Season 9 is the last essential season for me. 10 through 12 are hit and miss. Everything after 12 is really tough for me to get through, save the odd episode here or there that makes me remember what the show used to be.

Season 11 I think - it's the first season that had some episodes which didn't have much of anything that appealed to me. S8 was the last consistently awesome season, and S9 and S10 still had some classics but not as many.

I still wonder if the decline around S9 and S10 had to do with people leaving fro Futurama, because that show was firing on all cylinders from day 1 IMO (which makes the lackluster direct to video stuff all the more disappointing.)

You're on "the list."

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Season 12 was what I consider the show's first weak season, and it's just been up and down ever since, but still very much worth watching.

I always say that its peak was 3-8 with season 1 being an anomaly and 2 being the start, the learning curve of the style most fans love. So for me, it was around Season 9 that it really nosedived. 9 and the next couple of seasons had a stray ep here and there that were just okay but overall it has become, IMO, tired and unwatchable.

You can really start to see it come together as Season 2 starts to wind down and culminates with the Radioactive Man comic book purchase episode. Great stuff.

Around season 8 or 9, like most other people.

I wouldn't mind getting caught up on the seasons that I missed, but it would have to be via something free like Netflix streaming.

S9 was the first season that was hit or miss for me. From there the show seemed to be in decline.

S8 was to be the last DVD set for me but I got a good deal on S9 and S10.

it went downhill with the "Who shot Mr. Burns" nonsense, whenever that was.

I recall that season (s11) being the one where it seemed like every other episode someone was breaking out into song.

I will add to my previous comment that s10 does start to miss, but it wasn't nearly as terrible as s11.


But I don't think I can take the current Simpsons writing seriously after hearing about that "90's Episode" where they did the BTTF "Marvin Berry" joke. I think the joke would have been funny had "Family Guy" not done the joke *TWICE* before it appeared in that 90's episode.

I use to think S10 was when it all went downhill but I realized that the hit and misses started in S11. S12 and beyond is virtually unwatchable.

That episode was indeed shit but I love the part where Homer runs out of the house and tosses a brick through the window of the car as Marge and Bart drive away and then hides and cowers in fear when Marge slams on the brakes.

Wow, 2 pages and no ones mentioned the death of Maude Flanders?

There was one season premiere where The Who guest starred. That was about it for me. I always watched the show up to that point but from there it seemed like every episode was written from a "what guest star can we find this week" perspective?

Although for me, I don't consider it "The Bleeding Gums Murphy" era vs. the "Ol' Gil" era, I think of it more as the "Homer working at the power plant" era vs. "Homer not working at the power plant" era. The show just seemed to lose something when Homer no longer seemed to work.

It had already gone down the dumper and had a brief revival by that point.

Low points for me were the trip to Africa (pretty much any episode where Lisa says 'The Simpsons are going to...') and the one where Homer built the tennis court.

It's funny, I really didn't like the chili cook off episode or the one where they went to NYC, but both are favorites now.

Mid-Season 9. That's almost universally considered the downfall. I agree The Prinicpal and The Pauper is out there (Armin's frozen peas..., classic line), but I liked it. The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson is one of my all-time favorite episodes.

Season 10 is downright awful. Bart The Mother is terrible. I just really hate that episode.

As a lifelong fan, I can say it hasn't been the same since then. Season 19 and 20 have been a VAST improvement over anything since the late 90s, though. I still watch it religiously, but it's not like I can rewatch Seasons 10 - 20 over and over again like I can with Seasons 3 - 9.

I have the exact same opinion. I imagine that the beginning of season nine was strong because there were still leftover ideas from the earlier season. The writing staff during that stretch had clearly not watched much of the show during the classic years and moved the focus in a new direction. Of course who knew it would get worse in seasons 11 and 12. Those seasons really killed any connection to the prime of the show.

I don't watch crap like Family Guy... so it was funny to me.

True, but I can't even count how many Family Guy episodes have stolen storylines and jokes from the Simpsons. It happens in almost every episode.

Simpsons did it! Simpsons did it!

I mirror those sentiments.

Also, when Homer kept on meeting celebrities in each episode and they played themselves, the show lost something...a BIG something. It used to be celebs would do guest voices and play fictional characters and add to the characters of Springfield. It's like they ran out of ideas, and were scraping the bottom of the barrel.

I do think the show recovered after that three year period, but for a while there it was pretty abysmal. Now the show is still not at the top of it's game, but it's still good. A weak episode of the Simpsons these days is better than most shows. At it's worst, a weak episode of the Simpsons during that bleak period was better than nothing.

I agree, that was Tennis the Menace from Season 12- and I remember watching it first run and realizing the downslide in quality. Actually, it was ep 5 of season 12, Homer vs. Diginity, with the panda rape that really started the decline for me.

They never have. I watch The Simpsons weekly and enjoy it. Though not as much as South Park and Family Guy.

Never did, never will. I'm that guy.

When South Park started.

I just can't see how stealing jokes from a show generally considered a "Simpsons rip-off" is "good comedy".

Because if it is supposed to be one of those "this is for stealing all our jokes" then it is a lame way to go about it.