FortKnox's Journal: Simpsons Plots Leaked

Well, maybe not leaked, but when the voices of the Simpsons were on Inside the Actor's Studio show, they gave away several plots to upcoming episodes, including the 300th episode which is to include a possible divorce of homer and marge (although I doubt it, unless they are intentionally trying to jump the shark).

You mean they haven't jumped the shark?

[John Harrison]

Maybe it is just me, but I think the quality has declined quite a bit in the last few years. It has become a parody of itself rather than a parody of pop culture.

Re:You mean they haven't jumped the shark?

[dthable]

I agree. I sat through this last Sunday and didn't think that the first clip epsode that aired was all that funny. I'm just waiting for more of the DVDs to arrive.

Re:You mean they haven't jumped the shark?

[Otter]

It waxes and wanes. I'd say the low point was a few years ago, with stuff like the comet episode and the Rush Limbaugh one. It's still worth watching for me (the recent one with the Rolling Stones was funnyish) but I'd rather keep Futurama and drop The Simpsons.

Maybe they could keep doing Halloween shows. I'll miss those, even if this year's sucked.

My pick for the only show that ground on for year after year without ever becoming painful -- Cheers. I never watched it regularly, but whenever I caught a new episode, it was always funny.

Re:You mean they haven't jumped the shark?

[redfiche]

I agree, this year's Halloween episode was a prime example. I still enjoy seeing the re-runs midweek, though.

Bart divorces parents...

[Blackneto]

not marge and homer. According to that article anyway.
You might want to edit that.
I finally stopped watching Simpsons regularly about the same time I got cable 3 years ago. theres just not enough in the show to draw me back into it anymore.

quality

[Flamesplash]

My overall impression of the simpsons was that it didn't get good till somewhere around seasons 6-8. I don't know the specific season but it's around there. I've watched the simpsons since it was just short on the Tracy Ulman show and the main turning point was due to two things that happened pretty much together. The first is that Homer went from an abusive mean cuse of a dad so a dopey laid back dad. The second is that the plot writting became much more mature and intricate.

I think that while these two things still exist, which is why I still watch, the plots are simply getting to the point where it's hard to have a good one that isn't just goofy. I remember reading the /. article on the simpsons movies and they were talking about how they would try really really hard to have a plot worthy of a movie and not just a long episode, but that they were already having trouble with plots for the regular episodes.