It's back... in "Pog" form: The Simpsons, Season 15 (part 2)

[Reply #40 on:]

 

Originally posted by DotheBartman:
...Again, I would say to download "Tis the Fifteenth Season", "My Mother the Carjacker", and "The President Wore Pearls".  If you don't like those, I am completely serious when I say to just give up on the show for good.  Obviously there's no point to you watching it anymore.

I agree. Those three episodes are quality ones, and they're probably as good as it's gonna' get for the rest of the run of the show.
However, I'm not sure about downloading them...

 

[Reply #41 on:]

it just makes me sad that all good things will come to an end

or get worse

[Reply #42 on:]

 

Originally posted by Gorky:
 I agree. Those three episodes are quality ones, and they're probably as good as it's gonna' get for the rest of the run of the show.
However, I'm not sure about downloading them...

   

I just said "download" since he said he'd downloaded the other ones he's seen so far. From that I just figured any future episodes he'd see he'd probably be downloading.

Although, I wouldn't have any apprehensions about downloading them personally.  I'd download those before I'd download Fear of Flying, Another Simpsons Clip Show, Homer's Odyssey, Boy Scoutz and the Hood, Homer Goes to College, The Otto Show, A Star is Burns, Bart the Fink, The Canine Mutiny.....

[Reply #43 on:]

Yeah, those Season 15-ers were good. Homer Goes to College, The Otto Show, and a Star is Burns were pretty good episodes. But I guess that you were pointing out that if you didn't like the show, then you should watch a really perfect episode, that shows what the show is all about. Mmmyep...
Also, I say those who called Seasons 5-8 where the show went downhill idiots. Those were the days. People back then weren't aware of the evil that would arrive. The evil called Scully.

[Reply #44 on:]

Yeah, those eps I listed weren't "bad" (well, maybe "Another Simpsons Clip Show" is, I've never made up my mind on it).  But not as good as those season 15 episodes.  They were mediocre, at least in their respective seasons.  Basically I was again pointing out that even the classic era had its problems, and that perhaps the new episodes aren't so different or worse then those as some may think.  Although again I'll set the record straight that I like seasons 1-8 more then season 15, but that's an incredibly high standard that IMO no other show has matched anyways.

Also, I'm not sure I'd call those who considered 5-8 "idiots".  Well, not all of them.  They had perfectly legitimate reasons for thinking season five wasn't as good as 1-4 (even if some may have overreacted) for instance.  What's perplexing though is that seasons 6 and 7 (7 especcially) brought back precisely what they felt was missing from season 5, and many still hated it, maybe even more.  Its speculated that "Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie" was a direct response to that in many ways, like Roger Myers' "you don't know what you really want" and the "down to earth realistic show that's swarming with magic robots" lines, for instance.

[Reply #45 on:]

I wasn't claiming you were calling them idiots, sorry for the confusion.
And I also believe that you're wrong, besides "Odyssey" and "Clip Show," those episodes triumph over the Season 15's. They're just so much better in my own humble opinion.

[Reply #46 on:]

 

Originally posted by leelaholic:
God. You people will flame anything.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

[Reply #47 on:]

 

From SNPP
“Who sat on my hat??”
Grandpa goes to mall to sit on the bench. He sees a store and goes in, leaving his hat behind. When he comes back, he is shocked to see that someone sat on his hat and squished it. Meanwhile, Homer falls down the stairs and is taken to the hospital. Soon, Burns comes in to steal his wallet. Homer pushes him out the window and he lands in the back of a pickup truck which takes him to Alabama. He gets a job on a farm to earn bus fare to get back home. Little does he know, two days later, the cow eats his favorite sweater! Later, Grandpa is still trying to find out who sat on his hat. He makes a mold of the dent and has the whole town sit on it to see whose butt matches. By doing this, he discovers that it was sat on by... Apu!!!!!

Looks like we could have another winner on our hands. I can’t wait!   

[Reply #48 on:]

Uh...before anyone gets any crazy ideas, Leelaholic is joking on that one.  In fact, its sort of a rip off of NHC member Jamie's "Rate and Review "Who Shot Grandpa's Hat?" thread at that board, which in itself was a take off of the fake "Who Shot Grandpa's Hat" title in the CBG "pop up" bit in "Weekend at Burnsies".

Shadowstar: Well, its all opinion.  But the episodes I listed IMO have mostly lousy plots, lousy characterization, and in some cases even lousy animation.  The humor was usually good, but even then the season 15 episodes I listed would be better.

Granted, those episodes would still maybe be better then most of season 15 (in most cases based soley on humor, as most season 15 episodes would kick their asses at characterization and plotting).  But they wouldn't beat those three season 15 episodes I listed.  Honestly, they wouldn't even come close.

Edit: Also, didn't mean to suggest you thought I was calling them idiots. Just stating that I didn't neccasarily think they were in some cases, and was stating my stance.

[Reply #49 on:]

 

Originally posted by Otis P. Jivefunk:
 

Originally posted by DotheBartman:
This is another episode this season where everything worked together to form an overall fine episode.

 

Originally posted by FishyJoe:
 And yet...nothing, and I mean nothing worked!

Sorry, I just can't help it...   

 

And, Otis, if you do give up the show, PLEASE stop making these pointless hate posts.

[Reply #50 on:]

I'm going to close this thread if you don't allow people to have different views, Leelaholic. Got it?

[Reply #51 on:]

I don't mind people having different views. It just bothers me when people just make pointless, comic book guy-type rants that everything in the show now sucks because it's new. If they have an opinion that makes sense, then fine. It's good for this thread to have a wide range of viewpoints, that's why it exists. I just hate it when people say "new Simpsons suck. Period". It just seems like they're just trying to piss us off sometimes.

[Reply #52 on:]

I think some people asked about this before in the other thread, so I feel compelled to post about it:
 http://www.dvdfanatic.com/news.php?id=0402163

Conan O'Brien's on the season four commentaries (Jon Lovitz has also already been confirmed by Mike Reiss).

[Reply #53 on:]

...awesome. On both the Lovitz and Conan news. More on the Lovitz, but either way, those should be some good episode commentaries.

[Reply #54 on:]

 

Originally posted by leelaholic:
I don't mind people having different views. It just bothers me when people just make pointless, comic book guy-type rants that everything in the show now sucks because it's new. If they have an opinion that makes sense, then fine. It's good for this thread to have a wide range of viewpoints, that's why it exists. I just hate it when people say "new Simpsons suck. Period". It just seems like they're just trying to piss us off sometimes.

Define the term 'hypocrite' for us, comrade leelaholic.

EDIT: And what are you guys using to 'download' these episodes?

[Reply #55 on:]

I just saw a new episode on TV here, and I think it must have been 'The President Wore Pearls'. Well, it had a few jokes, but they were few and far between. There was too much singing, and the songs weren't good. I have never seen Homer be so dumb either. Ralph was unfunny for the first time. I dunno. It was ok compared to everything else on TV, but I don't really see any improvement on the last few seasons.

[Reply #56 on:]

Will The Simpsons ends or continues on?

[Reply #57 on:]

Its goings tos continues ons teesides incs

[Reply #58 on:]

 

Originally posted by alexvilagosh:
I just saw a new episode on TV here, and I think it must have been 'The President Wore Pearls'. Well, it had a few jokes, but they were few and far between. There was too much singing, and the songs weren't good. I have never seen Homer be so dumb either. Ralph was unfunny for the first time. I dunno. It was ok compared to everything else on TV, but I don't really see any improvement on the last few seasons.

It was a parody of a Musical, the songs carried the plot along they weren't really supposed to be funny,in fact in the first and last song it brought a little emotion int. There was a fair amount of jokes, more than in a season 1 or 2 episode.
If you dont think there's been much improvment, go back and watch something like
'Simpsons Safari' then think about the diffrences.

[Reply #59 on:]

     

Originally posted by DotheBartman:
 Maybe.  But you might want to talk to someone who has been with the internet community since the early days (for the record I"m not one of those people myself).  People HATED, HATED, HATED seasons 5-7.  I'm talking anything as negative as what's been said in here, maybe moreso.  Season 8 was a period where a lot of people finally gave up on the show.  There's even old alt.tv.simpsons conversations dating archived from around season four where people were saying it was going downhill.

And anyways, from what I've seen (outside of this board anyways) internet reaction to the Jean era has been far better then the Scully era.  That doesn't mean people "blind" themselves or whatever (a bad episode will still get bad reviews, like "Fat and the Furriest" or "Margical History Tour" ), but rather that they happen to be enjoying the show a lot more now.

Chances are, if they "HATED HATED HATED" the show back then, they'd absolutely DETEST DETEST DETEST the show now. As you said, they’d have probably given up on the show back then, just as I have now for the same reasons. This just goes to prove, even with those viewers lost because of Simpsons-hate, there’s still a large amount of people now who hate the show now, and these are the people who didn’t give up back then. But the show has declined since, and more and more people are hating more and more episodes. The reason we don’t see such a drastic amount of bad or negative reviews all over the net these days is only because the people that hate it the most switched off years ago. If they were forced to still watch it now, you can bet there would be a hell of a LOT more bad reviews, and much more negative reviews now than there were even back then; when you say people HATED the show so much...

     

Originally posted by Otis P Jivefunk:
 Sorry, I just can't help it...         

   

   

Originally posted by leelaholic:
   

And, Otis, if you do give up the show, PLEASE stop making these pointless hate posts.

Hate post? How is that even a hate post? I was just laughing at how polar-opposite peoples views of the same episode were...

     

Originally posted by User_names_suck:
 If you dont think there's been much improvment, go back and watch something like
'Simpsons Safari' then think about the diffrences.

‘Trilogy of Error’ came straight after ‘Simpsons Safari’, and was a colossal improvement just one episode on. Comparing what’s thought to be a mediocre ep, possibly even rare good episode of the 15th Season, to an ep which is thought to be one of the worst Simpsons eps in history, from Season 12; despite there being a huge improvement straight after it, is just a little unfair. In a nutshell, comparing a mediocre/good episode of now, to a bad ep from a few Seasons ago, which doesn’t represent the average quality from that season, just one of the lowest points...

[Reply #60 on:]

Leelaholic, if you argue we'll chop your penis off.

[Reply #61 on:]

 

Originally posted by User_names_suck:
If you dont think there's been much improvment, go back and watch something like 'Simpsons Safari' then think about the diffrences.

Appart from what Otis said about you can't just pick out one bad episode to compare it to, but you shouldn't need to do that anyway. A good TV show shouldn't need you to say "Yea, it wasn't good, but it's better then that episode was". Time for a Futurama analogy:
A lot of people don't like "Bender Should Not Be Allowed On TV", but people didn't say "Well, compare it to That's Lobsertainment or The Cryonic Woman, it's 100x times better". Just because it's better then another episode, it doesn't justify its quality.

[Reply #62 on:]

 

Chances are, if they "HATED HATED HATED" the show back then, they'd absolutely DETEST DETEST DETEST the show now. As you said, they’d have probably given up on the show back then, just as I have now for the same reasons.

They probably would hate the show now, no question there.  But these people hated season seven for god's sakes.  Also consider that most of these people probably don't even give The Simpsons a second thought now or discuss it at all, which kinda goes into the next point...

 

This just goes to prove, even with those viewers lost because of Simpsons-hate, there’s still a large amount of people now who hate the show now, and these are the people who didn’t give up back then. But the show has declined since, and more and more people are hating more and more episodes.

One problem with this theory is that we're talking about a 15 year old show now.  If you look at the Jump the Shark website and see all the votes and comments pertaining to The Simpsons, you can find at least one category from every single season (barring maybe season one, although I guess "day one" counts there too).  The fact is, its gone on so long now that simply through, I guess you could say, mathematic rule it has caused more and more people to say that it jumped the shark. The Scully pushed that number up considerably, but even if the show had never jumped the shark in the eyes of people like us, it would still have more people saying it jumped now then before.  A 15 year old show is going to have turned off more viewers over time then a four year old show for instance.

Plus, remember also that the show, for better or for worse, is still otherwise as popular as ever and is getting some of its highest ratings ever.  There's still plenty of people that feel its either "as good as ever" or that its still good in either case.
                         
 

The reason we don’t see such a drastic amount of bad or negative reviews all over the net these days is only because the people that hate it the most switched off years ago. If they were forced to still watch it now, you can bet there would be a hell of a LOT more bad reviews, and much more negative
reviews now than there were even back then; when you say people HATED the show so much...

Actually I'd say there's much more negative reviews now than then.  That could be because of the Scully era, or simply because the internet is more widely used in 2004 then in 1994 (probably a combination of both).  And as has been established, the negative reviews in both eras have been the minority in terms of viewer opinion (maybe not AS much of a minority now, but a minority nonetheless).

As for those wacky 1994 viewers who hated the show, they are more or less irrelevant to current opinion of the show.  I brought them up to compare them to what's going on now, but in terms of what their opinion of the current show would be, its honestly irrelevant.  I doubt most of them would even be that angry anymore, probably just passive. They've probably all moved on from The Simpsons completely and don't think about it either way.  Either way, the fact of the matter is that they aren't Simpsons viewers anymore (and haven't been for roughly ten years).

[Reply #63 on:]

 

Originally posted by DotheBartman:
 I guess you could say, mathematic rule it has caused more and more people to say that it jumped the shark. The Scully pushed that number up considerably, but even if the show had never jumped the shark in the eyes of people like us, it would still have more people saying it jumped now then before.

Of course more people will say the Simpsons have jumped the shark now than before...




 

Originally posted by DotheBartman:
 Plus, remember also that the show, for better or for worse, is still otherwise as popular as ever and is getting some of its highest ratings ever.  There's still plenty of people that feel its either "as good as ever" or that its still good in either case.

For worse definitely. There’s a reason for this, The Simpsons have dumbed down a lot in recent Seasons. Since when is appealing to the lowest common denominator, and thus being more popular been a good thing?...

[Reply #64 on:]

FOX also tried to make the Simpsons more kid-friendly. But the show isn't for kids. Like Futurama isn't either, as the creators defended in the "Xmas Story" commentary. They're shows and topics for mature audiences! And when I say mature, I mean mentally mature, you don't need to be 18.

[Reply #65 on:]

 

Originally posted by Otis P. Jivefunk:
Of course more people will say the Simpsons have jumped the shark now than before...

Heh, notice that that's a couch gag from the Scully era.

Anyway, I just watched "Milhouse Doesn't Live Here Anymore" for, like, the eleventh time and the ending bugged me a little more. Still, a lot of it got even funnier. Things like the Mrs. Crab Apple joke ("Oh, how could I be so blind?"  ) and some of the field trip scenes got REALLY funny. Not to mention this gem of a line....

"When a woman says nothing's wrong, it means that everything's wrong. When a woman says that everything's wrong, it means that EVERYTHING's wrong. When a woman says that something isn't funny, you'd better not laugh your ass off!"

        

[Reply #66 on:]

 

Originally posted by leelaholic:
Heh, notice that that's a couch gag from the Scully era.

No it was not! That was the couch gag for "Strummer Vacation" in the Al Jean era!

[Reply #67 on:]

     

Originally posted by leelaholic:
 Heh, notice that that's a couch gag from the Scully era.

I wouldn't know, but if Shadowstar is right...

And to think, you call yourself a Simpsons fan!...

[Reply #68 on:]

I am. I knew something was wrong, so I checked on the Simpsons Archive, and lo and behold...

[Reply #69 on:]

He is right. It was also used in "'Scuse me while I miss the sky", which is another Season 14 episode.

[Reply #70 on:]

Yes, but it was a Scully episode. I should have made that clear. If you'll check, you'll see that Scully executive produced it, even if it was run as part of Jean's era.

[Reply #71 on:]

   

Originally posted by leelaholic:
 Anyway, I just watched "Milhouse Doesn't Live Here Anymore" for, like, the eleventh time...

Holly shit! it only aired a few days ago!     ...

For that, you have a part of my respect, it couldn't have been easy...

[Reply #72 on:]

Okay kids, we've already got a thread about whether or not The Simpsons suck now.

Let's take the arguing there, and leave this one for reviews.

[Reply #73 on:]

 

Originally posted by aslate:
 Appart from what Otis said about you can't just pick out one bad episode to compare it to, but you shouldn't need to do that anyway. A good TV show shouldn't need you to say "Yea, it wasn't good, but it's better then that episode was". Time for a Futurama analogy:
A lot of people don't like "Bender Should Not Be Allowed On TV", but people didn't say "Well, compare it to That's Lobsertainment or The Cryonic Woman, it's 100x times better". Just because it's better then another episode, it doesn't justify its quality.

Well I suppose thats unfair of me and there have been S14 episodes worse than scully era. episodes
But I'm trying to make the point about if you dont see much difference between the these two eras you really need to rewatch a lot of episodes. Some of its not even so much Improvment as feel to the era, a typical episode from each era feels very different to me.

and just for the record I think "Cryonic Woman" is 100 times better than"Bender Should Not Be Allowed On TV" I consider that the worst episode ever. I watched it again on DVD today I just kept cringing.
I stopped watching  about 15 seconds before the final joke because I knew what was coming and just couldn't bear to watch it.
but anyway forget that.

[Reply #74 on:]

[checks]
Goddammit.
I liked that couch gag anyway.

[Reply #75 on:]

So what if it was a Scully ep anyway, they've already jumped the shark now anyway, too late...

[Reply #76 on:]

 

Originally posted by Otis P Jivefunk:
   Holly shit! it only aired a few days ago!      ...

For that, you have a part of my respect, it couldn't have been easy...

Heh, that's probably not exact. I just meant that I've watched it quite a few times (I was a bit indecisive about it).

[Reply #77 on:]

It's just that you said "eleventh", which is pretty precise. Surely Ten would have been a rounder number if you weren't sure...

For that, you've now lost that part of my respect...

[Reply #78 on:]

The couch gag featured in that picture is also innacurate BTW.  Originally they all had seperate water skis, with Homer's legs being dragged off by a shark at the end (before that a shark isn't seen).  The 2003 copyright indicates its one of those limited edition art pieces created after the fact based on a scene from the show.  Just noting that.

Gump Roast also had a gag during the "Stories for years" song where it shows Homer jumping over a shark on waterskis.

[Reply #79 on:]

A bit off-topic, but I liked the song at the end of "Gump Roast". In my opinion, it was one of the better clipshows. In fact, for no particular reason, here's my clipshow ranks:

#1- "So it's Come to This- A Simpsons Clipshow"
#2- "Gump Roast"
#3- "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular"
#4- "Another Simpsons Clipshow"
#5- "All Singing, All Dancing"

I know #4 had about 3 minutes of new animation and wasn't really well put together, but I like the under-lying theme of teaching the kids about love.