Are the producers of this show mentally ill? Why not let the show end on a respectable note?
Let me put into perspective how long this show has been on the air, for the younger generation who don't understand why people of my generation constantly complain about it being on the air too long.
When The Simpsons short started airing on the Tracey Ullman Show, I was in my freshman year of high school. I was 14 years old. There were no such things as smartphones, the world wide web, digital downloads, internet streaming, even DVDs. There were no such things as digital cameras, Instagram, social media, GPS and WiFi. We were a decade away from the mp3 format.
I am now 46 years old. I am four years away from being an AARP member. I'm 30 percent gray. I never had kids but if I had at age, say, 20, I'd be old enough to have an adult child and a couple of preschool-age grandchildren.
Why in the name of all that is holy is this show still on the air? Keep in mind that I'm not against the concept of shows being this long on the air as long as it's in the form of "incarnations" or spin offs. For example. there have been a couple of Scooby Doo series since 1969, but they each tried something new, were tailor-made for a new generation of kids and ran for a few short seasons. Ditto, say, Spiderman. There have been several Spiderman cartoons since the 1960s, and that's fine because each new series was different in and of itself.
The Simpsons isn't that. It's not a spin off or an incarnation. It's not like, say, a cool new iteration where we get to see Bart and Lisa in college or anything like that. It's a series that's coasting on a premise that everyone agrees was long exhausted by season 9. Not only that, it's been on so long that key members of the show are beginning to die off.
Are the producers of this show mentally ill? I'm a writer/creative, and as much as I love my characters, I could never in a million years imagine spending over 20 years obsessively keeping them alive. All good things must come to an end, and to me, to keep characters long past their expiration date seems pathetic, like someone unable to let go or hanging onto this delusion that they'll achieve immortality if they keep the characters around as long as possible.