Why did the golden age of the Simpsons end? • Hacker News Board

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

#101

Post by monetus » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 4:08 PM UTC

dmortin wrote: post #97

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…

> 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. Isn't this an American thing where TV/movie things are primarily for money making? I mean the British Office had 2 seasons and 12 episodes. The US version had 9 seasons and 200 episodes. I didn't watch The Office, so I don't know if the US version got wo…

Maybe not British, but it is very much a Japanese tendecy, ime. If I see a good anime/comic, I try to appreciate what I saw and expect no resolution. I'm curious how often they even have resolution in the outline.

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

#102

Post by tonyedgecombe » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 4:15 PM UTC

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…

The obvious TV series that went on far too long was Lost but even stuff like Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad is/was stretched out too far.

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

#103

Post by egypturnash » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 4:16 PM UTC

s_kilk wrote: post #29

My theory is that the show started to decline after about eight or nine years on the air, which is just about enough time for young fans to grow up, go to college, start their career in writing, and then end up on the Simpsons team. The last person you want writing on a show like that is a life-long super-fan.

This is a good theory. Just look at the shitshow superhero comics have become after a couple of cycles of this.

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

#104

Post by bliblah » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 4:16 PM UTC

dmortin wrote: post #97

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…

> 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. Isn't this an American thing where TV/movie things are primarily for money making? I mean the British Office had 2 seasons and 12 episodes. The US version had 9 seasons and 200 episodes. I didn't watch The Office, so I don't know if the US version got wo…

Americans make money via ads and dvd/streaming but the Japanese use merchandising to fund all their endeavors.

DVD/Bluray sales usually dictate if a show gets renewed. Also most anime are adaptations from light novels or manga so the expectation is that they all drive up sales for one another. Then we have things like figures, video games, pillow cases, etc. This is why One Piece has over 850 episodes spread over at least a dozen box sets and 900 manga chapters collected in 60 volumes.

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

#105

Post by eberkund » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 4:19 PM UTC

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #102

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…

The obvious TV series that went on far too long was Lost but even stuff like Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad is/was stretched out too far.

To the contrary, Game of Thrones was too short. The books were just so long and detailed that even 8 seasons did it no justice. I think the mistake was making the show before the books were finished being written and spending so much time on the first couple books so that the later seasons were just skimming through the major plot points from the books.

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

#106

Post by crooked-v » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 4:19 PM UTC

monetus wrote: post #101

dmortin wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Isn't this an American thing where TV/movie things are primarily for money making? I mean the British Office had 2 seasons and 12 episodes. The US version had 9 seasons and 200 episodes. I didn't watch The Office, so I don't know if the US version got wo…

Maybe not British, but it is very much a Japanese tendecy, ime. If I see a good anime/comic, I try to appreciate what I saw and expect no resolution. I'm curious how often they even have resolution in the outline.

A key thing with manga is that many series originally run in serial format in magazines that will drop the series and the author like a hot potato if popularity with readers wavers, so (a) it's impossible for the authors to actually plan for an ending and (b) authors are incentivized to insert whatever it takes to keep readers coming back based on this specific week in the real world instead of having a plot outline.

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

#107

Post by ggggtez » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 4:23 PM UTC

It's a bit confusing. The author starts with the assumption the show got worse, and assumed a causal relation with an random piece of data. This is not proper Bayesian statistics.

The author claims there is no principled way, but there is. Confidence bounds are the way to measure what affect a variable had on an outcome.

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

#108

Post by rm_-rf_slash » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 4:24 PM UTC

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #102

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…

The obvious TV series that went on far too long was Lost but even stuff like Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad is/was stretched out too far.

Well that’s, like, your opinion, man.

This stuff exists on a spectrum. The near end in my opinion are shows like GoT and Breaking Bad have long narratives to tell and imo they use the time well.

Further away are shows like Archer which were amazing when they came out but tend to drag on without having a significant story to tell.

The far far end is exemplified best by animes like Dragonball or Hunter x Hunter which go ON AND ON AND ON and somehow never seem to go anywhere.

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

#109

Post by delecti » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 4:25 PM UTC

monetus wrote: post #101

dmortin wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Isn't this an American thing where TV/movie things are primarily for money making? I mean the British Office had 2 seasons and 12 episodes. The US version had 9 seasons and 200 episodes. I didn't watch The Office, so I don't know if the US version got wo…

Maybe not British, but it is very much a Japanese tendecy, ime. If I see a good anime/comic, I try to appreciate what I saw and expect no resolution. I'm curious how often they even have resolution in the outline.

Every year has a slew of animes which wrap up in 13 or 26 episodes. A sparse few go to 52. An even sparser few fit the mold you describe, but even many of those end eventually with a planned conclusion (Bleach and Dragon Ball ).

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

#110

Post by bliblah » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 4:25 PM UTC

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #102

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…

The obvious TV series that went on far too long was Lost but even stuff like Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad is/was stretched out too far.

Breaking Bad definitely went off the rails in the final seasons but I felt they were a quality show until the end; if anything the original tone was kinda goofy for how serious and dramatic it ended up being.

GoT however has gotten much worse the closer they got to running out of source material. The last season I watched had incredibly stilted dialogue and relationships (Jon going rambo all the way to the north with no plan and then falling instantly in lust with Danny) and the pacing was hyperspeed compared to the previous seasons. If anything it feels like they really want to end it but have run out of room so they are just rushing it.