The Day The Simpsons Died



An exploration into The Golden Age of The Simpsons and the infamous episode that started its downfall to mediocrity. Narration Transcription: As far back as I can remember, The Simpsons has always been on television. I grew up watching it, and like many, it shaped my childhood. It was the type of show that seemed to attract everyone with its blend of animation, intelligence, humor, satire, heart, and countless references to both television/film and cultural events.  The Simpsons has aired well over 600 episodes, and is currently in the middle of its unprecedented 28th season. However, most fans and even creators of the show agree that the Golden Age of The Simpsons was from seasons 3-8. In that span, they had brilliant writers and directors collaborating on the show like Conan O'Brien, Brad Bird, and Greg Daniels, they won 11 Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, and averaged 18-22 million viewers per episode. In comparison, the recent premiere of the 28th season pulled in only 3.36 million viewers. The Golden Age of The Simpsons was one classic episode after the next, filled with quotable lines and celebrity guests... But on September 28, 1997, The Golden Age came to an end with Season 9's second episode-- "The Principal and the Pauper" The controversial episode, which is based off of Jorge Borges' short story "The Improbable Imposter Tom Castro", gives us the backstory of Armin Tamzarian who served in the Army, befriended Sergeant Seymour Skinner, and then assumed his identity after Skinner presumably died in the war. The now infamous episode was almost universally panned upon its release. Series creator Matt Groening called it one of his least favorite episodes on the Season 9 DVD box set. And even Harry Shearer (the voice of Seymour Skinner and many, many others) said this to the writers after having read the script — "That's so wrong. You're taking something that an audience has built eight or nine years of investment in and just tossed it in the trash can for no good reason... It's so arbitrary and gratuitous, and it's disrespectful to the audience." In an interview years later, Shearer added this in reference to the episode-- "It's like punishing the audience for paying attention." And I think that's the biggest mistake the writing staff made with this episode. They completely misjudged the fan's adoration and commitment to the characters in the show. Here’s a snippet from the episode’s audio commentary, found on the Season 9 DVD box set. “Strange?” Eliciting an emotional reaction from the audience because of their attachment and investment is what storytelling is all about. The fact that its a cartoon doesn’t change that. Moments like the beginning of Up or the ending of Toy Story 3 still resonate with audiences, regardless of the fact that it’s animated. The audience will connect to the main characters no matter who or what they are, as long as the creators respect the characters too. That's the beautiful phenomena of television-- we become so attached to the characters because we spend hours upon hours with them, watching them grow and develop over time. And after eight years and 179 episodes, we grew attached to all the characters in The Simpsons, including Seymour Skinner. We watched him struggle to find meaning in his life after he'd been fired as the principal, and we also watched him fall in love for the first time. To throw a wrench in the works and change Skinner's entire background is cheap, lazy, unearned drama. Like Harry Shearer said, it's unfair to punish the audience for caring about the characters and investing in them. In my research for this essay, I rewatched The Principal and the Pauper, and I must say that the episode itself isn't as bad as I remember it. There are some genuinely funny moments and beautiful animation throughout the episode. And, if I’m being honest, I can't blame the writers entirely for trying something new. Besides a few refreshingly unique and heartfelt episodes sprinkled here or there (such as the episodes Holidays of Future Passed and Barthood) The Simpsons has been out of fresh ideas for the past two decades. Homer has tried seemingly every job imaginable-- And the family has traveled all over the world-- To this day, I still consider seasons 3-8 of The Simpsons my favorite span of television of all time, but unfortunately, I stopped watching The Simpsons years ago. I found it more depressing than anything, watching what I once considered to be the greatest show ever slowly reduced to a hollow shell over time. Out of the vast catalog of Simpsons episodes, The Principal and the Pauper is far from the worst, but I think the reason it sticks out in the minds of many fans and critics is because that episode definitively marked the end of a beloved show's historic run— It’s Golden Age. It was the day The Simpsons, as I like to remember it, died.

Comments

  1. For me the Simpsons fell off after season 11.
  2. My stomach hurts
  3. I find these things amusing. People never seem to realize that as they grow up their attachment to the show they enjoyed lessens. The Simpsons are still on and each new generation of young people are enjoying it and each new generation are on here saying what seasons they prefer, all of which correspond to their own youth.
  4. season 9 wasn't bad. Definitely the worst yet at that time. But still funny if different. Ten was tolerable. Eleven was lame other than Behind the Laughter. And the next episode, A Tale of Two Springfields was an okay way to start season 12. After that I cared less than Lovejoy about Ned Flanders. The last 16 years are the equivalent of "I think I might be coveting my own wife"
  5. I think the problem with the Simpsons now was perfectly illustrated in the episode Barthood. The Simpsons has been static for 28 seasons so they have done pretty much everything they can do. The characters need to age, and I mean permanently, even just by a few years. Bart hitting his teens, Lisa advancing in school, Maggie FINALLY finding a voice. Angus Skinner finally doing us all a favour and DYING! it would advance the show by leaps and bounds and allow for new stories to be told. The skip could be used to remove old characters and bring in knew ones. Jenda has appeared as Bart's significant other several times in "future" episodes, they could introduce her in the main cast. The Simpsons as they are now, have no where else to go, but finally acknowledging time's existence on the characters could open the door to so much. Or at least, that's what I think.
  6. The early seasons of the Simpsons gave us such gold. Lines that still stick in my head to this day. Unfortunately it hasn't been fresh in well over 10 years. I wish they would have gone out on a high note instead of dragging on and on and on. Let it go out with some class, instead of the mess it is now.
  7. you see seymours father in the hellfish episode, looks and talks exactly like seymour, the original one anyways.
  8. I don't like watching the 1st and 2nd seasons episodes much the way they look make me what to throw up season 3-9 are good maybe season 10 two
    season 11-17 no no no
    season 18-25 meh
    season 26-now not as good as the classics but good
  9. I don't like watching the 1st and 2nd seasons episodes much the way they look make me what to throw up season 3-9 are good maybe season 10 two
    season 11-17 no no no
    season 18-25 meh
    season 26-now not as good as the classics but good
  10. I actually quite liked 'The Principal and the Pauper' as an episode in its own right. It's a pity it became the beginning of a sad pattern of decline.
  11. I stopped when Marge accidentally got breast implants, but the quality already went down in like season 9.
  12. For me, this shit had died in the episode they fooled my country
  13. Regardless the Tamzarian issue, comparing the principal and the pauper" with any episode between 18-28 seasons, even between 13 to 28, is extremely disrespectful for the first one.
  14. A few years ago I decided to buy the Simpsons dvds on Ebay, so I had to work out when the Simpsons went off the rails. I ended up buying the first 8 seasons.
    There are still great episodes in seasons 10, 11, 12. But I think this is bang on.
  15. Don't care at all about Skinner. Some of the later seasons were funny as hell.
  16. Still prefer the simpsons over family guy.
  17. I'd say S21/E13 "The Color Yellow"
  18. The Simpsons aren't dead they are still running stop being a hating downer and give them props for being around so long
  19. todays episodes they all have ipads and crap, the simpsons is meant to be a world detached from out world which never ages, they ruined that
  20. Those yellow n-words were always cancer


Additional Information:

Visibility: 697967

Duration: 7m 3s

Rating: 14325