My book of writing prompts wants to know something popular that's overrated. As I was leafing through the book I had The Simpsons on Disney+ playing. Which really makes for a perfect answer.
After I ran through all the Star Wars on Disney+, about the only series they had I would be interested in was The Simpsons. I didn't watch the first season because it's so weird with the cruder animation, voices that aren't right, and black Smithers. So really it started with the second season. As I rewatched it, I sort of wondered at what point it would reach that threshhold of mediocrity.
The thing is that the show started to make jokes about being on too long by about the 7th season. And it's been on for 24 years since then! I think for myself, the show really just started coasting along about the 11th or 12th season. By then they'd rerun a lot of the basic plots a bunch of times: Homer gets a new job; Homer pisses off/wins back Marge; Lisa finds somewhere to fit in before blowing it; Bart plays a prank and is punished somehow; Selma gets married; and Sideshow Bob tries to kill Bart.
I watched the show live until about the 22nd or 23rd season. I always chalk it up to one moment: when I read on the description on my cable box that Selma was going to marry Fat Tony. And it's just like, "If you're not going to try, then why should I watch?" I mean by that point how many times had Selma been married? Ooh but this time she's marrying someone rich and famous! She already married Troy McClure and Sideshow Bob who were famous or at least infamous.
A lot of books are very similar to books already written but you have to put some kind of new spin on it. Marrying Fat Tony didn't even feel like much of a new spin. So that was the point where I reached, "Aw, fuck it." Plus by that point I had Netflix and maybe something else. Between that, cable, and sports there was really no reason to watch a show rehashing the same story for the ten or fifteenth time.
Yet despite that I gave up like 8 years ago, plenty of other people keep watching. Why? Is it just that they're so used to it that it's like an instinct? Or that they can't think of anything better to do or watch? Or maybe it's that a lot of younger viewers haven't seen the classic episodes when the stories were fresh or at least far less used. Even the syndicated reruns don't show the older episodes nearly as much as they did in the 90s and 2000s. Most of the people watching reruns on local TV or FXX or whatever may never even see the classic episodes I grew up with. Which to me seems like a pity. They're only get the bad copies of the original stories.
In a way I suppose it's like how it's hard for me to appreciate the Beatles the way older people do because I wasn't around then. By the same token newer viewers weren't around when a lot of these basic Simpsons plots were fresh so they can't really appreciate it properly.
Anyway, it kind of bugs me that Matt Groening and company seem determined to keep this going until everyone involved is dead--if then. That's really something that works with cartoons better than live action because you don't have to matter as much about actors--especially young ones--getting older. Still, you have to respect those like Jerry Seinfeld who quit when they could have kept it going for a few more years because they didn't want to keep grinding it down until there was nothing left. I wish Groening, Seth MacFarlane, and Trey Parker/Matt Stone had the same integrity about The Simpsons, Family Guy, and South Park. I gave up on all of those shows but they just keep humming along. But it's not like Fox or Comedy Central is likely to find anything better.
A sadly funny thing when you rewatch the show now is the sheer number of guest stars who are dead now. You could create a whole Vietnam Memorial-style wall dedicated to all those who have died since recording a character or characters on The Simpsons.
Here's a wiki page dedicated to guest actors, recurring voice actors, and staff who have all died. Quite a few of them I hadn't realized because I hadn't been paying attention the last 8 years. It's kind of depressing to see just how many have died while the show somehow keeps chugging along. I guess it proves the old show biz adage: The show must go on.
But maybe it really shouldn't.
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