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300 Episodes of the Simpsons
circletimessquare writes "As we approach 300 Episodes of the Simpsons, Entertainment Weekly tries to pick the 25 best episodes of The Simpsons (and the one episode they consider the worst). They do a pretty good job. But since "best of" lists like this one are always rife with debate and contention, I can't think of a better place than Slashdot to send up EW (pun partially intended)."
Homer's Phobia number 5? I wonder if they felt they had to throw in a later episode or two to make it more "balanced". While some of those aren't bad, I know I would have had more from seasons 2-6 or so.
Last Exit to Springfield, Marge v. Monorail, and Cape Feare all in the Top 5? I hate to say it, but EW actually seems to have gotten things right.
Oh dag. If they even try to put the Treehouse of Horrors on that list. The worst episode IS the bowling one with Marge and the french guy.
Life is short and hard, like a body building elf.
is not on the list? Insanity!
to quote Nate Patrin:
This episode kicked hairy yellow butt, right from the In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida bit to the Uncle Moe's Family Feedbag bit...
-- Boycott Shell
The Simpsons was one of the deepest shows on American TV. Now it's a Saturday morning cartoon starring Captain Wacky (aka Homer). I use to watch it religiously, participate in forums, even did some work and article writing for a Simpsons website. Now the show seems so geared towards an age group far younger than mine, I hardly bother trying to catch it anymore.
IMHO, Entertainment Weekly did a fine job of picking episodes - much better than most publications do. Now if only the writers would pick up on that and say, "Maybe we should start doing that sort of thing again."
How, Marge? How?
Besides, there were some real stinkers in the first season while they were still trying to find their voice and before the show went Homer-centric (in a fair world, Homer-centric should be a word).
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
There's a good reason for this: Seasons 7-9 was during the transition of the writing and production from one staff to another; the original staff had nearly all been there since the concept of the Simpson on the Trace Ullman show, while the new staff was much less versed with the humble beginnings of the show.
Most long-time Simpsons fans that were on the net prior to that change immediately saw the changes that the show had made, and over the course of a few seasons, the fans no longer cared for the show. (I know a few of these people well, including some long time alt.tv.simpsons posters that simply dropped the show like a hot potato). The show became more cartoon-y, and less of a animated family sit-com. (That is, these people saw OFF as a show that could have been done live action if they really tried, but worked better as a cartoon; nowadays, most episodes can't be done live action as they involve too many abuses of the cartoon laws of physics). Plus there were changes in the emotional tone of the stories; the early seasons (at least from 3-7) had a good mix of comedy and emotion, but nearly all of the last 5 or 6 seasons have been strictly out and out comedy. They also changed the characters somewhat, making Homer more of a doofus as opposed to a not-so-bright father trying to do his best for the family, and making Lisa a political busybody, and most recently, dumbing down Marge. Too much focus on the external characters as well, and giving Homer all these crazy antics to do. Sure, if that's the way the show started as, then maybe it would be funny, but it's not the same as what most of us long-time fans would consider to be the heart of the Simpsons.
What's amazing is that there's very few mainstream publications that mention how poor the Simpsons are *today* compared to a decade ago. They all praise the show, it constantly wins awards, etc. The problem is, the Simpsons is a cornerstone of FOX, and to remove it would cause significant problems for its ratings battle on Sunday nights.
I think this list is at least some nod to how the Simpsons had good quality shows to start, and that the last several season have been 'blah' since. There have been good episodes of the last few seasons, or ones that could have worked; I do think "Homer's Phobia" is a good one to be on the list though a bit too high, if nothing else for the classic steel mill scene, and "A Day In the Life" which showed the same events, but from Homer's, Bart's, and Lisa's POV, could have worked if the zany adventures were held back a bit. But really, just like TNG and DS9 and the rest of the Trek universe, the Simpsons need to be retired. To see even 2 more seasons come out of the current staff is going to pull down the overall quality of the show even more.
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
What's amazing is that there's very few mainstream publications that mention how poor the Simpsons are *today* compared to a decade ago. They all praise the show, it constantly wins awards, etc.
Well, take a look around you...frankly, most entertainment-oriented TV (vs. edumacational stuff like Discovery) these days is shit. The Simpsons has definitely slid waaay downhill in the last decade (is the new staff the Family Guy crew perchance?), but it's still hands-down the best show on television today.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. - Aldous Huxley
Highlights:
Aunt Gladys dies, they go to the funeral, and Selma wants a baby.
Lionel Hutz has a good, small part. (You'd be surprised how often that works, you really would)
Selma tries to find a man, including the pimply faced checkout boy.
Homer gets sick from eating a really old, 10-foot hoagie.
Because Homer is sick, the kids go to Duff Gardens with Selma. Classic stuff here, Lisa acid trips by drinking the water, Bart tries on Beer Goggles, the Seven Duffs, rapping Abe Lincoln, etc.
Homercles cares not for beans!
This episode kills me every single time I see it, and for some reason they don't run it very often in syndication. I literally watched for 2 years, 3 times a day trying to tape it. I finally downloaded it from the net. It is the 3rd season, so I am just waiting for the next DVD set to come out.
The thing is, there are sooooo many good episodes. Even recent ones have their "classic" moments that crack me up. Best Show Ever!
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Bring back Family Guy Damnit. Simpsons had its time, but Family guy was by far the greates animation ever to be on my television! Also, my fav episode is the treehouse of horrors when lisa makes her own race of people... hell it spawned a south park episode even... Simpsons did it!
Oh, and also the one with Frank Grimes. The original, not the one with his son.
If you don't remember, the PREMIERE issue of Entertainment Weekly, a dozen or so years ago, had a cover story on the making of the Simpsons.
I guess the show must have lost its relevance when it stopped being shorts on the Tracey Ullman show, then.
Despite this perceived "downhill slide", even today the Simpsons is still far superior to 99.99% of the rest of the crap on the tube, particularly on the show's own network (I mean c'mon -- "Joe Millionaire"? "Married by America"?? "Man vs. Beast"??? Good God! -- every time I think Fox has finally set the idiot bar too high, they somehow leap over it).
I think the chili cookoff episode (El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Homer) is pretty darn good and was sadly overlooked for the list. Johnny Cash. Guatamalean Insanity Peppers. Space Coyote. Hot pants. Marge smokes. Homer dances and whines. Homer trips out. "I hope I didn't brain my damage"
Its Different. Cool. Funny. How could they overlook it?
-Sean
Oh Come ON! Already with the revisionist history? Should we take every show with a picture of the twin towers, and edit them out? Good Lord, tragedies happen...we are sad, we mourn, hopefully, we learn...then move on. But, it is no reason to wipe out any references to them from the past before they were gone....If it was funny in the past...leave it that way!! Best way to remember them.....
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
I can't agree with the reviewer here. The show was MORE satiric at the start - it satirised everything about television and popular culture, which necessarily meant it was mocking itself and its viewers. At the beginning it was clear that Marge and Homer were bad parents, and Homer in particular was a bad person. As the series became popular (and a cash cow) they lost the ability to do that. No satire can survive its own success.
How many Simpsons fans really are the embodiment of Comic Book Guy? Think about it - if they weren't, would all those geeky in-jokes and references succeed? When the show was at its sharpest early on, every time you laughed you were laughing at yourself. Nowadays they just don't do that, mostly because they're too afraid to kill the golden goose. In this respect it's become just like any other show, helmed by fearful TV execs.
I also disagree that the show got "zanier". Zaniness works when it's imposed on a crazy kind of order - sorting that out is where the humour lies. After a while the attempt to be any was simply producing nonsensical scenes with no rhyme nor reason. Not funny, and most of all not satirical - just pointless slapstick and a lot of WTF.
The other way in which the show devolved was to become much outwardly meanspirited, and this is another reason the satire isn't self-directed at the show and its viewers any more. It requires a careful balance to coax people into laughing at themselves, and you can't be too mean. A lot of the stunts in the past five years or so have been basically Itchy and Scratchy for "real". It's like some sort of sick circular progression - now the show really is a dark parody of what it used to be.