After a while it just became so obvious that the writer's weren't really interested in carrying on any more, as demonstrated by Troy McClure's "and we'll continue to carry on until the point that the show becomes unprofitable" dig.
― Matt DC (Matt DC), Saturday, 28 September 2002 17:23 (twenty-one years ago) link
― brg30 (brg30), Saturday, 28 September 2002 17:51 (twenty-one years ago) link
― simon trife (simon_tr), Saturday, 28 September 2002 17:55 (twenty-one years ago) link
― donna (donna), Saturday, 28 September 2002 19:05 (twenty-one years ago) link
― dave k, Saturday, 28 September 2002 19:35 (twenty-one years ago) link
a total loss of innocence: homer's a fuckwad (no longer loveable), there's too many drug/alcohol/sex jokes, and everybody swears.
god bless reruns etc.
― mark p (Mark P), Saturday, 28 September 2002 20:30 (twenty-one years ago) link
― jess (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 28 September 2002 20:40 (twenty-one years ago) link
― mark p (Mark P), Saturday, 28 September 2002 20:50 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 28 September 2002 20:55 (twenty-one years ago) link
nobody cared when roseanne went down the tubes b/c roseanne was only ever a sitcom.
― mark p (Mark P), Saturday, 28 September 2002 21:01 (twenty-one years ago) link
the simpsons generation
okay okay, it starts w/ a radiohead quote, and some of chris' writing is a bit lofty, but i think he makes some v. important points here that elevate the simpsons beyond the stuff of yr average sitcom
― mark p (Mark P), Saturday, 28 September 2002 21:04 (twenty-one years ago) link
And I cared about Roseanne! I thought it was a terrific show for quite a while, and astoundingly terrible in the last two seasons.
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 28 September 2002 21:06 (twenty-one years ago) link
― N. (nickdastoor), Saturday, 28 September 2002 21:07 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 28 September 2002 21:10 (twenty-one years ago) link
― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Saturday, 28 September 2002 21:19 (twenty-one years ago) link
― jess (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 28 September 2002 22:45 (twenty-one years ago) link
One of my fave moments. I loved the caricature of the two as well.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 28 September 2002 23:34 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Nicole (Nicole), Sunday, 29 September 2002 00:36 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Andrew (enneff), Sunday, 29 September 2002 01:44 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Sean (Sean), Sunday, 29 September 2002 02:20 (twenty-one years ago) link
― minna (minna), Sunday, 29 September 2002 03:33 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Sunday, 29 September 2002 03:41 (twenty-one years ago) link
― donna (donna), Sunday, 29 September 2002 04:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― bnw (bnw), Sunday, 29 September 2002 05:30 (twenty-one years ago) link
― chaki (chaki), Sunday, 29 September 2002 05:45 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 29 September 2002 08:01 (twenty-one years ago) link
― david h (david h), Sunday, 29 September 2002 08:25 (twenty-one years ago) link
Futurama is great also, but there just aren't the kind of moments where you can simply think about and collapse into a bout of hysterics.
(like my girlfriend and I last night, when we recalled the episode where Jasper is auditioning for something and is singing "This is the theme, from A Summer Place, from A Summer Place, the theme, from A Summer Place...")
― Andrew (enneff), Sunday, 29 September 2002 08:45 (twenty-one years ago) link
― chaki (chaki), Sunday, 29 September 2002 09:24 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Mitch Lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Sunday, 29 September 2002 09:28 (twenty-one years ago) link
Statements like this boggle my mind. The writing on "Roseanne" may not have been as sharp in the "lookit-this-reference-ooh-we're-smart" vein that "The Simpsons" writers have always veered towards, but the characters and their relationships were WAY more human and affecting. Even when the show sucked, the characters and relationships stood out compared to other shows on television. (Compare it to "Home Improvement", for one horrifying example. Even "Friends" is deeper than that shit.)
"The Critic" was awe-inspiring. I don't watch "The Simpsons" the way I used to, but it's still funny to me. Not as funy as "South Park", but funnier than most shows.
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Sunday, 29 September 2002 11:12 (twenty-one years ago) link
― N. (nickdastoor), Sunday, 29 September 2002 11:14 (twenty-one years ago) link
I don't think by saying it was "only ever a sitcom" I undermined the value that it had as such, Dan. But I think you'd be hard-pressed to prove that Roseanne ever transcended that in any way shape or form. Whereas the Simpsons, well...
Best jingle ever = "Call Mr. Plow, that's my name / that name again is Mr. Plow!"
― mark p (Mark P), Sunday, 29 September 2002 11:39 (twenty-one years ago) link
*cuts to testcard*
The Critic was fantastic, yeah. Jay's dad was hilarious. The time when he thinks an owl in his garden is that neighbour bloke from Home Improvement nearly had me wetting myself. Hasn't been repeated for ages, sadly...
I like Family Guy, but it's very erratic in quality. The one where Death injures himself, leading to all living things becoming invincible, was really funny. But the episode straight after that one (I forget which one thanks to my terrible memory) was really weak. Also as someone else said it doesn't have the warmth of prime Simpsons.
What do people think of Space Ghost Coast To Coast? I love that - someone said of it that at times some episodes approach Dadaism. The one where everything is in black and white, Peter Fonda gets killed, the theme music is replaced by Rammstein and lots of strange subtitles keep appearing at the bottom of the screen was ace.
― Chriddof (Chriddof), Sunday, 29 September 2002 12:08 (twenty-one years ago) link
It's just one big car crash these days.
― Graham (graham), Sunday, 29 September 2002 13:10 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Ronan (Ronan), Sunday, 29 September 2002 13:39 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Graham (graham), Sunday, 29 September 2002 13:45 (twenty-one years ago) link
Lisa says something about the Simpsons not being a part of Springfield's "cultural elite," and Homer walks in brushing his teeth and says "Can you believe Flanders threw out a perfectly good toothbrush?"
Bart and Lisa have tracked down Krusty's estranged father the rabbi, and he shouts at them "I HAVE NO SON!" and slams the door.Bart: "Awwww man, we came all this way and it's the wrong guy!"Rabbi: (opening door a crack) "I didn't mean that literally!"
Milhouse's mom: "Well Marge, yesterday Milhouse told me my meatloaf 'sucked.' He must have gotten that word from your little boy, because they certainly DON'T USE THAT WORD ON TV."
― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 29 September 2002 15:10 (twenty-one years ago) link
And there are loads of great Simpsons episodes - some of the v. best - after 'Who Shot Mr Burns'!
― Andrew L (Andrew L), Sunday, 29 September 2002 15:21 (twenty-one years ago) link
― jess (dubplatestyle), Sunday, 29 September 2002 15:26 (twenty-one years ago) link
― jess (dubplatestyle), Sunday, 29 September 2002 15:27 (twenty-one years ago) link
― minna (minna), Sunday, 29 September 2002 15:28 (twenty-one years ago) link
― jess (dubplatestyle), Sunday, 29 September 2002 15:29 (twenty-one years ago) link
i second that!!!
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 29 September 2002 15:29 (twenty-one years ago) link
― N. (nickdastoor), Sunday, 29 September 2002 15:30 (twenty-one years ago) link
okay, i'll stop now.
― jess (dubplatestyle), Sunday, 29 September 2002 15:30 (twenty-one years ago) link
― minna (minna), Sunday, 29 September 2002 15:31 (twenty-one years ago) link
― minna (minna), Sunday, 29 September 2002 15:42 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 29 September 2002 15:44 (twenty-one years ago) link
Bart: "That's not a knife, that's a spoon"
Aussie kid: "I see you've played knifey-spooney before."
Greatest Simpsons moment EVAH. Except possibly the canyon ambulance rescue gag.
― Matt DC (Matt DC), Sunday, 29 September 2002 20:39 (twenty-one years ago) link
Seasons 1-8: ClassicSeason 9 onwards: Dud
― Gholdfish Killah (Turrican), Monday, 4 December 2017 23:46 (six years ago) link
quite a take
― billstevejim, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 21:13 (six years ago) link
odd seasons bad, even seasons good up to season 25, then all good
― lazy rascals, spending their substance, and more, in riotous living (Merdeyeux), Wednesday, 6 December 2017 00:48 (six years ago) link
Classic Apu Dud Lisa
― remember the lmao (darraghmac), Wednesday, 6 December 2017 00:51 (six years ago) link
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!"
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 6 July 2018 14:52 (five years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBg99mH8pyA
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 6 July 2018 14:53 (five years ago) link
"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!"
― Eliza D., Friday, 6 July 2018 15:02 (five years ago) link
"I say 'radical'! That's my thing that I say!"
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 6 July 2018 15:13 (five years ago) link
Apropos of this thread bump, I have heard three different people in the last week use the construction, "Say I says to _____, I says . . ."
― Eliza D., Friday, 6 July 2018 15:15 (five years ago) link
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!"
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 6 July 2018 15:18 (five years ago) link
"Missing children?""Sounds like Springfield's got a discipline problem.""Maybe that why we beat 'em at football nearly half the time, huh?"
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 6 July 2018 15:19 (five years ago) link
wait a minute... there's a lemon behind that rock!
― flamenco blorf (BradNelson), Friday, 6 July 2018 15:19 (five years ago) link
oh god when Milhouse is imagining that his camouflage will turn him into the Cheshire Cat
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 6 July 2018 15:21 (five years ago) link
rocky v + rocky ii = ... rocky vii, adrian's revenge!
― flamenco blorf (BradNelson), Friday, 6 July 2018 15:23 (five years ago) link
agreed that this is probably the best episode of the series, p much every line is gold
― Οὖτις, Friday, 6 July 2018 15:26 (five years ago) link
"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
― global tetrahedron, Friday, 6 July 2018 15:27 (five years ago) link
"Over here, my friends! Or is it...over here!"
https://media.giphy.com/media/JmQAzA0PcwcTu/giphy.gif
― Brainless Addlepated Timid Muddleheaded Awful No-Account (Pheeel), Friday, 6 July 2018 15:28 (five years ago) link
https://youtu.be/UuQFI9TXiv8
― Brainless Addlepated Timid Muddleheaded Awful No-Account (Pheeel), Friday, 6 July 2018 15:30 (five years ago) link
"You must be stupider than you look.""Stupider like a FOX!"
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 6 July 2018 15:31 (five years ago) link
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.
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 6 July 2018 15:32 (five years ago) link
"Spring forth, burly protector, and save me!"
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 6 July 2018 15:33 (five years ago) link
https://frinkiac.com/gif/S06E24/740055/747562.gif?b64lines=4pmqIEhBUksKIFRPIFRIRSBUQUxFIE9GIE5FTFNPTiDimao=
― Eliza D., Friday, 6 July 2018 15:40 (five years ago) link
"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.
― Get aboard the flappy bird, departing gate 19 (Dan Peterson), Friday, 6 July 2018 15:51 (five years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A2VDVC4-nM
― shaqiri tip (nashwan), Friday, 6 July 2018 15:53 (five years ago) link
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
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 6 July 2018 15:55 (five years ago) link
YES.
― Eliza D., Friday, 6 July 2018 15:58 (five years ago) link
"Here's Shelbyville Falls, Rolling Rock..."
https://frinkiac.com/video/S03E21/uYOQZxUnieaMtgSbX1ojlsSLPBA=.gif
― jmm, Friday, 6 July 2018 16:13 (five years ago) link
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.
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 6 July 2018 16:21 (five years ago) link
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.
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 6 July 2018 16:23 (five years ago) link
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]
― Οὖτις, Friday, 6 July 2018 16:25 (five years ago) link
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.
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 6 July 2018 16:26 (five years ago) link
yes otm the ritual of these childhood mindgames!
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 6 July 2018 16:27 (five years ago) link
Bart's daydream of the future people being stunned by his ability to write his name in concrete and use a yo-yo
"What's normal to him, amazes us!""He will be our new god!"
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 6 July 2018 16:31 (five years ago) link
"Bart! You've graffito-tagged public property!"
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 6 July 2018 16:32 (five years ago) link
sorry if i keep going i will post the whole script
Two rarely mentioned highlights, both in the RV: Homer draining the vehicle's power by cooking a turkey while they are trying to escape the impound lot, and "This is the darkest day in Springfield history. If anyone wants me I'll be in the shower."
― Police, Academy (cryptosicko), Friday, 6 July 2018 17:56 (five years ago) link
...and then the off-screen payoff to the shower line, when Bart makes Flanders stop, back up and illegally park: [tumble/cry of pain] "Oh great! Now I'm upside down!"
― Making Plans For Sturgill (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 6 July 2018 18:43 (five years ago) link
"...they had banished the evil lemon tree forever, because it was haunted. Now let's all celebrate, with a cool glass of turnip juice."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT7YZQEHHVE
― Brainless Addlepated Timid Muddleheaded Awful No-Account (Pheeel), Friday, 6 July 2018 19:33 (five years ago) link
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Friday, July 6, 2018 4:31 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
"He must have been much cooler than his sister Lisa, about whom we know relatively nothing!"
― Eliza D., Friday, 6 July 2018 19:47 (five years ago) link
a part of us alla part of us all
― flamenco blorf (BradNelson), Friday, 6 July 2018 21:46 (five years ago) link
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 gets damaged as they sped out of Shelbyville.
https://frinkiac.com/video/S06E24/79fasnhn7iGDFpR54N8m7o7DK74=.gif
― Making Plans For Sturgill (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 6 July 2018 21:51 (five years ago) link
lmao
― 21st savagery fox (m bison), Friday, 6 July 2018 22:24 (five years ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/n8wh2n0.gif
― flamenco blorf (BradNelson), Friday, 6 July 2018 22:54 (five years ago) link