The Simpsons: Classic Or Dud?

Also, I believe Australia had a Simpsons theme-park (or something along those lines) years before the US got one.

as beliefs go, I guess this beats "beardy sky dude wants me to kill pregnant ladies" but it's pretty thin imo

Yeah I wish we had! (Is it possible one of the QLD theme parks had a Simspsons ride or house or something?)

okay I checked it out, turns out there were at least two painted pieces of wood and a slightly re-edited version of the Bart Calls Australia episode in the shortlived massive tax rort "Fox Studios Backlot Experience". For $80 entry and the 99-year giveaway of a huge piece of public land to a US citizen's business interest, you, too, could touch these:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/74/02/08/740208d27d630624eb379fe0113dd067.jpg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a4/ea/b6/a4eab6ad929deb908f9d57c4982e5483.jpg

I scorekept for a pub quiz tonight, and one of the teams called themselves "500 Dollaradoos".

"Dollarydoos" that is.

Australia has had two versions of Duff beer too - the first one in the mid 90s was taken off the shelves when Fox caught wind, the second (officially licensed) version was removed due to the links to a cartoon being too irresistible for kids, apparently.

this is the dumbest joke in the whole episode but it still makes me laugh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMlWGPt5kPg

An ex of mine bought a six pack of that original 90s Duff! It got banhammered/pulled of the shelves just after that so he knew it'd be a collectors item.

Idiot ended up drinking one later anyway. He said it tasted like arse.

I've had oe of the later Duff release beers, I couldnt tell you if it was good or not, I hate beer.

https://scontent-syd2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/295160_10150596158947757_1672986071_n.jpg?oh=301b969921bc3df1013680122a5a2240&oe=59D590A2

i'm related to someone with an unopened can of the original duff, which doesn't use the simpsons duff logo and could basically be anything

Thats right, name aside it had no real relation to the simsons did it? I'd forgot that.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/Australian_Duff_beer_can.jpg/170px-Australian_Duff_beer_can.jpg

that's the one, pissweak as cash-ins go

This happened.

It's been done.

http://www.vulture.com/2017/07/the-simpsons-planet-of-the-apes-musical-oral-history-zauis.html

even as someone who's listened to all the dvd commentaries i'd pay good money to read that kind of oral history for every episode from season 1 to season 8 (and maybe beyond, just to see what they were thinking)

otm

https://www.facebook.com/thecontentzone/videos/768405663358314/

can't stop watching this, my god

the ascension of steamed hams memes seems like one of the few good things in 2017

Seasons 1-8: Classic
Season 9 onwards: Dud

quite a take

odd seasons bad, even seasons good up to season 25, then all good

Classic Apu
Dud Lisa

im watching Lemon of Troy. if this isn't the POO episode it is certainly in the top 5.

"Homer! Come quick! Bart's quit his tutoring job and joined a violence gang!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBg99mH8pyA

"Now Marge, you can't blame all of Bart's problems on your one little speech. If anything turned him bad, it's that time you let him wear a bathing suit instead of underwear. And let's not forget your little speech."

https://frinkiac.com/img/S06E24/685984.jpg

Every line in this episode, I swear:

"Run, boy! He's got the taste for meat now!"

"Eat my shorts!" "Yes, eat ALL our shirts!"

"I say 'radical'! That's my thing that I say!"

Apropos of this thread bump, I have heard three different people in the last week use the construction, "Say I says to _____, I says . . ."

i love how the first half is all kids and their stupid petty tribalism and the halfway through the adults all pile into the van and it's basically the same dynamics.

Homer: "Come on everybody, let's into Shelbyville and get those kids back ourselves! I've got an RV we can use -- Flanders's!"

"Missing children?"
"Sounds like Springfield's got a discipline problem."
"Maybe that why we beat 'em at football nearly half the time, huh?"

wait a minute... there's a lemon behind that rock!

oh god when Milhouse is imagining that his camouflage will turn him into the Cheshire Cat

rocky v + rocky ii = ... rocky vii, adrian's revenge!

agreed that this is probably the best episode of the series, p much every line is gold

"Hey everybody! An old man's talking!"

i also love the shelbyville/springfield mythology- the line about marrying your cousins and jebidaiahs line about 'root marm' pops into my head often

"Over here, my friends! Or is it...over here!"

https://media.giphy.com/media/JmQAzA0PcwcTu/giphy.gif

https://youtu.be/UuQFI9TXiv8

"You must be stupider than you look."
"Stupider like a FOX!"

i love when they come upon the impound lot and inside the bad kids are running circles around the tree like it's a 60s motorcycle b-movie or something.

"Spring forth, burly protector, and save me!"

https://frinkiac.com/gif/S06E24/740055/747562.gif?b64lines=4pmqIEhBUksKIFRPIFRIRSBUQUxFIE9GIE5FTFNPTiDimao=

"The town of Springfield was born on that day, and to mark that sweet moment, our people planted this lemon tree (lemons being the sweetest fruit available at the time.)"

Yep, I always hold up "Lemon of Troy" as one of the best ever. Brent Forrester only wrote a few other episodes, wonder why he didn't get used more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A2VDVC4-nM

Forrester also wrote "Homer vs. Patty and Selma," which contains one of my favorite scenes in the history of television:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxvAZq9Dr1U

YES.

"Here's Shelbyville Falls, Rolling Rock..."

https://frinkiac.com/video/S03E21/uYOQZxUnieaMtgSbX1ojlsSLPBA=.gif

i like how at the of TOL they get the tree back but it is ripped in half. in the prior scene it's still intact so the impression is that it was damaged on the journey back into Springfield. it's a silent visual gag that maybe suggests if they had shared w the neighbors in the first place the tree would be fully intact. other shows would make this into a grand King Solomon-style moral lesson but here it's just yet more satirical subtext.

also classic is the scene where Bart is making his pre battle "When we cross this line, we become men" speech as the girls in the background are just playing, deflating in a single shot the violent pride of tribal masculinity.

again, they didn't stop the show and have a character step forward and give a speech, this is just _there_. it's a part of the world.

i like the theme of reality vs. fantasy here. Milhouse thinking he can disappear into the trees and become invisible, yet he instead discovers someone, someone who alone shares his experience. Bart thinking he can propel himself upward jetpack-style with spraypaint cans: instead he just turns his feet green. the old men chronicling the heroic deeds of their offspring, violent young men who refuse to share and in the process destroy the very thing they claim to hold dear.

Bart: Hey, stop talking bad about my town, man!
Shelby: Why don't you make me!
Bart: I don't make trash, I burn it!
Shelby: Well then I guess you're a garbage man!
Bart: I know you are but what am I?
Shelby: A garbage man!
Bart: Oh I know you are but what am I?
Shelby: A garbage man!
Bart: I know you are but what am I?
Shelby: A garbage man!
Bart: Takes one to know one!
[COLLECTIVE GASPS]

i love how they set up Bart. Prof. Frink shows up at the start and asks if he wants to try the flying motorcycle he just invented. so you're expecting it to come back. the way later in the episode Bart is in trouble and says "I could use a flying motorcycle right now". finally Prof. Frink shows up with the flying motorcycle, only to say "You had your chance" and fly away and out of the episode.