TV: When did the Simpsons Die?

[John Price]

I started re-watching Simpsons a few months ago starting from season 2 and working my way up. I'm at season 8 now.

I can start to feel a decline in quality and we haven't even hit the amendment / drinking episode yet. I feel like soon I'm going to have to call it quits. I look at the episodes coming up and they really don't seem that interesting.

It's sad, but expected. They had a prime run of 2-10 but you can feel the quality starting to drop.

 

[Fantomas]

Season 9 is the last gasp. Mike Scully's ineptness is not yet completely apparent because there are holdover episodes (such as the fantastic Simpson Tide) and some of the old showrunners are there to help him out.

After season 9, Scully takes over permanently and the show begins coasting on all the good will it built up.

It's actually somewhat of a miracle that the show stayed brilliant for so long. It was a stroke of genius for them to hire David Mirkin after season four. He saved The Simpsons and gave it new life.

 

[Fantomas]

Sure, you have some good stuff in season 8. The pretzel episode reminds you that they can still be really good

LOL, the pretzel episode is pretty bad. Terminally boring.