Board 8 > What was the last 'classic' season of The Simpsons?

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andylt
08/17/22 1:29:00 PM
#1:


That man is the real Seymour Skinner










Armin Tamzarian, jerkass Homer, Flanderization, panda rape, when did things turn around for you?

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pezzicle
08/17/22 1:33:41 PM
#2:


The last "classic" season was season 9
The last "good" season was season 12

Edit: I think 8 is also a good choice as that was probably the last "this is amazing" season. Season 9 was the start of the fall, season 10 thru 12 were still good but not peak good.

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Robazoid
08/17/22 1:34:13 PM
#3:


There were still the occasional great episodes in S10 to S12, but by S13 it was completely over. The downturn began in S9, so I voted for that.

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Yesmar_
08/17/22 2:09:11 PM
#4:


Season 8 because that's the last season in the original episode guide:

https://www.amazon.com/Simpsons-Complete-Guide-Favorite-Family/dp/0060952520/ref=pd_lpo_1?pd_rd_i=0060952520&psc=1

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MoogleKupo141
08/17/22 2:10:50 PM
#5:


in my mind, any season from before I stopped regularly watching the show as a kid is classic, even if it started to decline. So like 14/15 is the cut-off for me. gotta get Krustys Bar mitzvah in there because it aired like the week after my own bar mitzvah

i watched a ton of the show like last summer, and made it to the end of season 18. It obviously wasnt all great, but the few seasons I hadnt seen before werent total garbage either.

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GavsEvans123
08/17/22 2:32:50 PM
#6:


I voted for Season 12 because the early seasons changed showrunners every few seasons, then Al Jean became showrunner starting with Season 13 and he's been the showrunner ever since. Any show is bound to stagnate when the same person has been in charge for over 20 years.
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Underleveled
08/17/22 3:36:43 PM
#7:


9. Just say it's the single digit seasons and call it a day.

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MoogleKupo141
08/17/22 3:51:34 PM
#8:


I think if I remove my own personal emotional attachments from the equation, the actual official answer should probably be season 12

because Linguo is there, and Linguo important

and also after season 12, 9/11 happens and we all know that everything changed after 9/11

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Leonhart4
08/17/22 3:52:44 PM
#9:


I don't even remember the last season I watched, but I probably haven't watched since like 2001.

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BlueCrystalTear
08/17/22 3:54:49 PM
#10:


GavsEvans123 posted...
Any show is bound to stagnate when the same person has been in charge for over 20 years.
Yeah, this is why having changes is helpful to a show's evolution - sometimes you can see the ebb and flow based on who took over. Like one showrunner might have much more intriguing plots, but another has a much better sense of humor.

For 20+ year showrunners... how many of those even exist? That would require a show lasting that long, which few have, and how many of those have had the same person in charge for a considerable length of time. Allison Grodner of Big Brother US comes to mind (been in charge outright since 2007, but was co-showrunner from 2001-06) but I can't think of anyone else. And while a reality show isn't exactly something to compare to Simpsons, BB fans hate Grod since she keeps putting in dumb twists and refuses to learn that those actually stifle gameplay instead of spurning it. Simpsons fans probably hate Al Jean by this point for refusing to learn a lesson as well, but I don't follow that.

In my mind, "Classic" Simpsons is 90s Simpsons. So... season 8 fully, but some episodes of seasons 9 through 11 too. I don't remember much. I haven't really watched Simpsons regularly ever, and haven't seen any full episodes at all for nearly a decade.

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MartinFF7
08/17/22 3:58:55 PM
#11:


Season 8 as the last classic season. You can make an argument for 9 but the number of clunkers had a vast leap. Don't think you can stretch it to double digits but it might be an age thing on my part...

For me, the chilli hallucination episode - I still remember watching that episode as it aired and having that feeling of it being the beginning of the end.
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Mobilezoid
08/17/22 4:03:08 PM
#12:


Hey the chili episode was great.

"Find your soul mate, Homer."
"But where?
"This is just your memory. I can't give you any new information."

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Whiskey_Nick
08/17/22 4:10:57 PM
#13:


3 to 8 is the peak

1/2/9/10/11 all very good

12 is where things start to really go down hill.

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Metal_DK
08/17/22 4:36:32 PM
#14:


8 was the last season where the show had positive momentum, 9 and 10 were still decent

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htaeD
08/17/22 4:52:50 PM
#15:


Yesmar_ posted...
Season 8 because that's the last season in the original episode guide:

https://www.amazon.com/Simpsons-Complete-Guide-Favorite-Family/dp/0060952520/ref=pd_lpo_1?pd_rd_i=0060952520&psc=1


I have and love that book

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Paratroopa1
08/17/22 4:57:56 PM
#16:


Although there are a few good episodes afterwards, I sort of like thinking of Homer's Enemy as the series finale of The Simpsons
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Mobilezoid
08/17/22 5:01:30 PM
#17:


Behind the Laughter should've been the real series finale. End it with that song about how they have ideas for years, that's a good joke.

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guffguy89
08/17/22 5:22:49 PM
#18:


As someone who never watched the simpsons growing up but have started watching it periodically on Disney+, I cannot find any different between early and later seasons as far as enjoyability goes. I actually prefer the refined animation of the later seasons. Interesting to stumble upon this topic to find such solidarity that the early seasons were superior and anything after the low teens is presumably garbage? I just didn't get that take as a newbie watching random seasons out of order. I find them all enjoyable.

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Kenri
08/17/22 5:32:52 PM
#19:


8 for me. Season 8 has a ton of absolute banger episodes, and then 9 has so many duds I wouldn't even call it worth watching, and it only gets way worse from there. Crazy how quickly the quality drops off.

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LightningStrikes
08/17/22 5:34:26 PM
#20:


12, classic is not just a quality thing, there are several good later seasons. Its more about the cultural impact and through season 12 not only was the show still a huge deal, it still had a lot of those highly quoted moments that became a lot less common after. Trilogy of Error is in season 12 also.

Oh, and The Simpsons never really stopped being good. It just fell off in terms of overall relevance.

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Xeybozn
08/17/22 5:49:03 PM
#21:


Mobilezoid posted...
Behind the Laughter should've been the real series finale. End it with that song about how they have ideas for years, that's a good joke.

But that song's from a different episode?

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Mobilezoid
08/17/22 5:49:49 PM
#22:


Xeybozn posted...
But that song's from a different episode?
Was it? Been almost ten years since I sat down and rewatched, my mistake.

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MoogleKupo141
08/17/22 5:56:52 PM
#23:


Mobilezoid posted...
Was it? Been almost ten years since I sat down and rewatched, my mistake.

had to look it up, but the song is from Gump Roast. I was surprised that such a good bit is from a season 13 clip show, but it just shows how there was still some really good stuff in the early 2000s episodes.

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masterplum
08/17/22 6:07:08 PM
#24:


Amusingly I remembered Lisa the tree hugger being both one of my favorite episodes and later in the run

Turns out that was season 12

So yeah I like 12

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andylt
08/17/22 6:09:39 PM
#25:


I was still a kid regularly watching the show by s10/11 and I remember liking them, but I was turned off by season 13 or 14 or so. Post s8/9 things are definitely a bit uneven, but I think what's key is that for a few more years even the bad episodes have great lines/scenes scattered around. There's some later bits that made their way into pop culture relevance, but I think even those disappear entirely by like s14.

Yesmar_ posted...
https://www.amazon.com/Simpsons-Complete-Guide-Favorite-Family/dp/0060952520/ref=pd_lpo_1?pd_rd_i=0060952520&psc=1
Ha, I had the 'Beyond Forever' book of this which was for S11-12. Loved reading it!

GavsEvans123 posted...
Al Jean became showrunner starting with Season 13 and he's been the showrunner ever since
This would certainly explain the severe and permanent drop off.

guffguy89 posted...
As someone who never watched the simpsons growing up but have started watching it periodically on Disney+, I cannot find any different between early and later seasons as far as enjoyability goes. I actually prefer the refined animation of the later seasons. Interesting to stumble upon this topic to find such solidarity that the early seasons were superior and anything after the low teens is presumably garbage? I just didn't get that take as a newbie watching random seasons out of order. I find them all enjoyable.
This is pretty fascinating, I don't think of this show as one where people only like what they saw when they were a kid. I haven't regularly watched it in a really long time but whenever I've caught one of the 'new' episodes I find them pretty bad. Maybe I'm conditioned to expect the worst as soon as I see the HD opening >_>

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Xeybozn
08/17/22 6:24:42 PM
#26:


andylt posted...
I don't think of this show as one where people only like what they saw when they were a kid.

I've never seen trends like that, but I suspect this sort of thing is why there are always fans who insist the newest seasons in particular are an improvement. It's super rare to see people defending any specific post-classic seasons except for the newest ones, which are always considered the best of the post-classic era. The way this pattern has held for 20 or so years makes me think this is the Simpsons equivalent of "the best ___ is what you grew up with".

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Paratroopa1
08/17/22 8:27:54 PM
#27:


I am a very recent Simpsons fan, and the main reason I didn't watch the show earlier was because once I was old enough to actually watch it it was into the shitty unfunny seasons and I thought the show must be overrated like Family Guy or whatever. Then I went and actually watched the old seasons of The Simpsons and was like, oh nevermind, this is the funniest tv show of all time

Take it from someone who got into the show in the late 10's, the old Simpsons fans who hate every season after 12 are right
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paulg235
08/17/22 8:47:10 PM
#28:


1 is underrated, in my mind. There were still a lot of elements that had yet to find their mark, but it was still a very good season especially with what was around at the time.
2-8 is the series at its best.
9 and 10 were still very good as a whole, but this was around the point where a number of episodes didn't hit and a lot of aspects that I dislike about newer episodes started seeping in regularly.
11-14 was where things started to notably decline, but it was worth checking out about half of the episodes. This was the point where they had resorted to more outlandish scenarios that felt like the writers were like "Hey, what if the SImpson family or that specific character did X, became Y, went to YZ and/or a certain thing from a previous episode involving them came back?" and it was nowhere as effective/funny than the material from the 90s.
15 onwards was when the show overstayed its welcome.

The funniest thing involving the Simpsons within the last 15 years is probably the Dark Simpsons YouTube channel and that is just re-editing old Simpsons clips to create a new narrative.

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Paratroopa1
08/17/22 8:49:52 PM
#29:


Simpsons season 1 is great, it's astounding how funny it is compared to its contemporaries of the time even before it really found its stride in season 2

I had someone the other day say they were going to watch every Simpsons season except 1 and 2 because those were the "bad ones" and I was like what the fuck are you talking about, I understand finding the first season outdated (but you should still watch it) but season 2 is already peak Simpsons
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charmander6000
08/17/22 11:46:24 PM
#30:


Xeybozn posted...
I've never seen trends like that, but I suspect this sort of thing is why there are always fans who insist the newest seasons in particular are an improvement. It's super rare to see people defending any specific post-classic seasons except for the newest ones, which are always considered the best of the post-classic era. The way this pattern has held for 20 or so years makes me think this is the Simpsons equivalent of "the best ___ is what you grew up with".

If you go with the idea that the "old" and "new" Simpsons are actually two different shows it makes more sense. The "old" Simpsons were a counter-culture show making fun of the mainstream perfect family shows seen from 70s to early 90s. The "new" Simpsons were the mainstream culture show.

Both types of shows are created differently and appeal to different people. The people who loved the early seasons hate the newer ones while the people who like the newer ones like it for what it is and don't understand why to older ones are placed so high on a pedestal.

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guffguy89
08/18/22 4:51:38 AM
#31:


this makes sense. I never watched the Simpsons as a kid in the 90s but watched Family Guy in my teens/early adulthood. I see a lot of similarities in current Simpsons with the Family Guy model and I like that since thats what I'm more familiar with.

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GuessMyUserName
08/18/22 4:54:52 AM
#32:


I have no real concept of what season has what (beyond the first), but i did do a series watch-through a year or two ago and my gut just says S9

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Ngamer
08/18/22 11:03:44 AM
#33:


As someone who's put a great deal of thought into this subject over the years, I've got to say- this is one of those ultra-rare cases where the "internet/B8 consensus" on a topic is actually perfect.

guffguy89 posted...
As someone who never watched the simpsons growing up but have started watching it periodically on Disney+, I cannot find any different between early and later seasons as far as enjoyability goes. I actually prefer the refined animation of the later seasons.
I think a big part of our problem was, we (older kids at the time) watched the new episodes every Sunday night and the re-runs every afternoon, then we bought the earliest DVD sets when they came out and watched all the classics episodes again.

Which meant whenever the show tried to do something in the later seasons we rolled our eyes because "ugh so embarrassing, how did they forget they already did this back in S4?" Whereas someone coming into that same episode without our burden of knowledge would have just gone along for the ride and enjoyed themselves.

Or in other words, we Comic Book Guy'd ourselves.


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KamikazePotato
08/18/22 11:10:39 AM
#34:


As someone who is a very casual Simpsons fan, what I've seen of the early seasons legitimately seems much better than the later material.

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