Harry Shearer Returns To the Simpsons

jones_supa writes: Fans of The Simpsons will find this turn of events nothing short of excellent: seven weeks after saying he was done with Fox's endless animated comedy, Harry Shearer has agreed to rejoin the show. Shearer has now signed the same four-season contract as the other five primary voice actors. He previously tweeted, "I wanted what we've always had: the freedom to do other work." Executive producer Al Jean found that tweet confusing, saying, "Everybody on the show does lots of outside projects. He actually gets to record on the phone and do the [table] reads on the phone. So we've never kept him from doing that stuff."

Comments

Oh won't someone please think of the children?

[Anonymous Coward]

And end this show already. It hasn't been funny or even watchable since around Season 10. Let it die already.

Re:Oh won't someone please think of the children?

[viperidaenz]

They're not forcing you to watch it.
It it's not watchable, don't watch it.

Re:Oh won't someone please think of the children?

[Andrio]

This type of comment is always inevitable any time Simpsons gets mentioned in an online community.

No one denies that 3-9 was the golden age of the Simpsons. However 10-12 was the dark age of the simpsons. This was when Mike Scully ran the show; it had become very cartoony and "Family Guy"ish (maybe not so much with the cut-away gags, but in how it will compromise character integrity for the sake of a punch line). Around season 13 Al Jean rejoined the show as the showrunner, and the quality went back up. He was one of the original writers/show runners of the show.

So yes, Simpsons is not as good as it was in it golden years—I'm not sure if anything on TV is—but I think it's unfair to downright say it's bad now. It's a decent show, and still leagues better than Family Guy, at least. (I'm not sure why I'm suddenly comparing it to Family Guy—maybe it's because I hate Family Guy).

And before anyone points it out, yes, I'm aware of the irony that my signature comes from a Mike Scully episode of the Simpsons.

steeples fingers

[ihtoit]

Excellent.