So when did the Simpsons start to suck?
 

To make things clear don't think I've just had this as a revelation, I haven't kept up with new episodes in years. As I m going through downloads of the show (I'm only back up through season 3 when it was still awesome) I'm trying to remember exactly when it was that the show started to become awful and a farce of itself. I'm thinking I remember it being sometime during Season 10 when it fell out of favor with me.

Anyway what do you all think? Has anyone actually been brave enough to look at new episodes? If so did the show manage to get any better, or is it still useless?

I watched a bunch of episodes from season 20 which aired last year. Those weren't bad, some even funny. The series has not returned to its prime in any way, though.

The scarring began at about season 10 and continued until, well, the release of the godawful movie, I'd say.

Watching the Simpsons every sunday in my house was our equivalent of church. We'd eat in the living room if dinner was late, we'd postpone whatever we were doing to watch. This had been going on since the show started. It waned somewhere around 6-7 years ago, and now we don't really give a fuck.

It's sad, but I guess the show couldn't keep up that pace of awesome for THAT long. Every so often, I'll catch an episode of the newer seasons and I'll even chuckle sometimes, but the cringe-worthy jokes that fall flat or go too long just make it painful to watch.

I have watched it quite consistently until maybe season 15 or 16. I then stopped, more because of classes, and then moving to a country that didn't show Simpsons than anything else.

Some of Season 20's stuff is decent. However, it's just hard because they have made fun of just about everything,and unless they change their style of humor to say....Family Guy, it's going to be hard to go much further.

It started getting a little ehhhhh around season 11.

Since season 14, it has been utterly unwatchable.

I can tell you the exact date in which the show turned the corner: March 31, 1994, for the episode "Bart Gets an Elephant"

Now, certainly some damned good episodes have followed - particularly "You Only Move Twice" which followed two years later and is one of the best episodes the show had - but the whole Stampy episode had no good jokes, no discernable moral (believe it or not, the Simpsons use to pride themselves on having an Aesop's Fable approach) and no interesting characterizations.

The whole thing was the precursor to what the show is now - moving from when Homer was a loveable, if dimwitted father to an outright retarded idiot dumbass jerk.

I heard a Television critic say that "The Simpsons was really the first mainstream comedy to show us that the Happy ending isn't always possible, or necessary." Upon reflection, i find this to be true, and one of the signs of the decline of the Simpsons was (and i have yet to test this theory) when they started gearing their scripts towards the crowd pleasing side of things,a nd moving away from what made the Simpsons formula unique.

One thing for certain, I don't think there has been a terrible Treehouse of Horror Episode so far.

For someone who is "certain", you sure do "think".

And they've sucked for a number of years.

I felt the Simpsons were in a bit of a rut for a good number of seasons, the past few really haven't been that bad. I mean, they're certainly not up to the standard of some of the earlier stuff, but I still enjoy watching the Simpsons a lot more than, say, Family Guy or American Dad.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I feel King of the Hill was actually getting pretty good the past season or two. The ending to the episode where Bobby and Joseph get into the "going green" is actually one of the best moral lessons I've seen on TV.

Similarly, I'd rather have my fingernails pulled out than have my fingers broken with a spiked bat.

BTW has anyone noticed the change in the VAs? Before they used to act their lines, but now it seems like they over-exaggerate every line, or are constantly mixing in sarcastic inflections. This is probably what annoys me the most. If the VA direction would return to normal some episodes would be more watchable than they are.

He took Bart too? ... That wasn't part of the deal, Blackheart!


Come on.

A few days ago I was taking a shit at work when I was thinking about something related to this. My thought process was more about the show finally ending or being moved exclusively to (or simulcasted on) the Internet due to something. Shitty ratings? I forget.

It's been probably 8-10 years since I stopped watching the Simpsons regularly, mostly because it became shit but also partially because I couldn't be bothered to keep an eye out for it on Sundays (bleh) on Fox (BLEH). This change coincided with my overall disinterest in anything on television. People wonder why we (Danielle and I) have told Comcast to pretty much keep their TV service. We've pretty much joined the TiVo/DVR crowd, as we want to watch what we want to watch when it's convenient for us, and without commercials, please. But that's another story.

I figure someday I'll download the supertorrent of every episode and go through them all in a row, even the ones I've missed during the last decade but, from the bits and pieces that I've seen from the last 10 years of shows, it doesn't look like I'm missing much.

Really? I've felt their humor has become closer to what Family Guy is unfortunately.

I haven't watched the Simpsons regularly since about the 8th or 9th season. I really wish that Matt Groening wasn't such a pussy and just pulled the damn show like he said he would, but gave into fanboys bitching. This show is going to go down in disgrace rather than being one of, if not the best comedic animated show and definitely some of the best comedy on television ever.

1994? You're crazy. It was still hilarious until at least the late 90s, morals or not.

He didn't say there was nothing good after that. He said that was the turning point. First drop in the bucket, as it were.

I'm having trouble remembering what season that episode was in, but that could actually be about right, now that I think of it.

There isn't a single funny joke the whole episode. It was just a "situational" episode that attempted to find a zillion jokes with one idea. It never works like that.

FRANK GRIMES

Many years ago, bubbling from my unconscious on instinct, I identified this as a good waypoint for the show's turning to crap. So far no one has disagreed with me.

Maybe some of you can move the turning point earlier. I don't even know what season that is...

Frank Grimes was certainly one of the bigger nails in the coffin, yes

I actually had to consider what the last good Simpsons season was recently because of some great "Buy 1, get 1" deals. After scrolling through season episode descriptions on Wikipedia, I got up to Season 9. Season 9 has some hit or miss moments, but Season 10 has only 1 or 2 episodes that I liked (the Japan episode, that's mostly it).

As others have said, once Homer became a jerk instead of just a buffoon that loved his family the show lost its charm. Season 9 was also the last season that Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein worked on, so I guess they were the key. In addition, I've never forgiven the writers for killing off Maude Flanders. That event was just plain cruel on the characters and the viewers. That episode happened in season 11, by the way.

Regarding the seasons airing now, they've resorted to ripping off Family Guy style humor and inject a HUGE amount of political commentary (ham-handed, not subtle) that just isn't funny.

Rule of thumb is to watch up to Season 9 of The Simpsons and then just move onto Futurama, which kept the heart and soul of storytelling with witty writing.