Is anyone here actually old enough to remember watching the Simpsons while its golden period was initially airing?
If so, what was it like watching legendary episodes and gags for the first time? Did you burst out laughing first time or did they grow on you?
Nah by the time I was old enough for my parents to let me watch it one of the first new episodes I saw was ALEC BALDWIN AND KIM BASINGER?! Which for a little kid wasn't exactly peak comedy
Thankfully since they had so few shitty episodes by that point TV Simpsons was still good watching
My first episode was when Bart and the class put alcohol in Krabappel's coffee and she gets fired. So no.
i remember the halloween special with homer reaching the real world being a big event because of the episode being in cgi.
Yes.
I just remember generally liking it. It was years later in syndication that the individual jokes started to stand out.
The fucking X-files one and the Treehouses of Horror were amazing on first watch though.
My first episode was post-syndication many years after it aired, but it was Brother From The Same Planet, The Twisted World of Marge Simpson, and Kill the Alligator and Run. The first Al Jean showran episode I saw was The President Wore Pearls, and OH BOY that was extremely shit. Even compared to Kill the Alligator and Run.
>Thankfully since they had so few shitty episodes by that point TV Simpsons was still good watching
The Scully era has some stinkers but it's way far better to start on than something like Al Jean. Scully era actually took risks and was pretty still fine in subtle humor, Al Jean is on fucking autopilot.
So, I'm watching the first five seaons as recommended and reached season 3.
When does it get good?
Also, all the Lisa episodes are fucking trash.
I think I was too young to see the truly great episodes live, but they reran constantly on Fox so I saw a fair amount of them.
I DO remember watching Hank Scorpio's first appearance live. That was a lot of fun. I was 9 at the time so I didn't get everything, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
I think I started watching around 2000, which by most accounts--mine included--is past the golden era.
Reruns of the classics were still airing regularly though, and those are the ones I watched religiously.
>Homer, we're out of vodka!
It gets good late in Season 3
It gets shit when you hit the 5F episodes in Season 9, with the remainder of the good episodes being from 3G and 4F. But it's still funny and memorable for some aspects, the show truly doesn't hit the low bar until DABF. Al Jean takes over and his first episode is literally about Homer and Marge's marriage being on the rocks, and it's somehow shittier than The Parent Rap, which was produced one episode before.
explanation for the letters?
I was, I still remember the Lisa's Substitute episode for the first time and thinking it was crazy good, even if my first episode was the Bleeding Gums Murphy's episode. When I go to the one where Bart sells his soul, I was super into it. I fucking loved it, even played the games on the Sega, Barts Nightmare was the one I never finished.
That said this is not an indication of taste, I still remember that my favorite episode by far was Simspons Go To Africa. I can't even imagine how many times I went
>You are Magungo now!
When I tried to make someone do something for me.
The Halloween episodes were by far my favorite time of year, I miss looking forwards to that.
Production codes. You have production seasons and episode production order.
simpsons.fandom.com
fucking weird
I didn't like the simpsons at first becaus english wasn't my mother language. But ones I got better at english and saw the reruns I liked it.
Soo can't say "my first time watching them live" was a good experience. But the other kids at school loved the simpsons however.
Didja really not gather any entertainment from S2?
It's not as laugh out loud as later seasons would be but it's witty and well written as all hell.
The safari episode is overhated. Pretty much all of Scully's run is. If you take them on their own merits they can still prove compelling comedies which is more than what I can say for most of Al Jean's solo run, which is just bland
that CG segment was outsourced to the studio that'd later make Antz and Shrek. It looked great at the time
Def some good ones I'm fond of from S2, including Homer at the Bat
It was pretty much the most important event all week. You planned out your whole day so you could catch the Simpsons on TV and record it. getting that episode on VHS was more important than anything else, and even when it mostly turned into re-runs the entire family watched it.
It's funny because my family is extremely dysfunctional otherwise and don't connect over anything, but one time we had a guest over who was like "Man I really hate the Simpsons", we all went quiet and stared at him like "what a fucking retard."
>[the Scully era] is still funny and memorable in some aspects
Things that I can reminiscence from the Scully era:
>Isotope Dog
>Nibbles the Hamster
>Death Eclair
>Garbage Water
>Marge on a road rampage
>Krusty's daughter
>The Mansion Family, Das Bus, Mayored to the Mob, Bye Bye Nerdie, The Blunder Years, etc.
>Homer and Marge running around naked
>Grease dealership
>Canyonero
>Homer stealing from Thomas Edison
>Quintuplets
>Barney getting sober
>YVAN EHT NIOJ
>Tomacco
>Jebus
>"She needs premium, dude!"
>Behind The Laughter and the screen door factory joke
>Trilogy of Error
>unironically Jockey Elves
>unironically Homer fighting with motorcycles
>unironically Springfield moving five miles down
>Funzo
>Le Grille
and many more.
All of the things I can remember from Al Jean coming back as showrunner up to today:
>"Anyone up for penis?"
>Marge has boobies!
>Homer sees an imaginary roofer LOL!
>Bart has a restraining order... LOL!
>Lisa is a liberal... LOL!
>Tom Hanks dome.... LOL!
>Spider pig.... LOL!
>Bart joins feminists against fucking Itchy and Scratchy... LOL!
Homer at the Bat is S3 though
>Homer at the Bat is S3 though
So it is, my bad
Nothing like seeing this for the first time when you are a 17 year old pothead.
youtube.com
I used to tape every episode (VHS, Fuck Yea) and later watch it with family and several times with friends.
It just feels like I'm watching a family sitcom. Not necessarily a good one but not a bad one either.
Started watching around 89. Really good to be introduced to it in the golden age. That's why it was so sad to see it fall so low.
They should have just followed Bart and Lisa as they got older and went to high school. Then it could be topical and nostalgic at the same time. The cast can get slowly replaced and the show could theoretically last forever. We should be seeing Bart and Lisa's kids in college by now.
>If Scully continued on after Season 13 he would have let the show die and get cancelled with a bang in Season 14 with grace and dignity, even if morbidly so
>in a world where the Simpsons ended thanks to Scully, new, fresh programming would flourish on FOX
>the world might have been a better place, No wars with Ukraine or any political SJW shit, and no Muttland mockery on /pol/
I did but, as a kid I mostly never "got" the jokes and didn't laugh. I've been going through it again as an adult and that's still kind of the case but I'm only halfway through S2.
It's funny you mention that episode, that was the first time I remember not liking a Simpsons episode. I think I was like ten at the time and had no idea who these people were. I don't think I understood that they were celebrity guests and just thought they were very weird new characters.
How would you feel if The Simpsons ended here?
So what was your favorite joke as a kid?
I remember the Mr. Plow commerical almost made me choke to death with laughter.
>thinking that the alternate timeline will do any justice
>2015: "all-time TV hit comedy The Simpsons gets picked up for a reboot by former writer Al Jean, creator of Queer Duck, after 13 years off the air"
How would it go?
It doesn't feel like a comedy show.
>the timeline where The Simpsons was revived when they were purchased by Disney
Imagine not having a slow decline to ease you into the current state of the show and instead you just teleported from Season 13 to Season 33.
>start off stuff like Pixelated and Afraid
>"hey this is good!"
>gradually descend into shit like My Octopus and a Teacher with crap like "Bart will learn more because he now has a teacher who is a strong black womyn" 5 episodes in
>cancelled after two seasons, Al Jean becomes bankrupt
>Futurama gets rebooted on Disney+ for the 620th time
Fine
And it really should have
Krusty stopping some G.I. Jane from killing Saddam just to save one of his jokes was stupid but it does kinda make me laugh for how absurd it is
It was always funny to me. The show was a cultural phenomenon everyone watched. Fucking merch was everywhere. That said it didn't seem that special at the time because there was fucktons of amazing shit around. Our culture wasn't dying yet, at least not obviously.
>"You are fully licensed and bonded by the city, aren't you Mr. Plow?"
Yeah but i was a kid so I didn't really get the jokes I just laughed at silly things and when I saw my parents laugh. I didn't really appreciate it until I was about 11 and watching reruns
I don't remember if I saw the Thanksgiving or Christmas episode first, but I do remember watching it on a shitty black-and-white TV in one of my grandparents' guest bedrooms.
I don't really think it's a good episode as a whole but it did have its moments.
>He seized power in a bloodless coup: all smotherings.
i'm trying, but the show's just kinda dull
i'm at the krusty is a jew episode
I'm old. For Elementary school we had to watch an episode of a show and count the amount of violence in it, and I chose the Simpsons and watched the B Flats episode.
I specifically remember laughing at the gag where Homer finds Action Comics #1 at the flea market, and also asking my parents if Metal Homer falling apart counted as violence.
The show was funny, I was laughing at enjoying myself in a way only a kid can. In the following episode (Cape Feare), my siblings and I laughed out loude at the "When I step on your foot and say Mr. Thompson, you smille and wave" joke, and for a short while accidently stepping on a random rake became a joke my siblings and I imitated.
I'm not exactly certain what you're expecting, so ask away, but basically it was a fun show I and my siblings would watch on Thursdays.
Krusty fucking losing it at the father and son Itchy and Scratchy episode still makes me laugh
There's nothing funnier than a sad clown
DreamWorks is a household name you know
In Latino America it was always the golden period, they repeated the first 7 seasons a lot
I can't remember it never being a part of my life. Roasting came out a month after I was born. New Simpsons was a weekly ritual forever. I can "remember" seeing old episodes air for the first time, even though they have to be fake memories because I would have been too young.
I think being so young made me not see the clear dip. I fondly remember watching well into 12 or 13 without many stinkers. It wasn't until I was in high school that I realized it was getting bad. The first episode I remember really hating had Marge once to India for some reason. Theres also the stupid manatee episode.
I still watched it through college because the weekly ritual was so engrained in me. It wasn't until 2011+, after I had graduated, that I said "this show sucks fuck this."
I can go back now and see the dip in quality around 8, but I still enjoy most episodes into 12-13. They're worse by a lot, but I don't consider many of them "bad."
Watching it on the TV at Pizza Hut while waiting for your order is something I never knew I'd look back so fondly on. I didn't care too much for the more emotional episodes at the time, but it was always an event.
>becaus
It was awesome, and mostly we would burst out laughing first time, definitely.
i remember watching when it was first on the air as an actual show and marketed slightly more towards tweens. where most of the episodes centered around Bart being a mischevious scamp and such.
Kentucky. Started late in Season 2, but really the very first episode I got hooked on was Homer the Herectic. Watched until The Frying Game, because I realized that Al Jean somehow made the show worse.
I'm 42 now, mind you.
> Al Jean somehow made the show worse.
And how!
It was kino. My mother bought me a book on the show as it was coming out, and they were already speculating that it could surpass the Flintstones as the longest running cartoon, and it wasn’t even that good yet. A lot of crappy merch everywhere including Bart in the light blue shirt, as he was the character they thought was the star selling point. The kids in my street would stop what they were doing and run home when the latest episode was on. I can specifically remember where I was and what I was doing in my childhood when certain episodes played. I also remember they played “do the bartman’ on ads months before it premiered here (non US)
I also remember that the person who shot Mr Burns was spoiled for me 6 months ahead of airing because of some cunt radio host
Yeah, true. Bonding by watching the Simpsons together as a family every Sunday was nice. It was obvious around seasons 9 and 10 it was going downhill, because we stopped watching as consistently. By season 11 or 12 we barely watched together, and after that we just occasionally tried watching the Treehouse of Horror episodes.
I remember watching Tree House of Horror VI and being blown away.
Bitch, i was young when they aired new simpsons episodes every sunday on local Fox el centro Yuma since the 90s, i remember the Itchy and Scratchy land episode and both who shot mr burns episodes.
>i remember watchin the show in mexico in english via Fox Yuma cause i lived in boarder city.
Shit.
I'm old enough that I remember Tracy Goldman Simpsons clips first airing!
I was born in 1985 so I watched the show close to the beginning and for years and years after.
>Homer sees an imaginary roofer LOL!
This is the episode where me and my family stopped watching the show altogether forever.