When did The Simpsons jump the shark for you?

I remember the phenomenon that was season 1. It was very similar to the "Batmania" that happened earlier that year for the Batman movie. It just seemed to transition right into "Bartmania." You even had the two overlap with "Bartman" merchandise. It's not surprising that season 1 had the show's highest ratings ever. It was an instant viral hit out of the gate, unlike most shows. I can still remember talking about how great episodes like the first Sideshow Bob episode were with friends right after they aired. I wasn't even in high school yet. I think I remained a pretty regular viewer throughout the '90s, but that may have gotten less frequent by seasons 7 and 8. But then I remember getting really interested in the show again, and catching up on every episode I had ever missed in reruns.

I never watched Family Guy or South Park again after sampling one or two episodes early on. They seemed dumb and unsubtle to me. And they didn't make me laugh. I watched Futurama loyally, from its first episode. It started up just as The Simpsons was getting bad, and was a welcome return to the same style and quality of the good Simpsons years.

 

I think Seasons 2 and 3 are the best seasons of The Simpsons.

 

Regarding 'Family Guy' (and 'The Simpsons'): I used to skip watching the latest season, knowing I'd be able to pick it up when the next season started the next Fall... However, now that The Mouse owns the show, I don't think we'll be seeing anymore DVD releases.

'The Simpsons', I know they stopped DVD releases some time ago, but I was still a bit surprised that they stopped releasing 'Family Guy'...

 

So it improved?

 

To paraphrase Kent Brockman:
"All I can say is "OUCH!" to The Beatles."

 

To quote Kent Brockman:
" I for one welcome our insect overlords"

 

Pretty interesting -thanks for sharing. One thing to keep in mind is that seasons 8 - 12 still had worthy, excellent episodes, just a lower % unfortunately. I would put season 12'2 Skinner's Sense Of Snow episode against any from previous seasons for quality and laughs.

 

When the trend for celebrity cameo appearances gained traction.

A lot of those episodes were the worst for me.

 

Family Guy was never in the same league as primo Simpsons, and it’s been wildly inconsistent ever since it came back in s3. Ergo, people don’t feel as let down by it.

 

I haven't watched the show in about 6 years. The reason is complicated and stupid, but it isn't because i thought it 'jumped the shark'. Yes, the quality declined, but I still felt it was better than most of the dreck on network TV.

But, I feel it really jumped the shark recently with the Hank Azaria/Apu controversy. Hank had been performing Apu for decades! Apu is one of the more developed minor characters on the show. Hank was not disrespectful at all in is portrayal, IMO.
Now, I'd 100% agree that if it were a live action show, you should get an Indian to play him. But, this is a cartoon! What next? Can only a semi-closeted gay guy voice Smithers? Will they need to find actual aliens for Kang & Kodos? Should they find an actual boy to voice Bart instead of a woman.

It's just silly for a cartoon, and I'm done with the show.

 

Wait 'til you hear Dr. Hibbert & Carl now!

 

No thanks.

 

I’m on Season 12 of my watch-through and so far it’s still good.

I think I actually liked 11 more than 9 and 10 because by 11 the show embraced the more absurd parts of the Mike Scully era and it embraced the fact that it was a different show, wackier but with less heart. 9 and 10 are in this weird zone where they’re still kinda trying to do the classic, heartwarming tone of 1-8, but the formula had grown stale by that point.

 

You would also need a true Scotsman to voice Willie.

I remember hearing a comedian recently say he just won't do accents anymore for fear of a backlash. That's the creatively oppressive and stifling era we're in now. Just the modern answer to the seven dirty words and covering up the belly button of the 50s and 60s.

I do think 9 (minus the holdover episodes) and 10 might be worse than the later years. I think they recognized the ship had hit an iceberg and tried to bail out enough water to keep it afloat. Since then it's been more bland than offensively insulting to the intelligence.

 

The panda one in season 12 is hard to watch at just how low Homer goes.

 

I guess that means they need to get an actual pedophile to play Herbert on Family Guy. Fair's fair, right?

 

Yeah, the quality plunge with season 9 is very pronounced. "The Principal and the Pauper" was just an enormous "why‽" "The Cartridge Family" and "Bart Star" both convinced me not to "binge" this season, but get through it intermittently while binging seasons 1-5. Somehow, they got both too over-the-top and too boring, simultaneously.

 

Reading over this thread got me to thinking about back in the late '80s/early '90s when I was stationed in West Germany. I used to get recorded VHS tapes sent to me from the states every month with the recent Simpsons episodes on them, and we would have viewing parties. Man, that makes me feel old!

 

I think that's sort of what happened to me in college. When I lost interest in watching the show or just didn't have time for it, I still had a VCR at home taping various shows for me on a timer. I guess I was planning to get caught up watching them in the summer or something. I don't remember how the timing worked out but eventually I remember going through those tapes and getting caught up on a lot of episodes. I think that's when I also noticed some jokes were cut out of the syndicated episodes.

 

You gotta put years next to the season numbers....
I'd like to know if they got a little more 'heart-warming' during the post 9-11 world...
Then, there's the shift in animation after the movie was release, in 2008, I think....

 

This was awful. It came out in 1998:

The Yellow Album - Wikipedia

 

Season 12 is November 2000 to May 2001, and then Season 13 starts in November 2001. So I’ll have to see if it gets more heartwarming post-9/11.

 

I haven't heard any of the material from that album, but the ones that came immediately before and after (1997's Songs in the Key of Springfield and 1999's Go Simpsonic with the Simpsons) are both great.

 

I always liked those Halloween episodes.
I haven't seen it in awhile but reading comments make me interested in the first decade . It used to come on at 8 o clock on Sunday. Fox started dragging out the football games etc . That annoyed me.

 

There was another one called "Testify".....has one or two things from the older shows....and a little too much from the newer ones.