The Simpsons Marathon..

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Mary_Gail_36

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This past weekend there was a Simpsons Marathon.

There are about 600 episodes of the Simpsons, and it’s been on for over 25 years. :eek:

I watched a couple of episodes, some I had forgotten.

One episode featured Principal Skinner who had been fired. He was contemplating writing a novel about an amusement park featuring cloned dinosaurs. He was considering the title, “Billy and the Clonesour”.

And I have Ned Flanders singing Que Sera Sera stuck in my head.

Did anyone watch? What are your favorite episodes?

I personally like the one where Homer thinks he only has 24 hours to live.

I also like the one when Homer bought Marge a bowling ball for her birthday.
 
My favorite is where Home and Bart volunteer to bring a deceased trucker’s load to its destination. They end up taking a freight train back to Springfield along with its toxic cargo.

My other favorite is where Lisa plays a saxophone duet with Bleeding Gums Murphy.
 
I am slowly working my way through every episode on FXNow. I’m in season 15 I think.

My favorites have always been the Halloween Episodes. The Tomacco episode has always been a favorite as well.
 
ProdglArchitect said:
I am slowly working my way through every episode on FXNow. I’m in season 15 I think.

My favorites have always been the Halloween Episodes. The Tomacco episode has always been a favorite as well.
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At what point do you think it ‘jumps the shark’?
 
Mary_Gail_36 said:
This past weekend there was a Simpsons Marathon.

There are about 600 episodes of the Simpsons, and it’s been on for over 25 years. :eek:

I watched a couple of episodes, some I had forgotten.

One episode featured Principal Skinner who had been fired. He was contemplating writing a novel about an amusement park featuring cloned dinosaurs. He was considering the title, “Billy and the Clonesour”.

And I have Ned Flanders singing Que Sera Sera stuck in my head.

Did anyone watch? What are your favorite episodes?

I personally like the one where Homer thinks he only has 24 hours to live.

I also like the one when Homer bought Marge a bowling ball for her birthday.
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‘Who Shot Montgomery Burns?’
 
tomarin said:
At what point do you think it ‘jumps the shark’?
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Honestly… I’m not sure. I know the show isn’t technically as good as it used to be, but I still enjoy it. Rather than any one particular point where they jumped the shark, I think they’ve just become more and more outlandish as time progresses since they keep trying to find new things to do.
 
ProdglArchitect said:
Honestly… I’m not sure. I know the show isn’t technically as good as it used to be, but I still enjoy it. Rather than any one particular point where they jumped the shark, I think they’ve just become more and more outlandish as time progresses since they keep trying to find new things to do.
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I see. So a steady gradual shift to caricature rather than one dramatic moment when it’s obviously a shadow of its former self.

I was watching an old repeat this weekend by coincidence and while my first reaction was ‘wow this has really gone downhill, in terms of not only the animation but also the mannered and over-the-top jokes’, the longer I watched the more I remembered having seen this episode before, in what I had thought was the ‘golden age’ of the show. So, it was a confusing experience pointing out the subjectivity of everything.
 
I remember back when the Simpsons first came out, many people I knew at the time hated it, they thought it was crude and disgusting humor (my parents included, they did not like me watching it), but over the years, its almost become tame now, or we are just so desensitized, we do not recognize crude anymore.

One episode I recall being surprised at was a situation where Homer had a chance to cheat on Marge without getting caught, but when it came down to it, he did the right thing, and was faithful, I thought that was pretty strange for a show like the Simpsons, I expected him to do the opposite.
 
tomarin said:
At what point do you think it ‘jumps the shark’?
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I always thought that it jumped the shark around season 9. I believe they switched show runners around that time, and the focus of the show shifted from more touching but comedic stories to more slapstick humor and fewer character driven stories. I own the first 13 seasons on DVD and stopped buying them because of the noticeable decline in quality after the last couple of seasons.
 
mikekle said:
One episode I recall being surprised at was a situation where Homer had a chance to cheat on Marge without getting caught, but when it came down to it, he did the right thing, and was faithful, I thought that was pretty strange for a show like the Simpsons, I expected him to do the opposite.
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This is odd because The Simpsons, or at least the golden age of The Simpsons, was known for generally being sentimental and showing the family’s love for each other. Most episodes would have a theme of Homer somehow being challenged between something he personally wanted and the interests of his family, with him ultimately choosing the better option and defending his family. I recall one episode where Mr Burns is trying to get a teddy bear off of Maggie and offers Homer money in return, but he still defends Maggie. There is also this one. I think it would be more surprising if they had Homer cheat on Marge. The Simpsons was never like Family Guy, it didn’t rely on shock humour and it tried to make you genuinely sympathetic to the characters. Homer was an idiot but in the end was shown to love his family and always did the right thing. Newer episodes actually get a lot of criticism for rejecting the sentimental nature of the earlier episodes.
 
Regular_Atheist said:
This is odd because The Simpsons, or at least the golden age of The Simpsons, was known for generally being sentimental and showing the family’s love for each other. Most episodes would have a theme of Homer somehow being challenged between something he personally wanted and the interests of his family, with him ultimately choosing the better option and defending his family. I recall one episode where Mr Burns is trying to get a teddy bear off of Maggie and offers Homer money in return, but he still defends Maggie. There is also this one. I think it would be more surprising if they had Homer cheat on Marge. The Simpsons was never like Family Guy, it didn’t rely on shock humour and it tried to make you genuinely sympathetic to the characters. Homer was an idiot but in the end was shown to love his family and always did the right thing. Newer episodes actually get a lot of criticism for rejecting the sentimental nature of the earlier episodes.
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There actually is an episode where Marge is tempted to stray. It’s when Homer forgot her birthday, then bought her a bowling ball. She decides to take bowling lessons, and her instructor is an overly romantic French man. She doesn’t and it ends with a short spoof of the final scene of Officer and a Gentleman. This is one of the earlier episodes.’ I remember who Imwatched it with and where.
 
I always liked “A Streetcar named Marge”, where they did a musical version of A Streetcar Named Desire.
 
Regular_Atheist said:
This is odd because The Simpsons, or at least the golden age of The Simpsons, was known for generally being sentimental and showing the family’s love for each other. Most episodes would have a theme of Homer somehow being challenged between something he personally wanted and the interests of his family, with him ultimately choosing the better option and defending his family. I recall one episode where Mr Burns is trying to get a teddy bear off of Maggie and offers Homer money in return, but he still defends Maggie. There is also this one. I think it would be more surprising if they had Homer cheat on Marge. The Simpsons was never like Family Guy, it didn’t rely on shock humour and it tried to make you genuinely sympathetic to the characters. Homer was an idiot but in the end was shown to love his family and always did the right thing. Newer episodes actually get a lot of criticism for rejecting the sentimental nature of the earlier episodes.
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That is whats strange here…when was the last time Hollywood was known as being ‘pro family’ or even portraying good morals as right in their shows and movies…dont they usually try to sway people in the opposite direction? They are a big part of the problem imo.
 
tseleehw said:
I always thought that it jumped the shark around season 9. I believe they switched show runners around that time, and the focus of the show shifted from more touching but comedic stories to more slapstick humor and fewer character driven stories. I own the first 13 seasons on DVD and stopped buying them because of the noticeable decline in quality after the last couple of seasons.
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That’s long been my opinion. Season 9 is where things took a turn. I stopped getting the DVD sets after season 10 as I feel like the show took another turn further away from the earlier spirit in Season 11. It’s funny to think about. I watched the show obsessively for the first 12 or 13 seasons, never missing an episode and catching them on reruns 2 or 3 times a day. To this day I still repeat many quotes from the show (I have to sing “You don’t win friends with salad” every time my wife makes a salad. Every. Single. Time. 😛 :o). And yet, there are now more episodes of the show that I’ve missed than ones I have seen.

My favorites are Seasons 3–8. The softball episode. The Stonecutter episode. The monorail episode. Most any flashback episode. Lots of good ones back then.

I have caught a few more recent episodes, and I do think those have been a bit better than those from seasons 11–15. But I still just don’t prioritize watching it.
 
John_Lazarus said:
I always liked “A Streetcar named Marge”, where they did a musical version of A Streetcar Named Desire.
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“You’re putting me through hell-a. Stella!” 😃

That was the episode that first revealed Flanders was ripped. 😛
 
For some reason this line from the episode in which Homer joins the Naval Reserve has stuck with me through the years: “The Naval Reserve: America’s 17th line of defense, between the Mississippi National Guard and the American League of Women Voters.”
 
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