The Simpsons

So otm! I think people underestimate s1 simply due to the voice actors still finding their groove and the Klusky-Czupo (sp?) animations. Who cares though? "Life on the Fast Lane" was great, and there are some BRILLIANT vocal outtakes on the DVD of Al Brooks mugging it up for his role as Jaques, just throwing out loads of cheesy pickup lines one after another with all the crew giggling in the background

yeah they're starting to show these on TV and I'm very impressed with how different the show was back then. not as many jokes but the great moments really are earned. plus there were some pretty serious themes - IIRC two of the episodes dealt with adultery which is a far cry from the wackier "oh that Homer" episodes of the last 15 years. but maybe I'm biased since they kinda stopped showing the real early eps when I was watching the show a bunch so watching them now brings a ton of nostalgia...

Whiney OTM. I'd go so far as to say it's the best episode since at least season 9.

"District 10" was the hardest I'ver laughed at anything in a while

as great as the simpsons are i really can't imagine being a fan on the pappawheelie level of auteurism where if someone turned on a perfectly good season 9 episode you'd be like "ARGH FUCKING MIKE SCULLY ERA TURN IT OFF"

― some dude, Saturday, November 19, 2011 12:17 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I agree with this. I do own 9&10 boxes, for a couple episodes.

BTW, Scully was a hell of a script writer -- just a terrible show runner. He didn't know when to say when. And he also lost a slew of the good writers before he took over.

listening to the commentaries it sounds to me that he just didn't really care as much as the previous show runners did, or in the same way. Where the others all seemed to have very strong ideas about what they wanted from the show and tortured themselves and everyone else to get it perfect, he seemed happy to occasionally have bits that didn't really make sense or to have lazy jokes here and there, and with a process as long and complicated as making any single Simpsons episode, that seems like a recipe for rapid decay.

Anyone else catch that after this Sunday's ep, number 500 (!), the show is up there with Gunsmoke and Lassie as the longest running TV series.

but of course Lassie maintained the quality all the way through its run

kinda surprised any shows have been on longer than the Simpsons tbh

I don't think that's necessarily something they should be proud of.

the story that homer was a crappy dad but will be an awesome grandfather is kind of the best moment the show's has in like a decade

This was on tv here the other night - I missed the start and thus the premise tho, why were we seeing the future (yet again!)?

But yeah, I v rarely see current-Simpsons now, and I actually quite liked this one, it had some heart to it. Lisa and Bart drunk up in the treehouse was suprisingly jarring and realistic!

And for once everyone's futures made *sense*, rather tha have Lisa-as-president or Bart as a rock star or some crap, they were just normal struggling adults.

well maggie's didn't :/

but yeah, bart and lisa's seemed to make sense

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2012/feb/16/the-simpsons-top-10-episodes

"surprisingly"

Anyone else catch that after this Sunday's ep, number 500 (!), the show is up there with Gunsmoke and Lassie as the longest running TV series.

you might want to add about a dozen qualifiers there

http://msnbcmedia1.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photo_StoryLevel/071106/071106_mtplist_hmed_12p.standard.jpg

500th show ended with this:

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/505730/SIMPSONS-500-EPISODES.jpg

using the phrase 'logging on the internet' is half the problem imo

haha before i saw your comment i kept rereading that logging on the internet part and wondering why my head couldn't accept it.

Internet should be capitalized too.

I gave up capitalising that a while ago.

I agree with that, but rules are rules.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_capitalization_conventions

The Internet standards community has historically differentiated between the Internet and an internet (or internetwork), the first being treated as a proper noun with a capital letter, and the latter as a common noun with lower-case first letter.

They made that thanks look like a silent movie title card. Imagine it in Burns' voice saying "logging on to the internetrola."

I still play by the rules that the Internet is the Internet, but it's inconsistent with other similar items, like "interstate".

You call it Interstate 40, but your car breaks down on the interstate. If your car broke down on an interstate, that would be one thing.

"Homer At The Bat" aired 20 years ago tonight, and won the ratings for the first time ever, beating both Cosby and the Winter Olympics.

http://deadspin.com/5886723/the-making-of-homer-at-the-bat-the-episode-that-conquered-prime-time-20-years-ago-tonight

Homer At Bat was an event when it aired. Baseball fans had been hearing about it for months prior.

I had no idea who any of the players were when i first saw Homer At The Bat (still don't with most of em) but it was the best thing ever

i think the closing song explains everything about the ep pretty succinctly

All of the players were cooperative except for José Canseco, who was intimidating.[4] He disliked his original part and insisted it be rewritten, and the writers grudgingly[5] made him as heroic as possible.[4] He was originally slated to wake up in bed with Edna Krabappel and miss the game, but Canseco's then-wife, Esther Haddad, objected.[8][9] He disliked his caricature, stating that "the animation looked nothing like (him),"[8] but that he found the acting was very easy.[10] When asked in 2007 about his part by the San Jose Mercury News, he responded, "that was 100 years ago," hung up the phone and did not answer any of the paper's subsequent calls for an interview about his guest spot.[8]

If I didn't already know what an ass Canseco was I'd think he was quite an ass right now.

Ken Griffey, Jr. did not understand his line "there's a party in my mouth and everyone's invited" and got quite frustrated when he was recording it

What's great is that it's a funny, well written episode with solid jokes even without the ballplayers, but with them, it just goes to the next level. (Even today, when watching a boring baseball game, either my wife or I will bust out, "… and the next man wants to hit the ball, too. And he does, and everyone is happy.")

See I didnt get any of the jokes relevamt to the players themselves. I didnt even know they were specific refs, til the SNPP entry I just read (stuff like the 'get a haircut!' rant for eg). It all worked regardless, I figured there was another layer I was mising tho.

i read somewhere that the 'get a haircut!' line / incident was actually an odd coincidence - the real life version of it actually came after the voice recordings for the episode.

actually actually.

Homer Simpson: Hey Clemens, did I make the team?
Roger Clemens: You sure did.
Homer Simpson: Woo-hoo! In your face, Strawberry!
Roger Clemens: Wait a minute. Are you Ken Griffey Jr.?
Homer Simpson: No.
Roger Clemens: Sorry. Didn't mean to get your hopes up.

I love that Ozzie Smith really got into it. I always thought there was something more considered about his delivery than that of the other players.

Also:
Marge: Children, tell me when your father stops scratching himself.
[long pause]
Marge: Kids?
Bart: We'll tell you, Mom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcXWsibiiPk

http://www.lasertimepodcast.com/2012/02/21/laser-time-simpsons-sing-the-blehs/

On a related note, going thru the tracks of "Sing the Blues" and "The Yellow Album"

i listened to a solid minute of that and have no idea what it is

'not once, not twice, but thrice!'

http://a.espncdn.com/media/pg2/2004/0123/photo/straw_sp.jpg

i like the intro this week

^^^ Rest of the show was abominable, tho.

what did you think of the rabbit?

I decided, out of I dunno, masochistic curiosity, to watch the latest episode, about everyone at the nuclear plant being replaced by robots. Christ it was bad. The storyline hopped from one nonsensical point to another with reckless abandon, and not even in the usual bad Simpsons way of nothing connecting acts together and so on, but in simple terms of NOTHING MAKING SENSE, either across the entire narrative or at any individual point. So many bad jokes, non-jokes, unfunny interminable repetitions. So much Homer being an utter irredeemable dick. No one's really a character any more, they all just seem to float around while stuff happens for some reason. GOD. Who still watches this??

I don't, makes me very sad. I also don't understand the love for new South Parks, new Office. Too many shows lose sight.

I respect the voice actors always fighting for money, because they're the only reason this show has survived, but holy shit do they sit on piles of money when recording their lines to remind themselves of why they bother?

Some of the actors have been vocal about how crappy the episodes have been, particularly Harry Shearer. And Dan Castellenata has written a couple, but nothing to think about writing home about.

But thinking about how Groening refused to put his name on the film festival episode (because he hated the Critic crossover) and yet still tacitly endorses the last 13-14 years of crapulence, it's hard to imagine too many people involved in the day-to-day of the show even notice the colossal downturn in quality.

when is the last season? is there any definitive answer?