The Simpsons List Discussion and Suggestions

[thirtyframesasecond]

And of course he inevitably has to run into Ralph at some point and get called "Super Nintendo Chalmers", giving the boy a great, rather concerned look! (I should admit that I'm a big Ralph fan!)

Might also be the same exchange when Ralph says "what's a battle" and Skinner says "he said what's that rattle"

[colinr0380]

I also like that exchange at the end of the "Lisa Gets An A" episode, in which after

Spoiler

the entire school, parents and community have gotten together for Lisa's earnest speech about having cheated and therefore the school needing to give back the state cheque for the overall average grade of the school having raised it is revealed that they played along to get Lisa out of the way with a fake "State Comptroller",

Chalmers is ushering Lisa out of the room as Skinner loudly announces "Let's hear it for the real Comptroller!". Chalmers then has to push the suddenly suspicious Lisa out of the room, looking back at Skinner and uttering a muttered "Idiot!"

[Lemmy Caution]

I think my favorite secondary characters are Otto and Nelson. Wonder what that says about me?
They both have great voices and a skewed perspective on things. Rebels.

After that, probably Grandpa and Ralph.
Grandpa's rambling stories full of misinformation are usually great.
And Ralph's idiocy is usually good, though occasionally overplayed.

Characters I don't like are mostly the more recent additions, such as Cookie Kwan and The Rich Texan, both uniformly awful. Out of the older characters, I find Chalmers worthless, though I like the voice. And Agnes Skinner can be grating. It's like they have the stereotype and Phyllis Diller voice, and often don't know what to do with her. But she has her moments.

[colinr0380]

I presume it means that you are a great cook Lemmy!

Grandpa and his shaggy dog tales are great too ("Das ist nicht eine booby!"). I guess the best Grandpa show is that Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson In "The Curse Of The Flying Hellfish" from Season 7. Either that or the nursing home love story in the Season 2 episode Old Money.

[domino harvey]

Not a big Nelson fan, I much prefer to laugh at Martin and his preening intellectual superiority, though maybe that means there's a little bit of Nelson in me! I'm not sure I dislike any characters, but thinking about it I guess I like Moe and his bottomless patheticism, Skinner's out of touch blandness, and Kent Brockman's ludicrous news casting best.

[colinr0380]

I loved Kent Brockman early on but his character really lost his edge once he won the lottery and went Hollywood. (I like to think that the show got too close to the real Fox News anchors for comfort!)

[swo17]

Not a big fan of Comic Book Guy or most of the one-note characters invented for a joke that they kept coming back to (Cletus, Disco Stu). Also, I don't know what I'd do if anything ever happened to Lenny.

[MongooseCmr]

I really like any episode where Nelson acts as Bart's friend (usually because Bart has so few and he pads out the group) more than his bully. Bart on the Road is one of my favorites for this, especially Nelson's reaction to seeing Andy Williams

I didn't think he was going to sing "Moon River" and then BAM! second encore!

For disliked characters, nobody beats Sideshow Bob for me. I find his entire shtick and repetitive plotlines unbearable. Like swo said, the one note characters are exactly that. Comic Book Guy, Sea Captain and Gil all wear thin quickly. Gil in particular due to how late in the series he arrived compared to how often they used him. As the roles for secondary characters started to shrink around season 10, Gil just keeps showing up more and more for the same joke. I've noticed Hibbert also pops up more often around the same time, usually just for exposition and a chuckle.

[Titus]

Not a big Nelson fan, I much prefer to laugh at Martin and his preening intellectual superiority, though maybe that means there's a little bit of Nelson in me! I'm not sure I dislike any characters, but thinking about it I guess I like Moe and his bottomless patheticism, Skinner's out of touch blandness, and Kent Brockman's ludicrous news casting best.

I think Kent Brockman may have produced more laughs per minute than any other character on the show.

The only characters I tend to have little patience for are the ones that were introduced pretty late in the show's prime (or later) and didn't really become regulars until after the show was well past its expiration date (Cletus, Disco Stu, the Rich Texan). But in the golden era, the batting average on this giant roster of minor characters that filled out the Springfield universe was remarkable.

[Lemmy Caution]

I really like any episode where Nelson acts as Bart's friend (usually because Bart has so few and he pads out the group) more than his bully. Bart on the Road is one of my favorites for this, especially Nelson's reaction to seeing Andy Williams

Well, there's a pretty solid Season 18 ep in which Bart and Nelson become best friends, with Nelson even giving Bart a Nelson vest to wear. The Haw-Hawed Couple (S18, E8) also has a pretty good subplot with Homer and Lisa reading Angelica Button, a Harry Potter knock-off.

The next Episode (S18, E9) Kill Gil has Gil move in with the Simpsons for an extended period. It's a bit hit or miss.

[flyonthewall2983]

Bart on the Road is a big favorite of mine. I like road movies, and this kind of captured the feeling of one. The B-story with Homer and Lisa was cute, and the intersection of the two (especially when Homer becomes enraged by the news of Bart's whereabouts) was inspired.

[colinr0380]

"Remember everyone, we're parked under the Sun Sphere"

[swo17]

Season 11
I don't think the show had ever yet been as bad as it got during this season, but it had a few last gasps of brilliance before toppling over the edge into irrelevance. In fact, if you throw out the Focusyn episode, the first quarter season here constitutes a better run than the show had had in at least a couple of years. Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner? sees Homer taking his new job as a food critic too seriously, even though all of his reviews are written by Lisa, or failing that, the family dog. ("The food is 'rough'? You've been pitching that one all night.") This feels like an episode from a much earlier season. E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt) (aka the tomacco episode) is the exact opposite, and a fittingly rare breed: an episode firmly rooted in late-season wackiness that still manages to be funny. Treehouse of Horror X is the best Halloween special since V, despite a relatively weak middle segment devoted to superheroes. The final segment about perceived Y2K terror has a lot of fun with fears of not being able to handle the transition to the year 2000 (traffic lights shoot out laser beams and even milk cartons don't pour right) but there may have been something to that--Grift of the Magi (the Funzo/Gary Coleman Christmas ep) was the last episode to air in the 1990s, and after that point, something always seemed at least a little off about The Simpsons.

[domino harvey]

The food critic episode is the last classic ep for sure, and the only one from these later seasons likely to make my list. I still love and often think about the joke with Santa's Little Helper pitching descriptors

[colinr0380]

"Chew-y?"

I think my favourite part of the episode is Homer barging into a critic's leaving party and the quickly halted attempt at a musical number from West Side Story.

[swo17]

Itchy & Scratchy & Marge (S2, Ep 9)
The show was of course still finding its stride during the first season and a half or so. This might be the first episode that feels to me like it's moved beyond that "proto" stage. (If nothing else, it's the first one where Kent Brockman's character feels fully formed.) Homer is in the basement building a shoddy spice rack when Maggie hits him over the head with a mallet like in the Psycho shower scene. Marge blames it on cartoons and launches a public protest, but then sings a different tune when--as so often happens in small American towns--Michelangelo's David is brought to town on tour.

One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish (S2, Ep 11)
The Simpsons try to dine more adventurously and Homer demands that his mostly poisonous exotic Japanese fish be served without the proper care (and the head chef is out in a back alley making out with Ms. Krabappel for some reason), and so he soon finds himself with less than 24 hours to live. I love the moment when Homer eagerly agrees to show up at Flanders' barbecue the next day with some thick, juicy steaks ("Joke's on him, I'll be dead by then!") The easy punchline to the episode would have been to show him looking despondent at the barbecue, but what we get instead is much more satisfying: Homer miraculously survives and vows to live every moment to its fullest / cut to a loop of him sitting on the couch watching TV and eating pork rinds throughout the end credits.

The Way We Was (S2, Ep 12)
The show's first flashback episode, which details how Homer and Marge met and almost went together to the prom. Being set in the past with younger versions of only a few select characters helps this feel more like an episode from Season 3 or 4. And the idea of Homer hating the Carpenters song (which would later turn up in Maximum Homerdrive) but then reciting it in his mind when he first sees Marge is one of the better moments of heart on the show.

Bart's Dog Gets an "F" (S2, Ep 16)
This is for some reason my sister-in-law's favorite episode of the whole series. I will grant her that it's at least a Season 2 highlight! I love the moment when Santa's Little Helper tears up a priceless family heirloom, much to Marge and Lisa's horror, and Homer calmly tries to console them with reason until discovering that the fancy cookie that he'd just bought for a dollar at the mall had also fallen victim to dog attack.

[colinr0380]

Itchy & Scratchy & Marge (S2, Ep 9)
The show was of course still finding its stride during the first season and a half or so. This might be the first episode that feels to me like it's moved beyond that "proto" stage. (If nothing else, it's the first one where Kent Brockman's character feels fully formed.) Homer is in the basement building a shoddy spice rack when Maggie hits him over the head with a mallet like in the Psycho shower scene. Marge blames it on cartoons and launches a public protest, but then sings a different tune when--as so often happens in small American towns--Michelangelo's David is brought to town on tour.

That episode also has the wonderful montage scene after Itchy and Scratchy becomes bland and uninteresting, which I assume is the parade of over idealised and hopelessly nostalgic ideas of kids playing outside that people who constantly decry the evils of television have in their mind's eye! Its a beautiful scene, but its even better that it comes halfway through the episode and not as a pat resolution to it, as television insidiously creeps back to reassert its dominance!

[Lemmy Caution]

Season 11Treehouse of Horror X is the best Halloween special since V, despite a relatively weak middle segment devoted to superheroes. The final segment about perceived Y2K terror has a lot of fun with fears of not being able to handle the transition to the year 2000 (traffic lights shoot out laser beams and even milk cartons don't pour right)

It's a solid Halloween episode, but S7 n& S8 have much better Treehouses imo.
S7 = Bart's evil (detached) twin Hugo in the attic; Lisa becomes queen of a micro-world; Kang become president
S8 = The HΩmega Man (Homer last man alive); Fly Vs. Fly (Bart The Fly); Easy-Bake Coven (Marge a Witch)
S6 is good as well, so S5-S8 is really a terrific Halloween run.
And speaking of runs, S12, S13 & S14 are some of the best Treehouse of Horror episodes.
Maybe the gap between the Halloween episodes and the regular season adds to their luster, but really I think they are just terrific. They really should put out a box of just Halloween episodes, if they haven't.

Itchy & Scratchy & Marge (S2, Ep 9)
...as so often happens in small American towns -- Michelangelo's David is brought to town on tour.

I like when things just happen to Springfield and they don't bother to make up some phony excuse for the occurrence. But your comment reminded me of tennis t-shirts in the 1980's:
Rome
Paris
Wimbledon
Mahwah
For a decade plus, Mahwah (NJ) hosted a major women's (WTA) summer tennis tournament.
It's a small (25K) republican suburb in northern NJ with a swank country club.

[swo17]

I'm confused by your numbering. The Halloween episodes started in Season 2, so they are always one Roman numeral less than the season in which they were made. Hugo/Lisa/Kang is ToH VII from Season 8 and HOmega/Fly/Coven is ToH VIII from Season 9. I believe you're suggesting that the good run starts with ToH V (The Shinning/Time and Punishment/Nightmare Cafeteria), which is a great episode, but is there a reason you're not also including III and IV?

[Lemmy Caution]

That's because my numbering was confusing. The numbers I used should have been Treehouse roman numerals, with season #'s +1 -- as you listed.

Treehouses V-VIII (Seasons 6-9) is a great run.
ToH III & IV (Season 4 & 5) are fine but not memorable imo.

The next great run is TofH XI - XIII (S 12-14)
The Night of the Dolphin in Treehouse XI (S 12) & Send in the Clones from ToH XIII (S 14) are my favorite Simpson mini-episodes (8 min segments).
While Hex and the City from Treehouse of Horror XII Season 13 is stellar as well.

[domino harvey]

ToH III & IV (Season 4 & 5) are fine but not memorable imo.

How is it possible to be this wrong

[Lemmy Caution]

As I mentioned much earlier in this thread, overall I think the Halloween Specials are at a very high level and some of the best of the Simpsons episodes.

I just listed 7 ToH's of the first 13 [ToH V-VIII (S 6-9) & TofH XI - XIII (S 12-14)] which I think are standouts and significantly better than ToH III & IV (S 4 & 5). Which is why I'd put them in the standard good, but not stellar category.

Then again you thought the steamed hams was classic, while I thought it was clunky and semi-embarrassing, so we've watched very different Simpsons ...

[tarpilot]

I just listed 7 ToH's of the first 13 [ToH V-VIII (S 6-9) & TofH XI - XIII (S 12-14)] which I think are standouts and significantly better than ToH III & IV (S 4 & 5). Which is why I'd put them in the standard good, but not stellar category.

Then again you thought the steamed hams was classic, while I thought it was clunky and semi-embarrassing, so we've watched very different Simpsons ...

Well, based on these two opinions, it seems you've watched different Simpsons than just about anyone else who's ever watched the Simpsons

[domino harvey]

[swo17]

On a sidenote, I'm not sure why wiki (or anyone) uses the production code #'s to identify episodes, such as:
"Mountain of Madness" (4F10) (1997)
At least they also include the year it aired.
But it is of course much simpler and more informative to provide the Season and Episode #:
"Mountain of Madness" (S8, E12)

And this is especially true since the production code numbers don't follow sequentially between years.
"Homer at the Bat" (8F13) (1992) v. "Mountain of Madness" (4F10) (1997)

Actually, I'm learning that the production codes are fairly useful for keeping track of who was running the show at any given time. Here is a helpful summary. Some interesting points:

- The first few episodes of any given season tend to have been the last ones produced in conjunction with the prior season. For instance, the Brooks/Groening/Simon era actually ended with Season 3's Stark Raving Dad and When Flanders Failed, and the Mirkin era ran from Season 5's Homer Goes to College to Season 7's Radioactive Man. (Note also that later standouts like Team Homer and The Joy of Sect came when Mirkin returned to helm a single episode.)

- A handful of mostly terrible Season 8 and 9 episodes (like the X-Files and Mary Poppins ones) were actually produced at the same time as Season 7 by the classic Season 3-4 team of Jean & Reiss.

- The production codes start with 7G, then move up to 8 and 9 before starting over at 1. I shouldn't have to explain the significance of that starting point.