Your thoughts on the show's continuity

[Financial Panther]

Obviously the show doesn't place a huge emphasis on staying consistent throught the episodes, and retcons are fairly common. Do you treat any episodes as "true" continuity and disregard others, or do you just not bother with it? I used to be really bothered by it and tried to fit them all together somehow, but now I just don't give it much thought. I think you could've had a somewhat consistent past with them before That '90s Show came out, which completely undid a lot of the other flashback episodes before it, so I know a lot of people just pretend that episode never happened. I also know of people who only consider the first eight seasons or so to be canon, which I think is ridiculous.

[spankologicalprofile]

I've noticed little things that I suppose really don't matter much, for example Patty is supposed to be a lesbian and yet in earlier episodes, she has a thing for McGyver. Maybe she's just pretending to so she can get along with Selma or something, but it always seemed kind of off to me. It usually seems to be that as the characters develop more deeply, certain traits they once had get lost in the process and certain things no longer add up. I think that "That 90's Show" was quite confusing, as my impression from earlier seasons was that Marge and Homer had grown up in an earlier era. Their 1970's clothes suggested that time period, and yet they're going to school in the 90's. And there's inconsistencies with Mr. Burns' age. In one episode he mentions being in his late 80's, in another he says "my age has four digits", and in yet another he claims to be over a hundred years old. Things like these have never really annoyed me to the point where I can't still enjoy the show, but I find it confusing.

[Steamed Hams]

I'm kinda fine with it, I don't always notice straight away on things to be honest but I do tend to click on certain things, like spankologicalprofile mentioned about with Patty but there's often things about it where it could have an explanation. I'm a bit like you really @financial Panther where I tend not to give it much thought. If I do click and notice then I'll be like 'Aah' but then I kinda forget again not long after haha

[huejass]

Jun 24, 2017 5:28:01 GMT spankologicalprofile said:

I've noticed little things that I suppose really don't matter much, for example Patty is supposed to be a lesbian and yet in earlier episodes, she has a thing for McGyver.

I thought her Lesbianism was hinted as early as the Second Season and thats why she couldnt remain with Principal Skinner.

On the topic of continuity, I am never too bothered by it because well the characters never age and the years still seem to go by. Bart was 10 in 1987 and he is still 10, 30 years later. It's a floating timeline a common feature of many long running shows or comics, the feature is mainly out of laziness rather than being intended. Maybe I'd be more worried about continuity if Springfield was permanently stuck in the late 80s/Early 90s but it isnt. I wonder what is the first episode where it is clear that they are no longer in this time period? There are occasional references to the year but not many, the earliest references to the internet, which would date it after the Early 90s, I can think of is Season 9's Das Bus (compu hyper global mega net) or possibly Season 5's Homer goes to College arguments about whether Captain Kirk is better than Captain Picard.