Total Number of Ratings: 5
20 Years+20 Seasons=End of the line
Wednesday, May 6, 2009 7:36 PM
The Setting: Philadelphia, Pennslyvannia
The Time: Sunday; December 1989
I was only 8 months old. But I can tell you what my first memory was. It's a little fuzzy, but it's definite. I remember seeing a cartoon about a father trying to provide the best Christmas to his family, the problem is that he had no money to provide for the holiday. I remember him dressing up as Santa Claus and getting the names wrong of the reindeer. I also distinctly remember this man being yellow; in fact all of the people in this show had yellow skin.
It might be hard to believe but it is indeed true; I have been watching The Simpsons literally my whole life. I could tell you, in order, most of the episodes the show has produced. I can tell you my top ten favorite episodes. I can even tell you the words The Simpsons have created that has been put into the Webster's Dictonary. But now, in the year 2009, I have reached a point in my life I never thought could happen: I have decided to quit watching the series.
How could this have happened? The show that has, arguably, influenced my life and now I decide never to watch it again. It's all simple why I cannot watch the series anymore. It's a hallow version of what it used to be. I'm not talking about how the humor is virtually non-existent. I'm talking about how the basic premise of the series is no where to be found. This series was created to show a realistic family going threw realistic, every day problems. Now obviously that premise went out the window by season nine or ten-ish....But still even if the shows have gotten wackier during the course of the run, it still had the premise going. Now, about the time of season fourteen/fifteen rolled around, the show has just sank into the depths of comedy hell.
The writers just don't seem to have any motivations to write a full, twenty-two minute episode. Sure they give excuses like, "Oh the commercials are longer!" or "The fans are just too picky, they don't know what they want!". On and on they seem to blame other people, then actually blaming themselves for shotty episodes. There's just no heart in this series anymore. Everytime I used to sit down and watch an episode, I just dont laugh. But more importantly I dont care for the predictiments the characters are in anymore. It's never realistic, things just happen for no reason. Now obviously it's a cartoon; so there are some stretches to the imagination. But when this show was in it's golden years (arguably season three to season ten) it still had heart. Everyone in this show; from the writers, to the animators, to the voice actors just seem to be phoning it in for a paycheck.
This was a decision that has been years in the making. For about five years now I keep thinking of quitting the series. The Simpsons has been a bad show for so long; but I tried to be a dedicated fan. Now it's just a chore to watch these episodes and with a renewal of this series for another two years, I cannot imagine how worse this can get. I'll still be a dedicated fan, as a purist I will most likely get the DVD's of these seasons. That way my future my son or daughter can watch the classics like I have. As for now, it looks like this series has lost another fan. I just hope they dont blame it on myself for not liking the series and try and see how poor their own work has gotten.
I know where your at man. I'm 22, so I feel the same way about the Simpsons always being there. You pretty much hit the nail on the head that it was about the typical family. Things were tweaked to be a bit exaggerated, as they should be, but it was fairly simple, which made the comedy shine. Part of the problem being that so many of the original writers left (which will happen when a show goes into 20 plus years) and the new writers, I don't know. Some episodes I'll watch and really enjoy, only to find out it's an old writer's new episode. For me the basic problem is they can never hold down one idea in a single episode anymore, no one can get an episode. An episode will start off with Homer and Grandpa doing something, and the thing they do make something at the school happen, suddenly it's a Principal Skinner episode with ten minutes to go plus the final commercials. There's no more focus, which is just upsetting. Also Lisa is no longer 8, I mean in age, yes she's 8, but what made that character great was she was a smart, even brilliant 8 year old, but you still felt like she was a kid. Now she's just an adult in a kid body, from fooling college students into thinking she's there age (really?). Bart is a shadow of his former self. And Marge goes from either being naggy or being so oblivious she revels Homer, and Marge was never meant to be stupid. Homer still works, sometimes they over do it, but he still works for whatever reason. Also Sideshow Bob does not need to be in every season, he's like salt, perfect sometimes, but they've been over doing him the last few years. Also something Family Guy does over Simpsons, in my opinion, is guest stars. Family Guy does what Simpsons used to do which is have guest stars play characters, now on the Simpsons, the stars are often themselves, so we have a Simpsons character go "Hey (guest star) what are you doing in Springfield" "Oh I'm here for (Plot of episode)"
I don't think the show should end, but I think they need to focus, I love it if they came out and said "We're going to take a year off and figure some stuff out." They need to freshen it up, my idea (as silly as it sounds) if I were running the show would be to jump it ahead a year. Put Bart in 5th grade and Lisa into 3rd, make Maggie two, see what changes. Spice things up, we've been in limbo for what feels like ten years now with no forward momentum, I know it's a cartoon, and I know it'd be controversial, but I think it'd be a change that would be welcomed with the right writers.
BTW, I loved the movie.
Nice article. It did get more like Family Guy and lost some of its realism which is a shame. I'm not a dedicated fan so I probably got tons of episodes to still see, but I stopped seeing that show regularly a while ago.
I saw it with my dad on channel 1 back when there were only two channels (getting cable here was too expensive for the company and satellite didn't get to us yet) at night and it was awesome.
The realistic nature and them being a family was a big part of my enjoyment. Now I don't think they still air The Simpsons here anymore... Maybe in some foreign channel but I doubt it so I just don't watch it. I'll get the DVDs.
The Simpsons Movie; weirdly enough; got back to most of the basics. Maybe it's because the original writers/producers wrote the whole thing....Or maybe it now takes 8+ years to write a great script for this show. Cause taking two weeks to write an episode, for normal writers, doesnt seem to cut it.
Respond
How can the voice actors be phoning it in? Should they talk louder or something? Now that I think about it, I bet there are times where they literally phone it in, so never mind.
I used to watch the SImpsons every Sunday night in middle school and high school. It was the only show I was faithful about taping if I was going to miss. Then when I left for college in 2001 I just stopped watching the new episodes. This was partly because I was at college and inevitably found myself doing something else on Sunday nights, partly because I didn't have a VCR to tape the episodes I missed, but mostly because the show wasn't compelling. I continued to watch on random occasions and then I had a roommate who would torrent the episodes and we'd watch on his XBOX. There have been some funny moments and some funny lines, but you the show is definitely a shell of it's former self. Really, I feel like it has shifted into a different show which is still a C+ or B- show, but a far cry from the consistent A and A+ it was through the 90s. Still, I get to watch it for free whenever it fits my schedule, so it's not too bad.
@ Jurassicalien
The formula of starting with the characters doing one thing for 2-3 minutes, then shifting to some completely other direction for the duration of the show has been around since the very early seasons. Sure it's gotten looser in the last decade (gah!) but the formula is classic Simpsons.