The Simpsons’ 700th episode reminds us why The A.V. Club doesn't cover The Simpsons any more
TV Reviews The Simpsons
“Punish, punish, punish, and, when it’s much too late, love.”
There are stories that move you on their own, and stories that tell you how moved you should be, counting on cues and tradition to do the work. “Manger Things,” The Simpsons’ impossible 700th episode, does everything to mark its place in history but give us a reason to celebrate it. As a piece of TV history, it’s a novelty. As an episode of The Simpsons, it’s barely there at all.
Look, I don’t take any pleasure in this. After all, I’m the A.V. Club reviewer who spent his years covering late-series Simpsons making the case for the intermittent good outing as proof that there’s some kick in the old girl yet. And I was genuinely sad when the inevitable axe fell last year, signaling that the A.V. Club’s decision to drop back into regular Simpsons coverage starting with 2011's Season 23 had allowed us Simpsons stalwarts pan for TV gold long enough. As much heat as I’ve occasionally gotten from Simpsons professionals online for being dismissive (I will never get over having pissed off Yeardley Smith—I just won’t), I can point to a dozen or more episodes from the past six seasons I’d slip comfortably into any Simpsons’ binge from the good old days.
But we are not here to reminisce on the occasion of a nice, round-numbered episode, we are here to talk “Manger Things.” And “Manger Things” barely registers.
Rob LaZebnik is the credited writer, and his name is one I generally look on with hope at the start of an episode. The Simpsons is a crisply run ship by this point, with everything looking sharp, and our voice cast overcoming the remote-recorded COVID process with nary a hiccup. I laughed once for real, on the throwaway gag where Mr. Burns’ cozy assurance that his employee Christmas party is brimming with goodwill is belied by a random bullet clanging off of the power plant railing in front of him. It’s a old joke, but it’s pulled off well and I laughed.
Flanders—whose role in this terminally unfocused episode is otherwise improbably disposable—brings up Jesus’ whole “Love your neighbor” idea to convince the very flashback-pregnant Maude to allow the tossed-out Homer to share their holidays, while musing how the Guy “never seems to live next to anyone.” And Homer, spending the night in Flanders’ “Son of Man cave,” is momentarily tempted by a Bosch-esque painted devil, responding to the little monster’s talk of the lake of fire by immediately sparking, “A house by the lake? I could get some writing done!” I’m always on board for a joke about the unexplored and unexpected corners of the mind of Homer J. Simpson.
That’s not a lot of entertainment to hang any episode on, however. And “Manger Things” throws a whole lot of logs on the fire to try and generate some “700th episode spectacular” heat. It’s a Christmas episode. It’s a flashback episode. Marge throws Homer out. It’s a Flanders episode. Homer plays emergency doula for Rod’s birth, for crying out loud, a monumental retcon that brings Homer and Maude into such unexpectedly profound intimacy that it makes Homer’s infamously callous reaction to his inadvertent killing of Maude that much more lousy in retrospect.
It’s sort of shocking, even for a professionally jaded Simpsons viewer, how little nurturing is done for any of these plotlines. The Christmas angle exists to pile on to Homer’s sadness at Marge’s decision to give him the boot (and to make sure Neddy is out delivering Christmas turkeys to the needy during Maude’s time of need), but it could have been set any time. (If there’s a symmetry to episodes 1 and 700 both being set during the holidays, that’s all there is to it.) Homer, after being clued in to a secret room over the Simpson garage by Moe (for some reason), winds up camping out there and spying on his family through a conveniently sound-conducting vent. But while Dan Castellaneta dutifully supplies the heartsick Homer with plenty of mournful moans and sighs over his predicament, the central conflict between the couple isn’t dramatized so much as manufactured. Homer making a Clark Griswold-style solo Christmas nest in the cramped and forgotten attic space feints toward pathos without ever committing, and it’s all so terribly flat and uninvolving. Plus, as Season 32 fanatics know, Marge threw Homer out just a few episodes ago, so not only is her decision here portrayed as misguided (Lenny and Carl secretly got the reluctantly abstemious Homer drunk at the party), that narrative bullet shouldn’t be shot off willy-nilly.
Similarly, there’s no real comic hay made from the six-years-prior flashback premise. Homer has a little more hair. So does Abe, who, in this version of history, was under the illusion that he’d be able to live with his son’s family indefinitely. We get that long-debated backstory about just why Marge had to replace those kitchen curtains, for those into that sort of thing. Bart (age 4) and Lisa (age 2) are little ciphers, Nancy Cartwright and Yeardley Smith pitching up their characters’ voices a bit, but the siblings otherwise act identically in response to Homer’s sudden absence. There’s a wheeze of an effort to suggest that Bart’s li’l bastard tendencies stem (this time) from his brief fatherlessness, but, like the rest of the character beats in “Manger Things,” it hardly exists. And when the climax sputters out with Maude’s Homer-assisted childbirth, Ned and Marge’s arrivals are as artless and perfunctory as such things get. (There is literally no reason given as to why Marge is suddenly in the Flanders home to witness Homer’s convenient helpfulness.)
In the promotional materials leading up to the big 700, “Manger Things” was sold with the idea that Homer would find an unknown room in the Simpsons’ home. That’s the kernel of an evocative idea, metaphorically promising there still being something hidden and wonderful, even in something you imagine has run out of ways to surprise you. “Manger Things” barely explores the, as it turns out, completely unremarkable attic space in the family’s garage, squandering hopes I allowed myself to raise as I was allowed to dip back into The Simpsons (professionally speaking). 700 episodes and 32 years is an eternity in television. Hell, it’s a long time for anything, or anyone. Congratulations are due, even if another big round number is as artificial a milestone as ever, so congratulations to one of my favorite shows ever. And, as ever, here’s to next week being better.
Stray observations
- Apart from Marge being cast as the (unintentional) villain of the piece here, Maude is also awfully snippy and un-Christian/un-Flanders throughout. She’s not wrong—Homer eats the Flanders’ uncooked, still-wrapped Christmas ham for a midnight snack—but her characterization here is just one big, sour bummer.
- It’s also uncharacteristic of Marge to tell the kids that what she needs for Homer to win his way back into her good graces is, “one great thing—one great thing to prove that all the nonsense that I put up with has a point.” As a rule, yeah, such episode-ending grandiose schemes are what bring the Simpsons’ marriage back from that week’s brink, but Marge isn’t one to articulate that so explicitly. In the couple’s dynamic, Homer is the one who thinks that grand gestures can fix a lifetime of grinding neglect and disappointment, while Marge succumbs because she recognizes that such shenanigans are all her loving but flawed husband can muster. Marge doesn’t want gestures, and the writing here betrays the character in a truly dispiriting way.
- Bill Plympton returns with the show-opener, “Homer’s Family,” his seventh guest animator couch gag. I agree with Sam Barsanti’s take that the hand-drawn flight of cartoon fancy is sort of sweet, in its way. The piece re-centers Homer as the heart of the show, his smiling countenance never changing even as pieces of him erupt (there’s always an element of body horror with Plympton) and then float around his noggin, Marge and the kids eternally bound to their Homer-centric orbits through force of love, and sitcom tradition. That Homer is irrevocably transformed through this Cronenberg-ian subtraction and yet uncomplainingly chooses to submerge himself in this new reality of wife, children, and 32 years of stasis, is more a thoughtful and insightful a rumination on The Simpsons than anything actually in “Manger Things,” an affectionately poetic and inventive riff on a subject whose weekly reality has become, too often, rote and mundane.
- Thanks for overanalyzing The Simpsons one more time, you kooks. It’s nice to be back, if only for a visit.
166 Comments
Sad thing is after the writers strike the Simpsons died and became a safe cartoon instead of a brilliant comedy as much for adults as for kids with snappy writing that I watched with my partner.For the last 2 seasons it as been moderately funny. — paul, london – uk, early October 2013
Burns assuming that It’s a Wonderful Life ends with Jimmy Stewart’s suicide made me laugh (he would identify with Mr. Potter, of course). Maude was indeed shockingly grinchy here. It felt so out of character.
Apparently he hasn’t seen the real alternate ending
I prefer the killing spree ending to Mel Gibson’s remake of “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”.
Maude was always a stick in the mud. To the point that you could make the case that Flander’s assorted character development was a result of him not having Maude hold him back via keeping him Stepfordized.
I was more mad at the rumpus room being retconned into one with all religious stuff. Ned once did some normal things like drink beer. But that’s a fairly old gripe
This reminded of the Friends episode where Phoebe thought Old Yeller had a happy ending because when her parents showed it to her as a kid they stopped the film before she saw what happened at the end of the film.
In the promotional materials leading up to the big 700, “Manger Things” was sold with the idea that Homer would find an unknown room in the Simpsons’ home They did this already— Marge found a sauna behind a hitherto unseen door in the basement. Not only that, but that episode was written by the same person credited to this one. (titled “Father Knows Worst”— Kinja coding and formatting of links is garbage lately– if anyone cares to look it up)
What does this all mean? *shrug*
Simpsons already did it
“Finding a blocked door and discovering a sauna had been installed in the basement” is an extremely different situation than “entering and using an attic crawlspace that we know exists from every opening sequence” – as anyone with, say, a house and/or storytelling skills could explain to you. When you get as reductive as “Homer and Marge have an argument”, then, yes, *everything* can be described as “Simpsons Already Did It”. It says far more about you than the show.(Plus, I’m certain that actively thinking viewers of *any* show don’t put much stock in “how the network’s promotional materials sold an episode”, but you be you.)
Calm down there buddy, it’s just a tv show.
He should really just relax.
He’s just mad at how they did (do) Sideshow Bob dirty.
Why can’t I find shit like that in my house?
Look the question isn’t “why doesn’t AV Club cover The Simpsons anymore?” because that’s fucking obvious. The real question is “why does AV Club still cover Saturday Night Live?”If you pick one giant steaming pile of dogshit over another, you kinda owe us all an explanation.
Being live has its benefits as far as staying in the zeitgeist.
Occasionally modern SNL will still provide laughs, but I can’t remember the last time I laughed at a new Simpsons episode.
SNL always has a boom-bust cycle, so inevitably it’ll become funny again, probably when Lorne finally retires. The Simpsons’ actors are just getting older and older.
The episodes where Matt Selman is a co-show-runner (his EP credit is at the end of the episode, not at the start) still have plenty of laughs.Just quit already, Al Jean, and let Selman take the reins!
Current Simpsons is peak Seinfeld/Cheers/MTM compared to the utter garbage that has been SNL for many years. Every year I’ll give it a shot and without fail an amazed at what a humorless, unfunny slog it has become.
The last two or three years people keep telling me it’s funny. So, I’ll check it out. It’s remarkably unfunny. Same as it ever was for the last two decades. An hour drags on, and finally – mercifully – its over. And I can go another year without catching an episode.
If you pick one giant steaming pile of dogshit over another, you kinda owe us all an explanation. Yep. Particularly if you’re going to, say, keep insisting that modern SNL isn’t living up to a legacy that the show never fucking had in the first place.
If the Simpsons was devoted to attacking Republicans in every episode, I’m sure they’d still be getting covered too.
kill yourself
In fairness to the Simpsons…the AV Club doesn’t really cover ANYTHING, anymore.It just reposts Twitter controversies three days later.
Did they even write about the fact that the Justified creative team is making a new Elmore Leonard show?
Just like the Harvey Birdman spinoff that’s actually going to happen, these things just tend to sneak up on you.
Wait what??????? I’m learning about this now!?!?!
Yep.
Justified is my favorite show ever and Elmore Leonard is on my top 10 writers list, and this is the first I’ve heard of this.It’s apparently based on City Primeval, which will be interesting to see how that works, since the villain of that book was already heavily modified for an episode of Justified. Honestly, that series used so much of the best material from Leonard’s career that I’m not really sure how much is left to adapt.
I’m willing to let them take a shot at it regardless….
I won’t say it’s my favorite show ever, but it’s up there and Elmore Leonard is absolutely in my top 10 writer list as well. Everything about this sounds awesome.City Primeval is a GREAT book with outstanding characters. I really hope that they go to the roots of the “Wrecking Crew” that the main villain in the book was part of. I wonder if it’ll follow Detroit in the late 70’s/80’s and all the characters from those books. Either way, I’m in.
I was hoping they’d sort the rights out and we’d get a spin-off with Carla Gugino back as Karen Sisco, who already appeared in a lawyer-friendly cameo back in season 3. I think there was also rumors about bringing Shelley Hennig’s Jackie Nevada back for something.
Karen Sisco reboot or another Raylan show with a new actor in the role due to it being a prequel to Justified?
Neither, although they’re in talks with Timothy Olyphant to return — maybe shoehorning Raylan Givens into a new story, maybe as somebody else.https://www.thewrap.com/justified-team-to-develop-elmore-leonards-city-primeval-for-fx-timothy-olyphant-may-return-as-raylan-givens/
Not that I’ve seen
Really? Well, that’s worth looking out for!
Yep.
The only thing which would make me happier would be if the Person of Interest writing staff re-united to make another 5-minutes-into-the-future sci-fi show.
YES! to a new show by the PERSON OF INTEREST writing staff, HELL, NO! to more ZODIAC MOTHERFUCKER.
I saw one of them sold a drama about cryogenics to NBC…about a year and a half ago. No idea if it’s still in development.
I bet Zach Snyder loves the way this site obsessively covers him and Justice League over everything else on a daily basis.
No joke there. For a movie they gave a “C”, grades like that haven’t gotten that kind of attention since my folks gave me static over my work in college 30 years ago.
The current AV Club seems to be going through a truly awkward identity crisis, like a high school dork unsuccessfully trying to hang out with the popular kids. They’ll post recaps of The Bachelor that get less than 10 comments, but turn their back on covering The Simpsons, a show that many of us associate with our memories of when this was one of the better pop culture sites. Of course it’s nowhere near the level it once was, but there’s plenty of us still watching, and it just feels weird for it to not have a consistent place in the Reviews section anymore.
I floated this idea ages ago, but I’ll repeat it here: even if they choose not to cover it, couldn’t they just make a discussion post for new episodes (like the Pop Culture Weekend posts)? It wouldn’t require that much work on their part and it would need minimal promotion (fans eager to discuss the latest episode would find it).
I suggested this in a couple Wednesday discussions as well. Literally a header and a comment area.
Even before the controversy with racism this past season, there’s a shit ton of media coverage surrounding The Bachelor. There’s dozens of podcasts and every pop culture website has a ton of posts about it. I just don’t get it. It’s a stupid show about finding love in which very few people actually find love.
women like it.
We can chalk it up to people’s continually splintering viewing habits with considerably less cultural phenomenons not on HBO being watched or talked about with the rise of several new platforms. I think SHIELD was the last show from the broadcast networks I watched and I haven’t even gotten around to watching the last couple seasons yet. The only shows my friends and I have talked about for months was Wandavision and The Boys, and currently The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. It’s a coincidence those are all comic booky shows, it’s just that there hasn’t been anything else we all collectively watch. I imagine others, including AV Club staff, feel similarly.I am, however, looking forward to reading this site when Better Call Saul returns in 2025.
Belated Twitter controversies and articles about the the Snyder cut are pretty much keeping AVC on life support at this point
I’ve actually realized I read an comment more at Jalop these days despite a) not being a car guy and b) stuck in the grays over there.
Well, that’s not entirely true, sometimes the Newswires are just paid promotions.
As usual, this comes as a startling surprise, learning that I and the other contributors (and staffers) here have not, in fact, been writing reviews or essays or recommedations, but, in fact, warmed-over Twitter controveries.
I always appreciate when one of you, Tom, Dennis, Noel, Alex, and Caroline manages to sneak in some good stuff in between the warmed-over Twitter controversies and the Kinja Dealz posts!
I mean I think when you add in Ignatiy, Roxana, Beatrice, Vikram, and plenty of others (I always just automatically go to the film people first because that’s the section of the site I read first!), I’m not even sure if it’s sneaking! (Though, granted, the site’s design doesn’t always make it easy.)
The TV reviews used to be the main thing I checked and still would be if they had kept up. But as I posted elsewhere, I would be happy with no reviwew and just a page each week where AVClub member fans could discuss.
Can’t believe I left off Ignatiy and Latoya!Or Caitlin and Oliver (much as Gawker wants me to, by hiding their pieces).Donna still has the occasional feature too, right?(Although, as you alluded, Gawker makes it quite difficult to find their work – Kinja Dealz are clearly the priority, haha!)Anyway, as jm mentions below…the AVC’s key differentiator, for me, has always been its status as a one-stop-shop for TV reviews, not just recaps – Scott gave every episode of Friday Night Lights the exact same care and focus as he’d go on to put into his Dissolve reviews.The new regime…has different priorities.
Again, not speaking for anyone here, but I don’t know if it’s a matter of “different priorities” so much as how untenable it is to pay people to do 1,000-word reviews of 30 different shows, episode by episode. Like, is that something a lot of other sites are doing? (I know Vulture has run some good ones — Roxana did a wonderful run-through of every Freaks & Geeks episode over there, Carlos the Dwarf — but some of their stuff *is* a little more recappy, and certainly doesn’t cover as much as AVC at its Peak TV Peak.) And if it’s something that other sites used to do and don’t really do as heavily any more, you might ask yourself why that is!
I think sometimes decisions that are interpreted as being this kind of “regime change” edict are often things that would have happened anyway, or were in process long before (or well after) whatever perceived regime changes.
I can’t blame people for not knowing how web publishing works (I certainly don’t know everything about it and I’m deep into it!), but there are SO many comments that position themselves as a de facto fly on the wall of AVC (or wherever else) offices, and it just… isn’t the case.
Ah, sure. I’m just sad that 5 years ago, I would have learned about a wonderful show like Single Parents via the AV Club reviewing it.Instead, the first mention was a post-cancellation thinkpiece whining about how it “deserved” more coverage.
It’s not your fault that Amazon links and poorly written recaps of days-old Twitter feuds get Gawker more clicks than “insightful culture criticism” or “copy editors” do…but I’m still allowed to be sad about it.
I can point out, though, that AVC has a hard-working copy-editor and that’s way more than a lot of massive sites actually bother with. This idea that most online publications have a dedicated copy editor, and spend all of this time and care in the COPY EDITING phase, is just…. not reflective of reality, unfortunately. Sort of like the “just pay a bunch of people to individually review each episode of 20-30 television shows at any given time” economic model!
Yep. Some shows don’t particularly lend themselves to insightful criticism, sure. But plenty do that are currently not being covered.
And Allison.
We love you Jesse, we honestly do, but check out the front page of the AV Club on 24 March 2011 and you’ll see what we mean. Look at that Books section!!! https://web.archive.org/web/20110324060411/http://www.avclub.com/
Yeah, I was definitely reading the AV Club in 2011. Music is one I personally miss a lot, in terms of volume. But I’d also point out that just the way the page was structured, you’re seeing a LOT of stuff on one page that was actually a bunch of days’ worth of material. (Whereas one of my problems with the current design is a brand-new review won’t always cycle into the main page right away, and reviews in general won’t always stay there for very long when they do make it in!)
There are fewer TV recaps now, but there were also fewer TV recaps on the site for years and years before TV recaps became a big business. Which from what I understand, they are not anymore. And maybe it’s just mystifying to me as a film writer but I’ve never really understood covering like 30 different TV shows on an episode-by-episode basis. Donna Bowman covering Breaking Bad or How I Met Your Mother, hell yes. But—to use an example where, to be clear, I like both the writer and the show!—were Nathan Rabin’s 30 Rock reviews like the best stuff ever written about 30 Rock or his best writing for the site? Home video is also a decent slice of the 2011 incarnation that simply doesn’t really apply anymore.
Speaking to broader decisions about this stuff is obviously way above my pay grade as a freelancer; I just know there are so many good critics writing here that I rankle a bit at the notion of “there just isn’t anything HERE anymore.” I feel like about half the time, people are talking specifically about the TV recap business. Which to me is sort of like talking about how SNL has lost the edge it once had, but then turning out to be talking specifically about the vital presence of Dana Carvey and Mike Myers.
I hear ya Jesse. And you’re after my own heart mentioning Rabin’s 30 Rock reviews; they were lazy and bad.I think you’re wrong about the recaps thing (tho AV Club Classic is sorely missed.) Personally I miss all of the regular and semi-regular features (Inventory, Gateway To Geekery, AVQ&A). They were the heart of the site (indeed once TV coverage really begins to take over things did begin to slowly turn bad.) Yes there are sporadic features today, but fewer and more predictable. And in any case–and I think we’ve hashed this out before?–I think the bigger problem right now is Kinja, which inextricably linked AVC with websites (and commenters) that are not on its wavelength.
I will point out, though, that one of the features you’re talking about missing—AVQ&A, so not exactly a deep dive, but you did mention it!—literally runs nearly every week. That probably speaks to design issues, but still: I’ve read so many comments over the last few years, lamenting the absence of stuff the site still 100% does, so I’m extra-wary of those criticisms, even though sometimes they might have merit.
In fairness, ‘Tell me about your pop culture weekend’ isn’t really AVQ&A. They used to be distinct things! Take those out and you’re maybe doing two a month.
Ha, to be honest, I didn’t realize those things were being yoked together — I fully thought they were running AVQ&A every Saturday or Sunday and that occasionally I’d miss one in the process of trying to Internet Less on the weekend. But still, looking back it’s been at least twice a month for the past bunch of months. And the pop-culture weekend thread seems like exactly what a lot of people ask for all the time! (An open discussion prompt.)
I’ve been one of the loudest people complaining about every UX change since that perfect 2011 design – every single one has made the site uglier, less accessible, and harder to use on mobiles, haha (presumably because if we could just click on the content we wanted, we wouldn’t be scrolling past as many “Amazon Deals” posts).But, at the same time, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask a site with a proper writing team to spend as much time on TV reviews as, say, Alan Sepinwall does *now*.There was literally one article about Brockmire between S1 and S4.Liz Meriwether’s *first show* post-New Girl never received a *single review* on this site (not even a check-in!) before we got a self-congratulatory thinkpiece about how it should have gotten more attention!
Adding to this, AVC did not cover season 1 of Succession when it was airing. They did a catch-up when season 2 started.However, they cover Duck Tales regularly. In summation: not only are they covering fewer shows but they’re choosing them badly.
I’m not opposed to DuckTales coverage, but I never did shake the sense that the reviewer(s) were fixated on what they thought or hoped the show could be, rather than what it was (a delightful kids show what my kids and I love).
We also had the Community reviews back then :(.
I got a Community notification for this?
Mate, surely even you can see the dearth of content on this site. Carlos is being hyperbolic, but not by much.
To be fair, he was probably thinking of TV Club.
Dennis Perkins does SNL recaps (worth reading), I see an occasional television or movie review, and an awful lot of garbage filler and “adutainment”.
Ah yes, the occasional movie review, appearing occasionally at a rate of, in February, one per day. (Seriously. The site ran 28 movie reviews in February.) Fewer this month, but there are just plain fewer movies of note out this month. And there have still been 15 so far, which isn’t bad for 24 days. 25 ran in January. 30 ran in December. None of that is counting Watch This, which are basically new reviews of older movies, and has been running 15-20 times per month, each month. As a freelancer, I always want there to be more movie reviews because I always want to review more movies, but I do feel like a lot of folks complain about how there aren’t any, and then don’t necessarily read what’s there?https://www.avclub.com/c/review/movie-review
Well, I wouldn’t know, would I, given how impossible this site is to navigate?
And I get all the smarting off I could want from the site’s own writing staff, so of course I’m compelled to return on a daily basis!Jeez, it’s like ZODIAC MOTHERFUCKER took the site over….
I was surprised there was no mention of staff cutbacks, terrible ownership or herbs in this episode. I expected all of that from the headline. Instead it’s one desiccated husk mocking another one.
Not a single word about Richard Stanley finally getting busted after all these years – https://www.thewrap.com/color-out-of-space-production-company-ends-relationship-with-director-after-abuse-accusations/
This place used to be absolute nirvana for TV Show Reviews. What I would do for Emily VanDerWerff’s writing to be back here. Her Sopranos reviews are absolutely magnificent and luckily are persevered; I had the good fortune of being able to read along with them last year. I’m also sad that John Teti’s Six Feet Under reviews never got completed. What is so incredibly sad that the only things that get covered now are whatever appears to be zeitgeisty, “binge-worthy” content, with any sense of the old community gone.
It is really sad, and I’m sure the staff feel the same, but the venture capitalist vultures just continue to strip it for parts and there’s only so much they can do.
I haven’t seen The A.V. Club mention that The Simpsons was just renewed for two more seasons.
What can you even say about that anymore though? The simpsons will go on until the day it becomes unprofitable.
Or one of the main cast dies. I think they won’t recast. I hope they won’t recast.
Probably no recasting; maybe Rich Little is available, though Perhaps the most impressive work Rich Little has done in movies is that about which most people are unaware. After David Niven became unable to speak clearly at times due to Lou Gehrig’s disease, the movie’s producers asked Little to use his skills as an impressionist to provide voice dubbing for the movie Trail of the Pink Panther (1982). He followed that up by providing a voice for the deceased Peter Sellers in Curse of the Pink Panther (1983).
Of all the shows to recast, this is it. It’s a cartoon. Anyone can do these voices. It should go on forever. I’ve been watching it since the Tracy Ullman days. It is a comfort to me.
It’d still be kinda neat if AVC did still cover The Simpsons though. This season has surprisingly been pretty solid imo though the last 2 to 3 episodes have been pretty bad, especially that Cletus episode.
Yeah, what I’ve seen of this season has been par for the course – a couple good ones (that Skinner/Chalmers episode was great; it didn’t even try shoehorning the Simpsons family into it, which I thought was a golden rule of the show), but just as many bad ones. For some reason, this is the SECOND Christmas episode this season, and they were both awful.
I really liked that Skinner/Chalmers episode as well. I’ve been saying for years now that if they are gonna keep this show going, they should do episodes every now and then that don’t really focus on the Simpson family to keep things fresh. That was episode proved it could work if done right.
I liked the Hallmark parody one, if only because Skinner ends the episode by telling his love interest she’s nuts and needs to go home
They only stopped this year; it’s absolutely strange that in this season 32 review they’re patting themselves on the back for stopping at the end of season 31
Yeah there’s been a few actual ‘good episodes lately , like the recent one about CBG being afraid of becoming a father, its a pity that the one getting reviewed is a clunker.
The Edna tribute episode was so touching.
Yeah there have been some really good ones, I maintain if the Simpsons were cut down to 13 episode seasons they’d still be really good. The ones they put effort into still shine. 24 episodes is just too much for an older cast and a show that’s done it all.
What they really need to do is make Matt Selman the sole show runner. Or at least let him be co-show runner with Al Jean. For the past few years, if there’s a good/funny episode, chances are Selman’s EP credit is at the end of the episode and not the start, indicating he was co-show runner for that episode.
No fiction show can keep things fresh after 30 years (or 20, or 10) without reinventing itself into essentially a different show. After a while, you’ve literally run the gamut of what certain characters are capable of revealing about themselves. The Simpsons is a semi-reliable chuckle factory at this point, kept afloat on nostalgia and familiarity; the biggest miracle is that none of the core cast have priced it out of existence or (even more amazingly) just gotten sick of doing it.
On the upside I’m looking forward on seeing the 2000s era origin story for how Homer and Marge got together at a pop-punk concert or something.
In Season 50 we’ll find out how they met on Tinder.
But a couple of key voice actors have died, which bodes ill for everyone else on the cast list. Unless they’re open to replacing them more often. Carl and Dr. Hibbert sound different now.
Oh no! Not Carl!
They did replace them (and Lou) with black actors. But they also seem to have cut their lines altogether, which kind of misses the point. Kevin Michael Richardson was already a semi-regular, so it makes sense he’s Hibbert. Apu is getting replaced too actorwise. I do hope that means they won’t just ignore them
Didn’t they say they recasted Carl and Dr. Hibbert so they were voiced by African-American voice actors? That would explain why they sound a bit different.
For a little while they were showing that future where Bart marries Jenda (?) and Lisa becomes an executive and is divorced from Milhouse and I believe both had kids. I loved that little world and I was expecting the show to just move to that world and be done with the OG Simpsons, but nope. I wish they’d move on to the next generation. I can’t imagine watching this show with a straight face, perhaps outside Halloween episodes.
The simpsons may not be at their best anymore, but they are still very popular and a rare show that can be enjoyed by people of all ages.
They are certainly better than Shameless, which the AVclub still covers for some reason. Far better than any reality show, including Drag Race.
“Shameless” at least is ending in a few episodes. Well, at least until Showtime reboots it in 5 years.“The Simpsons”, which was once the greatest animated comedy series of all time, has been beating a dead horse for 2 decades now.
That dead horse very occasionally will come up with something pretty good though. In the last two decades we’ve gotten some legit good episodes.
Shameless has a rabid Tumblr fanbase for the Gallavich relationship, which probably drives clicks.
The simpsons may not be at their best anymore, but they are still on television for no other reason than to prove network television is an insatiable pit that cares not for quality, only content.
But Bob’s Burgers hasn’t given me a reason as to why the AV Club doesn’t review Bob’s Burgers anymore!
The Bob’s Burgers reviews are missed. We need more regular reviews of the good content in general too.
This and the fact they don’t even put up new gems like Ted Lasso is more proof of it’s sad slow descent into irrelevancy than the move to Kinja itself.The AV Club is The Simpsons of entertainment websites. If only it had a worthy successor.
I sure was surprised when I discovered that AV Club hadn’t written a single article about Letterkenny during its first 8 seasons.
And as I note above, they then do this glowing article about how good it is and why folks should watch it… Then… Fuckin’ embarrassing!
Yep. The show’s still doing amazing stuff on a weekly basis.
I thought about this a couple months ago when they posted a glowing preview for the new season of Letterkenny, then didn’t bother to review any of it. It was seven episodes for crisssakes. Vikings got reviews and there were maybe four comments on each one. Just baffling how few shows they really cover regularly, and how clearly they’re not covering shit people actually want to read about.
Probably when it went from being a raunchy adult comedy to being a family friendly disney song fest.
I ranted about this on Jezebel regarding the quality of all of these sites and AV Club not recapping Bob’s Burgers. Discussing the puns and the plots have always been fun. Speaking of, I think it was hilarious that Linda accidentally deficated in front of a cop.
Man Dennis I genuinely forgot about that Yeardley Smith incident. Man I’m sorry that someone you respected lashed out like that. For me that would be like Audrey Hepburn crawling out of the grave and telling me I’m a terrible writer. At this point what hasn’t been said about this show? I guess we can just remember the good times and think less of the bad times.
It was just fine. Not outstanding and not awful. It was certainly better than watching Linda Belcher, the greatest animated super-villain since Peggy Hill, humiliate and undermine herself and her family once again. I am grateful that the joyless, anxiety filled Bob’s Burgers exists if only to show that The Simpsons is so good even on cruise control.Of course Moe knew about a secret room in the Simpson home. He’s a sneaky creep! Where have you been the past thirty years?
Honest Headline: “Review of 700th Episode Reminds AVC Readers Why Perkins Is the Stupidest Reviewer On Site And Relegated To Extolling New SNLs And Pointlessly Recapping Late Night Moments Which Are Concurrently Provided On Video Clips”
Let it all out, man.
Hey you can’t talk Frasier Crane, I heard they are trying to pointlessly revive your show to kill off any residual affection people had for you…..
Unpopular opinion but I still enjoy The Simpsons. It’s not as good as it used to be (although I’m nearly 50 now and not in my 20’s but it still has its moments and I still enjoy the characters and the Springfield “universe” that’s there. Watching it is like revisiting old friends and I enjoy my time with them. When it eventually is cancelled, I’ll be sad to see them go and it’ll be doubly-sad to see the internet circle-jerk about it.
This episode is just trying to fit in too much. I’ve argued before that shortened run times seriously hurt the show’s pacing compared to the longer run times they had in the 90s. There’s just no room for this episode to breathe when you’re got both an extended couch gag and TWO end tags. I just can’t stand how everything in the story structure feels so rushed from Marge kicking Homer out to the climactic childbirth scene. There isn’t even any explanation for why Marge is suddenly in the Flanders’ home for everything to just be magically resolved. There’s just too much lazy writing that operates on the goodwill of the show’s legacy and the fact we know the characters so well at this point. It’s not an excuse to rush the story beats.That being said, there have been a ton of great episodes in the last couple years that have benefitted from skipping the iconic opening sequence altogether. This milestone episode is not one of them.
Ranking the Simpsons 100 milestone episodes:1. Sweet Seymour Skinner’s Baadasssss Song (100)2. Trash of the Titans (200)3. You Kent Always Say What You Want (400)4. Strong Arms of the Ma (300)5. Manger Things (700)6. Treehouse of Horror XXVII (600)7. At Long Last Leave (500)
Ok, looking back it’s very weird to read this self-congratulatory headline and article, then look and see 1) It’s only been half a season since the AVClub stopped covering the Simpsons. 2) Last season averaged a B most episodes, which isn’t so bad.But hey, you got me to click on the headline.
I’ve missed the past decade and change of the Simpsons. Have they ever done an episode that has gone just a little into the future, instead of just a little into the past or really far into the future? Like Bart in seventh grade or something, around there?
I’m kind of stuck on the fact they decided on a Christmas-framed plot for an episode that was never even intended to air near Christmas.
Must have been to tie it in with the first episode.
Yeah it made me expect some kind of mirror or bookend to the first episode but, nope.
So you stopped not covering it to pat yourself on the back for not covering it. OK.
Huh, I thought that cartoon went off the air years ago at the 500th episode.
I know time is weird in cartoons but it makes no sense in adding Uber and Wifi to the past. When The Simpsons started years before both.
If you want to keep a longrunning show like this fresh you have to get weird and introduce new characters. You have to change your tone and utilize what you have, that means no more traditional Simpsons in the classic sense. And come up with some new characters. Surely we could imagine times would have changed. And frankly, knowing that Homer lives in a middle class lifestyle that hasn’t existed for twenty-five years, you could downgrade their living accommodations and be more accessible for most audiences. The Simpsons is what boomer lifestyle looked like. We’ve since moved on to Gen-X who had it a little less better and Millennials and Gen-Z who are pretty much consta-fucked on a daily basis. A family show should be true to life. Bob’s Burgers does that more. The Simpsons should get more hip or go off-air. I don’t find fake realities comforting. Stop pushing ‘how good 1989 was’ in my face. A show should try to reflect today better. We had the Clinton-Reagan bump then, and since that time deunionization, demanufacturing and dehumanization of labor have annihilated the country once loved in the show. The Simpsons is cruel in how out of touch it is.
I blame this on so many of the old writers sticking around. The older and richer they get, the more out of touch they’ll be. Al Jean has been the sole showrunner for about 18 years now, and hasn’t responded well to many of the criticisms this show has. The other thing is definitely the characters not aging. Funky Winkerbean is still the gold standard of figuring this out and allowing the characters to grow up…..and have really depressing storylines.
Characters aging would be cool. But it’s a Disney property now, the house of nostalgia.
For the past few years you occasionally see Matt Selman listed as the co-showrunner with Jean (meaning his EP credit, like Jean’s, is listed at the end of the episode instead of the start) for a few episodes each season. Those episode are above average and usually great – a clear sign that Jean should leave and let Selman take the reins for awhile.On one of the DVD commentaries the show runner for that season (I think it was Bill Oakley & Josh Weinsten) said that it was an unofficial rule at the show that a showrunner would only keep the job for 2-3 seasons, then leave so a new showrunner could take over. This way the show would not become stale, with a new voice at the top every few years. It’s no surprise that the downward trend of the show has taken place during Jean’s never-ending show-runner reign (season 13 to present).
Yeah I’ve noticed that too, and remember that commentary. I also love pretty much anything Oakley and Weinstein do. Shaking things up in the writers room definitely kept the Simpsons fresh, and you can see their stamp on each 2-3 season run. Even the hated Mike Scully was at least memorable and distinctive. I think after him they just played it safe, and so episodes have been not either great or awful, but consistently bland
I wish DP stopped reviewing anything on AV Club. #standwithyeardley
I’ve actually found the last season or so to be pretty decent. I can’t speak to this episode in particular, but in the recent past, there have been some laugh-out-loud funny ones almost equivalent to the glory days of their starting seasons.
Watched it last night, felt pretty let down. Making a running joke out of when these “flashback” episodes stopped being funny since the execrable “That ‘90’s Show”, and it highlights the problem of NOT aging the family with the times. The voice cast ain’t getting any younger.
I wish I could downvote this review.The Simpsons is still great. Those who deny this are living in a bizarre fantasy world.
I think it was the second episode this season that I decided to stop recording them. The Simpsons is just there. It’s no longer clever. I still watch episodes on FXX. If a newer episode is on, I flip to something else.
Are ‘Barthood’ and ‘Halloween of Horror’ still considered recent episodes? I remember liking them a lot and thinking “maybe The Simpsons is good again!” but then it was shit again and I gave up. Are there any particular episodes from recent years I’d like if I liked those two?
This is definitely the cream of the crop from the last five years:The TownThere Will be BudsGone BoyFrink Gets Testy (Two thirds of an amazing episode. The third act is definitely rushed.)Mad About the ToyBart vs. Itchy & ScratchyWoo-Hoo Dunnit?Go Big or Go HomerLivin La Pura VidaThanksgiving of HorrorHail to the TeethWarrin’ PriestsThe Way of the DogI, CarumbusThe Road to Cincinnati
Second on Thanksgiving of Horror. That episode was the best one I’ve seen in recent years.
Just look for any episodes from the past few years where Matt Selman’s EP credit is at the end of the episode instead of the start (indicating he was co-show runner for that episode). Those episodes are usually really good.
The Simpsons has not been remotely good for at least 10 years. I have no idea why anyone would still watch this.
Yeah, I gave it a go. It…sure was an episode of television.
Jesus Fucking Christ this show looks bad.
Now that Carl has been recast, is he ever going to say anything? I think this is the second episode in row where he was in a few scenes, but says nothing – Lenny does all the talking.
I’m confused about why any show would release a Christmas episode in March
Is there a list somewhere of say, post-2000 episodes worth watching? Every few years I try the show out and it’s some insipid guest spot where they do nothing.
Hmm, have to say that I heavily disagree with this review. I really enjoyed this episode. In fact Season 32 is shaping up to be a great season for me this far, it seemed like Season 31 was getting there but 32 is really up there in laugh factor and writing too. It’s not perfect but definitely worth a watch.
The Simpsons has managed to move straight to the “disappointing reboot” phase of ‘90s pop culture without the economically negative requirement of ever going away in the first place.
This episode was a snoozer overall, but the “I love Bart!” “I love Lisa!” bit was cute as hell.
A much better show taught me that it can be two things.I think it was Futurama.
The biggest obstacle facing “The Simpsons” is the sheer viewer fatigue after 700 episodes. Nothing really new to present just retooling the same dynamics with different elements. It is far from unwatchable and often quite good, it’s just a little creaky.
Homer Simpson could easily belong on this (at least in my peer group):
I can’t tell if the writers are just hacks or if they’re getting drowned into submission with those dreaded fucking “notes”. I’m thinking the latter.
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?
I’m not saying that divorced men shouldn’t be allowed to write sit-coms, but maybe we get someone, anyone else to do it for a while and see how that goes.
How many times must Marge kick Homer out of the house? This episode wasn’t all bad, but I much preferred the 90’s Homer retcon to this, also WTF with all the xmas episodes in March?! It was nice seeing Maude again for a bit.