You ever see “The Simpsons”?

[Warbodog]

Good idea, Moonlight!

Topic

[Warbodog]

The Simpsons is up there with the most nostalgic shows for me, but the most cosy era is limited to first two seasons, thanks to satellite TV hogging the rights until 1996 and video releases being ridiculously limited during that time too.

This was the best video we had, though I never understood why Homer’s shirt was pink.

But it was also about the merch!

– Official blue-shirted Bart causing confusion when drawing the character!

– Ubiquitous speech bubbles misleadingly suggesting the show originated as a comic!

– A knock-off T-shirt with a suspiciously green-tinged Bart that I claimed was from when he turned himself green in ‘Bart the Genius’ to cope!

– Shitty computer games we played anyway because they were The Simpsons!

– Trading cards and stationery featuring images from the early shorts rather than the show, but how could I possibly know!

When I decided to binge the show properly one time (cutting my losses at the end of season 9), my favourite episode was ‘Dental Plan (Lisa Needs Braces).’

[Moonlight]

I’m a noted season 1 defender and I will expound upon this at a future date because I just ate and I’m very sleepy. I know that a lot of people exclude the first two but definitely the first season from their personal “golden age” and they deserve to be put in stasis for 18 months.

Although the David Mirken era is my favorite, easily. “Homer Goes to College” belongs in a museum. The Jean / Reiss madness of seasons 3 and especially 4 is amazing stuff but they inexplicably seemed incapable of writing enough material to fill a 23 minute episode which is not a problem I, as an amateur writer, can relate to or even understand.

[Dave]

But it was also about the merch!

And the books!

This was my bible for several years.

Along with this.

And a little bit of this.

[Nick R]

No. Never heard of it. Looks a bit like Life in Hell, though. You ever read Life in Hell?

[Warbodog]

I bought one of the Simpsons comics, it was pretty good. It also meant I had what seemed to be half of a poster scene on my wall for a few years, now confirmed. Fitting for the era when you’d only own bits and pieces of series on video anyway.

[Nick R]

But it was also about the merch!
And the books!
This was my bible for several years.

I never actually got that official episode guide. I relied on this one:

Later, material from that book (and its expanded edition) was put online on the Simpsons section of the BBC Cult website.

At some point I realised that the authors had basically just copied a lot of their trivia from the episode capsules on Usenet/The Simpsons Archive. (The book contains details from there that don’t appear anywhere else online, like the assertion that the official full title of the Sideshow Bob rakes episode is “Cape Feare: Not Affiliated with the Film ‘Cape Fear'”.)

Much later, I looked up that book online, and found Amazon listings with a different (possibly pre-release?) cover, which showed the authors as Gareth Roberts and Gary Russell. Yes, the two Doctor Who writers, one of whom was in the Famous Five, and the other of whom has a Wikipedia article with an extensive “Transphobia” section.

[Jimboid]

I hadn’t watched any new Simpsons in about 20 years.  On a whim stuck on the first couple of episodes of the latest season and was pleasantly surprised. 

Seems to be getting out of the rut I hear it’s been in for a very long time, unless it’s always been good and people have just been morning excessively.  A fandom wouldn’t do that though, would it?

Also – big fan of Season One.  It’s a different but beautiful beast in its own right 

[Ridley]

Seems to be getting out of the rut I hear it’s been in for a very long time, unless it’s always been good and people have just been morning excessively.  A fandom wouldn’t do that though, would it? 

I was once saw a(n offsite) forum post saying they who had dropped off around season 10 might want to check back in as it had gotten better again which at the time was about S21 so I watched an episode and it did seem to be an improvement.

Then I rewatched 1-10, Disney+ came along so have seen seasons 11 through 25 since and, no, Zombie Simpsons for me still starts after the end of the S9 production block.

[Flap Jack]

The general impression is that The Simpsons is still nowhere near golden era quality but it has significantly rallied compared to the doldrums it was in from its late teen to late 20s seasons. Al Jean finally stepping back to let Matt Selman be the “main” showrunner in Season 33 (although still not fully quitting, as he really ought to) was a turning point, and it coincided with the era where Carolyn Omine was at her peak influence on the show, so people give her a lot of the credit for the upswing.

Speaking of Carolyn Omine, if you haven’t watched “A Mid-Childhood Night’s Dream”, you should correct that. It was a really good one.

[Dave]

I have only ever checked back in on The Simpsons occasionally since the turn of the millennium and it’s never felt like quite the same show to me.

Admittedly though some of that is aesthetic and to do with the modern cultural references, seeing the Simpsons with clean fine-lined wide-screen animation and with Bart using a smartphone and making jokes about Fortnite is always going to feel like some weird parallel universe no matter how good the material is.

[Technopeasant]

Watched a lot of re-runs as a kid, did a complete 1-10 watch on DVD after I moved out with my girlfriend. Attempted a 11-15 run on Disney+ but fizzled out somewhere in season 13. Got more into the fandom side after coming across TheRealJims on YouTube.

This was my bible for several years.

Bought that from an antique store in Banff on my honeymoon. They also had an Atari 2600.

Later, material from that book (and its expanded edition) was put online on the Simpsons section of the BBC Cult website.

Kinda cheeky to call The Simpsons a cult show. I can barely think of a more mainstream hit, even if like all things it has its hardcore fans.

Then I rewatched 1-10, Disney+ came along so have seen seasons 11 through 25 since and, no, Zombie Simpsons for me still starts after the end of the S9 production block.

While it isn’t golden age, I don’t consider the Mike Scully years zombie. While there are a lot of questionable decisions, his years are so full of energy and imagination to be considered formula fodder, and I saw them way too often as a kid not to have some fondness. The first few solo Al Jean seasons aren’t terrible, I admire some of the attempts at character development, but the monotony sets in.
My favourite season is 8, ironically enough.

Admittedly though some of that is aesthetic and to do with the modern cultural references, seeing the Simpsons with clean fine-lined wide-screen animation and with Bart using a smartphone and making jokes about Fortnite is always going to feel like some weird parallel universe no matter how good the material is.

Which is why I’d rather the new talent just make a new show inspired by The Simpsons. I don’t want a Simpsons of the 2020s.

[cwickham]

Season 36 arrives on E4 on the 27th December, for the interested — a longer delay between the episodes’ broadcast in the US and arrival on linear television here than under the old deal, obviously, but a record for an episode making its debut on free-to-air television here (disregarding BBC Two getting special dispensation to air “The Trouble With Trillions” for Cuba Night in 1999).

[RunawayTrain]

I did a full watch for the first time a few years ago (thanks dodgy streaming!) and did notice a drop in enjoyment but I forget where that was.  I also couldn’t really tell at the time if it was where nostalgia ended (I don’t know where I got to watching it on BBC2 as a teen but I recognised where the episodes began to be new to me).  I rewatched a year or two ago and found the drop was still there, but then it picked up again after the initial drop.  Maybe next time I’ll take note of where the changes actually occur 😄

It is a bit jarring seeing them becoming all modern, but I suppose they didn’t have much choice; the setting has always been contemporary and changed with the times, it’s just the technological changes were a bit slower in the beginning.

[Also as an aside, as a Brit who doesn’t entirely know how all the Fox networks, er, work, and I’ve only heard that Fox News is worse than dreadful, it’s interesting to see that the reality-leaning Simpsons is still funded by(?) / related to 20thC Fox at the end screen.]

[Technopeasant]

Also as an aside, as a Brit who doesn’t entirely know how all the Fox networks, er, work, and I’ve only heard that Fox News is worse than dreadful, it’s interesting to see that the reality-leaning Simpsons is still funded by(?) / related to 20thC Fox at the end screen

Nope, all Iger, no Murdoch, these days. The Simpsons ironically predicted this in 1998.

Also, since no one else is living up to the thread title…

[Warbodog]

Exciting episode as a 9-10 year old. It also had Bart smoking a cigar, and not suddenly having a coughing fit or anything. The kid just loved smoking. Fortunately, I didn’t have the kind of parents who objected to that sort of thing, they quite liked it.

South Park would step it up a level a few years later, but after the initial excitement I got tired of that quickly. My grandparents weren’t pleased about some of the episode titles on our Christmas video requests though.

[Rushy]

I watched the early seasons, but it didn’t leave much of an impact on me. The only episode I really remember with fondness is Homer’s Enemy

[Dave]

Kinda cheeky to call The Simpsons a cult show. I can barely think of a more mainstream hit, even if like all things it has its hardcore fans.

For the BBC, “cult” just meant “we scheduled it at 6pm on BBC2”.

[Technopeasant]

South Park would step it up a level a few years later, but after the initial excitement I got tired of that quickly. 

Watched most of that when I was 13, which probally is the only age where it is funny.

I also watched King of the Hill as a kid, but honestly had no idea it was a comedy. It seemed like serious drama to me, but was engaging nontheless.

[MANI506]

Having put off a full rewatch for years about four months ago I started at season one with the DVDs (I have seasons one to seventeen on the shelf) and I’m currently up to season nine (Simpson Tide). I originally fell off around season eleven and so far I’m having a blast. I’ll carry on to the end and then the plan is to watch all of Futurama on Disney Plus.

[Technopeasant]

Apparently the episide order for Futurama on Plus is different than the DVDs, if that bothers you.

[MANI506]

It does now!

[clem]

– Shitty computer games we played anyway because they were The Simpsons!

I had Bart vs. The World for the NES. Mr Burns rigs a competition for Krusty viewers so that Bart wins a round-the-world trip for his family. Then Burns enlists his relatives (Ramses Burns, the Abominable Snow Burns etc.) to bump off the Simpsons. The cutscenes and bonus games were easily the most fun parts. One of many highly frustrating levels I remember involved skateboarding around the Great Wall of China, using ramps to jump over pits. Trying to time the jumps just right was maddening. 

[clem]

I also had this video, with this excellent cover:

I think most of the episodes had been censored in some way on UK telly, if not all four. The Cartridge Family wasn’t aired at all in the UK until two years after the video was released. 

[Warbodog]

I was a bit unfair with “shitty,” I did like Bart vs the World (Amiga) and its variety. I think I made it to the third set of levels, after the China and ice ones, but can’t remember them.

Bart vs the Space Mutants was pretty shit though.

[clem]

I did like Bart vs the World (Amiga) and its variety. I think I made it to the third set of levels, after the China and ice ones, but can’t remember them.
Bart vs the Space Mutants was pretty shit though.

The third stage must have been Egypt because the last one was definitely Hollywood with the horror film set with all spiders and stuff, and the boss throwing loudhailers you had to dodge. Never played Space Mutants. 

The Simpsons arcade game, on the other hand, was a legit cracking game. They had that in the games room on a caravan site I stayed at in the Lakes as a young ‘un. Highlight of the holiday. 

[Unrumble]

And the books!
This was my bible for several years.

Ditto. Guide to Life was decent also. 

I’m another who thinks season 10 is where the wobble really starts. 

I also tried a Disney+ odyssey about 5 years ago, starting from 10, as I pretty much know everything prior to that inside-out. Think I gave up at the beginning of 18, the enjoyment having steadily dwindled, and realising I was now finding it a chore rather than fun. 

[Dave]

Bart vs the Space Mutants was pretty shit though.

I had this on the Amstrad and it was indeed rubbish. 

The arcade game was excellent though.

[Nick R]

I mentally divide The Simpsons into different eras, based on where I first encountered the episodes:

* “Call of The Simpsons” and “Bart the Genius” were the first two episodes I ever saw, aged about 5 or 6, because a friend a few years older than me had that video.

* Season 1 to early season 4 – When I was a kid some friends who had Sky lent us three or four tapes full of most episodes from this era.

* Season 4 to late season 7 – In 1995 we got cable for a year, so these were the episodes that were new to me (as well as filling in some gaps from earlier seasons). The first actual new episode I saw on its first UK broadcast was “Who Shot Mr Burns? Part 2” (after a repeat of Part 1 the week before, along with the “Springfield’s Most Wanted” special). The last new episode I taped before we got rid of cable was “A Fish Called Selma”.

* Late season 7 (“Bart on the Road”) to late season 8 (“My Sister, My Sitter”) – These were the episodes in that unofficial episode guide. I finally saw these episodes when they were shown on BBC2.

* Seasons 9 to 11 are ones that I mostly saw on BBC2, except for the occasional visit to friends and family who had Sky. There had been hints earlier, but this is where the quality really began to decline, with episodes like “Kidney Trouble”, “Monty Can’t Buy Me Love”, and “Alone Again, Natura-Diddily”.

* Seasons 12 to 17 – At uni we had Virgin Media in our shared house, so I watched a lot of these episodes.

* Everything after that. To be honest I’ve probably only seen about a dozen episodes made since the movie – the only things I really seek out to watch are the guest animator couch gags. (The Don Hertzfeldt one from 2014 is amazing.)

[Warbodog]

* “Call of The Simpsons” and “Bart the Genius” were the first two episodes I ever saw, aged about 5 or 6, because a friend a few years older than me had that video.

That was one of the first videos that came out and the one we had too. Everyone who came round would want to watch it.

As a 6 year old, the smooth RV salesman was just confounding. Now he’s hilarious.

[International Debris]

I remember first watching episodes of season 10 when they went out on BBC2 and being fascinated – they were utterly bonkers and largely terrible at the same time. It was like a parallel universe version of the show where everything was turned up to 11. I don’t think I’ve watched more than four or five post-10 episodes and the ones I’ve seen have been fucking painful. I’ve watched clips of recent ones and theyve been incomprehensibly bad: devoid of charm, wit, personality, warmth, or anything else that made the show what it was. 

I don’t like season 1, either. The horrible uncanny valley feeling just makes me uncomfortable. I find season 2 interesting because it starts a lot like season 1 in the writing and ends like season 3-5, with a very steady and perceptible change over the course of the episodes. I’m not sure there’s another show where I’ve spotted the development of the writing quite so clearly before. 

[International Debris]

Never owned any merch, btw. I don’t really do merch tbh, the only Red Dwarf stuff I’ve ever bought was the novels and a cap when I was at school. 

[Dave]

As a 6 year old, the smooth RV salesman was just confounding. Now he’s hilarious.

There’s probably a whole ‘nother thread in Simpsons Gags And Homages That You Didn’t Get, especially when it comes to a lot of US-culture-specific stuff like ads and jingles and non-UK-broadcast TV shows (Kool Aid Man, Armour Hot Dogs, Urkel etc.) and also movie references that totally went over my head as a kid. I learned about a huge amount of stuff for the first time from the Simpsons and only then recognised it when I saw the original source later.

[MANI506]

The first Simpsons episode I thought was bad through and through was the Kid Rock Florida one so it’ll be interesting to see how I get on with that one this time around

[Unrumble]

I learned about a huge amount of stuff for the first time from the Simpsons and only then recognised it when I saw the original source later.

My parents basically memed me before memes were a thing, if I ever demonstrated knowledge of something pop culture from ‘before my time’, or anything else, they’d say slightly mockingly “oh, was it on The Simpsons/Red Dwarf?” 

[Ben Saunders]

The Simpsons at 7pm on Sky One, sponsored by Domino’s Pizza, coming right after an hour of Malcolm in the Middle, man what a time to be a child. I’m pretty sure when I was watching it it was already becoming zombified, with cameos by JK Rowling and Blink 182 and the like, but I didn’t know any better at the time. I distinctly remember them going to France and Australia, Maggie dancing to Britney Spears and the song “lager in pint glasses, what a classy way to get drunk off your asses”. Which upon googling is from season sixteen.

Hit and Run was probably the greatest game of all time, the movie was… alright but a cultural phenomenon at the time. You couldn’t escape Spider-Pig.

[Warbodog]

I was aware of the movie coming out, but it didn’t seem to be a thing among people I knew in their 20s in 2007, amid the Lost, Doctor Who, Hot Fuzz and things. We’d probably all stopped watching.

[Dave]

Yeah I didn’t even see the movie until many years later.

[Nick R]

I was aware of the movie coming out, but it didn’t seem to be a thing among people I knew in their 20s in 2007, amid the Lost, Doctor Who, Hot Fuzz and things. We’d probably all stopped watching.

I remember Empire’s (accurate) ★★ review being met with some criticism and disbelief when it was published:

https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/simpsons-movie-review/

[Flap Jack]

The Simpsons Movie was some of the best new Simpsons produced in its decade. So I’d give it a solid 3 stars.

[Meteo]

I had Bart Simpson’s Guide to Life, and on the PC I played Cartoon Studio and Virtual Springfield a whole hella’lot. Anyone else play those PC games?

[International Debris]

I don’t think I’ve ever had a real life conversation about the Simpsons movie. Maybe a couple of “oh that’s happening” moments at the time. It certainly wasn’t something anyone I knew bothered watching at the time. 

[Ben Saunders]

I saw it in the cinema with my family and we watched it on DVD at least twice. I don’t actually remember much about it other than Bart’s penis, the pig and a big dome. And Green Day, of course.

[Moonlight]

There’s probably a whole ‘nother thread in Simpsons Gags And Homages That You Didn’t Get, especially when it comes to a lot of US-culture-specific stuff like ads and jingles and non-UK-broadcast TV shows (Kool Aid Man, Armour Hot Dogs, Urkel etc.) 

This is the reverse of the Red Dwarf “Jokes you didn’t get” thread because I would be the one able to explain the weird cultural references to you guys instead of the other way around.

I was aware of the movie coming out, but it didn’t seem to be a thing among people I knew in their 20s in 2007, amid the Lost, Doctor Who, Hot Fuzz and things. We’d probably all stopped watching.

It is worth noting that the movie’s creative staff was entirely writers from the 90s episodes everyone actually likes, which explains why it’s so much better than seasons 18 and 19 which border its release. I wonder if they’re going to do that with the new movie that’s coming out two decades after the first one that was already nearly two decades into the show’s run. Jesus Christ.

[Rudolph]

I’ve been following this guy’s videos on Lost for ages, and he’s done an excellent job of mapping the Island and the various journeys taken by character’s across it. His new project is mapping all of Springfield into one comprehensive map.

[Moonlight]

Does it account for the kind of instances where, for the sake of a joke, Moe’s is only a block from the Simpsons’ house, or the Nuclear Power Plant is on the other side of their backyard fence?

[clem]

I remember Empire’s (accurate) ★★ review being met with some criticism and disbelief when it was published:
https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/simpsons-movie-review/

I think that’s a pretty fair review. The movie is quite a lot better than contemporaneous episodes, but not golden era standard.

But I dispute ‘there’s not one truly great gag to speak of’. The bit where the dome is being installed and everyone in the church swaps places with everyone in Moe’s is superb. (Also another example of locations changing for a joke.)

[Technopeasant]

While he is no Hank Scorpio I do enjoy Russ Cargil.

“Of course I’ve gone mad with power! You ever go mad without power? It’s boring! Noone listens to you!”

[Podey]

Did anyone else have ‘The Simpsons Sticker Activity Album’ that came with an “animation viewer”? Basically it would have two drawings on the page overlaid, one in blue and one in red, and when you slid the corresponding colour of the “viewer” over your eye that layer would become invisible so it was essentially a two-frame animation.

There was also a ‘The Flintstones’ movie tie-in comic that used the same method, it had a comic in the realistic movie style and a comic in the cartoon style overlaid on the same pages.

[Warbodog]

I would have loved those. I had some of the Topps trading cards that only featured images from the pre-series shorts (with different dialogue they made up), either because they couldn’t / wouldn’t pay to licence the actual show they were claiming to be from, or because there wasn’t such a distinction in 1990 when there wasn’t so much of it?

Also had the Bart action figure with speech bubble sticking out of his head, saying his things.

[Ian Symes]

Gareth Roberts and Gary Russell. Yes, the two Doctor Who writers, one of whom was in the Famous Five, and the other of whom has a Wikipedia article with an extensive “Transphobia” section.

One used to be Dick, one is still Cunt.

[Author]

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