'The Simpsons' has jumped the shark

Copyright © 2005, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved. ^ | 5/1/05 | By BILL BRIOUX -- Toronto Sun

[1L]

>>350 episodes, and I've never seen one.<<

Believe me. There's more of us than of others. Way more. This show has never had much more than a cult following.

But I don't get the "jump the shark" term. Happy Days didn't start their decline after the shark jumping episode; it started declining after Ron Howard left. Yet it still went on for what, 6 years! The post-Richie and Ralph episodes were pure torture, but the ones where Richie was still there and in college were pretty good.

[LibertarianInExile]

I'm still trying to like that show. But I love Futurama, and if Adult Swim would just run it consistently at 11:30 and run ATHF at 11, I'd probably watch it just to try to understand WTF that little meatball dude is saying.

If we could get South Park, Daria, Beavis and Butthead, Drawn Together, Simpsons, DuckMan, and The Critic on Adult Swim, we'd pretty much have every good cartoon produced for adult audiences on there...THAT would be a cartoon network worth paying for. I might have left some out, but not many.

If we're not considering them purely based on humor (I was) we could toss in Aeon Flux, too.

[kaylar]

They're making an Aeon Flux movie...but I think it's gonna be live-action.

[Cyclopean Squid]

I used to be a faithful fan of the Simpsons. If it had ceased production only five years ago, it would have guaranteed its fame as one of the alltime best. Haven't been able to get interested in it since the new millenium. No show can continue milking the same lines. "Seinfeld" quit just as it was starting to go sour. "The Simpsons" should have done it years ago.

Mediocrity claims us all in the end.

[Bullish]

Its been dead to me for six years

Ditto that. At least that long for me.

[usapatriot28]

..I'm waiting for the return of the family guy...politically incorrect and i love it

I watched tonight's episode (Family Guy) and didn't really find it very funny. The whole anti-Christian/Mel-Gibson-is-a-nazi mess really turned me off. Normally, I don't mind satire, even about things I agree with, but this was just going out of their way to take digs at Christians, and with non-funny results. Now I remember why I stopped watch TV.

[Melas]

You don't have to like it or watch it. There's stuff on TV I don't like or don't get, either, so I don't watch it.

Oh, I don't. Can't stand it. That wasn't my point however. I wasn't complaining about it being on the air. I was just trying to ascertain what the hell anyone saw it.

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

They jumped the shark when the gleefully killed Flanders' wife in '99. That was the ugliest, most black-hearted, mean-spirited half hour of TV I'd ever witnessed. That's when it occurred to me just how much hatred they had for Christianity.

Family Guy reached the same breaking-point last night. I wish they just would've stayed in syndication.

[agent404]

Family Guy is my favorite animated comedy, but I hated the anti-christian slant on it last night. But since Family Guy is my favorite show and anti-christian jokes are nothing new or uncommon in the media, I'll let it slide just this once.

Peter: "Christians don't believe in gravity"
What the hell was up with that line? It's not funny or true, and was completely uncalled for. It didn't even really have anything to do with what was happening on the screen.

I never understand why Hollywood hates Christianity so much.

But other than that I loved last night's new episode. Even after 3 years it retains the same humor that made me love it so much. I especially loved the opening.
American Dad sucked. It's just a cheap knockoff of every other animated comedy, and I didn't see a single joke on there I haven't heard at least a year ago.