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Quote from: Dragonfire on November 15, 2010, 10:47:54 PM
Well I guess I must not be a true Simpsons fan since I liked the movie.  I still enjoy the show. 
Though I didn't start watching it until around season 11 or 12.

To be fair season 12 and 13 do have a couple of good episodes but they became fewer and fewer as it goes on until there are no good ones left. 12 and 13 are sort of like a transition period of the show.

This is an interesting article (entitled What on Earth Happened to The Simpsons) on the matter of decrease in quality within the show: http://ask.metafilter.com/135837/What-on-earth-happened-to-The-Simpsons

This is also good reading on The Simpsons decline: http://cheadlesucks.blogspot.com/2009/10/why-new-simpsons-sucks.html

excerpt:

QuoteThe Simpsons used to have messages, though. It was funny, but it was also as heartwarming and values-based as any sitcom this side of The Cosby Show. The characters are all good at heart, and when they screw up (they always screw up somehow), they fix their mistakes and learn from them. Living your life by the virtues The Simpsons taught in the first few seasons would mean being compassionate, loyal to your family and friends, respecting intellectual and artistic ventures, disrespecting authority and institutions, and laughing even when your life is in the sewer. You could pick a worse family to be raised by.

The Simpsons no longer teaches. Maybe all the plots that allowed the Simpsons to grow and discover things about themselves and the world have been done, and there are no more fresh ways to explore the characters' relationships, so the writers are forced to focus more on pop-culture jokes and gimicky storylines. Maybe now that the show is an institution, Matt Groening and the writing staff no longer have to prove themselves by making episodes that say something. Whatever the case, the show isn't the one I grew up with, which is too bad—not bad for me, but bad for the generation now growing up in the glow of the television. Who's going to teach them how to be good people in this cartoon world of ours? Family Guy? South Park?

I wish Family Guy didn't keep getting knocked as being a poor standard by which The Simpsons is now measured. That's a good article, but The Simpsons was special and exceptional. It isn't the job of Family Guy to fill that gap and in fact it perfectly achieves what it wants to achieve. I love it, but I watch it for very different reasons than I watched The Simpsons for at its best.

It's true that it's probably an unfair comparison but it's one I hear quite often, that "new" Simpsons are more like Family Guy than old Simpsons. I personally dislike Family Guy, even though I have watched about 5 seasons of it I just never really enjoyed it. Not to the level that I enjoy old Simpsons, Futurama or even South Park, but I can understand how those comparisons would annoy Family Guy fans. As you said it is a very different show and set out to do something quite different to Simpsons.

Quote from: Jon on November 16, 2010, 12:53:41 AM
I wish Family Guy didn't keep getting knocked as being a poor standard by which The Simpsons is now measured. That's a good article, but The Simpsons was special and exceptional. It isn't the job of Family Guy to fill that gap and in fact it perfectly achieves what it wants to achieve. I love it, but I watch it for very different reasons than I watched The Simpsons for at its best.

Oh God Jon, I think I'd rather be waterboarded for a full day, rather than watch 30 minutes of Family Guy.

Quote from: Antares on November 16, 2010, 01:14:36 AM

Quote from: Jon on November 16, 2010, 12:53:41 AM
I wish Family Guy didn't keep getting knocked as being a poor standard by which The Simpsons is now measured. That's a good article, but The Simpsons was special and exceptional. It isn't the job of Family Guy to fill that gap and in fact it perfectly achieves what it wants to achieve. I love it, but I watch it for very different reasons than I watched The Simpsons for at its best.

Oh God Jon, I think I'd rather be waterboarded for a full day, rather than watch 30 minutes of Family Guy.

That sounds like me when it comes to 'American Dad'.

Quote from: Critter on November 16, 2010, 01:15:55 AM

Quote from: Antares on November 16, 2010, 01:14:36 AM

Quote from: Jon on November 16, 2010, 12:53:41 AM
I wish Family Guy didn't keep getting knocked as being a poor standard by which The Simpsons is now measured. That's a good article, but The Simpsons was special and exceptional. It isn't the job of Family Guy to fill that gap and in fact it perfectly achieves what it wants to achieve. I love it, but I watch it for very different reasons than I watched The Simpsons for at its best.

Oh God Jon, I think I'd rather be waterboarded for a full day, rather than watch 30 minutes of Family Guy.

That sounds like me when it comes to 'American Dad'.

Aren't they made by the same guy?

Are they? I didn't know that but that would explain a lot as I don't like Family Guy either.

I just looked it up, he also makes that other crapfest The Cleveland Show

Haha I've never seen The Cleveland Show, but when I heard it was a spin-off of Family Guy I made a mental note to steer-clear of it.

Well, the discxussion about The Simpsons reminds of a South Park episode. Title: The Simpsons already did it (or so). I think ultimately the Simpsons hit the same problem, they already had done everything imaginable and therefore became repetetive. Heck, that episode of South Park may have happened around the time Simpsons were doing S11

The Simpson's never did a musical number to match Family Guy, which do several a series...   

Quote from: Jon on November 16, 2010, 08:31:11 PM
The Simpson's never did a musical number to match Family Guy, which do several a series...   

I'm booking my flight to Guantanamo 

I thought it was funny...   

Quote from: Jon on November 16, 2010, 08:31:11 PM
The Simpson's never did a musical number to match Family Guy, which do several a series...   

I know this is sarcasm, or at least, I pray that it is.