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Why did the golden age of the Simpsons end?

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Re: Why did the golden age of the Simpsons end?

#61

Post by bliblah »

Nothing lasts forever. Plain and simple.

I really dislike TV/Anime that never ends, seems to be the modus operandi for pretty much every mainstream show despite how bad the quality gets after 2-3 seasons.

Simpsons is a great showcase of the homogenization that every sitcom will go through given enough time. It starts out as a comedy with some wholesome family moments to bring it together but eventually every character is distilled to their most basic formula Homer -> Idiot who causes events to happen Bart -> Same as above Marge -> Straight man / Voice of reason or Satire of moralistic conservative adults depending on the situation Lisa -> same as marge but liberal piñata

Old episodes had genuine moments where you saw them become closer as family, now every episode is a hodgepodge of nonstop comedy.

Family Guy also went through this, especially after they got revived. The early episodes focused on the trials of the family with some goofy humor peppered throughout (Peter getting fired, Louis dealing with being a bored housewife) but now its just nonstop comedy.

Once you get syndicated it's not about making good episodes just churning out 26 more a year and cashing in that paycheck.

Even Steven Universe which has a very straightforward story with an end planned feels bloated with a bunch of filler episodes and lazy character development.

Re: Why did the golden age of the Simpsons end?

#62

Post by bradleyankrom »

stupidbird wrote: post #24

There are a lot of shifts that changed The Simpsons, but the biggest one for me was the shift to being almost constantly satirical. Classic Simpsons would occasionally get a bit satirical or referential (like when Bush Sr made a guest appearance), but modern Simpsons seems more satirical than not. Episodes like the one featuring the "MyPod" with "Steve Mobs" basically had my eyes rolling into the back of my head. Tha…

> Classic Simpsons would occasionally get a bit satirical or referential (like when Bush Sr made a guest appearance), but modern Simpsons seems more satirical than not. Episodes like the one featuring the "MyPod" with "Steve Mobs" basically had my eyes rolling into the back of my head. That's such low-hanging fruit that they're picking it up off the ground. It's not even good enough to be considered sophomoric.

And the Futurama take on this was just as bad (and I love Futurama). IMO, South Park is the best at doing this kind of satire... I can't point to exactly why, though. Being on cable allows them to push edgier jokes, but I'm sure it's more than that.

Re: Why did the golden age of the Simpsons end?

#63

Post by Jun8 »

bliblah wrote: post #61

Nothing lasts forever. Plain and simple. I really dislike TV/Anime that never ends, seems to be the modus operandi for pretty much every mainstream show despite how bad the quality gets after 2-3 seasons. Simpsons is a great showcase of the homogenization that every sitcom will go through given enough time. It starts out as a comedy with some wholesome family moments to bring it together but eventually every characte…

Exactly, and you have to know when to let go, a la Seinfeld. Adventure Time handled this very well, I think: told what they had to tell and ended after that. Another canonical good example exiting at the right time is Calvin and Hobbes.

Re: Why did the golden age of the Simpsons end?

#64

Post by watwut »

justtopost wrote: post #28
ip26 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having a bad kid as a role model I think does impact children. I.e., Bart. Edit: I'm not sure people realize I'm not the grandparent, or that I was directly quoting him to answer the question?

So, all cartoons then? Bart is the archtype for screwing up amd learning your lesson. Omitting that seems worse parenting.

I am pretty sure kids can grow up perfectly fine without watching whatever cartoon. Really, no matter what cartoon is, the kids will be fine. Why do people attack others parenting based on nonsense like that? You don't even know age of his kids. Sometimes parent recognize influences that shaped him in a bad way and then attempt to avoid the situation for his children.

Bart is not archetype for screwing up and learning lesson, Bart never learns lesson. Bart is archetype of out of control brat. Which is fine and there is nothing wrong with that and that is precisely why people enjoyed the character.

Re: Why did the golden age of the Simpsons end?

#65

Post by turdnagel »

Great analysis - but I also wonder if IMDb ratings have a bit (or more than a bit) of selection bias, where people rating the episodes are the "hardcore fans" who've already established the narrative the idea that the show was in decline past season 10, 11, 13 - and so since the data has potentially already been shaped by bias around a narrative, it can't reveal anything more than hardcore Simpsons fans prevailing attitudes.

In other words, you're asking a bunch of people who are obsessed with The Simpsons for their episode ratings; of course you're going to see a decline.

Re: Why did the golden age of the Simpsons end?

#66

Post by darpa_escapee »

gutnor wrote: post #52
Retric wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the show is not worth inserting a DVD then it's probably not worth watching IMO. PS: External DVD drives are ~25$.

That's not the whole effort involved though. You first need to either remember, or somehow get hints somewhere that the content exists. Then you need to search it, in this case, first on all the streaming option. Then you need to find it on a physical media, which means delivery. Each season of the Simpson is worth 1 to 2 months of Netflix. Watching all the episode is going to cost you the equivalent of 2 years of st…

People drive to Redbox locations to rent DVDs from vending machines. I think you're overestimating the amount of effort it takes to buy DVDs on eBay.

Re: Why did the golden age of the Simpsons end?

#67

Post by josefresco »

stupidbird wrote: post #24

There are a lot of shifts that changed The Simpsons, but the biggest one for me was the shift to being almost constantly satirical. Classic Simpsons would occasionally get a bit satirical or referential (like when Bush Sr made a guest appearance), but modern Simpsons seems more satirical than not. Episodes like the one featuring the "MyPod" with "Steve Mobs" basically had my eyes rolling into the back of my head. Tha…

I would put the "blame" on this shift onto successful, adult cartoons like South Park and Family Guy which took satire and 'offensive comedy" to a new level. Suddenly The Simpsons seemed old, slow and out of touch compared to the new generation.

The downside to all this satire (I've only realized recently), is that younger audiences (and even older folks) don't always recognize it, and take the jokes too literally. I believe this has helped to 'normalize' extremist views and has helped fuel the anti-political correct movement.

Re: Why did the golden age of the Simpsons end?

#68

Post by nathcun »

thrower123 wrote: post #46

If you'd like to see something really terrible, try watching the fantasy Simpsons/Futurama-esque mess that is Disenchanted on Netflix.

Some of the top writers I picked out (Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein, David X/S Cohen) are involved in it, but I agree it's not great.

Re: Why did the golden age of the Simpsons end?

#69

Post by w-m »

monochromatic wrote: post #56
w-m wrote: post #9

Later episodes are rated lower, thus writers who mainly wrote later episodes have contributed to episodes with lower rating. This seems like circular reasoning, and doesn't say anything about an individual writers' contribution to the quality of the show.

I don't see how that's circular reasoning. The writers who worked on bad episodes presumably had something to do with making them bad.

Potentially it was bad writers, yes. But this data does not prove this; it just shows that some writers tenure correspond with worse episodes. But so does for example the year, or potentially many other influencing factors.

Re: Why did the golden age of the Simpsons end?

#70

Post by adzm »

bliblah wrote: post #61

Nothing lasts forever. Plain and simple. I really dislike TV/Anime that never ends, seems to be the modus operandi for pretty much every mainstream show despite how bad the quality gets after 2-3 seasons. Simpsons is a great showcase of the homogenization that every sitcom will go through given enough time. It starts out as a comedy with some wholesome family moments to bring it together but eventually every characte…

> Even Steven Universe which has a very straightforward story with an end planned feels bloated with a bunch of filler episodes and lazy character development.

The filler episodes are some of my family's favorites, however. I think the comparison is a bit premature compared to something like the Simpsons where every episode pretty much can stand alone.

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