Sunset Over Springfield: Time for The Simpsons to wrap it up?

[Trollheart]

Sunset Over Springfield: Time for The Simpsons to wrap it up?

Talk to just about anyone about the longest-running animated show (can't really call them cartoons, can we?) in history and you'll usually hear the same story. Just not like it used to be. There's no question that The Simpsons has given us some classic, timeless moments, more in fact than even the greats like Tom and Jerry or Bugs Bunny ever did in what were called cartoons. I mean, who can really remember specifics about Looney Tunes, other than Bugs' catchphrase or Yosemite Sam battering his horse in a shocking, but hilarious, display of animal cruelty: "When I says whoa, mule, ah MEANS whoa"! Or indeed, Wile E. Coyote watching in despair as the desert floor comes up to meet him for the umpteenth time? But can we quote from these cartoons? Do we feel the need to? Of course not.

The Simpsons, though, has given us so many quotes, iconic scenes and even taught us lessons over the course of more than three decades, that it has become a part of the national consciousness and words like D'oh! Have entered the OED. But how long can such quality be maintained? Has it gone on too long? Should the Simpsons finally retire before it becomes a parody of itself, if it has not already done so? How long can one boy remain ten years old, and how long exactly can Homer live, at his age and with his lifestyle? Of course this is all essentially the world of cartoons, so logic need not apply. And yet, that's not quite the case. Bart has even self-referentially mentioned the fact that he's been ten for so long, and while of course there's very much a need for a suspension of disbelief here, how long can it go on for?

But really, the true question is not can it, but should it? The general consensus seems to be that the episodes these days are nowhere near as good as they used to be, and that's not surprising. As I say, it's all but impossible to keep up that sort of class for over thirty years. But are they as bad as have been reported? I stopped watching around maybe season 15, and the few I have caught down the years from the newer seasons have, in the main, tended to bear this opinion out. There were few I laughed at, not many I enjoyed and none at all I would quote. There may have been the odd good one, but they were the exception. Then again, I've seen maybe a dozen, at most, so maybe I just happened to catch the bad ones. I've lost touch with the show, so have I any right to make such a determination as to say that their day has gone?

So here I go again. I'm going to randomly choose episodes from the later seasons (say 15 to now - think we're on 33 now?) and look at them, see how, if at all, they stand up, if they can be compared to classic or even just older episodes, and try to answer the question I posed in the title: is it time for the Simpsons to give up and retire?

It's hard to accurately pin down when the rot may have set in, so I'm arbitrarily marking that as from season 15 onwards, though I have a feeling that season and one or two after that are ones I have seen. Nevertheless, we have to start somewhere and give the random-o-meter some parameters, so from season 15 to the current, season 32, it is. And we start off then with this one.

One or two points before we get going. The category "Teeth-grinders" refers to how much, duh, the episode makes me grind my teeth, i.e., how terrible is it, how bad are some concepts, how annoyed am I at it? "Verdict" is given as one of three: Sunrise, noon and sunset. They should be obvious in their meaning, but in case not: sunrise means the episode maintains the quality, or as close to it as possible, of the show; noon is a meh, it's all right but not great and sunset means it was terrible. Originality in this case refers ONLY to the show; if the episode uses a plot borrowed from say a movie, but which has never been used in an episode before, it still qualifies as being original. In this case it gets a high score, with 10 being very original. High score also for "usage of previous episodes", as the higher the score the less the episode is seen to rely on what has gone before, and the same for "Teeth-grinders" - one that really bugs me gets 0 while one that does not in any way annoy me gets 10.

Okay then, let's go.


Episode title: "The Heartbroke Kid"
Season: 16
First transmission date: May 1 2005
Writer(s): Ian Maxtone-Graham
Couch Gag: The family find their couch is attached to a large catapult, which throws them off screen.
Main character(s): Bart
Supporting characters: Lisa, Homer, Maggie, Marge, Skinner, Superintendent Chalmers, Sea Captain, Gill, Nelson, Martin, Sherri, Terri, Milhouse, Willy, Krusty, Sideshow Mel, Itchy, Scratchy, Flanders, Rod, Tod, Wiggum, Jimbo, Dolph, Kurny, Hans Moleman, Patti, Selma, Grandpa, Apu, Kent Brockman, Reinier Wolfcastle
Premise: After gorging on too much junk food, Bart is sent to Fat Camp.
Location(s): Springfield Elementary; Simpsons House; Fat Camp
Good scenes: The battle at the beginning, where Skinner's toy soldiers (shown as real men in his imagination) are being menaced by stationery; Homer's dream about Marge as a Terminator; the special "fat" version of the opening credits; Scratchy signing a form - "Have you ever been... squashed by the moon/tricked into eating yourself/churned into butter/decapitated by a windmill/impaled by the Space Needle etc" - at the doctor's
Quotes:
Skinner: "Keep at it men! The US is due to win a war some time!"

Chalmers: "Skinner, be gay on your own time."

Skinner: "I presume these snacks are nutritious?"
Lindsay: "That's really none of our business!"

Machine: "Don't play the hate: participate!"
Nelson: "The machine makes a good point."

Marge: "They're not kidnappers! They're professionally-trained child snatchers!"

Spangler: "Mr. and Mrs. Simpson, your boy is going to need one thing here: (points at sign) tough luck!"
Marge: "Don't you mean tough love?"
Spangler: "Tough love? Of course! This has never made sense! That sign guy lied to me! Stanley! Didn't you ever question the word luck?"

Marge: "Homer, maybe you could ask Mr. Burns for a raise?"
Homer: "Even better! I'll ask for my job back!"

Wolfcastle (to ice cream): "I'm baskin' in your pain as I'm robbin' you of life!"

Bart (walking through backpackers): "They can't see or hear us, right?"
Spangler: "We're not the Ghost of Christmas Past, Bart. They can see us."

Machine: "Yo! I'm gonna cap a pop in yo ass!"

Homer: "Marge, I know this is ill-gotten, but can we use it to...?"
Marge: "Give these freeloaders das boot? Jawohl!"
Homer: "Time to take out the Eurotrash!"

Synopsis: Given the choice of what new vending machines to have installed in the school, Chalmers chooses, not surprisingly, one which refuses to give change, which the school can keep. The value of the snacks has no bearing on the decision, but Lisa soon discovers there are all sorts of colourings, E-numbers and additives in them, despite their eco-friendly names, such as Dalai Lama-nade and Krishna Krisps. Her appeals to her fellow students of course go unheard, until Bart eats so many snacks and gets so overweight that he has a heart attack. Despite ending up in hospital Bart of course ignores the doctor's advice, so Lisa organises an intervention.

When even this doesn't work, they send him to Fat Camp. This proves very expensive (shock horror!) so Lisa hits upon the idea of opening up their house as a youth hostel. Bart doesn't take the fat camp seriously either, until Spangler, the owner, shows him how his family have had to humiliate themselves in order to pay for it, then he takes action. Breaking into the school he wrecks all the vending machines (how does one school need all those machines anyway?) and they spill out all the money they didn't give change for. He fills up two bags of it and brings it to his parents, so that they can kick out the freeloaders.

Rating: A
Comments: Like I said, season 16 is not really where the rot begins, not even close. This is a pretty damn fine episode, and in the greatest tradition of the show, teaches a lesson or at least spouts a moral, a very timely one, given the current state of child obesity. Not that anyone will listen, but it needs to be said. It's an episode which has a HUGE supporting cast, even if ninety-eight percent of those are only onscreen and don't even talk. It features A. Brooks (who the hell uses an initial as their professional first name?) as Spangler, whom you may remember as the voice of Nemo in the movie about some lost fish. Chock-full both of great, imaginative scenes and excellent quotes, with a lot of laughs, it's a prime example of the show at its zenith, though it is placed near the edge of the abyss, as it were.

Score:
Story: 8
Originality: 10
Good lines: 8
Usage of other characters: 5
Usage of previous episodes: 10
Laughs: 10
Teeth-grinders: 10

Total: 61

Verdict: Sunrise

[Rubber Soul]

Time for the Simpsons to wrap it up?


Yes.

[Lexi Darling]

It was time for the Simpsons to wrap it up 20 years ago.

[Rubber Soul]

There was a time when I absolutely loved the show. I'm kind of a Matt Groening fan going back to his Life In Hell comic strip. But, honestly, I haven't even thought about the Simpsons for a almost a couple decades now. Heck, I didn't even know it was still on the air.

[Trollheart]

It's been the same with me. Once, they were an awesome new thing and I couldn't stop quoting them. I still can't. D'oh! But if I do quote (and I do, frequently) or watch YouTubes it's always from the earlier seasons. But if you haven't seen them for 20-odd years, RS, then maybe we're not in a position to judge. Which is why I'm doing this, as I don't like to pass judgement on something without all the facts. We'll see what the later seasons turn  up. First one was great, as I say, but still within the "good" seasons, as such. If I get into the 20th and further, then we may see how bad it has become.

[Mindy]

Simpsons a classic show

[Trollheart]

It was, there's no doubt about that. But is it still? Let's see...

Episode title: "Married to the Blob"
Season: 25
First transmission date: January 12 2014
Writer(s): Tim Long
Main character(s): Comic Book Guy, Homer
Supporting characters: Marge, Milhouse, Bart, Lisa, Wiggum, Krusty*, Smithers*, Patti*. Selma*,  Moe*, Jimbo*, Kurny*, Dolph*, Skinner*, Agnes* (any character with an asterisk only appears in Homer's alcohol-fuelled trip as various creatures), Apu

Premise: Comic Book Guy falls in love. Again.
Location(s): The Android's Dungeon and Baseball Card Shop, Simpson house, Chuck Dukewagon's All-American Chow Lounge, Krusty Burger, Kwik-E-Mart, Schoolyard
Quotes:

Radioactive Man to Old King Coal: "I'll crush you like a gnat, King Coal!"

Comic Book Guy: "The only thing that could make this moment more of a cliche would be if I started to sing about my feelings! And here I go!"

Homer: "Why didn't I stop with the snake wine? Why did I try the fish wine?"
Komiko's father: "That was the aquarium!"

Rating: B
Comments: On the face of it, this is a prime candidate as an example of what went wrong with the show. An episode about a minor character - very minor, in this case - seldom works; there have been occasions, but in general The Simpsons works best when it plays to its strengths and focuses on Homer, Bart, even Lisa. Other characters such as Skinner, Krusty and of course Mr. Burns work too, but when they start reaching further down into the pool of characters, it can go either way, and often ends up being a negative result.

Comic Book Guy falls in love with a manga artist and turns to Homer for advice ("because you are the only fat man in town who has met a hot woman") and is happy until her father arrives (from Japan, if you can believe it) and takes her home, not happy with her match. Other than the clever trippy bit (which is basically copied from "El Neustro Viajo" you know the one) it's pretty basic and holds few if any surprises, and not much in the way of laughter. Pretty poor. Oh, the opening scenes where Radioactive Man dies, they're pretty good. I certainly would not rate this episode as anything near as good as classic Simpsons, but to be fair though I find it overall quite poor, it's not the worst. I could have done without the song, however ironically placed. Just seems like filler.

Score:
Story: 3
Originality: 3
Good lines: 2
Usage of other characters: 8
Usage of previous episodes: 7
Laughs: 2
Teeth-grinders: 0
The Burns Factor: 0

Total: 25

Verdict: Sunset

Current score: Sunrise 1 - Sunset 1

[Psy-Fi]

It was time for the Simpsons to wrap it up 20 years ago.

That's about the time when I lost interest in the show.

[Lexi Darling]

That's about the time when I lost interest in the show.

Same. And I love the old seasons, I still quote them all the time. But the magic just faded for me by the mid-aughts.