Season 23 Information Thread

[Financial Panther]

D'OH! I thumbed that up without seeing the bottom part!

[Bella Drape 'er]

D'OH! I thumbed that up without seeing the bottom part!

I think if you click on the thumbs up button again, I think you can undo it.

May be wrong though.

[handsome]

You are wrong. Believe me, I've accidentally done it before.

[MDB]

I guess I'm the only person still looking forward to new episodes.

No, I am looking forward to new episodes too


and this is not a joke

I know the show won't ever be as good as It used to but I still love it

[Brad Lascelle]

I used to look forward to new episodes all the time.
And then the PABF production run started...

[Bleedin' Gums Murphy]

I used to look forward to new episodes all the time. Then the 21st century arrived.

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

I guess I'm the only person still looking forward to new episodes.

Even when I hate the plot synopsis I look forward to new episodes Panther and I would've thought you'd know that honestly...

[Patches O'houlihan]

Of course if the episode has yet to air, you kind of have to look forward to see it, right? :P

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

Not if you already hate the....oh I get what you're.....

[Train on the Water]

I admit, this has got to be in the Top 10 Most Depressing Places on the Internet.

[Patches O'houlihan]

I admit, this has got to be in the Top 10 Most Depressing Places on the Internet.

Lead by example...

We just saw an episode about a dour bar-rag whose supposedly the only friend of a borderline suicidal bartender and now we're talking about an upcoming episode where the family goes seemingly survivalist because Springfield hates them.

After seeing the past few episodes and knowing what's to come, to quote Bill Hicks: "I'm so happy I could shit a rainbow."

[Must Kill Moe]

I admit, this has got to be in the Top 10 Most Depressing Places on the Internet.

No, just the place with the least trolls on the internet. The only troll I've seen so far is Homer the Vigilante.

[jordanwj]

A "cool family" from Portland moves in next door to the Simpsons. Homer is desperate to befriend them, while Marge is skeptical, thinking that being cool is not all it's cracked up to be.[2]

This is a real thing that is actually happening. Season 24....

No.

[Dark Homer]

I don't get why everyone's so up in arms about the survivalist thing

[Boris Johnson]

I just wonder what the general consensus was from the, y'know, AUDIENCE of the episode rather than just some stupid critic who's lax on everything.
Sometimes you watch some of these abhorable episodes and say to yourself, "other people, watching this, who aren't fans: what do they think of it?".
I mean, how daft do you have to be to find a talking rag a funny concept?

[King-Size Homer]

I am looking forward to Them, Robot.

[Zombies Rise from the Sea]

A Mad Max parody with a subtle hint of redneck parody and political stuff for the 500th episode? That's bad... I don't know what the reactions of the thousands of people viewing the forums (thanks to the 500th episode) are going to be when this is viewed. I mean really, 500 episodes and you decide to make an ordinary episode out of the 500th episode?

Of course, I do have to take into consideration what sean said so this is nothing unexpected but still...

[MDB]

Michael Price wrote "At Long Last Leave" personally I think he is a good writer

Click here if you don't trust me

[Zombies Rise from the Sea]

Michael Price wrote "The Boys of Bummer" and "American History X-Cellent", So I doubt he's a perfect fit for the 500th episode. (Note: Two of those episodes were the most mediocre in both of the seasons which aired.)

As for the post, I can appreciate if you want to work for something that makes you happy and makes you money but isn't it better to work for something that is for the better good. It may be making $$ but all it's proving is that determination and quality aren't needed if you can be as lazy and cheap as possible and still make money. There is still the usual number of crap in stores but there needs to be more quality products that were in the past, people who care about the artform to provide us with works that are timeless, classic and historical; those works make up an important part of our community. If we lower our standards and make these crap works the new norm then we'd have a world similar to Idiocracy. People should not have to be lazy to make money, they should work hard at it and give it all that they got.

I can understand his point but still...

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

I assume he still does work hard at it and gives it all he's got. As a supporter of the modern era(to an extent at least), I'm biased in that I basically agree with what he says though and enjoyed reading it.

[Alex_Of_Darkness]

Thanks for this info. The video was very good !

[Boris Johnson]

People don't seem to understand that writing is a collaborative process between the sole writer of the episode and the producers (Mike Scully, David Mirkin, Mike Reiss, etc, etc) and so although the end quality of the episode is significantly influenced by the sole writer, I hardly think blaming said writer for the poor quality of the episode is fair e.g Michael Price or Rob Lazebnik, or whatever.

I read an interview with Ken Keeler from 2003 on a Futurama fan site and he said that his writing on Bender's God episode (forget the name) was only 1/3 of the end script, pretty much. He'd won an award for it and, when taking the award, he credited the other writers for helping him.

[jordanwj]

Michael Price wrote "The Boys of Bummer" and "American History X-Cellent", So I doubt he's a perfect fit for the 500th episode. (Note: Two of those episodes were the most mediocre in both of the seasons which aired.)

As for the post, I can appreciate if you want to work for something that makes you happy and makes you money but isn't it better to work for something that is for the better good. It may be making $$ but all it's proving is that determination and quality aren't needed if you can be as lazy and cheap as possible and still make money. There is still the usual number of crap in stores but there needs to be more quality products that were in the past, people who care about the artform to provide us with works that are timeless, classic and historical; those works make up an important part of our community. If we lower our standards and make these crap works the new norm then we'd have a world similar to Idiocracy. People should not have to be lazy to make money, they should work hard at it and give it all that they got.

I can understand his point but still...

In regards to the blog as well, which oddly enough I've been reading for awhile prior to this, I follow him and several other Simpsons staff as well on Twitterl he makes an amazing point that most people seem to gloss over or push aside to keep their sopabox clean: "If you don't like it, don't watch it" (obviously paraphrasing) but it makes sense. If you wish to keep a fond memory of this show then don't watch the newer episodes if you feel their mediocrity will diminish your nostalgia and overall feelings for the show. If this coming Sunday's episode and the 500th fail me again, guess what I'm doing? Not watching new episodes. I will come around here and elsewhere and if one of them gets some praise and acclaim, then I'll watch it online. No sense in beating a dead horse and the complaining about beating the dead horse.

/rant complete.

[Zombies Rise from the Sea]

In regards to the blog as well, which oddly enough I've been reading for awhile prior to this, I follow him and several other Simpsons staff as well on Twitterl he makes an amazing point that most people seem to gloss over or push aside to keep their sopabox clean: "If you don't like it, don't watch it" (obviously paraphrasing) but it makes sense. If you wish to keep a fond memory of this show then don't watch the newer episodes if you feel their mediocrity will diminish your nostalgia and overall feelings for the show. If this coming Sunday's episode and the 500th fail me again, guess what I'm doing? Not watching new episodes. I will come around here and elsewhere and if one of them gets some praise and acclaim, then I'll watch it online. No sense in beating a dead horse and the complaining about beating the dead horse.

Understandable... For those people who don't like it they could stop watching it (as some people have done in this season) but for those invested in the series or those critics, ignoring it isn't as easy as it seems. I mean if all bad stuff can get away with the "if you don't like it, don't watch it" reasoning then there'd be no opposition, no points about what they did wrong, no urge to change and more importantly, a false sense of quality. If most people were not allowed to complain about the stuff they didn't like then we'd have a radically different market full of movies resembling "Epic Movie", "Last Night" and "The Last Airbender" Opinion can be used to gague whether or not people will like this or product or that product, if we don't get our opinion out there edgewise then movie studios will continue to make the movies that we assume we'd like and not the ones that would actually bring in audiences/be timeless and quality in nature. Just because we don't like it does not mean we critics shouldn't be discouraged from complaining about it.

[Brad Lascelle]

For me, the biggest problem is that the Simpsons fanbase is seriously fragmented. All of the people that effectively dismissed the series after Season 8 probably SHOULD stop bitching about the state of a show they stopped watching 15 seasons ago.

The problem this creates is that those of us who have actually stuck with the show through thick and thin and were rewarded with well-received episodes like Holidays of Future Passed, The Book Job, The Food Wife, The Great Simpsina, Gone Maggie Gone, Oh Brother Where Bart Thou?, Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind, etc. ... when WE choose to criticize the product because it's not living up to the potential shown in those episodes, we merely blur together with all of the perpetual naysayers who decry entire seasons of the show out of nothing more than ignorance. This conditions the creators, writing staff, production crew and contributors to the show to dismiss ALL criticism... good-intentioned or not... as mean-spirited and unenlightened and not valuable. And that presents a problem.

Because the PABF production run honestly hasn't been good. But how are the folks in charge supposed to know that when all they've heard in most online spaces is how everything they do is garbage? Whether it's now or when great episodes were airing in the fall.

[Bleedin' Gums Murphy]

The problem this creates is that those of us who have actually stuck with the show through thick and thin and were rewarded with well-received episodes like Holidays of Future Passed, The Book Job, The Food Wife, The Great Simpsina, Gone Maggie Gone, Oh Brother Where Bart Thou?, Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind, etc. ... when WE choose to criticize the product because it's not living up to the potential shown in those episodes, we merely blur together with all of the perpetual naysayers who decry entire seasons of the show out of nothing more than ignorance. This conditions the creators, writing staff, production crew and contributors to the show to dismiss ALL criticism... good-intentioned or not... as mean-spirited and unenlightened and not valuable. And that presents a problem.

7 out of the past 300 odd episodes? Wow I can't believe we were ever so harsh! Even of the 7 you mentioned, none I would even describe as a great episode or worthy of classic episode status.

[Prune Tracy]

7 out of the past 300 odd episodes?

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/et+cetera

[Agent Polar]

A Mad Max parody with a subtle hint of redneck parody and political stuff for the 500th episode? That's bad... I don't know what the reactions of the thousands of people viewing the forums (thanks to the 500th episode) are going to be when this is viewed. I mean really, 500 episodes and you decide to make an ordinary episode out of the 500th episode?

What's so out of the ordinary for 100, 200, 302, 400 (unless you count 24 minutes as 400)? Oh, and I see the town kicking them out for all they've done over 500 episodes as an out of the ordinary way, a way that's most likely meant to be special for the occasion to begin the episode, and which references the past. And the mad max thing as I'm presuming it could become, sounds like for now it's aiming for something big too.

[Patches O'houlihan]

In regards to the blog as well, which oddly enough I've been reading for awhile prior to this, I follow him and several other Simpsons staff as well on Twitterl he makes an amazing point that most people seem to gloss over or push aside to keep their sopabox clean: "If you don't like it, don't watch it" (obviously paraphrasing) but it makes sense. If you wish to keep a fond memory of this show then don't watch the newer episodes if you feel their mediocrity will diminish your nostalgia and overall feelings for the show.

Of course the staff is going to put their best foot forward and resorting to the "if you don't like it..." excuse is another way of saying: "your opinion is stupid, get lost."

Also, having hidden little VCR-Needed-Find jokes is what made the classic era so much fun, so you had to watch an episode a few times to get all the bits and pieces. Modern episodes aren't created to that standard, so I have no desire to watch them over again and my "potentially to be glossed over Nostalgia" isn't an issue.

[Dark Homer]

What's so out of the ordinary for 100, 200, 302, 400 (unless you count 24 minutes as 400)?

yeah, what the hell zombies?

- skinner and bart become friends
- homer becomes trash president
- bart befriends blink 182
- the guy on the tv moves in with the simpsons

none of these are particularly "big" plots for the show