Everyone has that one movie that is their personal favorite, and yet was a financial disappointment and/or was panned by critics. One calls such a film, a guilty pleasure. And I am no exception to that rule. There are tons of films that many cynics...
I don't know if I've mentioned this, but I'm a big fan of The Simpsons. I was born around the time the show was on its 8th season, and by then, the show was in its prime. The Simpsons was one of the few shows my parents wouldn't let me watch as a child, but it only made me want to watch it even more. I mean, Burger King sold toys of them for crying out loud! And I've remained a loyal fan since my adolescence. It's pretty impressive that The Simpsons has been around for nearly 30+ years! But before I get to why the show hasn't been as great as its yesteryears, a little history. In 1987, cartoonist Matt Groening was approached to do animated segments for The Tracey Ullman Show. He was originally going to do segments based off of his comic strip series Life In Hell. But several minutes before he was to pitch his idea to the year old Fox Network at the time, Groening had an epiphany. He realized if he gave his comic strip cartoons to Fox, they would own the rights, forever. So Matt thought of an alternate idea for Fox to own. He then sketched out a human family, and named each member after his parents and his two sisters. Except for Bart.
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That was what The Simpsons used to look like. They sure do look off model, don't they? So The Simpsons were animated shorts that were sequences for The Tracey Ullman Show. But audiences seemed to like the shorts more than they liked Tracey Ullman's material. And so in 1989, Fox ordered a spinoff show for The Simpsons. The rest as they say, is history. The Simpsons was a cultural phenomenon, sometimes gaining controversy, but influencing how we view comedy in general. It gave us memorable characters and storylines, and also great writers and voice actors. The Incredibles director Brad Bird got his start working on the show! It inspired other cartoonists on how to do adult cartoons. The Simpsons was a way of demonstrating that cartoons weren't just for kids. But then in 1997, The Simpsons released the episode The Principal and The Pauper. In the episode, it turned out that Bart Simpson's school principal, Seymour Skinner, a character who had been around since the first season, turned out to be an impostor!
This was the episode that pissed everyone off. Fans and critics alike said that at that point, The Simpsons had officially jumped the shark. Matt Groening and Principal Skinner's voice actor Harry Shearer hated the episode, stating that it officially ruined all of Skinner's years of character development. And when season 10 happened, that's when things went downhill. Yeah, over the years the animation has improved and gotten better and better. But the storylines weren't as good, the characters had now become caricatures of their former selves, Homer in particular got dumber and dumber. People accused the show of being over-reliant on sight gags the same way Family Guy is, ironically the show that many accused of ripping off The Simpsons. And many fans accuse the show of also being too dependent on its celebrity guest voice actors. And with the deaths of voice actresses Marcia Wallace and Russi Taylor, people feel modern Simpsons isn't as great as its heyday, and it's like beating a dead horse with another dead horse.
But how about I talk about why I like The Simpsons after Season 10. I still got a soft spot for the show, and despite everything, it's always fun to watch, and I can watch all 30 seasons now that The Simpsons is available on Disney+. For every bad episode, I can always look forward to the Treehouse of Horror specials and whenever Sideshow Bob makes an appearance. Plus it's fun (and bittersweet) seeing the episodes where Stan Lee voices himself. Despite the fact that Homer Simpson has become a doofus like shell of his former self, his voice actor Dan Castellaneta still does a great job voicing Homer and all the other characters that he's known for voicing on the show. I can't imagine an episode where Dan Castellaneta did a half-assed voice performance. And I'm not gonna lie, I'd choose The Simpsons over Family Guy any day. And season 31 felt like a bit of a return to form. I liked its premise for a Thanksgiving of Horror special. So yeah, I'll always like The Simpsons whether it's in its prime, or when someone like Lady Gaga guest voices. Besides, it's a lot better than Red Hood Rises.
