"the newer Simpsons sucks" mentality

[spankologicalprofile]

It seems like just about everyone I ask these days shares the same idea that the newer episodes of the Simpsons are terrible and that they should just be taken off the air and the show itself canceled. While I think that everyone is entitled to their opinion, I personally think that many people might just be looking at it through nostalgic eyes. I'm only nineteen and didn't have access to a television growing up, so I didn't take much notice of The Simpsons until recent years, and though at first I hated it, now it's my favourite show of all-time. I've gotta say that I think there are good and bad episodes in both the earlier and later seasons, but while there were some episodes I didn't really like,  wouldn't go so far as to say they "suck" or that they were terrible. I don't really see The Simpsons as getting worse, I just see it as evolving, and I think it should stay on the air as long as possible, because it has the potential to keep changing and to try new things each time, and I'd love to see what they'll do with it. Does anyone else agree, or do you have your own thoughts on it?

[Financial Panther]

I don't think the show is as good as it used to be. The characters are flatter, the jokes aren't as consistent, and the plots are more disjointed, but it's not a terrible show, and I agree that it should stay on the air. Some of the new things it tries just fall flat on their faces to me, like the improv stuff in Simprovised, but some of it is good, like the animation in Brick Like Me. I also think there are good and bad episodes in each era of the show, although many will say that no episode in the classic era is as bad as any episode in the modern era, which I disagree with.

[Steamed Hams]

I think it's a case of this where most people don't really think or realise, a few things really such as.

1. We are now in such a PC world that not only The Simpsons but many shows have been effected by this massively as they have become incredibly restricted in regards to what they can and can't do, everyone gets offended at the slightest thing even when there is nothing to be offended about and with the combination of social media and trends too, these TV company's and shows have to be careful of their public image so this really waters down the show a lot and takes away any risky jokes or animations that they may have put in previously. These TV companies now have restrictions they have to go by which The Simpsons have to cater to, bare in mind they are also prime time family viewing also which is the time when most things are effected more than anything.

2. I kinda compare their situation to Michael Jackson in music, reason being is Michael was the biggest star we've ever had and had the biggest selling album of all time with Thriller. Every album he did was compared to Thriller usually with the 'He's not as good as he was on his Thriller album' simply because he set the bar so high and became his own competition. Had Thriller not have been around his others albums would absolutely have got massive praise even more so, which they did but they were still always compared to Thriller because of how good that album was and what he did. The Simpsons are kind of the same, they did so much classic TV that is pretty much iconic and probably isn't going to be beaten in our generation and everything they do now is compared to this and it effects them because people now feel like they've lost it, even though they really haven't.

3. People don't watch TV as much anymore with things such as the internet and recorded planners on TV guides etc... that ratings aren't as big as they used to be anyway. People often compare their ratings now to what they used to have and see it as a downfall when it really isn't.

I agree that it's fair to say some seasons slipped for many people and that is completely fine, but I do feel that these things are kinda unfair most of the time because of the things mentioned above. The Simpsons Movie also proved this too in 2007 when the PC tag was kicking in more and they were able to step outside of that but people are definitely comparing something that's pretty much unfair to do I think for numerous reasons. The Simpsons still are great, they've still managed to stay on prime time TV which says it all really and they still are clever witted and always trying new things and making TV history (Homer live for example), but I think people forget this and don't really see it in the bigger picture.

It's not just The Simpsons who are effected by this, I know shows such as the WWE are really effected by this now as their fans are incredibly frustrated with the product from this also. It's such a catch 22.

[spankologicalprofile]

Jul 2, 2017 5:07:09 GMT Financial Panther said:

I don't think the show is as good as it used to be. The characters are flatter, the jokes aren't as consistent, and the plots are more disjointed, but it's not a terrible show, and I agree that it should stay on the air. Some of the new things it tries just fall flat on their faces to me, like the improv stuff in Simprovised, but some of it is good, like the animation in Brick Like Me. I also think there are good and bad episodes in each era of the show, although many will say that no episode in the classic era is as bad as any episode in the modern era, which I disagree with.

That is true; I've also noticed that newer episodes rely a lot on guest star appearances, slapstick humor and wild antics which don't necessarily contribute at all to the story. I don't think the newer episodes are bad really, but they're certainly different from the classic episodes.

[spankologicalprofile]

Jul 2, 2017 8:17:25 GMT Steamed Hams said:

I think it's a case of this where most people don't really think or realise, a few things really such as.

1. We are now in such a PC world that not only The Simpsons but many shows have been effected by this massively as they have become incredibly restricted in regards to what they can and can't do, everyone gets offended at the slightest thing even when there is nothing to be offended about and with the combination of social media and trends too, these TV company's and shows have to be careful of their public image so this really waters down the show a lot and takes away any risky jokes or animations that they may have put in previously. These TV companies now have restrictions they have to go by which The Simpsons have to cater to, bare in mind they are also prime time family viewing also which is the time when most things are effected more than anything.

2. I kinda compare their situation to Michael Jackson in music, reason being is Michael was the biggest star we've ever had and had the biggest selling album of all time with Thriller. Every album he did was compared to Thriller usually with the 'He's not as good as he was on his Thriller album' simply because he set the bar so high and became his own competition. Had Thriller not have been around his others albums would absolutely have got massive praise even more so, which they did but they were still always compared to Thriller because of how good that album was and what he did. The Simpsons are kind of the same, they did so much classic TV that is pretty much iconic and probably isn't going to be beaten in our generation and everything they do now is compared to this and it effects them because people now feel like they've lost it, even though they really haven't.

3. People don't watch TV as much anymore with things such as the internet and recorded planners on TV guides etc... that ratings aren't as big as they used to be anyway. People often compare their ratings now to what they used to have and see it as a downfall when it really isn't.

I agree that it's fair to say some seasons slipped for many people and that is completely fine, but I do feel that these things are kinda unfair most of the time because of the things mentioned above. The Simpsons Movie also proved this too in 2007 when the PC tag was kicking in more and they were able to step outside of that but people are definitely comparing something that's pretty much unfair to do I think for numerous reasons. The Simpsons still are great, they've still managed to stay on prime time TV which says it all really and they still are clever witted and always trying new things and making TV history (Homer live for example), but I think people forget this and don't really see it in the bigger picture.

It's not just The Simpsons who are effected by this, I know shows such as the WWE are really effected by this now as their fans are incredibly frustrated with the product from this also. It's such a catch 22.

The Michael Jackson analogy is a great way to put it. I think you're right, a lot of what has affected the Simpsons seems to be the idea that ts earlier controversial content needed to change. I remember when I was younger the Simpsons was banned at my school for a scene with Bart being spanked. It was a groundbreaking show that pushed boundaries and tried new things. I guess it tried to change with the culture it was in, and it tried to be more inclusive and less controversial, but in doing so, the episodes changed. I've noticed that even with children's shows like Arthur and The Haunting Hour, PC culture has influenced them to be a certain way that, in the 1990's for instance, they probably never would have been. A lot of shows and even films end up changing to suit the time they're created in. The Simpsons is in many ways competing with itself, the way it shocked and wowed audiences back in the 1990's vs. the present day.

[Steamed Hams]

Jul 2, 2017 14:16:10 GMT spankologicalprofile said:

The Michael Jackson analogy is a great way to put it. I think you're right, a lot of what has affected the Simpsons seems to be the idea that ts earlier controversial content needed to change. I remember when I was younger the Simpsons was banned at my school for a scene with Bart being spanked. It was a groundbreaking show that pushed boundaries and tried new things. I guess it tried to change with the culture it was in, and it tried to be more inclusive and less controversial, but in doing so, the episodes changed. I've noticed that even with children's shows like Arthur and The Haunting Hour, PC culture has influenced them to be a certain way that, in the 1990's for instance, they probably never would have been. A lot of shows and even films end up changing to suit the time they're created in. The Simpsons is in many ways competing with itself, the way it shocked and wowed audiences back in the 1990's vs. the present day.

Yeah, you're absolutely spot on. A good example of this is Rocko's Modern Life, bare in mind this show started in the 90's too when Simpsons classic seasons were in their peak and this really showcases how different TV was for us then as opposed to now, there is no way on this world that they would be able to show this on regular Nickelodeon now even though the jokes were subtle they were there and quite mad too when you look at it and think how did they get away with it haha where as now, they just wouldn't, everyone would be complaining and moaning and it would affect the TV stations and the show, specially as like I say with social media cause although they say any publicity is good publicity when you're a family TV show it probably does matter cause people will stop their family viewing tuning in so I think it makes sense really.

Have a watch of this, Rocko's Modern Life is really underrated. I think most Simpsons fans would/do really love this show as they're very similar in a lot of ways and very clever.

[spankologicalprofile]

Jul 2, 2017 14:29:43 GMT Steamed Hams said:

Jul 2, 2017 14:16:10 GMT spankologicalprofile said:

The Michael Jackson analogy is a great way to put it. I think you're right, a lot of what has affected the Simpsons seems to be the idea that ts earlier controversial content needed to change. I remember when I was younger the Simpsons was banned at my school for a scene with Bart being spanked. It was a groundbreaking show that pushed boundaries and tried new things. I guess it tried to change with the culture it was in, and it tried to be more inclusive and less controversial, but in doing so, the episodes changed. I've noticed that even with children's shows like Arthur and The Haunting Hour, PC culture has influenced them to be a certain way that, in the 1990's for instance, they probably never would have been. A lot of shows and even films end up changing to suit the time they're created in. The Simpsons is in many ways competing with itself, the way it shocked and wowed audiences back in the 1990's vs. the present day.

Yeah, you're absolutely spot on. A good example of this is Rocko's Modern Life, bare in mind this show started in the 90's too when Simpsons classic seasons were in their peak and this really showcases how different TV was for us then as opposed to now, there is no way on this world that they would be able to show this on regular Nickelodeon now even though the jokes were subtle they were there and quite mad too when you look at it and think how did they get away with it haha where as now, they just wouldn't, everyone would be complaining and moaning and it would affect the TV stations and the show, specially as like I say with social media cause although they say any publicity is good publicity when you're a family TV show it probably does matter cause people will stop their family viewing tuning in so I think it makes sense really.

Have a watch of this, Rocko's Modern Life is really underrated. I think most Simpsons fans would/do really love this show as they're very similar in a lot of ways and very clever.

I see what you mean; it's true, no way would any of that be in a show targeted towards children today. When I was a kid I used to see shows at my friends' houses like Rugrats, The Powerpuff Girls, Spongebob, etc. that had similar jokes which today would be deemed to controversial to air. There was a Rugrats one where the grandfather babysitting his children shows them a VHS tape titled "Lonely Space Vixens", which he sheepishly hides and tells them is "for him for later". Spongebob had numerous ones, everything from an infamous "don't drop the soap" joke to Spongebob himself watching pornography. In some ways it makes sense to cut those jokes out, but honestly I saw a lot of that stuff growing up and I just didn't understand it. It did not offend me or negatively affect me, or any of my friends, so in other ways it seems unnecessary to just ban it altogether from shows. The Simpsons seems to have tried to make itself more appropriate for children but in doing so, it's now less groundbreaking than it was in its golden years.

[Steamed Hams]

Jul 3, 2017 19:07:36 GMT spankologicalprofile said:

Jul 2, 2017 14:29:43 GMT Steamed Hams said:

Yeah, you're absolutely spot on. A good example of this is Rocko's Modern Life, bare in mind this show started in the 90's too when Simpsons classic seasons were in their peak and this really showcases how different TV was for us then as opposed to now, there is no way on this world that they would be able to show this on regular Nickelodeon now even though the jokes were subtle they were there and quite mad too when you look at it and think how did they get away with it haha where as now, they just wouldn't, everyone would be complaining and moaning and it would affect the TV stations and the show, specially as like I say with social media cause although they say any publicity is good publicity when you're a family TV show it probably does matter cause people will stop their family viewing tuning in so I think it makes sense really.

Have a watch of this, Rocko's Modern Life is really underrated. I think most Simpsons fans would/do really love this show as they're very similar in a lot of ways and very clever.

I see what you mean; it's true, no way would any of that be in a show targeted towards children today. When I was a kid I used to see shows at my friends' houses like Rugrats, The Powerpuff Girls, Spongebob, etc. that had similar jokes which today would be deemed to controversial to air. There was a Rugrats one where the grandfather babysitting his children shows them a VHS tape titled "Lonely Space Vixens", which he sheepishly hides and tells them is "for him for later". Spongebob had numerous ones, everything from an infamous "don't drop the soap" joke to Spongebob himself watching pornography. In some ways it makes sense to cut those jokes out, but honestly I saw a lot of that stuff growing up and I just didn't understand it. It did not offend me or negatively affect me, or any of my friends, so in other ways it seems unnecessary to just ban it altogether from shows. The Simpsons seems to have tried to make itself more appropriate for children but in doing so, it's now less groundbreaking than it was in its golden years.

Yep, and that's exactly what it is and it's not by choice also cause the TV companies have restrictions now on the shows they are contracted to to fit into this PC era so they don't offend which The Simpsons and any other show that's contracted under that time slot specially have to cater to.

The shows get the blame really but it's actually because of the restrictions they have to go by, they don't have a lot to go by.

You should watch some Rocko's Modern Life by the way, you'll probably really like it

[spankologicalprofile]

Jul 4, 2017 13:37:42 GMT Steamed Hams said:

Jul 3, 2017 19:07:36 GMT spankologicalprofile said:

I see what you mean; it's true, no way would any of that be in a show targeted towards children today. When I was a kid I used to see shows at my friends' houses like Rugrats, The Powerpuff Girls, Spongebob, etc. that had similar jokes which today would be deemed to controversial to air. There was a Rugrats one where the grandfather babysitting his children shows them a VHS tape titled "Lonely Space Vixens", which he sheepishly hides and tells them is "for him for later". Spongebob had numerous ones, everything from an infamous "don't drop the soap" joke to Spongebob himself watching pornography. In some ways it makes sense to cut those jokes out, but honestly I saw a lot of that stuff growing up and I just didn't understand it. It did not offend me or negatively affect me, or any of my friends, so in other ways it seems unnecessary to just ban it altogether from shows. The Simpsons seems to have tried to make itself more appropriate for children but in doing so, it's now less groundbreaking than it was in its golden years.

Yep, and that's exactly what it is and it's not by choice also cause the TV companies have restrictions now on the shows they are contracted to to fit into this PC era so they don't offend which The Simpsons and any other show that's contracted under that time slot specially have to cater to.

The shows get the blame really but it's actually because of the restrictions they have to go by, they don't have a lot to go by.

You should watch some Rocko's Modern Life by the way, you'll probably really like it

Definitely; do you know if Rocko's Modern Life is available on DVD?

[Steamed Hams]

Jul 4, 2017 17:57:25 GMT spankologicalprofile said:

Jul 4, 2017 13:37:42 GMT Steamed Hams said:

Yep, and that's exactly what it is and it's not by choice also cause the TV companies have restrictions now on the shows they are contracted to to fit into this PC era so they don't offend which The Simpsons and any other show that's contracted under that time slot specially have to cater to.

The shows get the blame really but it's actually because of the restrictions they have to go by, they don't have a lot to go by.

You should watch some Rocko's Modern Life by the way, you'll probably really like it

Definitely; do you know if Rocko's Modern Life is available on DVD?

It is yeah, in the UK they have four volumes which is pretty much half the series but in the US they have the whole series which I bought from there on import and it's really good. Here's an advert for the DVD here.

[spankologicalprofile]

Jul 4, 2017 19:00:36 GMT Steamed Hams said:

Jul 4, 2017 17:57:25 GMT spankologicalprofile said:

Definitely; do you know if Rocko's Modern Life is available on DVD?

It is yeah, in the UK they have four volumes which is pretty much half the series but in the US they have the whole series which I bought from there on import and it's really good. Here's an advert for the DVD here.




Cool, thanks for letting me know. I'll see if I can order the DVDs online; from what I've seen of it, it looks like a well-animated and funny show.

[Steamed Hams]

Jul 5, 2017 17:50:58 GMT spankologicalprofile said:

Jul 4, 2017 19:00:36 GMT Steamed Hams said:

It is yeah, in the UK they have four volumes which is pretty much half the series but in the US they have the whole series which I bought from there on import and it's really good. Here's an advert for the DVD here.




Cool, thanks for letting me know. I'll see if I can order the DVDs online; from what I've seen of it, it looks like a well-animated and funny show.

Yeah definitely, it really is. If you like The Simpsons you'll like Rocko I think, they're very similar in regards to how clever they are with their humour.

In fact I'd probably say The Simpsons and Rocko were the best at it, it's just I think Rocko is a little bit underrated but hopefully it'll come back again more as they've got the special coming back this year which is supposed to be good

[huejass]

I think I'd have to say I have "the new Simpsons sucks" mentality.

But with a lot of my oponions I am not sure whether it is my real opinion or whether it is me following some sort of groupthink, sheep mentality.

I only have the first 11 seasons and the movie on DVD and they are the episodes I am most familiar with. A lot of people back in the day used to think Season 11 was the worst season but I actually quite like most of it, although I dislike fan favourite Behind the Laughter. I really enjoyed the movie too and that is definitely a later episode.

I have seen that much of Seasons 12+, I've watched roughly a 100 or so episodes from there, mostly the earlier ones, but not really repeated viewings. There are some episodes from the Teen Seasons I really like, Season 19's the Debarted for example. I have barely watched any of Seasons 20+ and the stuff I did watch I did not find that funny and the writing was a bit disjointed.

I've read quite a lot of what people write about the decline of The Simpsons on quite a few different forums and their seems to be two main strands of thought. Both say the show declines heavily from Season 9-11 with Season 11 being a particularly notable nadir followed by an uptick with Season 12. Then after this opinions diverge on whether the show got better in the Teen Seasons as Al Jean returned as showrunner or in fact got worse. Then these diverging opinions converge that the show continued to get worse at some point and has currently never been worse.

Personally I like to look at numbers and go by this graph of IMDB episode scores.
graphtv.kevinformatics.com/tt0096697
You can definitely see a drop after season 8 which just continues and continues but at a slowing pace. Its also worth noting that there is something interesting in some of the Seasons 20+ there is a bigger spread of episode scores. With some episodes rated as highly as "classic era" episodes.

This forum is full of positivity and my post is a tad negative so I am going to end it with apologising for being a negative nelly.

[Financial Panther]

I agree with you on some points. I actually really like season 9 and think it was a huge step up from season 8, but season 10 was a giant step down. There are some good episodes sprinkled around seasons 20+, like Holidays of Future Passed, which many call one of the best episodes in years, but as a whole, it's definitely not as good as the earlier seasons.

[Steamed Hams]

Jul 8, 2017 14:58:25 GMT huejass said:

I think I'd have to say I have "the new Simpsons sucks" mentality.

But with a lot of my oponions I am not sure whether it is my real opinion or whether it is me following some sort of groupthink, sheep mentality.

I only have the first 11 seasons and the movie on DVD and they are the episodes I am most familiar with. A lot of people back in the day used to think Season 11 was the worst season but I actually quite like most of it, although I dislike fan favourite Behind the Laughter. I really enjoyed the movie too and that is definitely a later episode.

I have seen that much of Seasons 12+, I've watched roughly a 100 or so episodes from there, mostly the earlier ones, but not really repeated viewings. There are some episodes from the Teen Seasons I really like, Season 19's the Debarted for example. I have barely watched any of Seasons 20+ and the stuff I did watch I did not find that funny and the writing was a bit disjointed.

I've read quite a lot of what people write about the decline of The Simpsons on quite a few different forums and their seems to be two main strands of thought. Both say the show declines heavily from Season 9-11 with Season 11 being a particularly notable nadir followed by an uptick with Season 12. Then after this opinions diverge on whether the show got better in the Teen Seasons as Al Jean returned as showrunner or in fact got worse. Then these diverging opinions converge that the show continued to get worse at some point and has currently never been worse.

Personally I like to look at numbers and go by this graph of IMDB episode scores.
graphtv.kevinformatics.com/tt0096697
You can definitely see a drop after season 8 which just continues and continues but at a slowing pace. Its also worth noting that there is something interesting in some of the Seasons 20+ there is a bigger spread of episode scores. With some episodes rated as highly as "classic era" episodes.

This forum is full of positivity and my post is a tad negative so I am going to end it with apologising for being a negative nelly.

Nah honestly, the vibes you mention are completely fine, all opinions are fine and it's all good so don't feel like you're being negative, it creates discussion and is what it's all about

The forum is positive in regards to having good discussions etc.. which ever side of the fence people are on, that's what forums are all about respectable discussions and not everyone feels the same. There's no right or wrong

I hear you about the earlier seasons though, as I think mentioned above for me they just became their own competition as well as the restrictions that shows have now, all prime time shows really that are catered for family viewing probably face the same kinda thing, specially long term shows

Great post, I really enjoyed reading it