The Simpsons Ends in 1998.

Still better than the rest of the crap on TV. It's gold compared to most TV still.

I think though that the last two seasons were actually pretty good. It seems that from Season 12/13 to the movie it was bad, then it kind of picked up again.

Oh, don't get me wrong, they are still funny. Just not as funny as before. Think of it this way, now it's good, before it was great. ;)
 
I am thinking it is STILL good, albeit in a different way.
agreed. its still funny even if it isnt as memorable as it was previously; to give a basic example, the Nostalgia Critic did a "Top 11 Simpsons Episodes" video and none of his picks are any later than 1997 (except for "every Treehouse of Horror episode"). an advantage of The Simpsons, which i've also noticed with Law & Order and its spinoffs is simply the sheer volume of episodes they have keep the show from getting as stale to relatively new viewers (like me; ive been watching for years now, but didn't really discover either show until high school, and i only graduated in 2009). in contrast, Family Guy, with as many episodes as it has, doesn't have as many as either of the other two shows (not to mention that it objectively just isn't as good) so its episodes get on the "Fucking Stupid: Do Not Watch" list alot sooner
Oh, don't get me wrong, they are still funny. Just not as funny as before. Think of it this way, now it's good, before it was great. ;)
as apt a description as ive ever seen :)
 

Archibald

Banned
I think the main difference is that early episodes were about story which was then made funny with gags. Now it's just a series of gags stitched together into a story.

(voice of Montgomery Burns) Excellent !

some stories are serioulsy flawed and denote that the authors seems to have run out of ideas long ago; they have exhausted the potential of the simpsonverse.
An example of that is the caracter of Abe Simpson. Look at the last developments: :eek: WTF ??!!!
 
I think if they do a 9th Season, and it is announced it will be ending, Groening might convince the voice actors to pull off one last season and maybe a movie. I would imagine though that the last season would be much more risque than the show was, and it would end in a bang. The Simpsons would be remembered as one of the greatest cartoons ever, and would probably be rerun on occasion.

I could imagine if it does end in its 8th or 9th season, maybe they pull a Futurama and come back by 2012 to continue the show, get the original voice actors, and maybe have it be Lisa and Bart as adults, with spouses and children.


I'd be surprised if the show wasn't in syndication for years after 1998, and it'd probably still be in syndication to the present day. After all, Seinfeld is still shown in syndication, or at least was until fairly recently, so there's a precedent for syndicating a show that hasn't produced new material for a considerable amount of time. One weird effect is that, with the show not producing new episodes anymore, Fox may eventually lose exclusive syndication rights, which means it'd show up on other channels. For example, if there's an adult swim here, there's a chance The Simpsons is on it.

If this can butterfly away Phil Hartman's death, there's a chance a lot of the writing staff, and possibly the actors as well, may just decide to make that Troy McClure movie Hartman wanted to do.
 
If the Simpsons had finished with season 9 then it truly would have gone out with a bang!

There aren't many classic episodes beyond season 9 although Mom and Pop Art, where Homee becomes an outsider artist, is one of my all time favourites. I love the portrayal of Jasper Johns!

The progamme has been on a long slide and the movie was terrible. I stopped watching it some years ago. That said I caught a recent episode a few months ago and the the alleged words of a tv critic commenting on the final Monty Python series sprang to mind:

"The stench of rotting minds"


The episode was bloody awful
 
(voice of Montgomery Burns) Excellent !

some stories are serioulsy flawed and denote that the authors seems to have run out of ideas long ago; they have exhausted the potential of the simpsonverse.
An example of that is the caracter of Abe Simpson. Look at the last developments: :eek: WTF ??!!!

True, but that seems to be with most characters. E.g. when it comes to Burns I think last few seasons are just about how old he is while previous ones were about him being old, wrinkled, fat cat.
 
Thinking back on this, I had to wonder -- what might Season 10 have looked like if everyone knew it was going to be their last season? (assuming season 9 happens as OTL)
 
Thinking back on this, I had to wonder -- what might Season 10 have looked like if everyone knew it was going to be their last season? (assuming season 9 happens as OTL)
They might do it as a 'Hey, this is our last season, why don't we go out with a bang' and do some scripts that they never would have done before.
 
I imagine their final ep would be akin to that Christmas of Futures Passed ep they did a year or two back. Obviously not the same, but along those lines. Ending with a Christmas ep seems appropriate given the first aired ep was a Christmas special after all.
 
They might do it as a 'Hey, this is our last season, why don't we go out with a bang' and do some scripts that they never would have done before.
I imagine their final ep would be akin to that Christmas of Futures Passed ep they did a year or two back. Obviously not the same, but along those lines. Ending with a Christmas ep seems appropriate given the first aired ep was a Christmas special after all.

Sounds about right. One additional minor detail here -- I also see Sideshow Bob getting one more episode, putting the final touches on his redemption (from "Brother From Another Series"), instead of ignoring it (like OTL's "Day of the Jackanapes").
 
I agree with Noravea that the most recent seasons were a bit better again (almost coinciding with Marge's new voice in the German version). I am quite fond of the Simpsons (and so are my kids), so I don't see why having more episodes which range from "quite OK to good" hurt the excellent ones.

However, come to think of it, it might be even better to have them a few years in hibernation, followed by a re-launch. The idea how a TV series should be constructed has changed a lot since 1989. That way "The Simpsons" could adjust to that.

I very much enjoy the episodes which flash back to the past or towards the future, and I think that if the Simpsons ended in 1998, I could accept that if...

...they reappear every decade for 2-3 seasons (perhaps 13-episode-seaons only), which would have sort of an event-character having adjusted in age, the characters being allowed to develop (sometimes the writers seem to yearn for that, especially as the things Bart and Lisa experience are in some episodes quite stretched, most extremely when Bart drives to Utah to marry).
Also that would mean that during the breaks, a good deal of satirical potential has built up which writers can tap. The possibility to develop actual story archs might be a benefit, too.

So, for example, seasons 10-12 run in 2004-06, with Homer and Marge in their 40s, Bart struggling with the final years of High School, Lisa in full puberty, Maggie in Elementary School.

Seasons 13-15 run in 2010-12, starting with Homer's 50th birthday, ending with Abe's funeral. Bart is struggling in joblife, Lisa is at college, Maggie a teenager. Mr Burns gets ousted by a hedge fond - for good. Ned Flanders rises as a politician on the tailcoats of the Tea Party.

I can't wait for season 16. All participants already signed up, but they will not start production until 2016, I heard.
 
If Season 10 was the last season, there probably would have been working towards the end e.g. Homer gets fired (permanently) a character (excluding Maude) Dies, etc. would probably have not only good laughs, but also a strong emotional core. Season 10 probably would have been regarded as the best ever with people demanding more. . . and that's were cable comes in
 

sharlin

Banned
I ain't seen Simpsons in a while nor many of the new ones but I was getting fed up with the marge/Lisa episodes because it either goes MORALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! or ECOLOGY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
I agree with Noravea that the most recent seasons were a bit better again (almost coinciding with Marge's new voice in the German version). I am quite fond of the Simpsons (and so are my kids), so I don't see why having more episodes which range from "quite OK to good" hurt the excellent ones.

However, come to think of it, it might be even better to have them a few years in hibernation, followed by a re-launch. The idea how a TV series should be constructed has changed a lot since 1989. That way "The Simpsons" could adjust to that.

I very much enjoy the episodes which flash back to the past or towards the future, and I think that if the Simpsons ended in 1998, I could accept that if...

...they reappear every decade for 2-3 seasons (perhaps 13-episode-seaons only), which would have sort of an event-character having adjusted in age, the characters being allowed to develop (sometimes the writers seem to yearn for that, especially as the things Bart and Lisa experience are in some episodes quite stretched, most extremely when Bart drives to Utah to marry).
Also that would mean that during the breaks, a good deal of satirical potential has built up which writers can tap. The possibility to develop actual story archs might be a benefit, too.

So, for example, seasons 10-12 run in 2004-06, with Homer and Marge in their 40s, Bart struggling with the final years of High School, Lisa in full puberty, Maggie in Elementary School.

Seasons 13-15 run in 2010-12, starting with Homer's 50th birthday, ending with Abe's funeral. Bart is struggling in joblife, Lisa is at college, Maggie a teenager. Mr Burns gets ousted by a hedge fond - for good. Ned Flanders rises as a politician on the tailcoats of the Tea Party.

I can't wait for season 16. All participants already signed up, but they will not start production until 2016, I heard.

If Season 10 was the last season, there probably would have been working towards the end e.g. Homer gets fired (permanently) a character (excluding Maude) Dies, etc. would probably have not only good laughs, but also a strong emotional core. Season 10 probably would have been regarded as the best ever with people demanding more. . . and that's were cable comes in

That would kill the main reason why the simpson were popular in first place, as cartoon they would still can be use to display human emotion and trouble but still with cartoon narrative, thus self contanied or with little canon

what you propose is cheap drama, that is not were the simpsons, the simpsons were comedy and social funny at it finnest
 
Seth MacFarlene has four shitty animated shows on Fox instead of three. The Simpsons joins Firefly and Arrested Development as quality shows that died too young.

Don't forget that Family Guy got cancelled after its first season, then got brought back after fan outcry. In a world where the Simpsons hasn't proven to be an unkillable juggernaut of pop culture, it's possible that animated sitcoms never take off in popularity like they did OTL. People might view it as something that worked once, but never again, like American Idol. South Park and King of the Hill would still be around, but South Park is on cable, and KotH's following was decidedly cult. Those shows would probably continue, but new ones might not get greenlit.
 
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