This season going to be last

The Simpsons is not young. While it is funnier than ever and in its prime, Matt Groening is probably going make this the last season or sign on for just one more. My theory? Well, from the episodes I have seen, much of them have long-waited-for events -- Skinner getting married, Lisa becoming school president, etc. I'm just saying that the Simpsons is in fact, getting old, and if it were being retired, I would not be surprised. "My son Homer is not a communist! He may be a liar, a pig, a communist, but he is not a porn star!" -Grandpa Abe Simpson

In article , [email] (Alexndr2k) wrote:

They can't do that? Then I would have no reason to watch FOX at all!

On second though maybe that's a good thing.

I actually thought there is going to be at least two more season (after this one - season 10?)....i.e. through to at least 2006. Heard something about that around the time th300th show aired (in Australia anyway).

"Cynically Depressed" wrote in message news:the_medication'[email]

"Alexndr2k" wrote in message news:[email]...

prime,

just

have

old, and

it's got at least two seasons to run on its current contract, and both Matt Groening and Al Jean have said it will probably run "for a few years" after that, while Matt has also said he would like to end it at season 20, "a round number".

"Alexndr2k" wrote in message news:[email]...

prime,

just

have

old, and

but he

"Funnier than ever and in it's prime"? Hahahaaahaaa....

But seriously, I highly doubt that this is the last season. They will announce the final season from the start, so that everyone is sure to watch every single episode.

"Thomas J. Paladino Jr." wrote in news:EQyya.40507$[email]:

Are you sure this isn't a lost post from 1997 or something? The Simpsons today is one of the most unfunny things on TV. It's just pathetic.

donut wrote in news:[email]:

No, you're pathetic ... for frequenting the newsgroup of a show you think is pathetic. This season has shown marked improvement over recent seasons, and it is certainly still one of the best shows on TV. Out of curiosity, what shows do you think are better?

On Wed, 21 May 2003 04:24:56 GMT, UsualNoise wrote:

With the other options out there, I would watch the Simpsons if they just sat on the couch for the full 23 minutes. I don't care if there is no couch gag and no movement, I think I could find the one drawing more entertaining than most of the TV out there right now.

And hey, you gotta watch some TV. Am I right?

Your pal, Tuco

UsualNoise wrote in news:87230236330a926c13f7e4397bde420a@TeraNews:

The Simpsons since about season 10 is pathetic. Don't forget that Seasons 1 - 9 are still relevant here. I'll hang around any damn newsgroup I please.

Marked improvement means "it sucks less." If the current Simpsons is one of the best shows on TV, I feel sorry for TV.

donut wrote in news:[email]:

Well, then, we disagree. I agree that seasons 10-13 were much worse overall than 1-9, but I think 14 has been much more consistent quality- wise. I'd still like to know what TV shows you enjoy more than the Simpsons.

I'd still like to know what TV shows you enjoy more than the

Ed, Edd n Eddy is better than the Simpsons. So is baseball, football and NBA playoffs.

"donut" wrote in message news:[email]...

1

Both seasons 13 & 14 are better than seasons 9 & 10, man.....

But I understand you have to keep your "SIMPSONS SUCK NOW" schtick going, so i'll forgive you if you don't relent.

The show has been going downhill since "Who Shot Mr. Burns," and unfortunately, I've been saying it ever since.

evan

"Park Luck" wrote in message news:[email]...

unfortunately,

I'd disagree, that's a silly place to pinpoint the start of a run downhill. The show did first start to go downhill in season 5, when the characterisation went to shit, the plots became ridiculous and the jokes between weird and needlessly. But after that, it improved in season 6, then improved again in season 7 (which in my opinion was the closest the show ever came to matching its 2-4 peak period). So actually I'd say Who Shot Mr. Burns was when it IMPROVED. Season 7 had episodes like Home Sweet Home-Diddly-Dum-Diddly, Bart Sells His Soul, Summer of 4 ft 2, Much Apu About Nothing, A Fish Called Selma, Bart On The Road, Lisa The Iconoclast, and Mother Simpson. Season 8 was shaky, season 9 was a big downturn, seasons 10 through 12 were unwatchable, season 13 was very inconsistent but enjoyable when it worked, and season 14 has been fairly good, and the closest the show has got to its golden season 1-8 period.

"Jamie" wrote in message news:bal9c7$bl8$[email]...

downhill.

needlessly wacky, that should be. Lousy....non-typing.....words.

I remember feeling completely embarrassed for the Simpsons when I saw the first half of that show. I also didn't (and still don't) like the fact that Mr. Burns didn't know who Homer was.

Yes, there were some good episodes in seasons 6-9, but they were getting fewer and farther inbetween.

Sigh...I guess you can never go home again.

evan

[email] (Park Luck) wrote in news:[email]:

Simp ... son? Hom-er, Simpson.

[email] (Park Luck) wrote in news:[email]:

running gag.... a sometimes silly, sometimes bizarre recurring joke that is funny because of the audience's anticipation of it.

donut said:

There's a parallel relationship between Bart and Krusty, isn't there?. Which is the episode in which Bart and Krusty meet and obviously Krusty doesn't recognize him even though Bart runs down a list of their previous encounters: how he saved him from Sideshow Bob's frame-up etc etc etc?

"Jamie" wrote in message news:...

- This season has been LAME. Raise your hand if you think Homer being electrocuted is funny... I see, nobody thinks its funny eh? Well, the Simpsons writters find it hillarious cause it's in every episode. As for shows better than The Simpsons...

• Trailer Park Boys (Much funnier)
• Late Show with David Letterman (Much smarter)
• Three's Company re-runs
• Mr.Belvedere re-runs

Most of the old hard core Simpsons fans have given up in disgust, and this NG is now mostly populated by people who think South Park and Family Guy are great shows. Is it any wonder that they don't "get it" when we say that the Simpsons jumped the shark years ago? They probably wouldn't even understand most of the references in the earlier shows.

Homer being electrocuted was the worst episode I have ever seen. Yeah, so they were lampooning reality TV. Reality TV isn't worth lampooning. It was absolutely stupid and inane.

TV across the board has run out of ideas and is creatively bankrupt. Of course, the Simpsons is suffering from this, as well.

Reality TV has been lampooned for years. For The Simpsons to do it makes the writers seem behind the times and conformist.

The only shows I really watch these days are Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Daily Show, The Bernie Mac Show, and The George Lopez show. I occasionally catch a new Simpsons but I don't make it a point to stop everything I'm doing at 7:00 on Sunday and do so.

I have six locks on my door all in a row. When I go out, I lock every other one. I figure no matter how long somebody stands there picking the locks, they are always locking three. - Elayne Boosler

Remove "bination" to reply.

"RoboHump" wrote in message news:[email]...

news:...

TV.

It has been in two episodes this season, and those two occurences have been the only caving-ins to silly slapstick this season.

As

Definitely.

A pompous fool fawning over celebrities and reciting some corny derivative stand-up jokes? How is that smart?

Nah.

In news:bal912$1tg$[email], Jamie wrote:

Nana nah-nah-nah nahhhhh Nana nah-nah-nah nahhhhh

Chris

"Jamie" wrote in message news:...

- Derivative? Letterman is derivative?? Funny, anybody who knows anything anbout television, (late night in particular) gives him credit for single-handedly re-inventing his genre. If you don't take my word for it, ask Conan O'Brien, Craig Kilbourn, Jon Stewart and Jimmy Kimmel... all of whom admit they are doing different variations of Lettermans 80's talk show. Leno credits Letterman for his talk show career. Get a tape of Letterman before he moved to CBS if you don't like fawning. If you don't kiss ass on a major network, celebrities don't come on your show (it's what happened to Letterman after 1994. You think insulting Sharon Stone until she cried is fawning.) Have you not noticed a theme of mock sincerity in late night talk show hosts? Is that a coincidence? Nope. Letterman made it an artform that has become the standard.

"RoboHump" wrote in message news:[email]...

news:...

just

you

over

on

been

derivative

I'm well aware that Letterman's original 80s show was fairly cutting edge, but what he does now IS derivative, it's just the same tired crap as all the other "talk show" hosts are peddling, the jokes are very mildly amusing but never particularly clever or funny, and you don't deny that he fawns over every single celebrity that comes on ("say, what film was it you wanted to plug again?" "Well, that sure sounds great." "Hey, I loved you in...") and very rarely asks them interesting questions (but what do you expect, the whole thing is prepared and approved by the celebrities for maximum positive public exposure). The current Letterman show is not smart.

You mean by copying what Steve Allen did in the 1950's?

evan

donut wrote in message news:...

You're kind of behind. People were saying that the Simpsons wasn't good anymore starting with season 4. There are probably lots of people who think that the first season was the only good one. I bet if you look hard enough you can find some that think that only the first 6 episodes were any good, and that after that, it's been all downhill.

[email] (William Richardson) wrote in message news:...

- People who think the show has gone down after season 1 are a SMALL minority (maybe .0001 %). Most Simpsons fans agree the show peaked with seasons 3 - 9. Seasons 3 - 9 can't even be compared to today' episodes. They are 2 totally different shows. One was a show for smart people, a show that referenced classic literature, politics, and modern morality; ashow that commented on society. Todays Simpsons is a show for 14 year olds who think bleeding and farting and being electrocuted is funny.

[email] (RoboHump) wrote in news:[email]:

Yet still WAS funny to the 14 year old group. That's why the show has lost so much - back then, it had something for everybody. Now, it's just fart jokes.

"donut" wrote in message news:[email]...

How many fart jokes have there been this season then?

"RoboHump" wrote in message news:[email]...

news:...

news:...

TV.

Seasons 1

please.

one of

Actually most longtime Simpsons fans agree the show peaked with seasons 2-4, before taking a dive somewhat in season 5 before returning to form in season 6 & 7 then fading out in season 8. season 9 was a heap of shit, and definitely worse, in terms of characterisation at least, than this season. There was more bleeding and farting in season 9 than this season, I can tell you that. Indeed, many longtime hardcore fans, of which I would consider myself one, had all but given up in disgust on the show in seasons 11 & 12, as I did, but many of them, like myself, have turned the show back on since Al Jean became executive producer and began to turn the show around. It's still got a long way to go to reach the level of the season 1-8 period, but nevertheless, it's more often than not a witty and intelligent show these days.

And it must just be me getting old, but 14 year olds must be a lot more cultured these days. Political satire, Requiem For A Dream parodies, Godfather parodies, allegory illustrating America's violent culture, plots revolving around marital stress caused by alcohol abuse, satire of the overcommercialisation and dated worldview of the Epcot Center, jokes about Brian Epstein, Citizen Kane references - this is what 14 year olds want from TV these days?

It saddens me that the awful seasons 10-12, of which I loathe every episode bar two or three, seem to have damaged the Simpsons reputation irrevocably. The criticisms displayed in this thread seem to left over from that period, as they sure as hell aren't relevant to the EABF series at least, and I'm not even sure any of the people in this thread have even watched an episode this season.

"Jamie" wrote in news:bal8rh$5e7$[email]:

I always watch the first several episodes each season to see if anything has changed. Then I find something else to do at that hour. *sigh*

You have got to be kidding when you say Al Jean has turned the series around. It's Al Jean that gave us not just hints, but absolute allegory that Lenny and Carl, to say nothing of Aunt Patty, are homosexual. Jean tries hard to recapture the lost glory, but does it in an "in your face" way that is nothing like the glory years of the show. It's like "here's a pop culture reference" - BOOM blast you in the face with a bazooka!

There's a crassness to the show now that was never there in the earlier seasons. There's a sense that "these are cartoon characters, so it's OK to make them do whatever we want them to do." In the earlier seasons, one of the show's charms was that the characters were like real people, despite being cartoons. They could do cartoon schtick but still came off as real people.

It's OK to like the current Simpsons, but please spare us from trying to rationalize that the show is almost as good as it was in it's prime. It isn't, and never will be.

"donut" wrote in message news:[email]...

not 360 degrees.

It's Al Jean that gave us not just hints, but absolute allegory

now really, that's not exactly a significant factor, is it?

Jean

So how were the parodies of The Godfather, Requiem For A Dream, or Platoon "in your face" then? How were any of the jokes in The Bart Of War's Beatles scene "in your face"?

I'm presuming you mean that the references/parodies/jokes would be pointed out for the dumber audience, like "I got this idea from that movie Sliver". Oh wait, that was season 5. Silly me.

I would disagree, the characterisation has been made far more three-dimensional this season. Watch Moe Baby Blues, The Dad Who Knew Too Little, Special Edna, etc. The characters aren't as fleshed out as in seasons 2-4 or 6-7, but they at least have as much depth as in season 8, and more depth than in the wacky gag-based season 5.

Hmmmm. I could see how you would think when I typed "it's still got a long way to go to reach the level of the season 1-8 period." that I actually meant "It is almost as good as the season 1-8 period" but I can assure you, that's not what I meant.

If the improvements continue I could see it being at the season 8 standard in the foreseeable future, but as for the truly golden 2-7 period.....no chance.

"Jamie" wrote in message news:balud3$keg$[email]...

180 that should be, tee hee......

donut wrote in news:[email]:

Now that statement makes you sound like a stick-in-the-mud who won't even give new Simpsons eps a chance. Of course it *could* be just as good as it used to be. If you watch the whole 14th season (and if you only saw the first few, then you really missed the whole EABFxx set of episodes that made this season very good) you'll see that it is, in fact, closer in quality to seasons 1-7 than it is to seasons 10-13.

Ultimately, though, you can feel free to dismiss any new Simpsons episodes from now until the show stops being profitable ... just know that many Simpsons fans who've watched since the beginning (like myself) are seeing a trend towards classic Simpsons quality. It's not there yet, but it's silly to say it "never will be".

"UsualNoise" wrote in message news:02c21515b0e67d80630086638a663a0e@TeraNews...

It's jump-the-shark culture. Once a TV show "jumps the shark" you should never admit that any episodes past the "jumping of the shark" are any good, otherwise it makes you look like a square. Saying "Pfft. That show sucks now." makes you look cool.

Of course it *could* be just as

I would agree, except the gulf in quality between seasons 1-7 and seasons 10-13 is absolutely gigantic.

I'd say there is as much chance of there being a Simpsons season as good as 2, 3, 4, 6, or 7 as there is of Star Wars Episode 3 being as good as A New Hope or The Empire Strikes Back. That's a good analogy, if I say so myself.

"Jamie" wrote in message news:...

It was apt. APT!!

ff

I think the issue is that we old sticks in the mud DO give the new episodes a chance and are continually disappointed.

evan

"Park Luck" wrote in message news:[email]...

episodes a

Well the vast majority of longtime Simpsons fans (like, watching since the mid nineties or before) have been pleased or at least encouraged by this season, so you're the exception I'm afraid....

In news:bam10j$unj$[email], Jamie wrote:

I'm glad I read this. I've been disappointed too many times to deliberately tune in any more. I'll have to pay closer attention incase they make a come-back.

Chris

note to matt groening and al jean: you see? this is what happens when you try to inject intelligence into cartoon humor. you're wasting your time with some of these morons.

"<<>>" wrote in message news:Grwza.25775$[email]...

In news:bal8rh$5e7$[email], Jamie wrote:

Recalling school 'lunch-table' conversations of the era 1993 to 1998 I have to say that amongst my friends this is the concensus as well.

There were a few good epsidoes (maybe 4) and I'd still buy the DVD. But that's where the massive drop started.

Ditto.

The only epsisode I've seen in about a year was the season finale, it wasn't that great but at least it wasn't criminally bad. Damn filthy hope, keeps springing right back.

Chris

"<<>>" wrote in message news:kkwza.25749$[email]...

This season's finale, or last season's finale?

"Jamie" wrote in message news:...

Actually, most longtime Simpsons fans agree with me, and think you're a dumbass. Most of us concur that the show peaked at season 9, then went downhill in seasons 4 through 2. Season 13 was a bit of an uptick, but after that season 1 was complete shit.

Just kidding, of course.

After the first segment of 7G0S, it's all been a downhill slide.

ff

The message was , the author was Alexndr2k ...

HAHAHAHHAHAHAA.

Ha.