Posted on 05/01/2005 12:43:49 PM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
I haven't watched the show since 96 or 97. There used to be a theme to the show: Family Mattered.
The first season was very good but at some poin in the 2nd season until--oh at least season seven or so. The show was mostly, not alwasy, but mostly decent. It has a theme: family mattered--no matter what happened, the family stuck together.
One time Marge considered cheating on Homer, but didn't.
One time Home considered cheating on Marge, but didn't.
Bart ruined Lisa's centerpiece in one episode, at the end--he apologies and tries to make.
They treated their characters with some respect--including the born-again Christian neighbor, Ned Flanders.
Etc.
But these types of episodes stopped long, long ago (before I quit watchin in 96 or 97).
-Ned Flanders just became a butt of jokes.
-Homer and Bart became incredible stupid.
-Lisa became dull.
-Marge went crazy.
Hasn't been worth watching for years.
Futurama was good, too. My favorite was the Slurm episode, a spoof of "Willie Wonka".
I don't know if that episode was when it jumped but that was about when it started it's slide to mediocrity.
Is the Simpons still on? I stop watching so long ago I can't remember when.
Meant to say first season wasn't _not_ very good.
"jump the shark" can't jump the shark. There's nothing to add to it.
When they start adding new characters (especially young kids) to a cast or replacing a lead with someone else in the same role, the show is struggling to maintain the viewers they have.
When writers start writing 2-part episodes, strange crossovers, and "topical" references to "stay" fresh, they have generally lost it.
Someone made a "jumped the shark" website, and someone has written a book, but they didn't mess the with formula or try to defend shows that are long past their prime. Then, "jump the shark" itself could have jumped the shark. Reinvention is curse.
If I had wanted to avoid formula, I wouldn't be watching a situation comedy. Few tv series are ever plotted with a definite number of episodes. "24" runs on a formula of having a cliffhanger every 50 minutes. Sometimes during the day, there might not be anything special "about to happen". Even The Prisoner was padded out with some filler episodes (but it was nice of them to have a start, middle, and conclusion).
I have actually conversed on this forum with those that insist that "The Simpsons" is a conservative show. I simply have to point out Lisa who is billed as the "moral center" of the family. Cased closed. I still enjoy watching the show, but have learned to hit mute whenever Lisa climbs on her soap box.
I didn't write the headline
Wow! 350 episodes, and I've never seen one.
Actually they've been walking on sharks for several years now..
For me, the beginning of the end was probably the "leprecahn jockeys" ep, because that was the one where they started admitting they were repeating themselves (it was at least the second one where they bought a horse and had to figure out how to pay for it). It was that ep where I first noticed they thought it was OK to rip themselves off as long as they "excused it" by having "comic book guy" wander through, and say "worst...episode...ever."
I still watch the show, but mostly just out of tradition. There hasn't been a consistently funny season since the 96-97 season, and there hasn't been a consistently funny episode since the one when Homer went to Rock and Roll Camp (03, 02?). The past 2-3 seasons have been reprehensibly bad, drenched in not only redundant mediocrity but unabated leftwing idiocy.
Family Guy was funny, but not boisterous funny, and Seth MacFarlane come out of the socialist closet the past year, with his appearances on Air America and that tedious American Dad. I'll watch Family Guy, but you couldn't pay me enough money to watch American Dad.
The teen-aged son on "Arrested Development" has the best dead-pan expression since Jack Benny.
The entire cast is terrific and the writing is hilarious. Too bad more people haven't found the show.
Ever since the "Jurassic Bark" ep of "Futurama," I can't even watch reruns of the show.
Flashing back to the 1990s to show us that, with Frye stuck in suspended animation, his dog died depressed and alone on the street was simply too serious and depressing for a comedy show.
If I had wanted to be depressed by a dying dog story, I would have rented "Old Yeller."
Family Guy was funny despite its liberal bent. American Dad was just stupid.
Simpsons sucks now. Family Guy is overrated and New Family Guy will suck. Futurama was the only show with some vestige of creativity, and it's off of the air.
I miss The Critic.
No kidding. This annoying phrase has been crammed down our throats by people who then giddily wait for you to ask them to explain where the phrase originated. It's a dumb creation. So is "metrosexual".
The first season of Arrested Development was one of the funniest single season's I've ever seen. The second season, however, operated on about 35% of the laughs and enjoyment of the first. Too many self referential and repeated jokes/gags, too many subplots, and you just had a feeling the creators weren't sure where to go with the show (the sloppy and overlong "George Bluth in the attic" thing, the ugly "Mrs. Doubtfire" subplot, the disappearance of Anyong, ect.)
"Jump The Shark" probably originated among their ranks:
http://www.aintitcoolnews.com
They also were the focus (as an inside joke) in one of the Kevin Smith films (Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back).
I hated that episode too. That seemed to be when Futurama was desperately trying to step out of the Simpsons' shadows by having more "poignant" endings.
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