The Simpsons Thread (Worst. Thread. Ever!)

[Andrew]

It wasn't terrible, far better than what Family Guy had to offer with their premiere, but I'd say pretty run of the mill. I also liked the joke with Wayne acknowledging the punny signs in the background, saying he'd enjoy them if he didn't have a job to do; forgot to mention that before, that was good one.

[Andrew]

Decent episode. It was kind of fun seeing Skinner tell off Chalmers for once, though I did like status quo being restored with Chalmers' "Nothing but hard feelings" line at the end. Chalmers/Skinner stuff has remained one of the better elements of the show even in recent years, so hopefully the well hasn't run dry with this episode. Chalmers is probably a character that works better in small doses, though it was interesting to feature him more prominently and tread terrain that hasn't been covered umpteen times before over the years. A bit slow in places but there were a few laughs, I'd say an average but solid episode on the whole.

[benji]

Good news, this might be the final season!

It looks like The Simpsons—20th Century Fox Television’s multibillion-dollar cash cow, the anchor of the Fox network’s Sunday prime-time schedule, and the longest-running sitcom in the history of broadcasting—might stop production after the current 23rd season ends next spring.

The reason is a negotiating impasse between the studio and the six principal actors who voice the beloved characters on the animated series that hilariously satirizes middle-class Midwestern angst.

Difficult bargaining is nothing new for the show, which was created by James L. Brooks and Matt Groening. Fox studio execs have occasionally threatened to replace uncooperative cast members with sound-alike actors. But for the first time in nearly a quarter century of haggling, the executives have insisted that if the cast doesn’t accept a draconian 45 percent pay cut, The Simpsons will die an abrupt death as a first-run series.

...

But Fox has consistently refused to compensate the main cast members beyond their generous salaries, and once production ends, the studio will continue to reap billions for years to come (with Fox drawing on a valuable archive of around 500 episodes), while the actors will receive little more than their union-mandated residuals.

“Now Fox is basically saying, ‘If you don’t take this deal, we’ll shut down the show,’ and they’ll continue to make a ton of money,” said the insider. “They’re free to sell it to cable and a second round of syndication, and they figure that the cast has very little leverage.”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... g-hit.html

[el badman]

I was not too fond of that episode, I preferred last week's by far. I like the Chalmers-Skinner interactions, but yeah this was probably too much Chalmers for my taste, and the "Bart suddenly getting interest in something that's worth it and eventually overdoes it" plot has been done to death before.

[Andrew]

I don't feel like that's good news, to be honest. While the show has run long past its golden age and is a shadow of its former self save for the odd gem here and there, I still feel it deserves to go out on its own terms rather than due to executive greed. While I would agree it would be a merciful end in some respects, I'd also hate to see it go out like that.

[benji]

It's the final season anyway.

Fox wants "The Simpsons" for one more season at most -- and only if it can pay 25 to 30 percent less for it, an executive close to the show told TheWrap.

...

The actors have been asked to decide by noon Friday whether they will accept cuts to their salaries from the current $440,000 to $250,000 if the show continues past its current season, according to people familiar with the talks.

The studio declined to comment. But the executive told TheWrap that new episodes of the show are no longer profitable for the network, and that Fox wants to pay 25 to 30 percent less for a twenty-fourth and final season. The executive said many on the show have been asked to accept salary cuts, and that producers have already agreed to them, as they try to reduce the licensing fee that Fox pays to air the show.

"The cuts proposed to actors are in line with cuts proposed to others involved in the show. The object here is not for the actors to pay personally for the reduction," the executive said.

"The cost is that the cast is a component of the show, all of which is being downsized to do a final season."

[Andrew]

Wow, fair enough. I'd still like to see them go out on a high, as much as they can at this point anyway. I figured they'd at least aim for Season 25, the claims that new episodes are no longer profitable are interesting.

[benji]

That's not entirely true, but there's a factor here called syndication.

Essentially, as long as new shows are airing FOX has to charge less per episode in syndication and can't sell the rights to any cable networks or online services. (This is part of The Simpsons contract ONLY due to how long the show has been on the air, nobody wants to get roped into paying huge amounts for a show that might never end.) If the show stops airing new first run episodes the amount they get per episode more than doubles, they can sell it to cable (like they've done Family Guy to TBS/Adult Swim/etc.) and make an illegal amount of money. Apparently the estimate is FOX could get $1.5 million PER episode if new ones stop airing, so that's $1.5 million over 24 seasons with 20-25 episodes per season.

Basically, it works like along these lines (fake numbers)...

IF New episodes, FOX GETS:
$250 million from new episodes
$300 million from syndication

IF No new episodes, FOX GETS:
$0 from new episodes
$750 million from syndication

[Andrew]

Figured as much. Well, if it is the end then it's had a good innings, can't complain when you've been on the air for 24 years (including the Ullman shorts) when a lot of really good shows get canned after two or three seasons, if not one. Maybe the DVD boxsets can finally catch up within a reasonable timeframe.

[benji]

This is also part of why the actors are holding out, their current contract gives them essentially nothing for syndication. They offered to take a 30% pay cut to get some % of syndication.

If you're in TV on a popular show you want a good % of syndication because you really don't have to do anything for the rest of your life. The guy who does all The Simpsons music owns his own orchestra he funds from it. Seinfeld makes like $40 million a year off them, more than he made doing the show.

Oh, and besides we have Seth's The Flintstones to fill the void!

[Andrew]

Simpsons Cast Agrees to Pay Cuts

According to The Hollywood Reporter, The Simpsons' voice cast has agreed to a pay cut.

No, it won't be as severe as the 45% cut that FOX originally wanted last Monday, which would have dropped the $400,000 they get per episode to around $250,000. So this is somewhat of a small victory for the cast. But on the flip side of this is the fact that they still will not get any back-end percentage of the Simpsons franchise profits like they had originally countered with.

On a final note here, there was some talk that this, being probably the last salary negotiation the cast would ever go through, would be for one more, 24th and final season. As of this time there has been no update as to whether that is true or whether these cuts will allow the series to continue on past Season 24.

Perhaps there will be a 25th season after all. If nothing else, they should at least be able to plan for a finale if they want to go that way.

[Andrew]

The Halloween specials have kind of been a mixed bag for me over the years, the early ones were very strong but some I've found very forgettable or at least nowhere near as rewatchable as other episodes that I've liked well enough for what they are. However, this year's Treehouse of Horror was definitely one of the weakest in my book. There wasn't too much about it that I'd say was awful, but the intro went on way too long without much of a payoff. It was one of those things that should've gone beyond 30 seconds and even that would be pushing it. Make it short and sweet, get to the point.

Aside from the Spider-man references at the end, the first segment was extremely weak. I'm a fan of South Park so I won't pretend that I'm above toilet humour but it just doesn't work on The Simpsons. By this point, the bar has been set fairly high (or low, as the case may be) for crude humour and when the tone of the show doesn't allow the writers to go very far with it, it's just watered down and not funny. Again, I liked that Homer became an effective superhero yet was still paralysed in the same awkward pose, but the rest...meh.

The second segment had a lot of potential and a pretty amusing sequence of fakeouts with Ned performing mundane activities in a seemingly sinister manner but the resolution - if you can even call it that - was a disappointment. It was a literal deus ex machina and maybe that was the joke when it all comes down to it, but it was rushed, anti-climactic and a potentially entertaining idea ultimately went to waste. Too bad.

The last segment again had a couple of amusing moments with Chalmers and Skinner, the random appearance of Jackie Mason as Krusty's father to deliver the "Now you are a man!" line and the falling mountains joke were enjoyable. Aside from that, it was a bland Avatar parody, if you can even go that far.

On the whole, a disappointing THOH ep. Not enough cleverness or creepiness for my liking, I don't mind the non-canonical and three-story episodes if only because they avoid some of the annoying quirks with characterisation that have developed in regular episodes over the years but without cleverness and consistent humour, not to mention some horror for the Halloween eps, they don't have much going for them.

[Andrew]

The latest episode was average at best in the grand scheme of things, but I have to admit it was one of those episodes where I enjoyed the silliness of it. Bart's subplot was more entertaining than the main plot though both had their moments, the jokes weren't brilliant but a fair few of them had some punch. It probably brought us the two most disturbing Milhouse scenes we'll ever see as well.

[el badman]

They certainly didn't make it too subtle with Milhouse this time around, that's true.
Overall, I wasn't too fond of that one, I thought Bart's plot started well but it became sterile pretty fast, and I actually missed the last segment because I was getting bored with this episode...

[Andrew]

Looks like we're on opposite sides of the fence this week with The Simpsons and Family Guy. I wasn't at all impressed by FG's offering but as I said felt this one was OK for what it was.

Forgot to mention the LeBron reference. It's been more than a year but I still enjoyed it, as I do whenever it comes up in a comedy series (How I Met Your Mother has done it a couple of times in the past couple of seasons, since Ted is from Ohio). Besides, considering how long comedians and comedy writers will milk references to other public figures - Michael Jackson, O.J. Simpson, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to name a few - I think LeBron jokes will have a decent shelf life yet.

[Andrew]

Make it two in a row for me, I thought the latest episode was surprisingly good. Some of Julie Kavner's voice acting in the first act sounded way off and Homer's reaction to feeling left out was a bit over the top, though I'd put the latter down to the writing and directing rather than Dan Castellaneta himself. Aside from that it was a good down to earth plot, a very simple concept that they haven't really touched on before, so in that respect it felt quite fresh. The pacing felt fine and while I feared another over-the-top action sequence in the resolution, they kept it simple and the Ratatouille reference was quite funny in my opinion. Like Family Guy's latest, it's my favourite of the season so far.

[ixcuincle]

Haven't seen a new Simpsons episode in a while, so I saw that episode and was pretty impressed. The quality has been decreasing for the "newer episodes", but that episode wasn't that bad.

[Andrew]

They'll never recapture the magic of the classic years but every so often there's an episode like that which is pretty good in its own right. I felt the first five episodes or so last season were fairly strong, though the quality soon dipped save for a couple of decent to good ones here and there. It's about the best we can expect from the show at this juncture.

[Andrew]

A bit of a different episode and on the whole, not too shabby. I liked the deconstruction and send-up of young adult literature and while the stuff with the dinosaur show was a bit of a weird way to get to the main plot, it had a couple of funny moments (I liked Homer's "I demand to speak to my palaeontologist!" line). I enjoyed the commentary on the writing process with Lisa's procrastination as well as the concepts of ghostwriting and collaborative writing, and the whole parody of heist movies like Ocean's Eleven. By no means a classic but like their parody of 24 a couple of years back, I thought it was an enjoyable, slightly experimental episode. Another good one for this season.

[Andrew]

Not bad, not bad. I'm not a big fan of them using over the top action sequences to resolve plots but it probably isn't the worst example of them going that route. Some solid jokes - Maggie's "drunk" driving, Homer painting smiles over Lenny and Carl's angry faces, the bullies (even though it was kind of obvious which way they'd go on that) - and a decent plot, albeit a little familiar. I'd say at least slightly above average.

Seems they're going all out on disturbing jokes involving the Van Houtens as well.

[benji]

Gaiman omg

[Andrew]

Yet another one that was far from a classic, but I still enjoyed it all the same. Since "Like Father, Like Clown" way back in Season 3, Jackie Mason's appearances have been far less entertaining and done little justice to the character and that episode in general. This one was brief enough not to veer into trainwreck territory but still felt like a waste. Joan Rivers' appearance was actually pretty well done though, she had some good lines and her voice fit the character. Not a bad idea for a plot, they've done better Krusty cancellation stories before but it still felt relatively fresh with a couple of good jokes in there. My standards for the show admittedly aren't too high these days as I'm not expecting classic era material but once again, a fairly enjoyable ep.

[el badman]

I kinda liked it but it certainly wasn't memorable by any means. I thought Joan Rivers did a good job, but it's becoming more and more obvious that recycling previously used premises (like canceling Krusty's show in this case) and adding a different twist is basically all that they can do at this point. Still, I thought the episode was pretty enjoyable too.

[Andrew]

It's inevitable as they creep up on the 500 episode mark. For me at least, it feels like they're doing at least a slightly better job recycling premises and tweaking established backstory in the shifting continuity. They absolutely ran marriage crisis plots into the ground in extremely formulaic episodes (Homer does something wacky, Marge questions why she ever married him, he wins her back in an even wackier resolution) that can't have the same impact they did early on when the terrain was relatively unexplored and the characterisations were stronger. At least they've steered away from that somewhat.

If a new episode has a fairly interesting plot that's relatively fresh (or it's at least a fresh take on a recycled plot), decent pacing, a handful of good jokes and the characters about 70-80% in line with what made them popular, entertaining and likeable in the first place, I think the result is an episode that's good enough for this late in the game.

[Andrew]

That was certainly a different kind of Christmas episode. It was no Futurama but chalk it up as another enjoyable episode this season.

Having said that. one of these days I'd like to see an episode set in the future that doesn't revolve around the standard futuristic jokes and sci-fi concepts, but as usual they were good for a smile or chuckle. It was nice to see them acknowledge "Future-Drama" with the appearance of Jenda and the Christmas photos through the years provided a bit of freeze frame fun. Nice to see they kept up the tradition of finding a way to not have Maggie speak in flash forward episodes, too. It was even a little touching in places, nowhere near the extent of "Lisa's Wedding" but they still pulled it off.