[Cecil Terwilliger]

I've been waiting all week to chime in on this thread. Count me as someone who thought seasons 12-current are complete crap.

THe worst of the bunch are in the 15-20 range. I have watched some of the more recent episoded and IMO they have funny moments but aren't as sound story and plot wise as the episodes used to be.

I couldn't agree more that the guest spots are usually garbage now and just done for publicity. Also lots of the secondary characters have gone downhill. For example, since when has Moe turned into a raging rapist pervert? It's like some of the characters have turned into bad parodies of themselves.

I'd like to go thru pretty much season by season and show why I think seasons 2-9 are some of the greatest television ever aired. Maybe try and come up with why later episodes failed so horribly because I don't think it is a single thing.

Oh and to anyone badmouthing Al Jean you guys are totally out to lunch. Maybe he's not the greatest show runner but he's been with the Simpsons almost from the beginning. IF you listen to the commentary he's clearly one of the driving forces behind the golden years (season 2-9 or so).

ALso, if I have to hear one more person say Conan leaving made the show crap knows nothing about the Simpsons I may blow my brains out. I believe Conan has only ever been the main writer credited for TWO episodes. Monorail and the one where Homer goes to college. There were probably dozens of writers on the Simpsons for their golden years.

To switch topics a little one of my favorite things about classic Simpsons episodes is how often they satirized, ripped off, gave homage to etc etc classic literary works, music, pop culture events, world historical events, classic films etc.

Nowadays all of their classic characters are pretty much obsolete and replaced with annoying characters. I remember watching dozens of different episodes and not understanding the different things that the writers were satirizing and homaging only to realize years later that it came from classic TV episodes, movies etc. Nowadays all of that is basically gone and dead. THe only things they parody are current events it seems. Most of which are lame because that is what South Park is for.

THis is a much shorter version of an epically long post I had prepared but I lost when I accidentally hit the back button in the wrong tab. It was practically a masters thesis but I'm not rewriting it all. It had a season by season breakdown and why the classic seasons were so good. But now its all lost and I feel like crying. I spent at least an hour working on that post. It was going to be my Mona Lisa.


Oh and the best episode ever is a tie. You Only Move Twice and my first appearance Brother From Another Series.