MovieChat Forums > The Simpsons (1989) Discussion > Does the last 20 years or so affect its ...

Does the last 20 years or so affect its legacy for you?


I think if this show had ended in 2000, it would be easily considered the greatest TV show of all time. For me the show hasn´t been good since season 9 but there are differences in opinion and some people say its good until season 13 and some continue to be fans of the show, today. I still acknowledge it as a great show even though I haven´t liked it since season 10. What do you guys think?

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Oh, definitely. I'd go so far as to say that it's like WWE. If you're not a WWE fan you don't watch it. If you're not a Simpsons fan, you don't watch The Simpsons in 2020. The Simpsons was great part of the TV landscape in the 90s, a mainstream show, but it's since gone off and become its own weird thing.

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I thought the show went downhill after the Who Shot Mr. Burns? two-parter. I guess it was still watchable for a few seasons, but they've completely destroyed it now. This show was such a phenomenon back in the 90s, I can't believe what it has turned into.

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The two episodes that completely killed the show for me were the ones that ruined Principal Skinner's character. First, it turns out he was this bad ass rebel who was the total opposite of how he was in the beginning (a sheltered, uptight 40 year old virgin/mama's boy who Mrs. Krabappel was trying to get out of his shell). And then they break up after all this romantic buildup.

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Yes. I hate the show now. There was a time when it was a solid show with just a few clunkers and every season a keeper. Now the bad seasons outnumber the good ones 5:1.

What especially ruined the show in terms of longevity is how it keeps retconning its own past to fit in with a new generation, yet in so doing, disrespects the original audiences that watched it. I vaguely recall that there was a period that revisited Marge and Homer when they were young, but their youth took place during the grunge era!

When I saw that, I was like, "Fuck this show! So, now they were GenX? How is that even possible? I was GenX and they were Boomers when the show was at its peak, but now they're gonna retcon it so that both Boomers and GenX who remember their origin story as 70s kids are just left out in the cold?" What next? Another episode where Marge and Homer are reinvented as millennials?

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Tough question. I stopped watching in 2000. Season 9 was mostly horrible and season 8 was 50% great and 50% horrible.
For me, since I have not experienced the last 20 seasons, I look at them like fan fiction, or a spin-off or something like that.
The Simpsons (especially 1990-1998) had some of the funniest scenes ever written. Episode after episode was full of jokes that hit like hammers.
Does Alien vs Predator detract from the original Alien (and Aliens) or Predator films? Does the crappy Robocop remake detract from the brilliance of the original?
For me the Simpons ended twenty years ago and it was overall, absolute genius.

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WOW...SO MUCH HATE FOR THIS SHOW AFTER A CERTAIN POINT...IN MY HOUSE IT IS STILL WATCHED AND LOVED...LIKE ANYTHING QUALITY DIPS OVER TIME,BUT IT IS STILL VERY FUNNY AND WORTH OUR TIME...I PERSONALLY DONT UNDERSTAND THE DISLIKE.

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Most definitely it does and I've said the same thing on this board somewhere before. Had it ended at season 10, or even season 13 or something, with only a few poorer seasons after its peak years, it would still be perceived to be among the best shows of all time. I think that perception has waned due to the TV show's decline and I see it now in discussions about what the best shows of all time are and how it is less mentioned in conversation than it used to be. Quite rightly too, I mean there are more poor episodes now than good ones, by a distance.

If you end a TV show on a high, like Breaking Bad, then you'll strengthen the legacy of a show. Whereas if you string it out long enough to become a poor, paler shadow of its former self, or contrarily rush it to the detriment of the standard of writing particularly in the case of Game of Thrones, then you'll only damage the legacy.

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Not really.

It isn't as good as what it used to be, but you still get the occasional funny episode.

I don't watch the newer ones that regularly. If I watch the older ones, I still enjoy them.

I guess at the end of the day, if you like the older ones watch those ones and ignore everything after the point you think the show turned bad.

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Does the last 20 years or so affect its legacy for you?


No. Nothing they can do now (including the cuck out on Apu) will tarnish it's legacy to me.

Look, I watch a few episodes past year 12 up to and including 15, but that's the absolute cutoff. The show is wholly unwatchable to me past episode 15. If there is NOTHING on TV and a later Simpsons is on, I'll watch PBS or something. I mean, the later years are pure torture for me to watch.

I say all this not to shit on the later episodes (which need no help from me), but to address the point that the Simpsons earned so much capital in the first 15 years that I will forever love the show regardless of the last 20 years.


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