> what critics usually praise about "The Simpsons" is its irreverence toward everything crass and crazy in American culture, its harsh satire. The die-hard fans tend to be more interested in the characters as people than as vehicles for social criticism. While they enjoy the satire, above all they see "The Simpsons" as a character comedy, at its best when most compassionate toward the flawed-but-lovable Simpson family. Many of these fans cite the early "Lisa's Substitute" -- the Dustin Hoffman episode, and the most serious and poignant "Simpsons" episode of all -- as a favorite.

It's this element of compassion that fans find lacking in the recent flood of "wacky" episodes; to quote Lombard, in the last few seasons "the satire tends to forsake character realism. Stories these days don't tend to deal with the ... feelings of the characters." Emotionally affecting episodes have been rare of late, as "The Simpsons" has placed more emphasis on cartoony action.

Almost every episode now seems to end with some sort of violent action climax. Already this season, Homer survived an assassination attempt by a horde of evil restaurant owners, the kids torched a pile of evil robot toys and the whole family was attacked by rampaging farm animals. Some fans point to these outlandish plots as evidence that creator Matt Groening's original rule for the show -- that "The Simpsons" would never do anything a real, non-cartoon family wouldn't do -- has been violated.

To the TV critics, what matters most is that the show is still taking on the big cultural targets; the fans are quicker to object when a joke, however nervy, gets in the way of the characterization -- or worse, when characterization is violated for the sake of an easy joke. In the ninth-season episode "Bart Star," Lisa showed up at football tryouts, expecting to stir up controversy and fight discrimination against women in sports. When she discovered that the team already had three female members, she lost interest and left; she didn't care about football, just about taking up a new cause. It was a nice bit of self-parody, but many fans saw it as a betrayal of the character, an indication that the writers had misread Lisa's personality, turning her from a sweet girl with a social conscience into a self-righteous, preachy troublemaker...

Epona's dugs! When will people realise that Groening is the worst thing about the titting Simpsons? The early, 'family' episodes are excruciatingly bad. The best parts of the Simpsons are little scenarios completely divorced from the main plot, such that I often can't remember which episodes they are from. The Sacrilicious Waffle is possibly the best thing I will ever see with my eyes ever. I'm closing them now so as not to fill them with boring things and dilute the remembered splendour. The Speedboat Police Raffle (actually, I do know which episode this is... the one with the angel. It's almost perfect, but it chokes on its tail in the last two minutes, realising that it's a mainstream show and they can't get away with slagging Judeo-Christians.)

Anyone else seen that episode of The Critic, where a thick family are watching telly, see the Critic guy on (I've forgotten the character's name), turn it over in disgust and see the Simpsons, Homer stepping on a rake and going "D'oh!" and they say, "Now this I understand?" That's what the writers thought of the Simpsons in those days. But The Critic didn't run and the writers eventually realised they could get away with whatever they wanted
on the Simpsons, so now they do. There's no lack of satire still, if you think in your stupidity that it's not enough to just be 'comedy'... look at "The Prod of Zorro" for a comprehensive gutting of the whole mainstream Hollywood cinema scene.

I feel sick at the ignorance of these people, I can't go on, IMGO, the thing with Lisa and the football team was a triumphant shedding of useless skin...

The 1989 Simpsons would never have the line "I don't believe it, even Jerry Springer couldn't solve our problem.. and now he's dead. " Just be grateful for it you mangy rotten rascals...

The Simpsons can fail against its own high standards, but it still bestrideth the comedy world like a colossus.

That's basically as much criticism as should ever be mustered against it. When it's gone, you'll all be sorry.

Or when it gets as bad as Roseanne did.

Roseanne, Roseanne, Roseanne. So incredible at its peak, and yet then slowly dwindling into complete shititude.

I haven't watched it for a while (it's getting repeated at the moment isn't it?) but from what I remember, it could count as an influence on the Simpsons. All of Homer's instinctive bad parenting stuff comes straight from Roseanne.

>Roseanne, Roseanne, Roseanne. So incredible at its peak, and yet then slowly dwindling into complete shititude.

We've been here before, but I watched the final Roseanne episode in 1997. Now, that was TV Hell. And mad with it.

>I haven't watched it for a while (it's getting repeated at the moment isn't it?) but from what I remember, it could count as an influence on the Simpsons. All of Homer's instinctive bad parenting stuff comes straight from Roseanne.

Not sure that's a fair comparison. Roseanne only began the year before the Simpsons (1988 - Simpsons began in its own right in 89). You could trace the lineage of Simpsons influences back to Wait Till Your Father Gets Home (Hanna Barbera satirical generation gap cartoon of the early 1970s).

But when it was on form (89-92ish), Roseanne was utterly brilliant. And several of its writing staff - Betsy Borns, Michael Borkow, Kevin Abbott - went on to write for Friends, which I'm not the biggest fan of, but I have to admit has had its moments too.

Oh, yeah, when's E4 going to re-run Dream On, then? (Created by Marta Kauffman, Kevin S. Bright and David Crane, who went on to create Friends.)

I've only just read the beginning of this thread, actually.

I have seen very few of recent Simpsons episodes, not having Sky One. But I disagree with the increasingly "fashionable" view that early Simpsons is rubbish - even in its early days, it took the issue of the family and subverted in a way that no American sitcom had ever done. If it had started trying to overload the satirical references from episode 1, it would not have worked because we wouldn't have given a toss about the family itself. It is incredibly important that we care about the characters, and I agree that incoming writers on a show should respect their consistencies (which is true of any sitcom, animated or live action, and demonstrates why the final series of One Foot was every bit as good as its first, and why The Royle Family has lost its way somewhat).

To take the example of Lisa's Substitute, it remains one of the great early episodes for me, alongside Krusty Gets Busted, Cape Feare and even The Crepes Of Wrath. The fact that it has what some might class as a soppy ending is neither here nor there, because it is still a very funny episode. For instance:

1. "Unless the next word was 'burp', you didn't have to."
2. "Dear Miss Hoover, you have lime disease. We miss you. Kevin's biting me."
3. "Oh Marge I'd love to, but unfortunately I'm...[INTERNALLY}...sleeping, eating a big sandwich, watching TV, spending time with the boy...[TO MARGE]..Spending time with the boy."
4. "Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand."
5. "More asbestos, more asbestos, more asbestos..."

On their own, not classics? Well, in context they work a fucking treat. And Homer's last contented line, "Let's just go to bed, I'm on the biggest roll of my life" still raises a laugh. Just because something inspires an "aaaaah" every now and again does not mean it's worthless. The only real axe I have to grind with The Simpsons is the early standard of animation.