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Posted: Nov 27 2005 09:46 pm

It was fucking terrible tonight, and it hasn't been funny in years. And who does the fucking editing? "Burns Manson"? Terrible plots? Reused jokes? Inexcusable.

It's time to let this series die before People stop watching entirely. Even though I have no idea why people watch it NOW. I'm disgusted.

Long live Family Guy!

Posted: Nov 27 2005 10:17 pm

Family Guy has been on the down and out lately too ever since its return to FOX (exception for last week's episode - and maybe this week's [milky way wrapper joke was just made and I laughed so looking good]).

I can not pin point when the Simpsons began to suck.

Joined: Aug 22 2005 Posts: 328

Tebor wrote:

I can not pin point when the Simpsons began to suck.

Me neither, since I haven't watched it in years, but it's a great question. Although I've forgotten exactly when I first started to think it was going downhill, I do remember that there was a definite transition point, I just can't remember when it was. Let me see if I can find, like, an episode guide online and see if that helps me remember.

Joined: Aug 22 2005 Posts: 328

Ok, my research at this site has uncovered some factoids that may or may not be more or less useless:

-I stopped watching The Simpson after about Season 10.
-However, I believe Season 9 was when it began to be noticeably less funny, and the last *really* good season was Season 7.
-The best seasons were 3-6.

Also, I suppose we might as well talk about our favorite episodes. There are lots of *classic* episodes, but my faves are Flaming Moe (the one guest starring Aerosmith), and Homer At The Bat (guest starring several pro NBA players).

Posted: Nov 28 2005 12:14 am

A couple of things...

- Homer at the Bat starred several MLB players, not NBA. NBA is the National Basketball Association.

- For me, the episode that really cemented the downhill slope that The Simpsons would begin to take was the one that ended with three different Gangster groups fighting on the Simpsons' lawn, followed by a Yakuza member crashing through a window, apologizing, and leaving. Just a terribly out of place bit in a terrible episode. That episode led to the writers making more outrageous endings and worse plotlines because I think they figured that the audience would be there no matter what they wrote.

The first episode I watched where I did not laugh even once (although I haven't seen a lot of episodes over the past 2 or 3 years) was the one where Marge sabotages the cooking competition to win. I just remember sitting through it, praying for it to end and thinking to myself "Wait, this is what The Simpsons has become?"

I think that Family Guy has stayed funny and current, willing to try new things instead of changing around their characters' behaviors. Homer fluctuates from absurd to lucid to everything in between whenever it suits the situation, which I feel takes away from the series. Family Guy manages to move the plot through the characters instead of vice versa. It is simply far superior and much more relevant than The Simpsons.

I know most people don't actually care about this one way or the other, and I have no idea why I'm getting so worked up about it; I just feel very strongly that it's time to take The Simpsons off of life support and cancel the show.

Posted: Nov 28 2005 12:35 am

yeah,new simpsons are terrible. the thing is,Family guy isnt Afraid to Change the Status Quo. you know,peter loses job,ect,and have it stay that way for multiple episdoes. what,Lisas Had 1 fucking birthday in 10 seasons. the kids should be full grown but havent changed since the series started. people have grown tired of the same old shit with the simpsons.

Posted: Nov 28 2005 12:59 am

I'd say pretty recently... and by recently, I mean about three years ago.

Joined: Aug 22 2005 Posts: 328

S. McCracken wrote:

A couple of things...

- Homer at the Bat starred several MLB players, not NBA. NBA is the National Basketball Association.

... what I was thinking, I have no idea. Embarrassed

Quote:

- For me, the episode that really cemented the downhill slope that The Simpsons would begin to take was the one that ended with three different Gangster groups fighting on the Simpsons' lawn, followed by a Yakuza member crashing through a window, apologizing, and leaving. Just a terribly out of place bit in a terrible episode. That episode led to the writers making more outrageous endings and worse plotlines because I think they figured that the audience would be there no matter what they wrote.

I completely agree. Before about this time, typical Simpsons humour was clever and witty. Starting around this episode, though, the writers started trying to elicit humour simply by having weird, random things happen, and it just wasn't that funny, at least, not in comparison with the genius that had come before. I think one of the reasons is that the very best episodes usually had a deeply human touch to them, but weird, random events kind of kill that because you can't take them seriously.

Quote:

I know most people don't actually care about this one way or the other, and I have no idea why I'm getting so worked up about it; I just feel very strongly that it's time to take The Simpsons off of life support and cancel the show.

Yeah... I know it's only a TV show, but I feel the same way just because classic Simpsons was SO classic that I think the memory of it should not become tainted. That's all.

Posted: Nov 28 2005 11:58 am

I think the show started to die for me around season 11 or 12. There were some good episodes then and some pretty rotten ones too, but atleast at that point, even the bad ones had their funny moments. Now I don't know what he show has, but it certainly isnt good.

I can still think back to Homer gaining weight to get on disability and forget about the recent crap-fest.

Joined: Aug 25 2005 Posts: 287

I've got to agree. I stayed with the show through season 10. That was the year we got the Simpsons on the Japanese game show and that's one of my single favorite episodes. After that... bleh. Even the Halloween specials have by and large sucked. A prime example to me of a bad episode would be the one where Bart, Nelson, and a couple others are in that boy band singing "Noij eht yvan". A stupid idea with a bunch of lame jokes capped off by a fucking N'Sync cameo. God that was putrid.

Posted: Nov 29 2005 12:25 am

No kidding, what the hell is the deal with all the random cameos!?

Posted: Nov 29 2005 01:09 am

The Boy Band episode confused me. On its surface, it made fun of boy bands, but they threw an N*Sync cameo in there and the writers couldn't have sucked the band's collective dick any harder. Why in the hell would Bart or Nelson be even REMOTELY impressed by meeting N*Stync? And who exactly were the writers hoping to impress by booking a band who only appeals to preteen girls?

Posted: Nov 29 2005 02:49 am

Remember when guest stars used to mean something on the show? Like Sideshow Bob (before Cecil), Herb (Danny Devito), James Earl Jones (never had a bad guest role on the Simpsons), etc. ?

Posted: Nov 29 2005 10:33 am

I loved when Rodney Dangerfield was on there as Burns's son!
(especially the end of that episode: "It's a party, Marge! It doesn't have to make sense!")

Posted: Nov 29 2005 10:43 am

Having just looked at some episode guides, Season 14 is when I realized the show was starting to wear thin. That season's Treehouse of Horror XIII opened with "Send In The Clones" which featured a scene where Homer clones himself so many times that some of the clone start to become distorted, so we see the original version of Homer and Peter Griffin in the crowd. It was a really cheap shot and it seemed incredibly mean and bitter to me. In another episode, they did a very unclever parody of South Park that offended me with its awfulness.

I don't know a whole lot about writing for television, but I know one thing: When your show's writing sucks, making fun of shows that are well-written doesn't help.

Posted: Nov 29 2005 06:48 pm

to be honest,the show died when my Fellow Brantfordian (the town i live in currently) Phil hartman died.
what a fucking bummer.
no lional hutz,OR troy maclure.

Posted: Nov 30 2005 04:03 pm

Before I weigh in on the issue, how do you guys think Futurama compares to the Simpsons (taken as a whole, not focusing on peak seasons) and Family Guy?

Joined: Aug 22 2005 Posts: 328

DrBoron wrote:

Before I weigh in on the issue, how do you guys think Futurama compares to the Simpsons (taken as a whole, not focusing on peak seasons) and Family Guy?

I think the Simpsons leaves a greater legacy behind, inasmuch as (I think, but I could be wrong) it was the 'forerunner'; the one that created a market and an audience for other 'funny cartoons' of the same style.

Posted: Nov 30 2005 06:26 pm

B.B.King wrote:

to be honest,the show died when my Fellow Brantfordian (the town i live in currently) Phil hartman died.
what a fucking bummer.
no lional hutz,OR troy maclure.

That's a damn good point. Thinking about it, that's about the time the show just got nutty and stupid. Damn, Hartman's death ruined two shows!

Posted: Nov 30 2005 08:40 pm

DrBoron wrote:

Before I weigh in on the issue, how do you guys think Futurama compares to the Simpsons (taken as a whole, not focusing on peak seasons) and Family Guy?

I loved Futurama. FOX virtually killed it by shuffling its timeslot around, much like they did to Arrested Development and Greg The Bunny (which was never even given a chance). Futurama had some episodes that were a little too sappy for my liking, such as the bee sting episode, but I was sad to see it go. The current word on the street is that Futurama may get a movie, but there's no indication as to whether or not it will be a theatrical release or DTV.

Posted: Nov 30 2005 09:26 pm

While The Simpsons definitely set the mold of the "funny, topical cartoon", I have to hand it to Futurama as what I would be more willng to watch if I had to choose one. Yes, The Simpsons had some great seasons, but I never felt as if it was ever trying to be "smart". I feel like Futurama had it's Moments for Everyone to Laugh (MELs) but it had a lot more smart humor that would appeal to the more cynical or satirical among us, namely me. It was sharper and it made you think while you were laughing your ass off. If we're taking a whole body of work as a singular idea or notion (because taking it as a whole chronologically gives The Simpsons a huge edge) of "funny" then I would pick Futurama, perhaps even over Family Guy, although the choice would be agonizing.

And I know that Family Guy doesn't necessarily lend itself to "smart" humor by way of Peter, but there are some really inteligent jokes in there, especially from Brian and Stewie. The only "smart" one on The Simpsons is Lisa, and she's the most BORING FUCK ON THE WHOLE PLANET. So that's that.

Posted: Dec 01 2005 12:15 pm

S. McCracken wrote:

The only "smart" one on The Simpsons is Lisa, and she's the most BORING FUCK ON THE WHOLE PLANET. So that's that.

Ha ha, I've always liked Lisa, but about her being smart: Doesn't she seem to have lost her intelligence in the new episodes? She'll conviniently turn stupid if it fits in with one of the lame jokes, and then all the other times she's in an episode she just insults Homer and Bart for being so stupid. They totally ripped away many of the things I liked about her.

Just another reason I add to the list of why The Simpsons is nearly dead.

Posted: Dec 01 2005 01:04 pm

Aother problem with the Simpsons is that Homer got dumber and dumber through the seasons to the point of mental retardation basically. He was rather clever at times in the earlier seasons, and it just all faded away.

Also, while Peter doesn't really lend himself to smart jokes on Family Guy (Though Brian and Stewie definately do and good use of that is made), he has his moments. "That's what they said about Benjamin Disraeli" (Yeah, I can't spell his name worth shit, I know...and yes, I do know who he is)

Posted: Dec 01 2005 01:45 pm

My only problem with Family Guy is that a more accurate title for the show would be It's Like That Time... because an exponentially increasing number of the show's jokes start with that line.