Otter's Journal: Simpsons Halloween XIV: Lame, lame, lame

Verdict on tonight's Simpsons Halloween episode: lousy. There have been some good ones in the not so distant past, like the one with Jerry Springer and Regis & Kathy and the Y2K episode. But the last few years have been pretty lame and tonights had nothing memorable at all, IMHO.

jump the shark

[heliocentric]

Yeah, I'm thinking this episode will be the point where I see that the show finally jumped the shark.

Keep in mind when you flame with when you think it happened I am admitting that the show wasn't perfect last week, nor am I saying the producers need to be shot. Jumping the shark is just the point in time when the show no long has any chance at all and what remains to be seen is if it dies a slow painful death or goes out with a bang.

Re:jump the shark

[LPetrazickis]

I think the episode were the Comic Book Guy kept saying "Worst Episode Ever" was the point where they jumped the shark.;)

You know, the one where the Simpsons get a horse again and Homer confronts an underground race of jokey elves.;)

Re:jump the shark

[Otter]

To my mind, The Simpsons actually escapes the usual shark jump calculation. That's because 1) it goes through up and down cycles, where just about every other sitcom goes straight down and 2) the cast doesn't change, probably because voice-over parts are so much less demanding than live roles. (And in a pinch they could get new voices, anyway.)

So you don't get those disruptive changes where you know the end is nigh, like when the new guy arrived on Happy Days or Love Boat or Married With Children. Hmmm, co

Re:jump the shark

[nil_null]

Yeah, I agree about the up and down cycles. Somewhere around season 10 or 11 or 12 I started getting really disappointed with the ephisodes and thought the days of good Simpsons ephisodes were over. Then they bounced back with some serious hilarity, though it was different, more off-the-wall humor, stuff that would make you say wtf? But some of it was brilliant. And sometimes I'd go back and watch an ephisode that I didn't think was funny, and find humor in it the second time around. Humor is weird lik

agreed

[Tickenest]

It had some funny moments, but there really wasn't anything scary about it, just kinda gory. It seems they're going into the realm of fantasy "what-ifs" entirely.