Fat Geek Wedding" being the primary example). The show gets points for improving its animation during this era, though.
 
1) David Mirkin - Seasons 5 & 6 were the only seasons of the show that celebrated the fact that The Simpsons was a cartoon. They were wacky, crazy, and still well-written and with great character development. They were also the most consistent seasons since they barely experimented, they just wanted to entertain.

2) Jean/Reiss - Season 3 has great-written plots, and some really wacky stuff to spice things up. The show got a little crazier in season 4, but it was still awesome. I give it second spot only because the Mirkin years were funnier.

3) Brooks/Groening/Simon - I'm not sure how many people here did, but I saw season 1 when it was new and enjoyed it for the most part. Season 2 was a huge improvement, mainly because that the show started to stick to a premise. If there's something I hate about season 1 is its severe inconsistency. Even for this type of show they experimented way too much.

4) Oakley/Weinstein - You guys are probably wondering why I list this era so low. The truth is, I can't stand season 8. I find most of the episodes to be really slow and tedious ("Lisa's Date With Density", "The Homer They Fall", "Burn Baby Burns", "Canine Mutiny") so I can't really rewatch most of it. The only real highlights were "I & S & Poochie", "Homer's Phobia", "Grade School Confidential" and the four episodes written by Swartzwelder, but that's probably it. Season 7 was a lot better, but it has some of the most overrated episodes of the show ever. ("Scenes From the Class...", "Curse of the Flying Hellfish" and "Homerpalooza")

5) Scully - Season 9 was great. If seasons 10-12 would have been season 9 quality I'd be rating Scully over Oakley/Weinstein. Unfortunately, season 10 is where the show took a bad downfall, and even though seasons 11 and 12 were slightly better, the damage was already done.

6) Jean - I still have no idea what is Al Jean trying to do with the show. The inconsistency is so big that you gotta wonder if it is the same show anymore. To me, watching the Al Jean seasons is like watching the Chuck Jones Tom & Jerry toons. Very well-known character but with extremely uninspired and rushed plots, who for the most part don't seem to make sense. Seriously, either end the show or bring a completely different staff (that's how the transition to the Mirkin era was), because if I have to tolerate one more Jean season I'm gonna scream.


No, it was by Jean and Reiss. They were credited as Co-Executives but they were in a showrunning position. This is mentioned in one of the audio commentaries.
 
By the way, even though I listed Oakley/Weinstein as the best, it's really hard to not have a tie between them and David Mirkin and Al Jean/Mike Reiss. Frankly, I don't think there was any noticeably decline in quality throughout the run of seasons 3-8. There were a couple of bad episodes but the show was consistently great throughout that era no matter who was running it.

I'd like to include season 9 in that but that would be including the Scully era and while I think season 9 was one of the best of the show and still as good as 3-8, 10 had a slight drop in quality, 11 proved the show was in a full blow decline, and the show was on its last legs in 12.
 
1. Dave Mirkin- Seasons 5 and 6 are the funniest seasons of the show. It had great stories and they had fun with them. Some of my favorite episodes come out of these seasons including "Homer the Vigilante" and "Sideshow Bob Roberts."

2. Jean/Ross- Seasons 3 and four were great and have the family some characterization.

3. Brooks/ Groening/ Simon- Seasons 1 and 2 had the show trying to find their direction. It also produced some classic episodes including "Simpson and Delilah" and "Krusty Gets Busted."

4. Oakley/Weinstein- Seasons 7 and 8 were great for giving the other characters in Springfield some spotlight. The stories suffered from this though.

5. Scully- Were ok episodes but he will not be forgiven for "The Principal and the Pauper." Worst episode Ever!

6. Jean- At this point the show been run into the ground. The series has run out of ideas and the social commentary maked me sick. It makes me feel like I'm listening to Air America:sad:
 
Mike Scully had nothing to do with "The Principal and the Pauper". It was a holdover from Season 8, executive produced by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein. (And confidentially, I used to hate it too, until I heard Ken Keeler explain his intent on the Season 9 DVD commentary. Looking at it from the point of view he intended, it's actually quite clever.)
 
You wanna blame Mike Scully for something, blame him for "Kill The Alligator And Run", "Simpson Safari", "Bye Bye Nerdie", "Tennis The Menace", "Homer Vs. Dignity", "Children Of A Lesser Clod", "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge", "Marge Simpson In: Screaming Yellow Honkers", "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday".

Wow, I had forgotten how many utterly horrible episodes there were in the Scully era. Looking those seasons up on Wikipedia reminded me. It even has what I consider the worst episode of the series, "Kill The Alligator And Run". Still, there were some great episodes in there. I even love two that a lot of people hate. "Homer Simpson In: Kidney Trouble" and "Saddlesore Galactica".
 
Kidney Trouble is not that bad. It only annoys me where near the end Homer runs away again. That was totally pointless.

Saddlesore, too. I actually love how ridiculous and over-the-top it was, because that was the whole point of the episode.

But still, Simpson Safari really hurts and considering it was written by Swartzwelder, it hurts more.
 
I would defintley have to say Oakley And Wienstein. There were some kind of iffy Season Seven/Eight episodes but they were some of the shows most solid seasons. Oakley and Wienstein also seemed to be the only ones in general to approach each season with a general plan that others didn't. For Season seven they wanted to return the family to the roots and in eight they wanted to explore more secondary characters and succeeeded. Not to mention they were able to make the fullest seasons of the show and actually balance out the all out wacky episodes with emotional episodes with specific reality bender/Itchy and Scratchy/giving time to each member of the family, something the other writers haven't really done.

Then I'd probably put down Al Jean and Mike Reiss, followed by Mirkin, followed by Matt Groening and Sam Simon, followed by Mike scully, followed by Al Jean (seriously they need to get a new showrunner. Someone who knows how to manage the episodes of each season better, though Season 18 is going a lot better then Season 17 did actually).
 
Overall, Oakley and Weinstein were the best showrunners in the whole damn series. They really understood the characters, how to make a good joke, and took the show very seriously. But Mirkin makes it a tie for me because his humor is absolutley fantastic. Even his commentaries make me laugh, because he's so into making something funny. Everything he says is hysterical.

So for me, it's a three-way tie between Bill Oakley and Josh Wesinstein and David Mirkin.
 
Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein were the absolute best. However, many of my other favorite episodes came from the Dave Mirkin and Mike Scully eras. Oakley and Weinstein brought a sense of wisdom and multi-dimensional intelligence that is all but absent on television today.

Al Jean today is a mixed bag. He's still capable of pulling off a great episode, but there appears to be a sense of lethargy and labored effort in other episodes. Even with Mike Scully's nonsensical storytelling, they often succeeded from mile-a-minute timing. Jean doesn't have that, wherein it usually takes longer than it should to tell a joke, which ends up killing it anyway. It might just be a side-effect from having been at the helm for so long.

Maybe it's time for a new showrunner.
 
Took the words right out of my mouth. I'm not sure whether anyone else feels the same way, but I've always believed the because Groening was working on Futurama for a number of years, that helped in the Simpsons decline somewhat, seeing as he wasn't around all the time to keep an eye on things.
 
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