The Old Man and the Simpsons Thread

[Reply #320 on:]

Or maybe it was just sibling feud.
Top of the page. NOBODY CARES!

[Reply #321 on:]

I didn't watch it, heard it was crap anyway.

That's how I feel about Australian episode.

[Reply #322 on:]

Yay, more Simpsons info!

The Good, the Sad and the Drugly
When Bart and Milhouse pull off a prank at Springfield Elementary, Milhouse takes the fall and gets suspended from school. Homer forces Bart to sign in under Homer’s name and visit Grampa at his retirement home, and Bart soon becomes smitten with a delightful 11-year-old volunteer named Jenny (guest star Anne Hathaway). Hoping to impress Jenny, Bart offers to volunteer at the home. But as Bart and Jenny’s relationship progresses, Milhouse emerges from his suspension and is less than thrilled about Bart turning his back on him for a girl. Meanwhile, Lisa does a report on what Springfield will look like in 50 years and becomes very depressed at the dreary outlook. A concerned Marge takes Lisa to a psychiatrist who diagnoses Lisa with Environment-Related Despair and puts on her on an antidepressant to cure her eco-blues.
Airing April 19th

Father Knows Worst
When Homer observes Bart and Lisa struggling in certain aspects of their academic and social lives at school, he becomes a proponent of “helicopter parenting,” the process of closely monitoring a child and forcing them to succeed. Homer takes hovering to a new level when he chooses a nearly impossible subject for Bart’s balsa wood model-building competition and gives Lisa some not-so-friendly advice on how to make friends. Meanwhile, Marge discovers a sauna in the Simpson family’s basement that she finds hard to resist.
Airing April 25th

Waverly Hills 9-0-2-1-D'oh
When Marge learns Springfield Elementary is the worst school in the state, she and Homer rent an apartment in the upscale Waverly Hills school district so Bart and Lisa can attend a better school. Bart establishes a new bad boy image to impress the other students and increases an ostracized Lisa’s popularity by telling everyone she is best friends with pop star Alaska Nebraska (guest voice Ellen Page). Meanwhile, Homer moves into the rented Waverly Hills apartment and gets used to the bachelor lifestyle.
Airing May 3rd

Four Great Women and a Manicure
Marge and Lisa visit the nail salon where they engage in a spirited debate as to whether a woman can be smart, powerful and beautiful all at the same time. To prove their point, they spin four tales of famous women featuring famous Springfield faces: Selma as Queen Elizabeth I, Lisa as Snow White, Marge as Lady Macbeth and Maggie (guest voice Jodie Foster) as the idealistic architect protagonist from Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead.”
Airing May 10th

Coming to Homerica
When nearby Ogdenville’s economy crumbles due to tainted barley discovered in Krusty’s veggie burgers, the unemployed workers of Ogdenville flock to Springfield. After Mayor Quimby closes Springfield’s borders and enlists private citizens to help patrol them, Homer organizes a border patrol group.
Airing May 17th (season finale)

I love heaps of information at one time instead of getting one piece at a time.

[Reply #323 on:]

I seen the episode last night where Moe's girlfriend  is really tiny. it was a really sweet episode I think. the scenes with Maggie and Homer where cute too. the big bully baby makes me laugh

[Reply #324 on:]

Who ver heard of bully kids before?
(da-dum-dum-dum, da-dum-dum-dum...)

[Reply #325 on:]

*Bump*

So I got the season 11 DVD way back in December, but I've only made my way through a disc and a half so far. I know pretty much every Scully-era episode is viewed as being complete garbage--and that S11 is kind of the show's crappy apex--but damn. I mean, I used to like some of these episodes. "Brother's Little Helper", "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?", "E-I-E-I-(ANNOYED GRUNT)", "Take My Wife, Sleaze", "Grift of the Magi"--they all used to seem like pretty respectable efforts. But the only moments that really made me laugh--or at least smile--on Wednesday when I broke out disc two were the NRBQ song in "Take My Wife, Sleaze" ("Like mayonnaise and marmalade and other spreadable things..."), and Bart and Lisa caroling in "Grift of the Magi." In fact, those are probably the only two episodes from season 11, so far, that I've genuinely enjoyed.

Nothin' like some decade-late ranting early in the mornin'. Yessiree. 

[Reply #326 on:]

Season 10 is really the last good one

[Reply #327 on:]

I actually really enjoy much of season 12 (of course, maybe I'll find that I like it a whole lot less when the DVD comes out and I can rewatch all the episodes), season 13, and season 15. 'Course, I haven't watched many new episodes since S15 anyway, so I can't speak for the current quality of the show. But, yeah, I wish they'd just let it die with a modicum of dignity already.

I have, however, seen the movie. Multiple times. And I think it was pretty fantastic. I really wish the show would learn to focus on the family again (I like the Oakley/Weinstein dictum of ultimately bringing the stories back to the the Simpson family itself; that's why season 7 is one of my favorites). Or, at the very least, I wish the writers would stop being so gimmicky and meta. Just, like, forget the fact that it's become more a cultural staple than a TV show.  

[Reply #328 on:]

I seen to be the only one who didn't like the movie 

[Reply #329 on:]

You're not. Quite a few other people didn't like it either.
You'll burn in Hell alongside them.

[Reply #330 on:]

I just thought that it was reminiscent of, say, a season three or four episode tonally. Compared to the series as it stands now, I think the movie was excellent. And compared to an episode from the golden age of the show--well, I still think the movie can hold its own.

[Reply #331 on:]

I loved it.

[Reply #332 on:]

Ditto. I was actually on vacation on opening day, but I still went to see it on the 27th, in a tiny movie theater in Maryland that reeked of, like, cat pee. Good times.

Books, I'm sort of curious as to why you didn't like it. I mean, to each his own and all that, but I'm just wonderin'.

[Reply #333 on:]

I came away from The Simpsons movie thinking it was “okay, I guess” but feeling somewhat underwhelmed. Much like the Star Trek movie where they go to the center of the galaxy and meet ‘God’, I feel it had the makings of an excellent episode (or even as a two-parter) but as a full-length feature? Meh, not so much.

Marge's reason for ‘finally’ leaving Homer seemed arbitrary and rather capricious (considering what she has stayed with him through in the past). The whole motorbike-on-the-inside-of-the-dome thing* at the end seemed uninspired and too much like lazy writing. The use of (established) secondary (& tertiary) characters seemed like an exercise in fan-service. And can someone remind me why the citizens of Springfield couldn't just tunnel out from underneath the dome (especially when one considers how Maggie got out)?

The only thing from the movie that has stayed in my conciousness and makes me smile from time to time is the spider-pig song.

I haven't seen an episode of the TV show in several years. And considering the track-record of TV shows that ventured into films, I suppose I should be happy that the movie turned out as well as it did. I watched the DVD a couple of time when that came out but it hadn't grown on me then and, i'm sad to say, still hasn't.

Rating: B-

* ACCELERATION DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY!

[Reply #334 on:]

I loved the simpsons movie because it was the simpsons movie. It could have had an obviously terrible storyline, jokes etc., and I still would have loved it

[Reply #335 on:]

Ditto. I was actually on vacation on opening day, but I still went to see it on the 27th, in a tiny movie theater in Maryland that reeked of, like, cat pee. Good times.

Books, I'm sort of curious as to why you didn't like it. I mean, to each his own and all that, but I'm just wonderin'.

Oh, sure, blame it on Maryland...

[Reply #336 on:]

Oh, sure, blame it on Maryland...

I blame it on Ocean City, specifically. I'm sure most other theaters in your fine state don't smell like the urine of small, domestic mammals.

Anyway. I'm still plugging through the season 11 DVDs, and I was pleasantly surprised by "Faith Off." Sure, Homer's a big ol' jerk-ass, per usual--but Bart is surprisingly sympathetic and, well, childlike (his sincere guilt over Milhouse's unfortunate, uh, run-in with a truck surprised me, because I always think of the Scully years as being so crass). Generally speaking, I'm a fan of the episodes where the kids act like kids. In fact, this episode kind of reminded me of "Bart Sells His Soul", thematically ('course, BSHS is an infinitely better episode; I just think the comparison can be drawn, if you're in a particularly charitable mood).

Marge's reason for 'finally' leaving Homer seemed arbitrary and rather capricious (considering what she has stayed with him through in the past).

I'm sort of repeating FistfulOAwesome's sentiments here, but the reason I really love the movie is because Marge and Homer's relationship is genuinely put in jeopardy (or at least that's how I see it). The reason may be arbitrary, but it is so simple at its core--Homer doesn't understand what is important to Marge--and it seems like an organic reason for her to leave him. Yes, there have been Marge-is-Gonna-Leave episodes in the series itself, and episodes where their relationship has been rocky--but they've all been kind of half-hearted. Marge leaves Homer with such conviction (god, that tape she leaves him is so heartbreaking; Julie Kavner nailed that performance), and that enabled me, at least, to suspend my disbelief and allow myself to think that, Hey, maybe they won't get back together.

[Reply #337 on:]

okay, now of all the things I expected to find on my local minor league baseball team's webpage, information about an upcoming Simpsons documentary was not one of them.  Shame on me for not realising the significance of having a team called "The Isotopes"

[Reply #338 on:]

Although I think Morgan Spurlock is a wee bit...uh...obnoxious, I'll definitely try to catch that documentary when it airs. Nice find, sO.

And I finally finished up the season 11 DVDs, commentaries and all. Is it wrong that I actually enjoyed "Kill the Alligator and Run" and "Bart to the Future"? 'Cause I think it's kind of wrong.

[Reply #339 on:]

Is it wrong that I actually enjoyed "Kill the Alligator and Run"

Only if you didn't build this city on rock and roll.

[Reply #340 on:]

Gorky, there's nothing wrong with anything.

[Reply #341 on:]

The new episode summary seems interesting, with Homer getting in shape. I wonder what'll happen to him when the movie's cancelled. He probably gets depressed, then he wins the lottery or gets another role or makes money promoting the original comic book or something.

[Reply #342 on:]

Oh, jeez, that's the Seth Rogen episode, right? It might be a nice idea, if it didn't seem to incorporate the same basic concepts present in "King of the Hill", "Radioactive Man", and "Simple Simpson."

That's basically my complaint with the more recent episodes: they're not unfunny, they're just a retread of stuff that's already been done. For example, I watched "The Good, the Sad, and the Drugly" on Hulu today, and all I could think was, This'd be kind of a nice episode, if I hadn't already seen "Bart's Friend Falls in Love" or "Bart's Girlfriend." (And I kind of enjoyed Lisa's subplot, even though I did eventually draw a comparison to "Brother's Little Helper.") There are only so many stories out there, and I think the show has exhausted nearly all plot possibilities. I don't doubt that there are still some good ideas, but this current staff doesn't seem too capable of coming up with them.

So, yeah. Basically, I refrain from watching the new episodes because I inevitably start to feel like Jeff Albertson the Comic Book Guy. And even I can't keep up that level of obnoxiousness on a daily basis.

[Reply #343 on:]

I understand that the overall quality of the Simpsons may have declined since the height of it's popularity but the news isn't all bad. "Marge and Homer Make a Couple Play" is an honest to god classic. There are enough funny lines in this episode that it is right up there with any of the classics. Classics may not come with every episode like some of the greatest seasons but the Simpsons is still a fantastic and funny show.

[Reply #344 on:]

I went through a brief Simpsons hate period about a year ago, but then I realized by watching the show, I'm helping make TV history, plus the shows still pretty good, and there are some spectacular episods every now and then

[Reply #345 on:]

No.

[Reply #346 on:]

I agree.

[Reply #347 on:]

Grrr watched the episode "Mommie Beerest" S16E7 earlier today and it was extremley depressing. It had so many flashbacks/imagination scenes it just reminded me of a poor quality Family Guy episode. I love "Classic Simpsons" as much as anyone (and even some of the new ones) but the quality has gone downhill extremley fast.
Glad to bring you all that breaking news.

[Reply #348 on:]

I really enjoyed this week's episode.  The whole time I was watching it though I had the strangest feeling that I'd seen it before.  Have they done an episode with a similiar theme before?

[Reply #349 on:]

Radioactive Man, definitely. In which Milhouse is chosen to play Fallout Boy in the Radioactive Man movie... Simple Simpson in which Homer is a (kind of) superhero, King of the Hill in which Homer tries to get in shape...

Episode was okay. Nothing special. Kind of weirdly paced, I felt, but entertaining enough.

[Reply #350 on:]

Yes radioactive man mixed with a little poochie.

I thought it was pretty bad to be honest.

[Reply #351 on:]

My semi-in-depth review of "Homer the Whopper."

Not a horrible way to start the season, but I'm hoping this Sunday's episode will be better.

[Reply #352 on:]

Radioactive Man, definitely. In which Milhouse is chosen to play Fallout Boy in the Radioactive Man movie...

One of my top 2 favorite Simpsons episodes. 

Rainier Wolfcastle - "Real acid?"

[Reply #353 on:]

"My eyes! The goggles do nothing!"

[Reply #354 on:]

Anyone else really love tonight's episode? Honestly, that was some goooood TV right there. Definitely the best episode of the season thus far.

Some of my thoughts, which mean absolutely nothing.

[Reply #355 on:]

pretty entertaining, I really liked Lisa beating the crap out of Bart

[Reply #356 on:]

Just saw the Simpsons Halloween special "Treehouse of Horror XX".  Sad to say, it was pretty lame compared to previous years specials. 

[Reply #357 on:]

Last year's THOH was total shit except for the final segment.

This year's was pretty awesome all around, so, uh, I respectfully disagree. It was even in tone and consistent and the whole thing was very Halloween-y and fantastic.

[Reply #358 on:]

my local Fox station was crewing up tonight, so I didn't catch it, hopefully it'll be on hulu tomorrow

[Reply #359 on:]

For some reason, it seems like the Simpsons writers have upped their game this season