Reminder that The Principal and the pauper didn't kill the Simpsons, not really...

Reminder that The Principal and the pauper didn't kill the Simpsons, not really. That episode was produced by Oakley-Weinstein, the characterizations, good humor, etc. were still intact, "classic" in that episode and not yet full retard.

Sure, the plot of Skinner being an impostor was silly, but that episode didn't have things like a ship being bounced out of the water by springs, or Homer being treated as the center of the universe.

It's Mike Scully who killed the Simpsons. If you want episodes that truly signified the downfall of the show, these are more fitting picks:
>When you dish upon a star
>Kidney trouble
>Sunday cruddy sunday
>Monty can't buy me love
>The old man and the c student (this is the one that actually destroyed Skinner's character. He gave Bart of all people a showcase, which is unusually dim for his character, and later punches Springy-Homer in the face for what Bart did, which is retarded and out of character)
>Saddlesore galactica
>Kill the alligator and run
>Alone again natura-diddily

These episodes were the true point of no return.

Reminder that Rome didn't fall in one day, and neither did the Simpsons

That episode with U2 in it was fucking terrible.

I don't have time to discuss this OP. But when you post this thread again tomorrow, I'll be willing to discuss it then.

This, and people change/make missteps.

The episode was trash with a lazy nonsensical plot, it wasn't as bad as others but it was certainly the beginning of the fall.

In seriousness, though: who or what was most responsible for The Simpsons going to shit?

I agree with this. Even if you consider it the jump the shark moment, the fact that it was a holdover from the last season makes it almost irrelevant to the style of the season as a whole.

It was in seasons 10-11 that we saw the full extent of what Scully's vision for the show was, and that was, basically, Homer acts like a complete asshole for 22 minutes and never gets called out on it.

Season 10 Homer was only occasionally the lousy father and put upon breadwinner that had originally made him so funny and so endearing. Now he was his own kind of rock star, a man who knew he could get away with everything and was therefore fearless to do anything.

Gradually the entire world of Springfield began to rotate around his indestructible form. Characters that had once been semi-realistic people, seemingly everyone from the mayor and Mr. Burns to the guest stars of the week, let Homer into their lives in ways that never made any sense.

Wait, I thought the Tomacco episode was usually the one picked as the first of the worst episodes.

It's really weird

On forums I've been on over the years, tons upon tons of people have named that Tomacco episode as the moment where they realized something weird was up and the show was no longer funny.

What is it about that episode that caused this shared experience for so many people?

Mike Scully
George Myer
Al Jean
Tim Long
Matt Selman
Ian Maxtone-Graham

Dead Homer Society put it down to a combination of the better writers dying and new writers being friends of the old writers, rather than being competent writers.

I find it weird, personally. When it first came out I vividly recall everyone finding it hilarious, and it briefly became something of an irl meme. Maybe its that overall effect of getting sick of something. Happened later on with Spiderpig too.

But then again, I also the took a little longer to notice the decline. Large Marge was the point I realized 'fuck, this is kinda...off'.

I think Homer getting crushed by the tractor twice, as well as the farm animals going crazy, was what made some people think "Hmmm...this isn't funny anymore".

The big thing is the plot structure. It set up a great plot with the dueling, but then it dropped it halfway through and set up an entirely different plot. It was two 11 minute episodes instead of a full, cohesive story.

>The Principal and the pauper

I always liked this episode as a kid, sale with the Grimes episode. It wasn't until I came here that I learned people hated them.

All the good writers left to make Futurama. That's literally when The Simpsons fell off a cliff. They never recovered.

>Maybe its that overall

i wonder where those writers went after futurama was cancelled, because they sure as fuck never came back

we all took a while to notice the decline. I think it was more about what year it was
I was lucky, it took til 2008 for me to realize the show had solidly sucked for over 6 years, and I only had to wait 2 more before it started turning around
NOW when it sucks it hurts in a totally DIFFERENT way, because we can see how painfully possible it is for the shit to improve, but it refuses to do so fully, and now julie kavner's at death's door

We waited.

Didn't some work on American Dad, which is why most people consider it vastly superior to Family Guy?

>It was two 11 minute episodes instead of a full, cohesive story.

This happened a lot with later Simpsons, I've noticed. The set ups and conclusions for episodes never actually mesh.

I still enjoy the Simpsons and never stopped.

That and Seth stopped writing for American Dad.