The Simpsons is Renewed for Two More Seasons

[GWGumby]

All new characters? Did you see the Poochie episode? That's the true kiss of death for sitcoms and the Simpson folk know that. That's the sign of "We ran out of ideas so we need new characters to retread our used up ideas." That's the ultimate point of jumping the shark.

Actually, they get away with by the constant stream of guest stars which really bugs me. I don't mind an occasional celebrity, but in almost every episode if a celebrity doesn't guest star, one will at least cameo.

 

[radionate]

Originally posted by GWGumby
All new characters? Did you see the Poochie episode? That's the true kiss of death for sitcoms and the Simpson folk know that. That's the sign of "We ran out of ideas so we need new characters to retread our used up ideas." That's the ultimate point of jumping the shark.

I think you all are missing some of the points of the show.

The Poochie show, for example, was specifically written to poke fun at shows (namely cartoons) who add in characters to be "hip" or increase ratings (i.e. The Cosby Show adding little kids to boost ratings, or a Long Running Cartoon Show (like The Flintstones or Yogi Bear (anyone see Yo Yogi?) adding a new character to make the show "hip"). Ultimately they were poking fun at themselves and every other show on the air.

The Simpsons is nothing but a big social commentary on the world. I don't know how old everyone whose posted on this thread is, and that might have something to do with it.

When the Simpsons first aired, I wasn't even a teenager. I thought it was cool and funny for a compleatly different reason I find it funny now. When I go back and watch those first few seasons, I see a compleatly different show now from what I saw when I watched them the first go round.

If the show is that bad, why is it continually climbing in the ratings (its a top 20 show), continually getting raves from the critics and press (it was nominated for a Golden Globe for best series, nothing to sneeze at for an animated show; Entertainment Weekly named it one of the best shows on TV for 2002; the list goes on and on).

If you are looking for simply entertaining fodder to veg out in front of, yeah, I guess it isn't that amusing. If you want something that will make you THINK AND LAUGH, then you can't beat it.

 

[Super Scooter]

Besides, every good show repeats itself occasionaly. You can't avoid it. Even Seinfeld and The Muppet Show has repeated itself at some level. I noticed one recently, in one episode Marge gets sugar banned (these are reruns) and then the episode that came on the next day, Marge was getting toys banned. The story ended up totally different though.

 

[GWGumby]

Oh, I still enjoy it. And watch it nearly religiously. Didn't mean to give the impression otherwise. There are things that bug me, but in the end, it's social commentary.

Simpsons will make fun of ("comment on") sitcom/animation cliches and then use those same cliches a few episodes later on.

I just think at this point, bringing in all new characters to attempt to "freshen things up" would be wrong.

 

[radionate]

Originally posted by GWGumby

I just think at this point, bringing in all new characters to attempt to "freshen things up" would be wrong.

I think I missed it, but where is this new character thing coming from? The only real characters I've seen added are Apu's wife and kids. I thought it was toooooo funny.

The Poochie episode I'm thinking of is when Homer was the voice of the dog. I know he's popped up from time to time, but I always took it as a nod to the previous episode.

(I wasn't pointing finger at anyone earlier either, just stating my standpoint.)

 

[Boober_Baby]

Originally posted by radionate
The Simpsons is nothing but a big social commentary on the world. I don't know how old everyone whose posted on this thread is, and that might have something to do with it.

If the show is that bad, why is it continually climbing in the ratings (its a top 20 show), continually getting raves from the critics and press (it was nominated for a Golden Globe for best series, nothing to sneeze at for an animated show; Entertainment Weekly named it one of the best shows on TV for 2002; the list goes on and on).

If you are looking for simply entertaining fodder to veg out in front of, yeah, I guess it isn't that amusing. If you want something that will make you THINK AND LAUGH, then you can't beat it.

I have to disagree. The Simpsons WAS a big social commentary on the world, and when I watch re-run episodes I see that and laugh at it, but as for the new episodes I think one of the big things that it lacks is the social commentary it used to have.

Okay, I'm sure you could come up with some facisnating social commentary from a new episode, but I find that mostly now the Simpsons bases its humour on gross-out humour and the fact that Homer is so dumb and yet continually gets dumber.

Point in case, I remember a fairly recent episode where Homer's walking down the street and singing "I'm a-walking down the street and going to Moe's, I'm singing what I'm thinking hey look at that dog!" (or something along the lines of that)... absolutely brilliant. (Rolls eyes)

As for ratings, well look at their demographic. It's the same demographic that watches Jenny Jones! And I don't mean this to offend anyone here who still loves the Simpsons, I'm sure a lot of you don't watch crappy daytime TV. I don't mean to generalize, but there it is.

And the Golden Globe award? I've seen a lot of junk nominated for a Golden Globe award. I think the Golden Globe's themselves are something to sneeze at, in my personal opinion. Same for being critically praised. The media loves what's popular, and the Simpsons are still definitely popular... however, this means nothing to me.

The biggest thing that irks me about the Simpsons nowadays is the fact that whole premise of the show has changed. It used to be a social commentary through the daily lives of a dysfunctional family... now it's about one big dysfunctional town, and what really bugs me is the fact that they're milking all these characters to the point where they're not funny anymore. Remember when Disco Stu was funny? Now he's in every episode! Same with Cletus, and Ralph is just plainly the most annoying character in existance. They've even milked Moe! A character who was never popular. My question is, when are they gonna milk Otto? They might as well, they've done it with every other character.

Not that your points aren't valid. They're very good points, which is why I can argue them. If they weren't good points, I wouldn't even bother. This is all just MY opinion.

^_^ Debo

 

[radionate]

Very good points too Debo. I love that we can have a grown up debate about the Simpsons without anyone name calling or hitting someone.

 

[Movies205]

What the ****, this is so funny because I posted something about the simpsons in another thread on Muppet Central and it tottaly addresses this topic and addresses what Radionate said

To quote myself which I think was put the best way:

Hence why all shows should stop at one point but the great thing about the Simspons was it was Satire the world always changing and there are new topics popping up all the time, but unforchunatly little kids started to like it so they had to cater to them

Notice how I put it was... That why I use to like it, and I tottally agree with boomer

Note that quote was about WWE, and I use Simpsons as an example...

 

[ryhoyarbie]

to talk about the characters in the town of springfield, if you buy the 2nd season of the simpsons on dvd, you'll notice mr. burns is used a lot like in the that season. there's one episode where marge paints burns nude and shows it in an art gallery, the episode where mr. burns runs over bart with his car, and even the episode where bart gives some of his blood to save burn's life, and those episodes are really funny to watch because watching burns never gets old.

there was one episode that had different stories of the characters of sprinfield that i thought was funny and a great show, so using the characters in the town for a good story can't be a total loss, although the show is supposed to be about the simpsons...

ryan

 

[beaker]

Originally posted by Boober_Baby
I have to disagree. The Simpsons WAS a big social commentary on the world, and when I watch re-run episodes I see that and laugh at it, but as for the new episodes I think one of the big things that it lacks is the social commentary it used to have.

Okay, I'm sure you could come up with some facisnating social commentary from a new episode, but I find that mostly now the Simpsons bases its humour on gross-out humour

Yeah, you are so right. After haven been a HUGE fan from the late 80's til the late 90's...I just cant bring myself to be a fan anymore. When every episode has a 'why are you wtahcing this? we ran out of ideas, wink wink' message to it, juxtaposed against just plain creepy and grotesque site gags for no apparent reason...man. I miss the smart 3am humor that would fly above most folks heads.

I think thats why I dug Family Guy a lot...sure it was rapid fire, hit and miss...but I mean that was truly edgy 3am 'did they just say that!?!?!?!' humor.

Sadly The Simpsons feels like a dead horse running its last lap around the track. Oh I know they'll probably be on tv with new episodes forever...but every time I watch it I keep thinking how farther and farther down the idea pit they are going.