Watching the Simpsons for the first time

Richard

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I was away for business to Boston this week but I did watch the Treehouse of Horror last night- I was really tired so I plan to watch it again. I enjoyed the heck out of it and it was honestly just a bit creepy. The raven was soooo good.

I'll be watching more this weekend as I am dead from traveling.
 

Shareefruck

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Great thread. Keep it up.

Season 1 has some charms in a wholesome children's story kind of way, but it's definitely not super special in the way the show becomes, IMO. I think it's reasonable to like it or hate it.

Season 2 is incredible, despite still having a lot of the cheesiness of season 1-- Its peaks in particular are among the strongest of the series. I would personally take it over seasons 5 and 6, and VERY easily over 7, 8, and 9 (despite being way better than what comes after, it is no longer masterful television by 7, IMO). It is AGGRESSIVELY trash some time after that, and arguably among the worst things on television after season 13.

Bart Gets an F, Lisa's Substitue, Three Men and a Comic Book, and Itchy and Scratchy and Marge are absolutely beautiful episodes (there's oddly a more bold and striking maturity to them that the series gradually loses over time). In my opinion, far better than a lot of the zanier standouts from the later seasons, like "You Only Move Twice."

Season 3 and 4 are absolutely perfect and brilliant from start to finish, IMO-- some of the absolute best television you can watch. Season 5 is also really consistently high quality and funny in its inspired zaniness, but it loses a lot of the show's soul in a way that I would argue was the beginning of the end for the series. While I love Conan O' Brien's contributions to the show, it feels like the popularity of his sensibilities caused the show to completely lose its groundedness and never look back.
So you hate the show but cant stop coming in here, gotcha
How the hell did you manage to lose track of the fact that he was talking about Futurama this whole time?

For the record, I don't see anything wrong with anyone outright disliking Futurama (although admittedly, there was no need for him to be a bit of **** about it initially). Personally, I think it's serviceable but overrated (especially the more famous tear-jerker episodes that people go nuts about).
 
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Richard

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Great thread. Keep it up.

Season 1 has some charms in a wholesome children's story kind of way, but it's definitely not super special in the way the show becomes, IMO. I think it's reasonable to like it or hate it.

Season 2 is incredible, despite still having a lot of the cheesiness of season 1-- Its peaks in particular are among the strongest of the series. I would personally take it over seasons 5 and 6, and VERY easily over 7, 8, and 9 (despite being way better than what comes after, it is no longer masterful television by 7, IMO). It is AGGRESSIVELY trash some time after that, and arguably among the worst things on television after season 13.

Bart Gets an F, Lisa's Substitue, Three Men and a Comic Book, and Itchy and Scratchy and Marge are absolutely beautiful episodes (there's oddly a more bold and striking maturity to them that the series gradually loses over time). In my opinion, far better than a lot of the zanier standouts from the later seasons, like "You Only Move Twice."

Season 3 and 4 are absolutely perfect and brilliant from start to finish, IMO-- some of the absolute best television you can watch. Season 5 is also really consistently high quality and funny in its inspired zaniness, but it loses a lot of the show's soul in a way that I would argue was the beginning of the end for the series. While I love Conan O' Brien's contributions to the show, it feels like the popularity of his sensibilities caused the show to completely lose its groundedness and never look back.
How the hell did you manage to lose track of the fact that he was talking about Futurama this whole time?

For the record, I don't see anything wrong with anyone outright disliking Futurama (although admittedly, there was no need for him to be a bit of **** about it initially). Personally, I think it's serviceable but overrated (especially the more famous tear-jerker episodes that people go nuts about).
Bart gets an F really surprised me..... the ending was... just incredible.
 
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Shareefruck

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Bart gets an F really surprised me..... the ending was... just incredible.
Yeah. It really nails every beat, has a ton of inspired creative/art direction/writing decisions, and perfectly/tastefully/heart-breakingly encapsulates a feeling that I think most people relateably come across in their lives (I imagine doubly so for people with ADD or similar conditions).

People always cite the really heavy-handed manipulative and ultimately pretty shallow emotional episodes like Mother Simpson and the Do it For Her one, but episodes like these are the real and actually substantive emotional episodes, IMO.

It's also the first real moment that The Simpsons hit on greatness, IMO. Going from season 1 to that? Man.
 
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Mr Fahrenheit

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How the hell did you manage to lose track of the fact that he was talking about Futurama this whole time?

For the record, I don't see anything wrong with anyone outright disliking Futurama (although admittedly, there was no need for him to be a bit of **** about it initially). Personally, I think it's serviceable but overrated (especially the more famous tear-jerker episodes that people go nuts about).

Because we never once discussed Futurama, was I supposed to guess?
 

Shareefruck

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Because we never once discussed Futurama, was I supposed to guess?
Basic reading comprehension would lead anyone to that conclusion.

You responded to a comment of his that was overwhelmingly positive/charitable about the show (arguing that even the seasons people don't like are enjoyable). It wouldn't make sense to think that he then proceeded to argue that it's a crappy show.

On top of that, he said
opinion, not fact. Some people enjoyed those seasons. If you didn’t, that’s fine.
I’m also not going to take a Futurama fans opinion too seriously.
and you responded with
Man you are cool! Too bad its impossible to be friends...
Hard to take someone who thinks opinions can't be wrong too seriously
Anyone would assume that your sarcastic "Man you are so cool!" comment was in response to the snarky/unreasonable part of his post ("I’m also not going to take a Futurama fans opinion too seriously") rather than the fair and respectful part of his post ("opinion, not fact. Some people enjoyed those seasons. If you didn’t, that’s fine.")

Like.... were you instead mocking the fact that he wanted to "respectfully agree to disagree" and that "opinions are subjective"? If you were, then okay, I guess I understand where the confusion is now, but that's a pretty weird thing to get confrontational about.

And for the record, I disagree with him-- I don't think post-season 9 is worth watching at all, or has any good episodes, personally. At best, I think they're trashy guilty pleasures that I would rather not exist.
 
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Langdon Alger

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Because we never once discussed Futurama, was I supposed to guess?

no, just follow the conversation. My comment about futurama wasn’t necessary, and I’m sorry i kind of derailed the thread with it. I honestly just never got anything out of that show. Didn’t make me laugh, didn’t find the characters or stories interesting. I probably should just say I don’t like it, and leave it at that.

I still think there are some good episodes of the Simpsons once you get past season 8. Ron Howard was really funny in that episode with Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger. “Homer, we’re out of vodka.”

I still think a mediocre episode of the Simpsons is better than a lot of other shows out there.
 

Baby Punisher

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Well, I must be the only person born in the early 80's who has not watched the Simpsons. I confess I have NEVER watched a full episode of the Simpsons. My limited experience in the Simpsons world has been to play the video game for Nintendo and to watch half of a treehouse of horror in the mid 90's.

That being said, I decided to give the Simpsons a go. I bought Disney plus and have decided to start at the beginning and see what all of the hype was about.

I have recently finished Season 1 of the show. I liked it, was entertained by it, and enjoyed it. However, there wasn't as many laugh out loud moments as I would have expected. There were some witty one-liners that made smile, almost in every episode but I was surprised with how, well, rather unzany the first season is.

My favorite episodes are The Crepes of Wraith, Krusty gets busted, and the season finale.

My least favorite were The call of the Simpsons (probably the worst of the season) and Life on the Fast lane.

Good things are that the family dynamic is cool and believable, Homer calling Bart the boy, the play on family dramas, and the incredible cast of secondary characters.

Bad things are the lack of laugh of loud moments, the predictability of the endings, the lack of pace, and some complete dud moments.

The Simpson's were always pretty pop culture-centric. Then they became part of pop culture lore. You won't get the subtle jokes and one-liners because you were too young to remember when those things were popular. The deeper you get into the series you should get the humor more. Also, as someone else mentioned the show really hit it's stride during season 3 and never looked back.

Overall the season gets a 6.5 out of 10 for me and I definitely will move on to Season 2.
 

Baby Punisher

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the Simpsons in season 1 and parts of season 2 hadn't really found the formula that made them funny. Homer was just mad at everything under the sun; by season 3 he calms down considerably and becomes much funnier. Bart went from the loveable but not really funny underachiever to someone who derives more humor by being surprisingly out of character, saying something that no 10 year old should be capable of. Lisa became the only family member who could do dry humor well, usually as a foil to Homer. Marge went from having basically no jokes at all to a more vibrant and deep personality. Maggie stopped existing just to fall down.

since the OP didn't actually ask where to stop, I won't volunteer my opinion, which is that he should stop at the Japan episode of season 10. Or my opinion on Futurama, which is that the new episodes are nowhere near as funny as the original four seasons.
Homer has also become dumber as the series has gone on too. You see him go from angry and fighting his plight to slowly giving in, giving up, dumbing down and becoming oblivious to his surroundings.
 
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Mr Fahrenheit

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Basic reading comprehension would lead anyone to that conclusion.

You responded to a comment of his that was overwhelmingly positive/charitable about the show (arguing that even the seasons people don't like are enjoyable). It wouldn't make sense to think that he then proceeded to argue that it's a crappy show.

On top of that, he said

and you responded with

Anyone would assume that your sarcastic "Man you are so cool!" comment was in response to the snarky/unreasonable part of his post ("I’m also not going to take a Futurama fans opinion too seriously") rather than the fair and respectful part of his post ("opinion, not fact. Some people enjoyed those seasons. If you didn’t, that’s fine.")

Like.... were you instead mocking the fact that he wanted to "respectfully agree to disagree" and that "opinions are subjective"? If you were, then okay, I guess I understand where the confusion is now, but that's a pretty weird thing to get confrontational about.

And for the record, I disagree with him-- I don't think post-season 9 is worth watching at all, or has any good episodes, personally. At best, I think they're trashy guilty pleasures that I would rather not exist.

He was talking about Futurama fans, not Futurama, and that was the only ever mention of the show between us and im supposed to know every post he ever makes afterwards is about Futurama?

The "fair and reasonable" part of his post about his opinion was "I cant be wrong cause its my opinion and its not a fact btw everything you say im going to say is bad" IE his opinion is valid and mine is not. Reading comprehension
 

Shareefruck

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He was talking about Futurama fans, not Futurama, and that was the only ever mention of the show between us and im supposed to know every post he ever makes afterwards is about Futurama?

The "fair and reasonable" part of his post about his opinion was "I cant be wrong cause its my opinion and its not a fact btw everything you say im going to say is bad" IE his opinion is valid and mine is not. Reading comprehension
"I’m also not going to take a Futurama fans opinion too seriously," pretty clearly implies that he thinks Futurama is bad and therefore its fans can't be taken seriously (which I agree is a sh***y comment to make). Yes, I think it's reasonable to expect people to understand that subsequent comments about an unnamed show being awful is obviously referring to Futurama and not the show that he's been praising in the exact same conversation.

I'm not sure where you got the "his opinion is valid and mine is not" part. It's perfectly reasonable to think that something that some else thinks is good is bad, or to express how silly it is to believe that exactly how good something is can be objectively determined.
 
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Osprey

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"I’m also not going to take a Futurama fans opinion too seriously," implies that he thinks Futurama is bad and therefore that its fans can't be taken seriously (which I think is a moronic comment, btw). Yes, I think it's reasonable to expect people to understand that subsequent comments about the show being awful is referring to Futurama and not the show that he's been praising.

I'm not sure where you got the "his opinion is valid and mine is not" part. It's perfectly reasonable to think that something that you think is good is bad, or to express that it's silly to believe that there is an objective answer for exactly how good something is considered.

I didn't want wade into this, but if you're going to take Darcy's side, I have to step in and take Mr Fahrenheit's side. Darcy saying that he's not going to "take a Futurama fans opinion too seriously" is not consistent with his repeated statements that everyone is entitled to his opinion and opinions can't be wrong, IMO. I think that that's what Mr Fahrenheit meant with the "his opinion is valid and mine is not" part, because Darcy acted like the opinions of Futurama fans are invalid while simultaneously arguing that his own opinions of The Simpsons are valid.

On the topic of reading compression, Darcy's was poor first, IMO. When Mr Fahrenheit first took issue with that post of his, Darcy said "you’re still going on about this?" because he was confusing him with a poster that he had an exchange with earlier. That exchange was over Futurama, but because Darcy confused the posters, he assumed that Mr Fahrenheit would know that he was referring to that when he called it a "crappy show." Mr Fahrenheit was not that poster and never mentioned Futurama, himself, so I can see why it might not have been obvious to him that the "crappy show" in question was Futurama, not The Simpsons. Maybe he could've reasoned it out with a little more effort or re-reading, but, really, it was Darcy's mistake and lack of clarity that was more to blame, IMO.

That said, Darcy admitted that he wishes that he hadn't made that comment about Futurama fans, so I'm not trying to beat up on a guy who wants to move on. I just don't think that Mr Fahrenheit deserves the majority of the blame here.
 
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Brodeur

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It's fun to look back on the dates of certain episodes. In particular, I remember my older sister telling me that the show was getting canceled after the season 7 finale (Homerpalooza+Summer of 4'2). Seeing that it was 1996 made me chuckle since my family probably didn't have internet yet, so I had to assume my sister knew what she was talking about.

And then other episodes I can remember if I watched them at somebody else's house for the first time. Hurricane Neddy (Dec 29-1996) was probably a holiday get together at my uncle's after seeing the air date.

Not sure if anybody had this first world problem pre-DVR / pre-DVDs / pre-streaming. For whatever reason, I missed the first run of "Bart vs. Australia" and the subsequent re-runs. So it was probably a few years before I finally was able to see that one particular episode.
 

Mr Fahrenheit

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"I’m also not going to take a Futurama fans opinion too seriously," pretty clearly implies that he thinks Futurama is bad and therefore its fans can't be taken seriously (which I agree is a sh***y comment to make). Yes, I think it's reasonable to expect people to understand that subsequent comments about an unnamed show being awful is obviously referring to Futurama and not the show that he's been praising in the exact same conversation.

I'm not sure where you got the "his opinion is valid and mine is not" part. It's perfectly reasonable to think that something that some else thinks is good is bad, or to express how silly it is to believe that exactly how good something is can be objectively determined.

Jesus...After I said there were only a couple of good episodes post 10, or whatever verbatim, he fires back saying what he said was his opinion and not a fact then goes on to say that my opinion holds no weight. This translates to my opinion is valid while yours is not. I never once mentioned or brought up futurama but then he says im defending it, how the hell am i supposed to know he means im talking about a shot i never once talked about?
 

Shareefruck

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I didn't want wade into this, but if you're going to take Darcy's side, I have to step in and take Mr Fahrenheit's side. Darcy saying that he's not going to "take a Futurama fans opinion too seriously" is not consistent with his repeated statements that everyone is entitled to his opinion and opinions can't be wrong, IMO. I think that that's what Mr Fahrenheit meant with the "his opinion is valid and mine is not" part, because Darcy acted like the opinions of Futurama fans are invalid while simultaneously arguing that his own opinions of The Simpsons are valid.

On the topic of reading compression, Darcy's was poor first, IMO. When Mr Fahrenheit first took issue with that post of his, Darcy said "you’re still going on about this?" because he was confusing him with a poster that he had an exchange with earlier. That exchange was over Futurama, but because Darcy confused the posters, he assumed that Mr Fahrenheit would know that he was referring to that when he called it a "crappy show." Mr Fahrenheit was not that poster and never mentioned Futurama himself, so I can see why it might not have been obvious to him that the "crappy show" in question was Futurama, not The Simpsons. Maybe he could've reasoned it out with a little more effort or re-reading, but, really, it was Darcy's mistake and lack of clarity that was more to blame, IMO.

That said, Darcy admitted that he wishes that he hadn't made that comment about Futurama fans, so I'm not trying to beat him up about it. I just don't think that Mr Fahrenheit deserves the majority of the blame here.
I'm not intending to take a side regarding the overall disagreement they were having (I called out the offending statement as well and agree that Darcy's initial comments that he's now taken back were a greater offense), I was mostly just commenting on the reading comprehension part, which genuinely baffled me more (and his weird "it's impossible for me to have known that" indignation over the clarification/his own mistake made me want to chime in-- I'm basically saying "just read it back, it's pretty crystal clear").

Regarding the "his opinion is valid and mine is not" part, I see what you mean now based on his latest reply. I don't know if I agree that his Futurama comment necessarily implies that he's saying Fahrenheit's opinion objectively holds no weight or is outright invalid, but I can see how he could take it that way. To me it could just read as "I don't have personal use for your opinion and it has zero worth to me because I think so lowly of Futurama", which is a needlessly antagonistic thing to say, but doesn't necessarily contradict the idea that everyone's entitled to their own opinion and there's no objective right or wrong. But whatever, we're nitpicking at that point.
Jesus...After I said there were only a couple of good episodes post 10, or whatever verbatim, he fires back saying what he said was his opinion and not a fact then goes on to say that my opinion holds no weight. This translates to my opinion is valid while yours is not. I never once mentioned or brought up futurama but then he says im defending it, how the hell am i supposed to know he means im talking about a shot i never once talked about?
 
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alko

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Btw. what was the Top Episode of All Time. Regarding to TV ratings (millions of people watching) and quality ratings.

Who shot Mr. Burns , part 2 could be the Nr. 1 in first category, couldn't be?
 

Richard

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Watched a couple more episodes last night. Season 2 is quite a difference in quality versus season 1. Will update more this weekend with specific thoughts. I'm getting into this show more and more
 

NyQuil

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For my part, I watch the Simpsons for the quality of the comedy.

I can get emotionally resonant moments from many many other forms of entertainment.

So a lot of the very early episodes (particularly when Bart was more of the central character) haven't aged all that well to me.

It's when Homer takes the reins and the humour takes on more of the darkly satirical and uniquely absurd tone that in my mind, the show reaches its zenith.

I'll never forget the first time I completely lost it watching the Simpsons, which was in "Bart the Daredevil" in Season 2 (8th episode):

 
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Brodeur

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Btw. what was the Top Episode of All Time. Regarding to TV ratings (millions of people watching) and quality ratings.

Who shot Mr. Burns , part 2 could be the Nr. 1 in first category, couldn't be?

It's funny looking back at viewership numbers and you can see when cable TV started to become more common / ate into broadcast TV show viewership numbers.

I wouldn't have guessed it, but the season 2 premiere "Bart Gets an F" was the most watched episode with about 33 million viewers. Who Shot Burns Part II pulled in about half of that.

The early 90s were definitely a different time for TV. Awhile back, there was a podcast about Beverly Hills 90210 and one of the hosts pointed out that during its heyday, 90210 basically had weekly viewership equivalent to what an NFL playoff game would get today.
 
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Supermassive

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Btw. what was the Top Episode of All Time. Regarding to TV ratings (millions of people watching) and quality ratings.

Who shot Mr. Burns , part 2 could be the Nr. 1 in first category, couldn't be?

I’d nominate Homer At The Bat, from Season 3. Marge vs. the Monorail would be right up there too.
 

Habsfunk

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Btw. what was the Top Episode of All Time. Regarding to TV ratings (millions of people watching) and quality ratings.

Who shot Mr. Burns , part 2 could be the Nr. 1 in first category, couldn't be?

Turns out the top 10 are almost all from seasons 1 and 2. Surprising, but it illustrates how much of a phenomenon the Simpson's was when it debuted.

Edit: I think season two deserves to be included with prime Simpson's. It's not as funny as seasons 3-7, but the humour is there and the writing in terms of character and social satire is arguably the best the show ever was.
 

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