Mopower

He even fit his homo erotic obsession for Zach Braff and Scrubs in the post as well. What were the odds of that? Scrubs wishes it could be a great as Seinfeld's worse episodes.

Chew

I've seen every single Simpsons episode in first-run since somebody "forced" me to watch the Christmas special way back in the beginning. It has lost something in the last few years, but there is still plenty to keep me entertained every week with a few flashes of old here and there.

I'll be watching no matter how much longer it has.

dadaluholla

Oh definitely. It's always a very watchable show, even if the level of entertainment isn't what you are used to. The Simpson's decline is nowhere near the level of a show like Saturday Night Live, which has dissolved into nothing but a smelly globule of it's previous self.

Big Dave

I loved Seinfeld and I have always liked The Simpsons.

It's a show I really never would laugh out loud at, but still have a smile on my face when thinking about certain episodes. I don't really watch it anymore, but I might catch the movie.

Goldberg74

Never been a fan of the Simpsons. I understand their place in pop-culture and I even had a Bart Simpson "Eat My Shorts" pin on my denim jacket in middle school, so I can appreciate to a certain level (like Seinfeld... another show I don't find funny), but I'm not a fan.

slop101

You know, I never understood how The Simpsons became so hated. If the show's worst offense was not living up to the perfection of seasons 3 through 8, and seeing as how no television comedy has come close to putting together five straight years of programming that brilliant (save for maybe South Park, or Futurama if it was allowed to continue), Simpsons should be given a huge fucking pass. The show isn't the "must-watch" it used to be, but whenever I do watch it, it'll usually have jokes and writing far more clever and sophisticated than most other stuff on the air now.

If it does have a problem it's that the characters have been around for so long, have been canonized so much, that there's not much fresh things left to do with them, so they have to rely more and more on zany situations instead, which becomes difficult when you have almost 20 years of zany situations behind you.

Draven

Hate Seinfeld. Love the Simpsons (though I don't watch it regularly anymore).

Arthur Dent

Absolutely love Seinfeld.

Like The Simpsons a lot.

bunkaroo

Season 8 was the last consistently hilarious season but there were good episodes for the next few years.

Ayre

Ditto

PacMan2006

I still think that in 20 years when you are watching The Simpsons in syndication, you will enjoy the "lesser" years. I recognize the huge drop in quality, but come on, the show has been on 17 years. Whenever I do get around to watching a newer episode, I don't deconstruct the plot. I don't look for problems. I just watch to see if it makes me laugh. That's it. If I laugh during a few of the scenes/episode, then it was a success. This isn't season four. My expectations have been lowered for quite some time. I just try to enjoy the comedy and the characters.

As for Seinfeld...I have tried many times to get into it, but I just can't. I am not sure if I dislike the characters, or the silly plot lines, but it's hard for me to enjoy. I can't believe this show went off only ten years ago, and people proclaim it to be the best TV show of all time.

Randy Miller III

Dude, they totally redeemed themselves with "Deep, Deep Trouble".

UAIOE

Now when people say this or "it's better than anything else on TV" I know that they either aren't looking hard enough or not at all. Is it better than other sitcoms on FOX? Sure, but watching grass grow is better than most of the sitcom tripe on FOX.

And in the process the show has evolved from a animated sitcom into a cartoon showcasing Homers increasingly "zany" exploits.

slop101

Then give me some examples.

I can really only think of Venture Bros. and South Park as being more clever than Simpsons is now. And shows like The Office, 30Rock, Scrubs and maybe Family Guy are on about the same level, give or take. Even if you add a few more shows, that's still slim pickins.

Palaver

In all sincerity, I'd like to hear your list of well written, clever sitcoms that are currently on the air. I might be missing some. The only ones that come to mind for me in the past five years or so is Scrubs, the Office and Arrested Development .

I should point out that I might be missing some since I don't subscribe to HBO.

dvd182

Same for me. I watched a few of the early season episodes, didn't really think it was anything special and never watched again. Nothing in any of the trailers for the movie looks remotely funny or redeeming, either.

It's great so many of you enjoy the series, though.

Seantn

I saw a handful of episodes this season, and if anything it was worse than I remembered. I saw an episode that was one I would consider to be the worst episode I have ever seen. Returned to top form? No, sorry, you're wrong. That is fact.

Mopower

The Simpsons is great when the story isn't centered around Lisa, Bart, Marge or any of the supporting cast.

Seantn

This sums up how I feel about the show now. It's a fake script page from the movie:

UAIOE

I don't watch sitcoms...but I have found other animated shows that provide more laughs than "The Simpsons" did before I quit watching it.

maingon

I love the simpsons even though I havent watched the show in a couple years. I will catch up someday on DVD

GreenVulture

Yes.

[Excuse this following rant if it feels hastily put together, because it kind of is]

The show ceased to be Simpsons-quality somewhere around Season 10. After that, it morphed into some odd hybrid of incredibly crude humor, smug self-reference, really stupid situations and celebrity guest voices that were probably approved on the basis of said celebrity saying to Groening or Brooks, "Hey! Can I come on your show? It'll probably be awkward because I have nothing at all to do with the plot, nor are there any one-time characters you can let me voice, but hey, I'm famous, right? I mean, you can put my name in your ads!"

Granted, the show always had stuff like that, but it went into overdrive after the first 9 seasons, making the show a kind of half-assed carbon copy of itself. From Season 10 onwards, the writing felt either lazy or labored over too much, the gags were a mile a minute because now there had to be a joke every 5 seconds, the movie references were there just because, rather than being subtly worked into the scene (there was some episode a few years back where they went to the theater and they played a parody of The Phantom Menace. THE PHANTOM MENACE. And there was nothing creative about it, nor did it have any connection to the plot; all they did was mock the Jar-Jar character, several years after everyone else in the world had done the same thing), the guest voices are there because the producers want to add another celebrity voice notch to their bedpost (you have someone like Thomas Pynchon, and what do you have him do? Recite bad puns of his book titles. "What's that, you say? JK Rowling said she likes the show? Well, find a way to put her in!"), and the plots feel increasingly bizarre because the writers have maybe run out of ideas.

This is in contrast to something like Season 5. Yeah, Homer going into space is incredibly outlandish, but it worked beautifully because the writing was fantastic throughout and felt smooth, the gags were a mile a minute and served the scene, not the other way around, and the movie references worked well due to theme of outer space. Bringing in James Taylor to NASA was silly, yes, but it worked because his music provided one of the episode's funniest jokes (suddenly changing his lyrics) and he also had something important to do (inadvertently giving the solution to the ant problem). And despite taking place mostly in outer space, the episode felt down-to-earth and relatable, since part of the plot was about a person (Homer) finding the courage to do something they had a fear of.

I stopped watching regularly around the beginning of Season 11 (Season 10 I stuck out due to loyalty), but still catch a few episodes of each year just to see if some of the old magic is back, and it isn't. Looking back, Season 9 had its share of slightly weak episodes, but at least I consistently chuckled during a "bad" episode of that season, as compared to recent episodes, where I smile maybe once. But I'll always have the first nine seasons, and for that, I'm grateful to the cast and crew.

That being said, I might Netflix some of the post-S9 seasons, just to hear Groening and Co. try and defend some of the episodes on the commentaries.

Seantn

GreenVulture, your comments mirror mine exactly. Season 10 I was thinking "Oh no...what's happening to my favorite show, this can't be happening..." even though it had gradually built up to the crapiness of that season, and then Season 11 I bailed.

jmanlakerfan

I loved the Simpsons when it first started. After around Season 5 or so it became a chore. I don't know if was my age or not but I started to hate all cartoons. They are now very annoying to me. They never ever make sense and the voices are extremely high pitched and annoying. My humor doesn't tolerate it.

I do like the occasional South Park - but that has to do with current events and the kind of humor it has.

I'm the guy who hates anything Pixar or Disney. However, I do like the original Toy Story though. Go figure. My family and friends still can't believe how much I hated Shrek - which supposedly was the best movie EVER! Huh?

There must be something wrong with me.

jiggawhat

I was pretty young when this first came out, but I do not find this show at all funny. I don't know what it is about it that I don't like but maybe it's the fact that I don't like cartoon shows all that much.