An Analysis of The Simpsons: Post Golden Age & The Movie 

Progress at time of posting: midway through season 24 and only slightly losing the will to live

My brothers and I noticed a strange phenomenon around this era. If we thought of a Simpsons quote during the day, that would be the episode that played on Sky that night. Eventually we realised it was just because we were thinking of Simpsons quotes all day, every day.

It's really sobering to see The Simpsons poke fun at the show running out of ideas and becoming stale twenty goddamn years ago. Really think about that for a moment, they've been running out of ideas for TWO DECADES now. It's a miracle this show is still capable of being even semi-coherent.

The Tony Blaire bit was actually one of the best in the episode 'cos after he leaves Homer says 'Oh my god! I can't believe we just met Mr. Bean' it's one of a very few jokes I did enjoy about that episode.

2:48 my local station would start at season 1 and play the reruns in order until they got within a season or two of the current one. Then they would start back over at season one. They did this for several years. I loved it.

In your slight defense of Jerkass Homer and analysis of The Simpsons Movie, I will say it feels like Homer’s arc in that movie was a response to Jerkass Homer. In the Golden Age, there would be consequences for Homer’s actions that would run for the ENTIRE episode, and he would try his best to fix them (this shows that he has a heart and why Marge doesn’t just leave him), which is not how it goes post-Golden Age; he would do anything selfish and/or cartoonishly stupid and there’d be NO consequences, except on rare occasions and even then they’d get resolved so quickly. The Simpsons Movie has Homer act this way for the whole movie to the point where it affects his relationships with Marge and his kids and so they leave him, in other words showing that there are MAJOR consequences like in the Golden Age, which leads to Homer realizing how selfish he always was and, again just like in the Golden Age, leads to him trying to fix all of his mistakes and redeem himself in the eyes of Springfield and his family.

TheRealJims does a good job at giving post-golden age a fair shake and analysis of the series.

"Basically the power structures of our capitalist system can be understood through the relationship between Comic Book Guy and Agnes Skinner." I'm glad I'm not the only one who's noticed that.

You sound sound so exhausted about how much Simpsons you have to watch, but here I am, rewatching the entirety of the Simpsons over and over again for years. I've probably watched this show all the way through more than anyone else.

"Is the joke just Thing British?" YES. I don't know why but Americans go absolutely nuts for Thing British jokes. They weep with laughter at just normal sentences said in the UK so it doesn't surprise me The Simpsons did it

The Abe stuff really stings for me because he's one of my favourite characters because of the depth he had early on. He's a sweet, lonely old man who loves his family, but he was also an abusive bastard in his younger years, and it makes the relationship hard to square for homer. It's great stuff

You can have an abusive parent be right to escape them, but also feel guilt. And yes, your mind can plague you with the times they were good (or, your brain is just telling you that). I'm in my forties and have that, when I cut that **** loose over twenty years ago!

Since the influence of South Park and Seth Macfarlane’s show were mentioned, I think FUTURAMA should also be mentioned. The point at which many people say The Simpsons started declining was almost the same time that Matt Groening debuted his new series. Futurama is a show where no “Treehouse of Horror”-style episode structure is needed as an excuse to do wacky, fun, out of this world gags because anything could be canon to that mainline universe. I always felt like Groening had so much fun with Futurama’s style that it ended up influencing how crazy and meta an “average” episode of The Simpsons could get, like with the Jockey’s, the Loch Ness Monster, the Allen Wrench alien, etc.

On the subject of repeating the same episodes all the time, the Funzo and Gary Coleman Xmas episode got played so often on Australian telly that I was able to tell when that episode was on by the couch gag at the start.

That "imagined ending" for 'Kidney Trouble' is more or less what happened in the Futurama episode, 'Obsoletely Fabulous'. While the two episodes are not one and the same, they have similar story beats (the main character escapes from an operation, heads out to sea, meets a gang of misfits, and eventually completes said operation). Only, in the case of Futurama, Bender _does_ wake up from a dream, and actually reflects on his attitude; keep in mind, this is for a robot to whom Bender, let alone the audience, has no emotional attachment, and only appears in one episode (plus some of the movies) afterwards.

I think one thing is kinda missing in the "competition" chapter, is King of The Hill which leaned more in the direction of the genuine family style of writing so Simpsons was kinda caught between it and Family Guy for a long time

It's interesting seeing how the disscusion around post "golden age" simpsons has evolved. It used to be a case of everything post season 10/11 was just written off, but since the generation of fans during the 2000s growing up & all the episodes being widely accessable on Disney+ means there's a more nuanced discussion on the quality of the show.

"it's not the show that changed, we just got tired of it" That's definitely wrong when we can agree on which episodes are good or not. There's obviously a change

Remember that promo back in 1992 where Bart and Homer were talking about the end of the Cosby show, saying that if they had a TV show, they'd "run that sucker into the ground" ? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vWgI2YAupCM.html

It's funny you say the Simpsons Movie is overall considered good, cause I've seen a lot of places that hate the movie for the overall same reasons as the "bad seasons" in this video. Honestly my biggest gripe wit the movie is, as admitted by the creators, they were basically required to go into making the movie for audiences that either never watched the Simpsons or maybe just watched the first season or two. It's why the villain is a made-up guy instead of Burns or Sideshow Bob or Hank Scorpio. And it bugs me cause when I heard that, it really made me question who they expected to watch this movie the most. They really expected people who either never cared about the show before or fell off super early would want to come back in such a massive number?

Did they show King of the Hill much in the UK? That was Fox's other animated show for adults coming out around this time so I imagined it influenced the tone of The Simpsons a little bit too, although it was far more 'grounded' than Family Guy or South Park.

In regards to the Kidney Trouble episode and the disconnect between previous portrayals of Abe’s parenting, is it not possible that Homer has only ever been focusing on the negative aspects of how he was brought up allowing them to build and reinforce his worst personality traits because that’s what people just tend to do? But, when faced with the prospect of his father’s death, reflects more on the times where Abe did show love and concern for his son, which were probably difficult to show as a struggling single father? Not that I think this is an aspect the episode was trying to get across, as I agree it treats the flashback like Abe has always been this way while never addressing how he’s been portrayed as a parent thus far. But it is an aspect that I think could explain why we have never seen this side of Abe before as Homer has never had a need to focus on it, but he has had a need to focus on the bad moments in his upbringing across the prior 9 seasons.

Ohhh! I've been looking forward to this one. Appreciate your videos, very well written and entertaining. I am almost completing my collection of The Simpsons on physical media, only 3 seasons left.

A fun (or not so fun) fact is that, in Spain, we consider the Golden Age to finish right with Behind the Laughter. It was the last episode with the original VA for Homer, Carlos Revilla (also former director of the European Spanish dub IIRC), as he died before dubbing the next season. It's not that current Homer (Carlos Ysbert) doesn't do a great job, and his voice isn't too different, but losing Homer's original voice AND a VA legend was too strong of a hit. Also, yes. The last sentence with Revilla's voice is "It's the last season", which makes this a very well-known fact.

I've been looking forward to part 2 of your Simpsons analysis. I've been enjoying these videos. Rewatched Part 1 and the Futurama video a few days ago🤣.

I am here five days later rewatching this video. Also I think your section on Ned Flanders 55:50 just helped me realize something about myself. This is a lot.

Really interesting video, i do think this era has loads of interesting episodes and ideas (but I think the same age as you means we saw these as kids). I was watching tons of the show over COVID and once i hit season 17/18 it became a nightmare to keep going. Somewhere up to season 23ish now and feel like it's picking up again. Great video as always!

I salute your dedication to watching all of this show and pointing out that a lot of this era is still worth watching even if the quality of the emotion focus episodes was pretty varied. Love the reviews Stu, keep them coming - as you can, of course. Going through the modern era must be difficult.

The Rolling Stones fantasy camp episode is a good celebrity guest star episode because it makes use of Mick and Keith as a pair and also has other rock icons like the late Tom Petty, Elvis Costello, and Lenny Kravitz. And also oh yeah when Rodney Dangerfield was on as a guest, he was sort of playing a version of his character from Caddyshack but he isn't because he is the son of Mr Burns (he was designed to have Burns's features). And Andrea Martin played Apu's mother. In the case of Sideshow Bob, it's a celebrity voiced character that went from 'guest' character to being a recurring character. And yes I didn't know it was a Prisoner parody (because I don't remember the koala at the end being part of the actual show, just thought it was a 'koalas are creepy' gag like at the end of Bart VS Australia). Marisa Tomei playing one of Ned Flander's many love interests is another good one. R.Lee Ermey didn't voice himself or a parody of his character from Full Metal Jacket in the episode he was in. Dan Aykroyd wasn't playing himself, he was Comic Book Guy's father.

Regarding South Park, I'd argue that it and The Simpsons have different demographic targets. South Park is the show for teens and young adults, whereas The Simpsons is more for parents. There's some crossover between the groups, but the appeal of the shows are different because they have different goals in mind

I’ve rewatched your previous simpsons analysis many times; its great to have a sequel!

I thought the Simpsons being on BBC 2 was just a fever dream of mine but it really was.

god this channel is right up my street. I love this type of stuff, this is quintessential RU-vid, academic insights into stuff from childhood. Love it

I haven't finished watching this video yet, so please bare that in mind... but I've got to say so far this is the most pinpoint accurate, relatable video I've seen in terms of growing up as a UK Simpsons fan. I felt seen when you were talking about taping them off the television and that's why certain episodes would feel tedious. Also, your stuff on Homer and Grandpa is a brilliant take I've never really thought of in that way. Great stuff! Hope the rest is as interesting.

I fell asleep the first ca. six times that I tried to watch this video and started all over each time, but now I've done it! I can be just as proud for having managed to watch this video as you can be for having managed to make it!

Another amazing video! Took me double the time to watch it as everything you said got me thinking about my own assumptions surrounding the "silver age". Good luck with the next one, you'll need it.

Your channel is one my favorites, I hope in the near future you get more recognition

Its a real testament to your ability as a video essayist that you can make a video this long whilst keeping up the same high standard of analysis you always have. Nothing felt like filler here, all the points flowed together nicely and were all worthwhile. My favourite part was the section on jerk ass homer and the assertion that he's always been a selfish jerk. Most sitcoms function because the characters are very flawed or even terrible poeple, and its somewhat bizarre to me that poeple dont recognise this. Of course this can even have real-world implications whereby poeple consciously or subconsciously emulate such behaviour when certain characters or archetypes become mainstream. I know for my own part that I haven't been immune from this in the past.

What about in series 5 'The Last Temptation of Homer' where Hibbert is prepared to use a tube to send Marge and Bart to another country if they didn't have insurance, I mean he doesn't exactly do it with glee but he becomes more sinister and I wouldn't say it's sympathetic, wasn't he always sort of like that?

this is one of the best simpsons videos I've ever seen.

I think we give the Loch Ness monster episode a pass due to a few things. A lot of people do genuinely believe the monster exists, or at least did exist. What happens to the monster is reminiscent of King Kong, so people's minds already have something familiar to latch on to so it doesn't immediately leap out as being so outlandish. Lastly, finding Nessie was a focus for the majority of the episode and the aburdity was built up. The Jockie reveal was a sudden drastic heelturn in what was otherwise a pretty normal episode at that point.

1:21:23 that episode was originally going to be the final episode, not should of because there was contract disputes or something during that time

In the wedding video scene in the film, the writers had nearly slipped in a joke where right before the camera would cut to the video after Marge would tearfully say "Goodbye Homie", she would get up and ask Bart to help her turn off the camera, proceeding to struggle with it. They thankfully knew that they had to back off for that scene and let the tone carry the scene.

“Robin Hood’s a character” “HE SURE IS” one of my favourites🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

The house is sinking = MARGE GETS A JOB. Homer becomes a chauffeur to pay back Patty and Selma after he lost money investing in pumpkins.

I feel like the same argument can be said for SpongeBob, where most people treated nearly everything past seasons 1-3 and the first movie as complete garbage due to it being different. While the later seasons do have their bad episodes, there are still plenty of good episodes from that period that just get undercut due to not being from the first 3 seasons.

I’m glad mad mad marge getting some love here marge saying don’t mess with me I got jimmys is one of my favourite jokes from the show

Really interesting. In regard to people thinking homer became jerk, it does show how nostalgia can add rose tilted glasses to peoples views. It reminds me when I've seen people dislike a show runner for doctor who and yet mention stuff the past show runner they love has done. For me, i used to watch the Simpsons on channel 4 as didn't have sky growing up. Episodes seemed to he very random order wise and I'm sure sometimes they'd air the first of a two parter and then not show the next one but could he wrong. Due to the order, I never really knew what season an episode was. A rewatch does sound interesting

I'm not a big fan of the episode, and I can see the criticism but the scene where Dr. Hibbert says that he helped himself to one of Homer's kidneys really does never fail to make me laugh my head off...

Thanks for the thoughtful invite. You definitely have alot to cover...in a while. Lol

This is a two pee break video. Very insightful, as always.

While not part of the main show per se, would you consider a plot analysis of The Simpsons Hit & Run? It would be easy to write off the game as just being GTA yellow which it does pull off very well - but considering that the plot involves aliens filming Springfield for money followed by them meddling with the format to increase viewership, in turn creating a zombified Springfield, I wonder if there's more to be read from this interpretation and how it fits in with the evolving quality of the post-Classic era era of the show. Great video!

I was in the camp that the movie should've been it. It just felt like the right ending for the show. Funnily enough, I'd stopped consistently watching during this "era" too (can't remember when), but I was still excited for the movie and loved it upon its release. All I can say is good luck with the rest of it. While this has made me consider watching more of seasons 10-18 at some point, I don't have high hopes for what's to come, haha.

man this video is so much fun, thanks for making it.

I didn’t know, ‘day of sobriety’ wasn’t in the golden age. It’s probably my favourite episode of the show and was a massive impact on me and was one of the many reasons why I don’t drink alcohol as an adult.

In sessions 10 through to 20 there decent episodes, but after season 20 it definitely goes all downhill from here so good luck with that.

Everybody who can actually watch this right now: Enjoy it while it's fresh! I probably won't get around to watching it until tomorrow the very earliest.

I hope adult animation takes inspiration to be the next BoJack Horseman. Although I hope its not a horrible influence were people take the wrong lessons on what made BoJack Horseman good like Watchmen and A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones.

"It can't be Simpsons fatigue"? Why not? This show, by all greatness, always had a pretty limited scope. So at some point it either gets too out of character or repetitive... Or both, as it did. I think Simpsons should really take a note from Southpark. Do only a few episodes each year and put all your ideas and effort into those.... And since there are, like, 3 good eps each new season, that would make so much more sense than whatever they do now.

1:26:14 that picture quality point is so so true. Not quite the same thing but i was watching X-Men 97 and my internet was being weak so it only displayed in like 480p for a minute or two, and let me tell you it looked GLORIOUS! It suddenly felt like an old episode, not just a continuation, and it fully made me cry. Just from the change in picture quality. I genuinely dont enjoy HD simpsons as much because it just isnt what i remember.

I think you're strawmanning the "It's like a video game story" criticism. That is a valid thing to say (if applicable in context) because good video game stories have natural gaps where gameplay tells the story rather than dialogue or cutscenes. It's normal for a video game to have less story content than a TV show. That's how it's supposed to be. That is not how non-interactive stories are supposed to be. If a story is behaving like an interactive story, then it shouldn't be and people aren't wrong for pointing that out.

I misread the title the first time as: "pre Golden Age" and was disappointed at the thought of this being a 2-hour video about those shorts and maybe season 1 and 2.

1:21:19 Funnily enough in 2001 when Al Jean was starting up again as show runner the contracts for the VAs had to be renewed and it NEARLY DID end the series (similar to what happened in Holidays of Future Past in 2011)

I have one reservation about one of your observations, namely the one about the "Kidney Trouble" episode. I think I am roughly your age (early 30s), but I think you mad ethe mistake of judging Grandpa Simpsons' parenting my modern standards and not by the standards of someone who grew up in the 1960s. I have seen all of the golden age Simpsons and I think that Grandpa was not a bad parent, but simply a parent burdened and shaped by his era. Grandpa is a World War II veteran and a single father, so it is understandable that he has some inner demons and also some resentment towards his son who is not the brightest, but simultaneously reminds him of his wife who left him behind with all the responsibilty. Also like we all do with our own parents it is possible to love them and care for them, but also despise some aspects of their parenting, hence it would make sense that Homer would remember depressing and traumatising moments of his childhood, but also happy memories where his father was there for him. This makes Grandpa one of the most intriguing and also deep characters, as he has lived through decades of American history, but also raised his son by himself something which was unusual at the time.

What's that recurring bit of music you've used, that starts off sounding like a PJ Harvey track, with her signature "simple but effective two chord riff" but then switches up with jazz drums and some noodly lead guitar? I mean, that's my first question, but obviously, great video! I think it was about 2002-04 when one of my favourite "Simpsons aping Family Guy" Simpsons jokes happened. The one where they're in a zoo or aquarium or something, and Lisa walks into the penguin enclosure and they're all flying, then one spots her, and they all land and start acting nonchalant. I have NO idea what episode it's from because a lot of that period is pretty forgettable, but that one joke has stuck since I first saw it as an older teenager.

i agree with everything you said without thinking about it.

As someone who watched the simpsons in Czech, I consider the 12th series to be the end of the golden age, when the original voice actor of Homer got sick and they replaced him from the 13th series. Although officially, I would stretch it up to the 15th series, when the Simpsons still radiated the right atmosphere.

Excellent video, really, you're really really great at this

Missed an oppertunity by not having the globe land on Youaregay.

Forgive me if you get into this in the video and I missed it, but much of the celebrity guest angle do you think is down to the celebrity themselves? Like on what you cited as the better end of celebrity guest usage we have Danny devito and Dolly Parton, and on the other end Mel Gibson and Elon Musk. Kind of paints a picture there

Re Flanders: no, he went from the depth of the varieties of form the perfect neighbor could take to a “Christianity is the punch-line! What was the set-up?” dialogue bucket.

Incredibly insightful stuff. I really like how you look into the characters and particularly the topic of flanderization. Sometimes people assume that the writers don't "get" the core of the character, but like you said writers sometimes just want to take these characters in different directions. I know you're in the middle of post-silver age Simpson purgatory, but if you get the chance I highly recommend Carol & The End of the World. It's got some really interesting character episodes and the way the writers explore character reactions to the end of the world might appeal to you.

“When You Dish Upon a Star” is my personal pick for where the show jumped the shark. There are great episodes that come after it, but that episode is the earliest one that I actively dislike and do not want to watch.

"So, from now on, anything caught in your zipper will be handled by the school nurse and not me." Okay, for real, that made me laugh. 😂

Best video I've seen on post classic 'Simpsons. I think the main reason The Simpsons was not as good from season 10 onward is because the writers started to change. Simply, the writing was not as sophisticated and no longer part of the era that those previous writers were informed by. It came to be that jokes had to be pointed out by the new writers, rather than let to just sit. They had to modify it, but as said in the video, some of the choices were admirably bold. I just don't think it works most of the time. Homer's guilt-ridden nostalgia for his father in the Kidney Trouble episode does not redefine who Abe was. I mean, in that flashback alone, Abe gave little Homer alcohol to put him to asleep. Not great parenting. We don't even know if Homer is a reliable narrator. Well, actually he usually isn't. Furthermore, Abe stole his kidney at the end, kind of cementing the pattern of him being a sh*t role model, which owes to Homer's cowardice through having this weak father figure. Ned may not have been more complex in the beginning, but he was more believable. That nice guy you kind of hate because of being too perfect. The word complex is much overused. The crazy Christian trope he became felt lazy though. I don't think holding Ned up as an ideal Christian still in 2010 would have been at all unreasonable. Consider in 2024, 75% of Americans still identify as religious, where as in the UK it's about 45%. 'Hail Mary Pass was one of the worse episodes and was too late for jump the shark. Perhaps it was massacre the shark. My brain checked out around then, although I came back a bit later searching for hits, but mostly finding misses. The Simpsons indeed wanted to be edgy like South Park or Family Guy, although The Simpsons started cut-away jokes way before Family guy. The makers of Father Ted even credited the show with this inspiration for their own writing. Examples welcome. I don't think analyzing why something is worse than it once was has to be productive. I think inherently, however, it is. We can learn greater value and how to develop as better creators or artists ourselves. It also never hurt to be discerning or to have taste. Brothers and sisters breaking up and making up seems pretty typical to me. You highlight some good nuggets from the teen episodes, as well as some terrible ones. I really did like The Frying Game, the one with the Crayon. I count Bart The Mother as classic era, as I feel the show changes half way through season 10. Mad Mad Marge is typical season 11 craziness. I like it, but it's far more sinister and wacky than the golden era. After season 11 they tried to restore some civility. "Shut up Becky!" I like most of season 11 for being the outlier. "Could this be the end of our series... of events."

For me personally, the last season that was OVERALL good was was around season 13. there are many good episodes throughout those seasons. But around season 14 the show (for me) hit a tipping point. Of course every season has standout episodes and i enjoyed the movie enough but yeah man

How many Simpsons break downs can there be on RU-vid? Apparently a lot! Well, here we go.

Did you ever read the Dead Homer Society blog?

ohhhh fuck yeah i loved your last simpsons analysis!

Another Stabagful video hell yes

As cringe and ill-advised as the plot twist in Principal and the Pauper is, don't let the cringe factor blind you to how freaking S-tier the jokes and dialog are, even in the most hated scenes. It's a VERY funny, acidly cynical episode. Agnes is in rare form.

I know you're still making your way through the modern Simpsons at the time of this video but in my opinion modern era Simpsons is actually better than this middle era, and could be classified as an upturn in quality. For instance they tone down the "edgy" humour that was present during this era. The greatest example of this would be Homer himself, who is often friendlier and nicer to others around him than he was during the classic era. I think the jerk-ass Homer complaints mostly come from people who haven't watched the show in years, and continue to think of the middle era as representing the modern Simpsons. I think the golden age versions of the characters feel more similar to the modern era versions than to this middle era. However one criticism I have with modern era Simpsons is the ADHD-like tone that is present in some episodes, which removes the audiences ability to get immersed in the show. This issue doesn't apply to all the modern episodes, however it is a common thing I noticed. Anyway I enjoyed the video and look forward to hearing your thoughts on the show's modern age.

@ 0:45 you say you tend to think that people just agree with things they read on the internet without thinking about them too much. I immediately agreed with this.

Because the Simpsons as a franchise has over 600 episodes over the corse of 34 years, I realised that when the show started to become popular, the show became more Quantity over quality just like SpongeBob.

Glad i found someone else who actually thought regarding marge was actually a really solid episode. You hear a lot of crap about it, but its honestly quite an interesting idea

"That's not the monsterometer! It's the frog exaggerator." - greatest joke I've ever heard in my life, I laughed for days.

I love the segment where you talk about how the term Flanderization has been Flanderized b/c it ignored the existence of "The World" outside of The TV Series itself - peak stuff. To be clear, I'm not a fan of the Simpsons, but when you release a feature length video - I'm going to watch it, and it's amazing to learn the term Flanderization originated from a bunch of nerds who - in a literal sense - failed to "touch grass" by not reading the room and seeing that Christianity hasn't had a positive reputation in the US for several hot minutes, so they invented an entire term on a seemingly false premise.

What I noticed after having rewatched almost every episode multiple times is that in the golden age every episode is great. Season 11-17ish you still have at least around half the episode being memorable and fun. Post 17 you start to find around 20% are good and now you only have an episode or 2 that stand out.

Broooo they were spamming TF outta that Thomas Edison episode 😭😭😭😭 Im glad im not the only one pissed about that

11:46 One of the reasons is because the conflict of the episode was already done by the second act, but since they still needed a third act, that is when those guys appear. The stuff with them leads into a recycling of the second act to conclude the third act. Basically, people feel like their inclusion was entirely pointless as a way to pad the episode out. Like the episode itself ran out of steam midway into the episode. Basically, like the writers ran out ideas midway and their way of resolving, it was through random nonsense.

Im almost at the end of season 14 myself and im still enjoying 90% of the episodes. Im just accepting the fact that the show has had to evolve with the times. I originally gave up at season 17 so im actually excited to see what season 18 and onwards is like.

Was just wondering if this video was out yet, I check and it got posted 11 hours ago

The thing about the kidney episode is that Homer pretty much tortured Abe into bursting his kidney. You don't let an obscenely old man hold his pee like that. I was a kid and thought since Homer was at fault, I felt no sympathy for him. Abe didn't torture Homer into bursting his organs. I lost quite a lot of hope in humanity because I saw that the writers thought all the choking and cruelty as a fun pastime. Not so funny when you've seen quite a few bits of it in reality.

There it is. Been lurking around…. Waiting

I firmly believe that The Simpsons should get one last season where it leans into the family and Springfield. Every episode ages them 1 year, we see adult Lisa, Bart and Maggie. We see Marge and Homer age and struggle with their marriage but come to an amazing understanding. Older characters die, but at the last episode, as Marge and Homer celebrate 40 years of marriage, everyone in Springfield comes to celebrate and OOPS the power plant has nobody monitoring it and it explodes, destroying Springfield. The final frame is the photo of the Simpsons from the end of episode 1, Santa's Little Helper fluttering down, battered and a bit burned, next to a photo of The Simpsons, fully mature and happy. With Santa's Little Helper 6. It's the ending they deserve.

I like your narration. Reminds me a bit of TheraminTrees' channel. Maybe not so much content wise as voice and narration style....wise. +1sub. Oh, and also - Gil is the best character of all times. Ok, I'll shaddap now.

I always loved the middle seasons.

What about the change in animation style? For me that was a major reason for losing interest. So much of the humour was rooted in how expressive the characters were, every squash and stretch and off-model moments. But the animation became stuff and sterile and totally charmless. It was nice when there was humanity there visually. Oh, and poor Julie Kavner’s voice… it can be hard to listen to in later episodes. PS I had no idea the Simpsons movie was so well thought of. Is that a view that’s changed over time?

1:50:10 I don't think there's a better homer scream than this one, not only that but the joke itself is so hilarious

It's important to note with the Flanderization thing that the original trope page doesn't specify if it was due to mistake or done on purpose. Either can happen, and the trope isn't meant to be a negative one as there are examples of Flanderization making a show better. It's Wikipedia and the way video essayists use it that leant on the 'it was accidental' bit of it. Flanders going Fundamentalist is totally on purpose. Edit: Ah, some of this already got covered. Oh well.