So said Comic Book Guy during “The Homega Man”, the first segment of “Treehouse of Horror VIII”… the very first Simpsons episode aired during the “Mike Scully Era” of The Simpsons.
In that spirit, there’s a tiny part of me that’s using that quote to reflect on this seven-year, an on-again-off-occasionally-ultimately-finished project that I did to review every episode of the Mike Scully era. The results were not too shocking – I got to see the series decline dramatically in so many ways. Characterization, plotting, comedic timing, all of it went massively downhill in the span of four years. From some of the best television out there, the last few scripts I reviewed were mediocre at best and downright shocking at worst.
My big fear right now is repeating what I’ve said in my Simpsons reviews, though, so this wrap-up is going to be somewhat brief and focused on one thing… why?
(Just a quick PSA: my critique of certain figures with regards to The Simpsons is not an excuse to go out and harass them. Come on, let’s maintain civility.)
“Don’t spit on my cupcake and tell me it’s frosting!” – Judge Harm. Arguably the mantra of some Simpsons fans, not that they’ve taken it up… for obvious reasons.
Airdate: November 11, 2001
Written By: George Meyer and, apropos, Mike Scully
Plot: Bart and Milhouse find themselves on the wrong side of the law after getting into Wiggum’s patrol car… and driving it around. And crashing it. Milhouse manages to escape punishment thanks to a very lenient Judge Snyder. However, Bart winds up on the wrong end of Judge Constance Harm, who throws Homer in the mix after finding out he dumped the kids out of his car en route to school. He orders the duo tethered together.
Review:
And now we face the final curtain.
For the past seven years, I have posted ramblings of varying lengths and quality regarding every episode of the Mike Scully era of The Simpsons. I have watched the greatest series of all time implode and settle into episodes that were generally mediocre at best, and downright odious at worst. Why did I do this?
Morbid curiosity, I guess. So much has been written about the general decline of The Simpsons, I figured a bit-by-bit analysis of the showrunner era said to have signaled the fall from grace would be an interesting project. Whether or not it was in execution, I’ll let you decide.
But for now, we have one more episode. One that I briefly withheld partially because it was the last production episode of Mike Scully’s tenure. “The Blunder Years” was the last aired, and “How I Spent My Strummer Vacation” was a one-off return at the end of Production Season 13. But here, we get a big one to finish us off – a Scully-penned episode at the end of Scully’s last production season.
By all accounts, this is the end of an era.
And I’m more than happy to not stall further. Let’s dive into “The Parent Rap”.
“Cheer up, Homer. It’s only Rock and Roll Camp.” – Mick Jagger.
Airdate: November 10th, 2002
Written By: Mike Scully
Plot: Homer’s drunken rant expressing resentment about his lot in life is caught on camera for a reality TV show. While initially offended by his swipes at his loved ones, the family concludes that Homer needs to indulge his fantasies and sends him to a Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp run by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
Review:
Well, uh, we’re in Season 14. Mike Scully actually got an episode credited to him as showrunner after the end of his “era”. And it’s not like an episode held over from his production run – this episode was the last stand for the DABF production run, whereas Scully ended in the CABF era.
Even better, Scully wrote this episode! So for our penultimate 22-minute review of The Simpsons, we have a two-for-one special. In a way, we’re going out with a bit of a bang.
But it feels like there is a bit of a divide between the press and fandom when it comes to the path The Simpsons took after the single-digit seasons. Hell, there’s a divide in the fandom. The “Dead Homer Society” section of the fandom, which dismisses almost everything the franchise made after the 90s as mediocre at best (and which I am a part of, admittedly), is certainly vocal, but is it the dominant sector? Almost certainly not. There are tons of casual fans, tons of devotees who love episodes aired to this day, people in between… Simpsons fandom encompasses many ideas and takes.
Who knows? Maybe this episode will be a surprisingly good outing? Maybe the press got it right, and that the guest stars will be used to full comedic effect.
HA HA HA, NOPE.
This is not bad Simpsons. Oh, no. This is an astonishing disaster of a script. There is a difference. One could possibly work in a totally different show (sort of), the other would be used in a “what not to do” scenario for Screenwriting 101. This episode fits the latter category.
Homer:“There have been so many classic Simpson moments. I remember that time I tried to jump over Springfield Gorge…” (flashback to “Saturdays of Thunder”) Homer in Flashback: “I’m gonna make it!” Lisa: “No, dad! Everyone’s sick of that memory!” – Lies, damn you!
Airdate: December 9th, 2001
Written By: Ian Maxtone-Graham
Plot: While going out to dinner with the family to make up for an unfortunate paper towel mascot incident, Homer finds himself in the clutches of a local magician. His tricks manage to dredge up a haunting memory from his past that results in him screaming through the night. One tea ceremony later, he reveals that at the tender age of 12, he discovered a dead body blocking an inlet pipe heading out to the local quarry. But who was he? And how did he wind up in the inlet pipe?
Review:
We have reached endgame.
While I have two other episodes and a movie to go, this is really the last dance of Mike Scully’s tenure – the last episode to be aired before Al Jean took the helm indefinitely. One other episode that was produced later was aired weeks earlier. He would helm another episode at the start of Season 14. But this, my friends, is effectively the end of the most controversial era in Simpsons history.
Kind of moving, in a way. Even with a lot of the clunkers that I’ve reviewed, you can’t deny that the end of any era is going to be rather poignant. Reminds me of the last few seasons of Eli Manning’s tenure at the New York Giants – his play got rustier, the team didn’t play up to par, and yet when he was benched for Daniel Jones, I was still rather moved. He played a few more games before hanging it up, but it was still a changing of the guard. Still my QB, forever and ever.
But enough about sportsball, we’ve got The Simpsons to take care of. And this time, we’re flashing back to the late 60s/early 70s! Let’s get some mood music going, and dive into “The Blunder Years”.
Chinese Restaurant Waiter 1: “Hey, we’re out of those “New Love” cookies!” Chinese Restaurant Waiter 2: “Well, open up the “stick with your wife” barrel!” – “The Last Temptation of Homer”
Airdate: December 2nd, 2001
Written By: John Swartzwelder
Plot: Homer’s complaints about the cliched nature of fortune cookies drives him to write his own take on the words of wisdom, this time as predictions. One such recipient is Mr. Burns, who discovers that he will find true love on Flag Day. And he does – seconds before midnight, he falls head over heels with Gloria (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). The two go out, and Burns convinces Homer to be his wingman.
Review:
Mr. Burns falls in love with the apparent woman of his dreams because a fortune cookie told him that he would.
Where’s my Yuengling? Because just the concept alone is cause for immediate and grave concern. Charles Montgomery Burns. Falling in love. To follow the whims of a fortune cookie. One that was written by Homer Simpson.
On one hand, there have been many plots before and after that looked horrible on paper, but were executed in a way that made them competent, if not downright impressive. And this show has demonstrated a more human, albeit still menacing and callous, aura to Mr. Burns before. On the other hand, this show’s recent track record is not good with, well, anything. They’ve already messed around with Mr. Burns, either declawing him (“Monty Can’t Buy Me Love” and “The Mansion Family”) or turning him into a cartoonish manchild villain (“Homer vs. Dignity”, oh gods). So my hopes were admittedly low.
But maybe, just maybe, I would be surprised. Could Scully and company pull out a minor miracle?
Nope! This episode is quite poor, and it’s NOT any relief that there are worse episodes out there. Just.
Please note, for those that are wondering why I’ve “skipped” Episode 2 at the moment, I explain my rationale here.
Alright, I hate Jerkass Homer as much as the next guy, but threatening to stab him with a broken bottle is going a tad bit over the line.
“It’s PoMo… postmodern… okay, weird for the sake of weird.” – Moe.
Airdate: November 18th, 2001
Written By: Dana Gould
Plot: Moe finds himself in a rut with his career choice. Fearing burnout, he decides to consult an old bartending professor for advice. What he finds is refurbishment can go a long way to revitalizing his passion. Ergo, Moe’s Tavern becomes “M”, a post-modern club targeting an upscale clientele. This does not please the longtime inhabitants of Moe’s, one of whom – Homer – decides to start his own bar.
Review:
Let’s go way, way back to Season 7 before we start today – not just as a reminder of what the show once was, but to try and effectively compare-contrast between two episodes with similar plotlines, albeit with two totally different executions. Spoilers, one is brilliant, the other quite a ways less so. And by “the other”, I mean this episode.
“Homer the Smithers”, from Season 7, revolves around Homer being temporarily promoted to the role of Mr. Burns’s assistant. Said promotion was a cynical move from the Burns-obsessed Smithers, a gamble to make sure that Burns would never depart from his closest confidante. It works out too well – Homer and Burns go together so poorly that the latter finally decides to take matters into his own hands and start fending for himself. It’s a great Burns-and-Homer episode, a fine comedic pairing with some insight into the character dynamics between the two as well as involving Smithers. And while a part of me does think it wound up being an unfortunate and unwitting precursor to Burnsie’s character derailment (as I’ll dissect in “A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love”), it is probably one of the finer “Homer Gets a New Job” episodes, given how character-driven it was and how it still managed to flesh out a small bit of Springfield.
Unfortunately, “Homer Gets A Job” episodes became a major cliche during the Scully era and beyond. It really does work to showcase Homer’s decay as a protagonist from a fully fleshed-out and relatable character into a vehicle for cheap jokes and tropes, many of which are executed in a way that makes him unrelatable and unlikeable.
This, my friends, is not the last “Homer Gets A New Job” episode that we’ll be covering, but it feels like the natural endgame. Homer becomes Moe, Mark II.
“Hurry up and lose so we can get out of here!” – Homer Simpson, “Wild Barts Can’t Be Broken”
Almost seven years on, I’ve hit the homestretch. The last episodes of the Mike Scully era of The Simpsons. Where the hell did the time go?
Not much to say here, I’m ready to shove the collapse of this once-mighty series into the rear-view mirror for good. There are the five leftover episodes from Production Season 12, and one episode that Scully did for Broadcast Season 14. Six episodes. Then I can move on to better things. Better shows. Continue reading →
And today, we present this list with the last full-season retrospective that this blog will be doing of The Simpsons. Ladies and gentlemen, we are officially done with Season 11 of The Simpsons.
It is my honor to declare that Season 12 is actually… an improvement over The Simpsons season 11.
There is bad news, though. That honor is really damning with faint praise.
Let me explain it this way. Season 11 takes the dubious honor of “worst season ever” on the grounds that it dismantled and let rot everything that made the golden age of The Simpsons so iconic. On top of it, the majority of Season 11 episodes were “bad” at best and baffling at worst. While the latter doesn’t improve in general for Season 12, there are small differences. For instance, this season doesn’t contain the show’s nadir, so that’s a plus. It also contains the best episode of the Scully era, another plus. Further, there were more moments of striking animation that Season 11 seemed to lack, even if the aura of the show feels stagnant overall.
In fact, I did the math – the average score I gave for Season 11 episodes was 4.14. For Season 12? 4.25. Yeah, it’s a minuscule difference, but it’s enough to get Season 12 over the line. Barely. If you want a more apt comparison? Season 9 was the show tipping. Season 10 was the show falling over. Season 11 was when it fell over. Season 12 is the rats scurrying out of the debris and running into Moe’s Tavern.
I will, however, make one distinction. A lot of the episodes on my Bottom 11 list for Season 11 appeared to actively provoke the viewer in one way or another. Not that they avoid doing so in Season 12, but this time around, almost half of the episodes on this list are just… boring. They have noticeable flaws, but more than anything, I can only register a disquiet about them. Like, whatever. (Don’t worry, though, as the latter half of this list has some real trainwrecks.)
Well, tuck your pants into your socks, because we’re taking a look at the low points of this… less-than-impressive season. X=12. Ergo, welcome to…
THE TOP 12 WORST EPISODES OF THE SIMPSONS SEASON 12!
“The Simpsons are riding the rails!” – Homer. Side note, the last time somebody said “The Simpsons are going to (X)”, we got a hodgepodge of African cliches.
Airdate: May 20th, 2001.
Here we are – the last episode of Season 12 of The Simpsons. Let’s just get it over with so I can finally start the process of moving on to bigger and better marginally less insipid things. This is like Senioritis, except replace “academic boredom” with “finally ready to keep myself in a bubble of good Simpsons episodes”.
For the uninitiated, the double-digit seasons of The Simpsons would become noted for their almost annual foray into non-Treehouse of Horror “trilogy” episodes. This started with “Simpsons Bible Stories” back in Season 10, followed by “Trilogy of Error” (albeit one that was tied together by a major plot thread, so I don’t really count that), followed by today’s outing.
Apparently, the audience response to “Simpsons Bible Stories” led the writers to try and get lightning to strike twice. So was the positive reception to “Trilogy of Error”, probably the best episode of the Scully era. Accordingly, the first part of the “Supreme Leader Al Jean Era” would have the following traditional “trilogy” episodes:
“Tales from the Public Domain” (Season 13)
“Margical History Tour” (Season 15)
“Simpsons Christmas Stories” (Season 17)
“The Wettest Stories Never Told (Season 17)
“Revenge is a Dish Best Served Three Times (Season 18)
“Love, Springfeldian Style” (Season 19)
“Four Great Women and a Manicure” (Season 20)
On top of that, there were also the following “experimental” episodes:
“Gump Roast” (Season 13 clip show)
“The Seemingly Never-Ending Story” (Season 17)
“Springfield Up” (Season 18)
They largely stopped after the show shifted to a bizarre “three-and-a-half act” style in Season 20 (concurrent to the shift to widescreen). In practice, they were just excuses to implement the Simpsons characters into various stories famous in popular culture. There have been two since then, Season 23’s “Fight Before Christmas” and Season 30’s “My Way or the Highway to Heaven”. I have not seen the former in years and I have no desire to see the latter, do with that information as you will.
Anyway, let’s stop kicking the ball around the midfield and get on with it. Continue reading →
Warning – events seen in this episode are not as heartwarming as this screengrab from Frinkiac.com would lead you to believe.
“All my love has come back in trophy form!” – Homer Simpson. Spoiler alert, that’s one of the less asinine things he says all episode.
Airdate: May 13th, 2001
Written By: Al Jean
Plot: A trip to the YMCA ends badly for Homer Simpson, as his attempt to score during a basketball game results in a rather substantial ACL tear. Stuck at home after the surgery, he finds himself babysitting the Flanders kids. This starts a domino effect that sees him start his own daycare center. His newfound affection for taking care of his kids winds up preoccupying him so much that he forgets about his own offspring, much to their displeasure.
Review:
Why is Jerkass Homer so infamous?
Really, it seems like, more than any other aspect of The Simpsons’ shift in tone and characterization as it reached the double-digit seasons, Jerkass Homer gets quite a bit of focus. It almost feels as if that was the sole reason behind the decline – “the show sucked around the time Homer became an idiotic ass.” Yes, that’s a simplification, but it seems to be one of the most common complaints about the show’s decline once Mike Scully took over as showrunner.
The thing is, Jerkass Homer is arguably as much a symptom as it is an individual ailment affecting The Simpsons. Yes, the fact that the central protagonist decayed into an almost astonishingly unlikable human being pretty much removes any hope for wanting him to succeed, and the fact that he still gets off easy removes the hope for an interesting sense of comeuppance, thus removing the viewer from an interest in the story. However, it’s indicative of a much larger rot at the show’s core. After all, Homer was always a bit of an ass at first glance – he was stupid, self-centered, and somewhat of a lout. However, not only were these balanced out by a certain innocence and a fierce devotion to his family, but he was so often written as a multifaceted and human character. In fact, that’s where so many of my favorite episodes come from. The character has degenerated into joke fodder, meant to get the easiest and broadest laughs with no regard for empathy or audience relation, all while undermining the smartness of the show before it and the stories that stem from that brilliance.
It parallels what happened to the series. Once challenging the status quo of network sitcoms and cartoons, The Simpsons wound up almost embracing the cliches of both simultaneously in a way that left neither party satisfied. Jerkass Homer is merely the prime example of a surprisingly complex and moving show being reduced to a simplistic and surprisingly callous shell of itself. It is a series that has become more insular, and in spite of the increased insanity of the plot twists, has become more rote and almost predictable. The soul is gone, the body is kept alive by the powers that be who refuse to do the merciful thing and let the show die.
But die it won’t. So instead, we must do the next best thing and leave it be for our sanity. We’re down to our last few episodes. And how appropriate a title to warn us of what we can expect as “Children of a Lesser Clod”?
I’m not gonna beat around the bush anymore – this episode was surprisingly awful. I mean, I wasn’t expecting much, but this failed to deliver on even my dramatically reduced expectations.
The Review Nebula 
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