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Post by tory on Dec 1, 2020 9:18:31 GMT
We've subscribed to Disney for the Christmas period so I'm introducing the lad (7) to the Simpsons. I'd not watched it for years, having done so religiously between around 1993 and 2000 or so. I didn't have Sky, but a friend did and videoed them with due care and attention over the decade and his tapes were passed between a group of us on a regular basis. Seasons 3 to 9 are stapled into my memory. Watching S3 E9 - "Flaming Moe's" - this morning, at its height, the show delivered a laugh pretty much every 10 seconds or so. It is staggering at times to think just how amusing and clever it was - and just how relentless at times. In some respects it has dated, but from S3 to 11 (discounting S1 & S2 a bit) there are no bad episodes, which for a 24 or 25 episode run is just staggering. And of course, it was family entertainment, whereas things like Family Guy and South Park aren't. Whilst the comedic and satirical value of the latter shows can't be denied, they stray into the realm of the puerile too often for my liking. The Simpsons managed to walk a clever line. We all know this anyway. We know it is simply not what it was, which is inevitable. Wax lyrical about one of the greatest shows of all time.
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Post by DarknessFish on Dec 1, 2020 10:37:30 GMT
I don't really think of it in terms of seasons just because it's always on somewhere, and it seems to be a random episode from a random point in time. It started on Sky only, too, I think, at a time I didn't really watch TV at all, so it'd probably completed all its decent episodes before I ever saw it. The quality is obviously very variable.
The episode that always stuck in my mind was Marge vs The Monorail. Some moments of genius in that, and possibly the best throwaway gags The Simpsons ever produced right at the end of the episode.
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fange
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Post by fange on Dec 1, 2020 10:40:42 GMT
I agree with Toby's suggestion that pretty much every episode of the show from season 3 up to about Season 10-11 is a gem, television gold. Fun for everyone from 5 to 105.
I was recently flicking through the channels in a bored way with my daughter (15 soon), and the episode where Mr. Burns tries to brainwash Santa's Little Helper and turn him into an attack dog was starting; we sat and watched it in gales of laughter for the entire 20+ minutes.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 1, 2020 11:44:06 GMT
I never saw the brilliance that others see in it. I like it well enough and it can make me chuckle, but it's all a bit too self-consciously zany for me. I find watching it quite a tiring experience!
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Post by Deleted on Dec 1, 2020 12:11:09 GMT
I'd put the decline a little earlier than the above, I think season 8 was the last great series. Series nine had some good episodes but there's a definite hint of the characterisations starting to lose focus and the humour becoming wacky for its own sake. The Armin Tanzarian moment was when it decided it was too big to have to keep making sense. 10 and 11 is where I completely lose interest.
I'd say Futurama would rival it for the gags + pathos + social satire which made it so special at its height. South Park isn't the same kind of show and it's way inconsistent. Family Guy is wank. King of the Hill is under rated but never as laugh out loud funny.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 1, 2020 15:30:50 GMT
Not sure why people are discounting Seasons one and two..Both solid..The start of the decline starts in Season 10 and slowly rots away from there. There are good episodes to be found throughout it's run, but they become more difficult to parse as the show goes along. Always felt they should allow the characters to age after around Season 12.(Not in real time, of course) Would have opened up more interesting narrative possibilities. There's gold to be mined with Bart in middle school and Maggie talking and becoming an actual character....But what the hell, Futurama is better in any case..
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Post by Sneelock on Dec 1, 2020 16:55:43 GMT
I'll leave it to others to calibrate it's decline. It can still make me gag with laughter especially if I've been away for a while.
I come to praise the Simpsons, not bury them. I think it's easy to take for granted. it's been around so long and has so many iconic characters. While it has an overall tone it is still capable of "high-brow" and low-brow humor, laser sharp satire, good dumb yuks...
I think there's a lot of serendipity at work and there's no doubt that there is a special energy when the show was really hitting it's stride. the voice actors, Sam Simon, Brad Bird, Conan O'Brien, Dana Gould and literally hundreds of funny writers straight outta college managed to catch a wave. I think the Simpsons got better as it went along and it was pretty good straight out of the gate. sure, that wave gave way a long time ago. still, the Simpsons still seems to be made by people who love the Simpsons. it gets a little wheezy now and then but the characters are so well established that there is a shorthand which can be comedy gold on episodic television. I'll admit that the gold doesn't happen as often but only the most forced episodes leave me cold.
I love the Simpsons.
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toomanyhatz
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Post by toomanyhatz on Dec 1, 2020 22:30:23 GMT
I love it too. Definitely a contender for my favorite TV show of all time.
I mean, they've been on for over 30 years at this point. The new episode, which I watched on Sunday, was not very good, particularly not compared to the peak. Some of the plot points were pretty ridiculous, and the ending (as they usually are these days) was a pretty desperate attempt to milk one more joke out of the situation.
On the other hand, I laughed several times. As long as it keeps doing that for me, well-worn characters and situations and reused themes aside, I remain on board.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 1, 2020 22:53:23 GMT
I'll come back to this thread, I might make a top ten.
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Post by DarknessFish on Dec 2, 2020 9:55:36 GMT
The Armin Tanzarian moment was when it decided it was too big to have to keep making sense. I find the hatred of that episode bizarre. I mean, there never was a narrative arc to The Simpsons, each episode lives in isolation, there is no continuity. I always liked it, if just for the final 'No-one shall ever speak of this again' meta-pun.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 2, 2020 11:22:56 GMT
That's not wholly true, there is a canonical line. The Sideshow Bob storyline for instance.
I don't hate it in itself, I just see it as a failed experiment which sums up the lack of direction at that point. I think the writers agree with that now.
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loveless
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Post by loveless on Dec 3, 2020 17:31:51 GMT
There's a pretty compelling argument to be made that the best of the best was one of those things where you had a gag within a gag within a gag, this sort of overlapping absurdity where you couldn't possibly insert a laugh track because you weren't even SUPPOSED to get it all at once (did the street sweeper REALLY go down into the subway station while I was focusing on...I dunno, Bart's soul?). It was a type of layering and pacing that really carried a unique rhythm (I mean, I love Frasier - for example - but typically a person says or does a funny thing and then we all laugh at it) where you could just watch these episodes over and over (Homer's Phobia, the chili cookoff, Frank Grimes, Bart Skips School/Chowder, 21 Short Films About Springfield, Homerpalooza, St. Patrick's Day/Prohibition/Beer Baron, I choo choo choose you, Bart's Self Help Guru era, etc.).
The writers changed, the show lurched into multiple decades, the world changed around it - I don't want to dwell on this TOO much, but...one thing that DID happen is that the pacing changed. To the point where (and I'm not the first person to say this) you COULD add a laugh track. After X number of years it's like latterday Rolling Stones records or something - the franchise is based in a rich history, but...it also has a troubling sense of its own perceived strengths and virtues, which can be fatal for any endeavor.
None of this takes anything away from the top shelf episodes. Of which there are so many.
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nolamike
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Post by nolamike on Dec 14, 2020 17:05:39 GMT
There are definitely some great episodes in the first two seasons, and after the 10th season, but I think seasons 3-10 really found the sweet spot in terms of the characters, and how they interacted. The show's decline can be tied directly to how the characters changed since then - especially Homer, who went from being merely not bright, occasionally overconfident, and prone to putting his foot in his mouth" to being a monumentally stupid asshole.
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Post by Reactionary Rage on Dec 14, 2020 18:05:04 GMT
For years they didn't put a foot wrong. Old episodes are SO reliable, so rewatchable. I still laugh at the classic ones and I've seen 'em countless times.
That's a rare thing. At its best it really was some kind of TV genius.
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~ / % ? *
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Post by ~ / % ? * on Dec 14, 2020 18:29:03 GMT
Didn't Groening sell his stake in the show?
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