They’ll Need Stories for Years – The Simpsons Renewed Through Season 36

“Tonight, on Wings… ah, who cares?” – “Brother from the Same Planet”

In developments that are not really significant but still noteworthy, FOX opened up the purse strings again. They renewed a trifecta of animated comedies, including The Simpsons. This will take the longest-running scripted prime-time series on American TV near, if not past, 800 episodes.

It will be on the air until at least 2025. For reference, the Tracey Ullman Show shorts debuted in 1987. For perspective, even if we are just starting in December 1989 when the first full episode aired, this show has surpassed five US presidencies, nine British Premierships (to be fair, the first one was gone a year after the show launched and the last one was turfed after a month in office), six Yankees managers, three Giants Super Bowls, the lifespan of two US Broadcast networks, nine World Cup tournaments, and almost the entire back half of the reign of a Commonwealth Monarch. Seriously, Queen Elizabeth was nearing 38 years on the throne when The Simpsons debuted – she would reign for another 32. And it will keep going for at least two more years. I’ve joked about the show passing Coronation Street‘s record (62 years as of this post), but it’s sounding more and more likely that the venerable British Soap will give up the ghost before The Simpsons. Homer Simpson is written to be in his late 30s – this show is almost as old as the central protagonist.

To be honest, I’m not shocked at this announcement. Not at all.

Jackie Mason: 1928-2021

Jackie Mason, one of the most iconic and occasionally provocative stand-up comedians in the United States, has died at age 93. News of his death has brought many a retrospective on his long and storied career, and his influence on the comedy scene and various aspects of this country’s culture, particularly the Jewish-influenced Borscht Belt scene.

As far as this blog is concerned, however, one of the most iconic American comedians will always be known for his ties to arguably the great American TV show, The Simpsons. More specifically, he portrayed Rabbi Hyman Krustofsky, the long-estranged father of Krusty the Clown. We’re introduced to him in “Like Father, Like Clown”, an episode that dives into Krusty’s backstory and touches on his Judaism for the first time.

It’s a classic “aloof father and free-spirited offspring” story, yes – in fact, the episode is a homage to The Jazz Singer. However, it’s told with such earnestness and fleshes out the world of Springfield alongside it. It’s just fantastic on a character level, not missing a beat. And a part of this is because of Jackie Mason’s performance as Rabbi Krustofsky. For all of Mason’s trademark humor styling that is crafted into the character’s dialogue, there’s a sense of turmoil within the Rabbi, whose devotion to his faith has somehow alienated the man who should be closer to him than any other. And maybe he wasn’t as opposed to the comic scene as he once gave off, but felt it a betrayal of what he felt the Krustofsky family values were. After all, he did attend the ill-fated comedy routine that split apart father and son, and did enjoy it until he realized who the performer was. And it was through debating Bart and Lisa over scripture and hearing the words of Sammy Davis Jr. – non-comedic words from a comic – that the Rabbi realizes the narrow-minded nature of his ways.

Credit to Jackie here. He turned what might have been a cliched character and gave him a sense of humanity and depth. It also makes sense that Mason was selected for the role – he actually started as a Rabbi before joining the comedy circuit. To play a man opposed to such career shifts is a beautiful bit of irony. As a cherry on top, he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Oustanding Voice-Over Performance, right next to the core four and Marcia Wallace. Much as I have a somewhat cool opinion of the Emmy Awards, that deserves respect.

Mason would return to the role years down the line, notably in “Today I Am A Clown” (from Season 15) and “Clown in the Dumps” (from Season 26). I don’t know if I can give an informed opinion on those episodes – it’s been many years since I’ve seen the former, and I’ve never watched the latter – but it speaks to the iconic nature of this role, this character, that Jackie was brought back in as a repeat guest. Not many special guest stars get such an honor.

So today, we say farewell to Jackie Mason. But we remember and treasure the brilliant character that is Rabbi Hyman Krustofsky. He will always be a part of the landscape of the greatest TV show in American history, the same way Mason was part of the American cultural landscape. I can’t think of anything more poetic.

Dead Homer Society Isn’t Totally Dead Yet!

Time for a mea culpa.

In my last post, I lamented the apparent demise of Dead Homer Society, one of the most (in)famous Simpsons blogs, dedicated to praising the classic seasons while deconstructing what they argued as the subpar quality of the show’s contemporary episodes. Such a blog served as a great resource for that subsection of Simpsons fans that generally reject episodes made after the turn of the millennium, and I credit it in part for renewing my appreciation for the show shortly after I all but gave up hope. Its apparent loss to the dustbin of internet history was rather sobering.

Well, turns out rumors of its death were premature.

Sort of.

It turns out the only thing completely dead was the deadhomersociety.com URL. Apparently, the blogmaster(s) never renewed the domain. If you go to deadhomersociety.wordpress.com, you get the blog dating up to the most recent post, that lamenting the show’s renewal into Season 34. (Screenshot taken below, in case the blog goes down for good.)

Now for the bad news. That most recent post was back in March 2021. The Super League hadn’t been formed and collapsed yet. Even before that, the blog had only become active again for less than two months, having been silent since May 2020… and even then, posts had crawled to a trickle in the two months beforehand.

I’m not saying that Dead Homer Society is dead, but the blog feels like it’s entered a certain stasis. And I know there are probably external reasons for this. (The pandemic has made daily life kind of weird, even for those of us least affected.) I do hope that it is picked up again, however. For there is so much brilliance to dissect in classic Simpsons, and the franchise is still putting out new episodes that are likely worthy of riffing. Hey, any site that can write a book dedicated to dissecting the show’s decline has my respect, even if I don’t agree with everything they say.

TL;DR – The Simpsons hasn’t officially outlived a site dedicated to complaining that the show went on too long. Not yet, at least.

Not Unprofitable Yet – The Simpsons Renewed Through Season 34

Taken from Frinkiac.com

“Yes, the Simpsons have come a long way since an old drunk made humans out of his rabbit characters to pay off his gambling debts. Who knows what adventures they’ll have between now and the time the show becomes unprofitable?” – Troy McClure, “The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular”

They’re really going to gun for Coronation Street‘s record, aren’t they?

Alright, here we go. The Simpsons has been renewed for another two seasons. The FOX Network announced that their longest-running TV show will remain on the air for Seasons 33 and 34, meaning that Americans will get to see new Springfield-based adventures until mid-2023, at least.

I’ve said my peace twice before on this matter. To cut a long story short, I’m likely not going to be brought back into viewership, quality control for the new seasons appears suspect at best, yadda yadda yadda. In fact, this time around, there are only a couple of possible quirks that I can bring up that make this particular renewal even slightly interesting. Now, keep in mind, these are just my theories – they might be incorrect. But it does bear some speculation as to how this show keeps going forward.

Movie Review – The Simpsons Movie

Five. Hundred. Posts. Wow. Major thanks are in order for all of you, readers and commentors alike. You have helped keep this silly little blog a very fun hobby over the past several years. Now, as we hit post 500, we formally close out a major era in this blog’s history by reviewing the movie of a franchise that, arguably, started it all.

Please note that the screencaps for this movie were found on the Animation Screencaps website.

“I can’t believe we’re paying to see something we get on TV for free. If you ask me, everybody in this theater is a giant sucker… especially you!” – Homer Simpson, questioning the victory lap for the franchise that is The Simpsons Movie

Premiere: July 21st, 2007

Written By: James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Al Jean, Mike Scully, and Richard Sakai

Directed By: David Silverman

Plot: Lake Springfield is an environmental nightmare waiting to happen, as you would expect from a town populated by clowns and which has a power plant that constantly flaunts regulations. What puts it over the top into the aforementioned nightmare zone? Homer’s antics result in him dumping a metric ton of pig waste straight into the lake. The town is quarantined, and once the cause of the disaster is revealed, Homer Simpson becomes public enemy #1. He and the family manage to escape, but they slowly drift apart as Homer proves himself more and more trapped by selfishness. All the while, the town of Springfield slowly starts to lose its grip, giving EPA head Russ Cargill the opportunity for a major power grab… a destructive one that almost brings an end to the Simpson family by proxy.

Review:

The Simpsons Movie.

Let’s take a second to dissect those three words.

Much has been written about the legacy that The Simpsons has left on American pop culture. It’s arguably the most influential animated television show since The Flintstones (at least) and possibly the single most influential American television show since All in the Family. Some could make an argument that it surpasses those two series in terms of sheer cultural impact – The Simpsons feels like a truly global phenomenon, with many phrases entering the lexicon in the Anglosphere and characters becoming pop cultural icons.

All this from a show that was literally doodled in the office before the pitch meeting for a sketch show so Matt Groening wouldn’t have to give up the rights to his underground comic strip Life in Hell. It is probably the most marketable western franchise in modern history, up there with Harry Potter and Star Wars. And no matter where you stand on the “quality debate”, the fact that there are almost 700 episodes of the show really reflects the staying power the show has in the national consciousness. Hell, even if you’re more cynical about the state of the show like I am, at least 175 episodes are among the best television of all time.

There had to be a movie. You don’t let a TV show that practically prints money go away without at least an attempt at a theatrical release to make Rupert Murdoch even richer. Do you?

Well, it took 18 years, but they did it.

And when I first saw the movie… well, I was hyped! This titan of American television finally going to the silver screen. Indeed, I felt quite satisfied walking out of the theater way back when.

But that was 13 years ago. My tastes have shifted considerably since then. Arguably, I’ve become a “Simpsons snob”, particularly since 2012. (Lady Gaga broke me.) In fact, I can’t recall the last time I ever sat down to watch the movie before preparing this review – it was a morning showing on FX if I recall correctly, and I saw it no later than 2015 if my memory serves me correctly. In effect, I get to watch a movie with some of the nostalgia of youth cleansed off by a nice heaping bowl of reality.

But is it really, now? Is The Simpsons Movie one late-stage gem from the most transformative show in American History? Or is it the nail in the coffin, proof that this franchise became everything it once mocked, and the moment the series realized it could run on autopilot indefinitely?

Not Another Top (X) List: My Top 20 Favorite Simpsons Episodes

You see the image of Wayne and Garth, you know what’s coming…

NOT ANOTHER TOP X LIST!

And, well…

The Simpsons is probably my favorite TV show of all time.

Wait, did I say “probably”? I meant “definitely”.

I can think of no other series that has influenced my sense of humor, my pop culture interests, my awareness of society and politics, my appreciation of America, et cetera, et cetera. And on top of it all, the scripts are some of the best ever put to air. I will fully cop to becoming more of a “purist” as I’ve aged (as in, I don’t watch the show’s contemporary episodes and rarely watch anything produced in the double digits), but I still maintain that The Simpsons is the show I adore the most.

My god, those first 178 episodes are an astonishing stretch of television. And it was a cultural phenomenon that spread across the Western world. There was nothing quite like it before, nothing quite like it since, and it’s hard to envision anything like it ever happening again.

Deciding a “best episode ever”, therefore, is a rather arduous task. I mean, I have my favorites, but compiling a distinctive list? It feels like I’m overlooking so much that this show brought to the table. So much of this series deserves to be recognized in one way or another.

You know what? I’m going to do so anyway. I’ve compiled what I would consider my 20 favorite Simpsons episodes. This is going to be painful. After all, that stretch is nearly flawless, some of the best television ever. Keep in mind that the other episodes in the Golden Era are, with few exceptions, great in their own right. My opinions could very well shift next week. Hence a major factor as to why it took a bit longer to get this out.

But damn it, let’s commit.

X=20, so here are…

MY TOP 20 FAVORITE SIMPSONS EPISODES (Right Now)

Scullyfied Simpsons: Wrap-Up

“Oh, I’ve wasted my life!“

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.)

Scullyfied Simpsons: “The Parent Rap” (Season 13, Episode 2)

“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”.

Scullyfied Simpsons: “How I Spent My Strummer Vacation” (Season 14, Episode 2)

“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.

“How I Spent My Strummer Vacation”. This episode has received a surprising amount of praise. At the very least, it’s been cited as one of the better “post-classic” episodes in some circles. Entertainment Weekly ranked it as the 22nd best Simpsons episode. New York magazine argued that it ranked alongside the early classics. A columnist for The Times – arguably the UK’s Newspaper of Record – called the guest performances here one of the show’s 33 greatest. So this episode does have at least some cultural recognition attached to it/

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.

Scullyfied Simpsons: “The Blunder Years” (Season 13, Episode 5)

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”.