"Can't talk..... watching "Simpsons" marathon.

Anybody else attempt to watch all this!
It's only Day 3..... and, we just got to,"20 dollars?! But, I wanted a peanut!"

 

You don't have them all on dvd ?

 

Yes..... but, these have been 'quasi-cropped' for my 'wide-screen' enjoyment!

 

really? not in germany.

4:3 as they were made.

 

no kidding.... I know, in this HD era, these old eps. would've been shown in a smaller square.... but, they are not.
I only really noticed when Lisa's cup-cake fell on the floor of the bus, and I didn't see it.....

 

I'll consider it a challenge to myself when the Dana Gould years start..... I may have only seen them once or twice.

 

I actually think the show remained mostly great right up through maybe season 13 or 14. Some episodes from the '99-'00 period are among the best. It really started to get shaky sometime around 2003 and it has been mostly unwatchable for the past 5 or 6 seasons.

 

Wife and I are watching every episode now up til end of Season 5. At that point, we have the box sets for 6 - 14, and we've watched those so many times, and will continue to do so...

I couldn't believe Carl Carlson's original voice. Completely forgot that. And I forgot Smithers was originally... Middle Eastern American?

Jeff

 

Yes..... they've managed NOT to alter the early episode 'mistakes'..... AND, since I've remembered them more in their old 'syndication' versions, all the 'time-saving' stuff they used to cut is back!

 

Nah. He was just well-tanned.

 

Eh, I'd disagree. It certainly got pretty dire, but I've felt like the past three or so seasons have been a bit of a return to form. It'll never match the early years of course, but there's been a marked improvement.

 

Ok, at least now I don't feel too bad for drifting away about 6 years ago. The last few season's that I watched was mostly out of loyalty. Quit watching all together around the same time "King Of The Hill" jumped the shark (I never forgave them for killing off Cotton Hill).

 

"Call Mr. Plow, that's my name... that name again is Mr. Plow!"

 

They're really in the sweet spot now-- just finished "Bart's Comet" and halfway into "Homie the Clown". Brilliant, brilliant stuff. Whoever coined the phrase, "they don't make 'em like that anymore" was surely talking about this.

 

Well, just caught the REAL reason why this fake 'wide-screen' suck....
The joke where, after the 'train-in-the-tunnel' footage, and the 'hot-dog-in-the-conveyor-belt' footage, you see Bart & Lisa in a movie theatre, and the 'wide-screen' has totally obscured the 'Stock Film Festival' sign, at the upper-left corner.
Boo.......

 

I'm also noticing the words 'A New Corporation Company' is no longer under the 20thTelevision logo!
Does Rupert no longer own this?

 

The kids never age even after 20 years. I have to have realism in my cartoons.

 

Doh!

http://gizmodo.com/fxxs-wrong-aspect-ratio-is-ruining-the-fantastic-simpso-1625959743

http://www.reddit.com/r/TheSimpsons/comments/2e6lzd/fxx_is_cropping_older_simpsons_episodes_to_fit/

http://bit.ly/1pswAZh

 

Its funny to think about little things that were one off.. Smithers being "really tanned" and Burns originally being voiced by Chris Latta more famous for voicing Starscream in the original Transformers animated series.

 

The odd thing is that, in some cases, they've obviously put some thought into the cropping decisions and tried to keep things in the frame (and any time something being viewed on a TV is shown, they've correctly pillarboxed it). I'd almost guess whoever did the cropping on the Duff beer pipe joke that was ruined and the Stock Footage Festival just didn't catch or get the joke. Also odd because FXX runs other older shows in 4x3 pillarbox, so I'm not sure why they decided this one needed the crop.

 

And a theory I've seen pop up a couple places is that perhaps FXX is intentionally doing this to prevent pristine copies of the whole series from turning up on torrent sites. I found an article stating that these were indeed "remastered in HD" and newly color-corrected over the past year, so the quality is quite a bit better than the existing DVDs. The theory is perhaps Fox is planning on releasing these new restorations on Blu-Ray and running these cropped versions ensures that the "real" versions remain unavailable until then.

 

That is a solid theory based in reality. I imagine we'll start seeing Blu-ray releases of the remastered seasons in their OAR within 12-18 months. FXX paid out a small fortune for the syndication rights (though likely still at discount to market pricing as a subsidiary of the Fox empire) and Fox wants to establish FXX as a legitimate brand. I still believe it's a terrible name for a comedy channel, but I guess their focus groups thought it tested well with the 14-24 crowd.

 

Apparently FXX has also confirmed that the 4x3 versions will be the ones available on their upcoming "Simpsons World" streaming channel (launches in October, I think), which is only accessible if you have a cable subscription. Perhaps another sign that the cropping was some weird anti-piracy measure.

 

I don't get the channel....it's called FXX now?

 

I watched quite a few episodes last night, but I reached my saturation point. I'll tune in occasionally until it's over.