I don't know, maybe it's just me, but, from what I've seen of their work, it's not as great as this (except for maybe some of their Simpsons episodes).
I mean, come on, Mike Reiss wrote the Ice Age christmas special for god's sake!
So, I wonder why-did they lose their touch? Was it more the writers they hired that were talented than them? Also, does anyone else agree with this?
I call movies that are considered 'bad' hated movies.
Not everybody can stay consistently good for their whole lives. There are a lot of writers, comedians, directors, etc. who started out strong then deteriorated into mediocrity.
I have an unbelievably long ignore list.
Tv shows notoriously devour writers, especially shows with high gag quotients as the Simpsons and The Critic. At 24 episodes (on average) US tv shows eat up a lot of material. These shows, in particular, ate up a lot of jokes. After a while, you are just repeating the same thing (maybe slightly altered, at best). Also, there is a tendency among many writers in Hollywood not to take chances as there isn't a lot of reward for it. When your lifestyle becomes dependent on what your past success brought, you become reluctant to take chances that might upset that lifestyle.
"Fortunately, Ah keep mah feathers numbered for just such an emergency!"
Mike and Al were great writing partners. But since Mike left the Simpsons and Al stayed, they're not a writing combo anymore, and I think their work suffers because of it. I wish Mike and Al would team up and try to create a new show again.
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