the simpsons' peak period - can we have some consensus please ?

Yeah, but 8 has great stuff. I'd happily watch any of the 9 ones again, but probably not again after that for a long time (Exception: the New York episode, which I've already seen too many times, though I'm not sure I saw it twice.)

Bart the Mother (#5F22 / SI-922) 27 Sep 1998
Bart accidentally kills a mother bird with Nelson Muntz's bee-bee gun, and tries his best to raise the mother's eggs on his own. But when the hatchlings turn out to be a pair of destructive lizards that harvest nests for their own survival, the town's bird population is placed at great risk. Guest voice Phil Hartman, in his final speaking role on The Simpsons.

The fall of Troy (McClure) = the fall of the Simpsons

-- Trayce (spamspanke...), September 13th, 2005.]

that is incredibly stupid

Some a.t.s. readers have attributed this quote to George Burns and Gracie Allen, as some kind of old vaudeville routine. Others have speculated that it is the type of thing you would hear an old gossipy housewife use on a 1950s sitcom and that Bart's use of it is the joke, much like his use of Cockney phrases or those of an 1890s prospector. Consarnit.

One fan reports to have also heard the phrase on a 1995 Monty Python CD-ROM game.

But the mystery of the actual reference has been revealed at last - or at least it seems - by a reader named Funkychuck: "It's actually from [the book] The Great Gatsby. The main character meets these two women who are already deep in conversation and the one says 'so I says to Mabel, I says' as he walks in. They have a short, pointless back and forth, the main character leaves, and the lady resumes the conversation with the same line over again. I'm not 100% on this, but I had just read the book when that episode aired and I remember feeling quite smart at having caught such an obscure reference. Unless I'm completely wrong, in which case I can resume feeling stupid. Hope this helps!"

Vacation episodes for cliche culture jokes = dud.

Overlooking nuances built into characters over 10 years = dud.

I'm done whining...sorry all, this subject is my lone sore spot, so I really should (and will) sign off now.

See this is why I hate these arguments. What is stupid? Why? Explain - and convince me.

thats the stupid part. hope I cleared things up! :o)

classics from Season 11:

Brother's Little Helper (#AABF22 / SI-1022) 3 Oct 1999
When Bart is hastily diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder, he becomes the latest victim of "Focusin," a new drug touted to boost academic attention spans. Guest starring Mark McGwire as himself.

E-I-E-I-(ANNOYED GRUNT) (#AABF19 / SI-1019) 7 Nov 1999
Homer and family move to an old farm where he and Bart conjure up "Tomacco," an incredibly addictive cross between Tobacco and Tomatoes. Guest starring The B-52's (end credits theme) and Frank Welker as the barnyard animals.

Missionary: Impossible (#BABF11 / SI-1111) 20 Feb 2000
Homer becomes a missionary on a remote, tropical island as part of his effort to evade the local PBS affiliate's pledge drive collection officials. Guest starring Betty White as herself.

Bart to the Future (#BABF13 / SI-1113) 19 Mar 2000
While visiting an Indian casino with his family, Bart encounters an Indian who foretells of his future. Bart learns that in the future he is a ne'er-do-well musician with Ralph Wiggum as a room mate. He goes to see Lisa to borrow money, but Lisa has her own problems, being the newly-elected President of the United States and facing a tax crisis.

I suspect that SNPP is not exactly snopes.com on this subject, though Google certainly thinks it is.

quote:

Bart: There's something different about you, Dad.
Fake Homer: [german accent] I am a new tie wearing.

season two is still the best, and i'm not up on the new season, but i don't think it's time for them to quit yet.

No. It is a scientific fact that when Bart and/or Lisa see their future, the episode sucks.

Exact moment the series jumped the shark: the episode when Principal Skinner explicitly announces "I'm a virgin." Well, no shit. There's nothing worse than having contempt for your audience.

Homer: [takes the Virtual Fudge wire out of his mouth, which
shocks him] Oh, what a bleak and horrible future we live
in!
Bart: Don't you mean, "present?"
Homer: Right, right, present.

and

Lisa: The country is broke? How can that be?
Milhouse: Well, remember when the last administration decided
to invest in our nation's children? Big mistake.

It is a scientific fact that when Bart and/or Lisa see their future, the episode sucks.

Indeed.

The Correct answer to this question is "Seasons 2, 3, and 4."

Exactly. Except, they are usually classic.

LISA'S WEDDING

BART TO THE FUTURE

It's comforting to know that after 2.5 years, ILX is still wrong.

Leeee I love you pls have my kiddies that I dont even want anyway, thankyew.

I'd like to know what people thought of the Simpsons if they saw it the way we see it in Aus - every weeknight at 6pm is an episode repeated, and at least once a week theres also a new ep, or a newer one (which means one night has maybe 3 eps). So I've probably seen, btwn that and my DVDs, more Simpsons than a lot of people here. And while I agree earlier stuff was on the whole better, I still dont get the point of starting these arguments. Do people argue about the Flintstones jumping the shark?

I watched it pretty much every day on Sky for six years! The daily episodes were random and there would be a new one or two every Sunday usually, sometimes with gaps to allow them to stock up for new ones as they emerged. I'd watch the weekly BBC showing if it was a good one. I've not really watched it since it moved to Channel 4, but I'll still watch it on Sky now and then.

umm, sorry trayce i asked it almost 3 years ago!

so...can we have consensus now (ducks).

Americans actually do get the chance to see Simpsons on a daily basis; thanks to the magic of syndication, any given market will air 1 to 3 episodes per night (currently, my area has 2 per night, I believe). The problem is that the pool of episodes from which stations choose seems to have narrowed a tonne: "Seymour's Sense of Snow," for instance, probably aired 3 times in 6 weeks. I suspect that the Simpsons poobahs were afraid of poaching DVD sales if they re-aired golden oldies.

And I just had my third most brilliant idea ever (which also is my second worst idea ever): Pynchon should be hired as a writer on the show!

It does seem though that, throughout these nerdliest of arguments, nobody seems to really care to defend seasons 12-present, which, I do say my good man, is close to being "consensus".