Four More Years of The Simpsons
 

UGH!

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/...1ca0230b62ca88

After weeks of negotiations, the voice cast of Fox's long-running animated series over the weekend reached a new four-year deal with producing studio 20th Century Fox TV.

Under the new pact, the actors are said to get a significant salary bump to nearly $400,000 per episode.

The voice cast is set to begin work on the show Tuesday with a table read. The upcoming season of "The Simpsons" has been curtailed from 22 to 20 episodes by the contract negotiations.

Additionally, Dan Castellaneta, who voices several characters, including Homer Simpson, and also has penned several scripts for the show over the years, has been named a consulting producer.

This next commentary is coming from a life Long Simpsons fan, even since the short rubbery animated 1980's Tracy Ulman shorts....

Make ONE more theatrical movie... and have it serve as the series finalie. We do NOT need 4 more years of bland writing, redone plots, smarmy guest stars that only the Harvard educated writers give a crap about, and over used jokes about how funny people's accents are or mock apple pie.

If we are headed for 4 more years of the Simpsons, here's what I'd like to see:

Homer as smart as he USED to be. And working EXCLUSIVELY at the power plant.

Lisa's ultra lefty buddhist veganism as the butt of jokes, not the source of some whiney agenda based preachiness.

Marge NOT being a joke about beeing a housewife (thankfully, they seem to have moved away from that).

No more episodes that look like they could be Saturday morning cartoons... basically no more pandering to the youngest audiences.

Three cartoons in a half hour should be EXCLUSIVELY for the Halloween special.

And lastly.... Kill off Cletus, or have him leave the show perminantly. he hasn't been funny since the Clinton adminsitration. he's a hillbilly. We get it. And while you're at it, treat characters like Sideshow Mel and Ralph Wiggum as characters. You'll get a richer experiance if they just don't say, "look! I'm saying something funny."

Also... put Spiderpig in the show, for crying out loud. You made a big fuss over him in the film, but other than the cover of a comic book and a couple little 3 second cameos, he's been completely absent.

Age the god damn family! Jesus!

I'd much rather have they made another movie instead of 4 more seasons.

Simpsons does continue breaking records, after all. I think it's now officially become the longest-running unwatchable piece of sh*t show on TV.

Yup, now they'll have more bad years than good. Christ.

"The Simpsons" has been a zombie of a show for years now, slowly but surely rotting and decaying in front of us, and it's been as painful as hell to watch... and they sign us up for another four years of torture?

I'm tempted to fly over there and strangle the head of Fox with my bare hands, simply to find out the very reason as to why they decided to go through with this clearly disillusioned act. Are they simply misguided in life and thought that the movie would pump new life into this franchise? Are they simply playing the devil's advocate in this degeneration of a once great show, just for the sake of watching everyone squirm? Then again, Fox is already a soulless and avaricious corporation. Surely they have no reason other than "money" to renew the show and give it one last attempt to make it their cash cow once again.

Doesn't really matter to me. I stopped watching FOX late at night a long time ago, mainly because they have a tendency to cancel most of their good shows.

I'll just come out and say it. If you want the show to gain its former glory, fire the heck out of these new snarky, untalented, egotistical writers and bring back some of the old people.

Look what happened in the film, when they had the old writers back. it was enjoyable. Sure, it had some tell tale signs of the current Simpsons in it, mainly the reliance on throw away characters with funny voices saying things only because they have funny voices, but it was also a great mix of pre-season 10 stuff too.

I agree, it's been nothing but a zombie show, and it's only renewed every 2 years because it's basically Fox's only hit show that doesn't involve Simon Cowell making money off it somehow. Of course, if we had some decent writing, it wouldn't be a problem. Instead, we have to deal with these jokers with zero sense of humor, ellitist attitudes, and annoying political agendas. If I see one more "If you can't afford to eat at the overpriced vegan places we eat at, you're a bad person" type Lisa episode, I'm gonna scream. That one a few weeks back about Bart raising a cow, and rescuing it from a slaughter house was not only poorly written, but preachy up the wazzoo.

What is left for the family to do anyway? it's been going through the motions for years:

Lisa finds a part of the culture far to the left, criticizes everyone about their lifestyles, than learns to accept it, and in the next episode she criticizes everyone again.

Homer for some reason takes a second job doing something stupid, and cracking obvious jokes about how incopitant he is.

And of course, Bart stars in an episode that could clearly be mistaken for a children's Tv show. There was one recently that was almost exactly like an episode of Disney's Recess.

And to break the flow, an episode that's a parody of a musical (we've had at least 3 in the last few years), or one of those 3 part segment episodes with them retelling stories. Something that lost its charm when it was every other episode.

I am a life long fan of the show, but it's time to say goodbye. it's time to end the show, and focus on a new project. Make one more film, and have it serve as the series finalie. Then have Matt Groening come up with something else. We need another Futurama. Something that has a real backbone to itself.

The Simpsons is indeed tired. When you go from Satire to Self satire to satiring the self satire, you know you gotta put an end to it.

Age the goddamn characters. Now. Even The Flintstones did that (didnt do much for ratings, but at least they were HONEST about their characters doing different things)

All those "possible futures" they show? Settle on one of those and run with it. "Lisa's Wedding" in particular has a good set-up.

Dan as a producer only means more "stupid Homer" storylines...

I honestly can't stand to watch it anymore. When I was younger, I thought it was the coolest thing in the world, a cartoon for adults. Now I have to watch how far TV animation has fallen and witness its degradation...on both ends of the spectrum, kids' and "adult" genres.

As a nostalgic 90s kid (those of you who grew up during this time or remember when not just kids' stuff but ALL cartoons had meaning know what I mean),it really makes me cringe.

*waits for the inevitable Zarius post*

Already inevitably posted:)

I you mean the state of current animation, things are roughly fine, but with KND, Avatar, and GAOBAM ended, the cancelations of 12 Oz Mouse and Wonder Showzen...and ATHF having never topped the movie...I see your point.

I'm probably the only one to say this, but...

Woo hoo!

There's nothing but terrible chaos in cartoons right now. Because less companies own more stations, there are less choices as these companies want to own as many networks as they possibly can, but don't want to be their own competition. Why do you think they got rid of the profitable Kid's WB line ups? Cartoon network is struggling to find itself as it is, why should Time Warner compete with its own ratings? Face it, cable is supposed to give us more choices, but we end up with less and less. Syndicated cartoons used to be the biggest thing there was. Transformers, TMNT, and the Disney Afternoon line up were not attached to any network. Any station could air them. But then, when kid's programming became unprofitable (due to various FCC rulings, all blind sighting the general public to the real goal of letting massive corporations buy up as many networks as possible), they blanketed afternoon syndication with endless lowest common denominator crap like Judge fill in the blank. Cheap to produce garbage like that.

And the little places that air cartoons that we have left run throwaway programming that isn't clever, or has an audience. Look at Cartoon network the last couple of years when they canned B&M and KND. My Gym Partner's a Monkey? That sounds like one of those scribbly looking T-shirts that you see at Target or Kohls. The fact of the matter is, no one is trying anymore, and the quality shows. No wonder why WB wanted to abandon TV animation, and head for the far more profitable DC DTVs. Loonatics Unleashed? Coconut Fred? lame, derivative , unwatchable, and unmarketable. And Loonatices was pretty much made TO sell toys. No toy line came out of it, and it was double fail.

You can even see they ceased to care, since most of the line up this year was shows that weren't even produced by Warners, and most of them were from Canada, one form Ireland, and one from Hong Kong. Spidey's pretty much all they got now.

The irony of all this is that the Adult cartoons are the most profitable, and they pretty much just fall for the same routine frat boy humor. Assy MaGee? Oh... the character's a butt. That's funny for five minutes... especially since butt characters are nothing new (Ultimate Muscle... cough cough).

But getting back to the subject, I want to see the characters do something amazing. There were some good moments and a few good plots this season. I think that the episode where Homer's mother dies for real, and even uses her death to stop Mr. Burns's evil desires was epic. But then we had a horrible Halloween episode, more "Homer has a new job" bits (though the season opener, where he had no new job was a slightly clever spin on it), and more Eco-Preachy Lisa episodes.

Even a potentially great episode became an unfinnished mess. I'm talking about the new Comic book store episode. There was so much potential in seeing the Comic Book Guy get revenge on the cool new comic shop (somehow), but someone said, "Hey! Instead of finishing the episode and giving closure, let's make fun of Curves gyms!" Feh... Hard hitting satire, no doubt.

What we need is someone to come in, toss these writers aside and bring it back to its former glory and wind it down with an epic ending.

You sad, sick, twisted individual.

I don't see why I am. The Simpsons may not be as great as it once was, but it is still better than a majority of the crap on TV today. Hell, it's better than anything in its programming block.

I'm just amazed that people are still watching the Simpsons. Or TV in general right now.

LOST! *bites j00*

But seriously, even Lost kinda blows now.

No way. Season 4 kicked ass!

I haven't watched The Simpsons in probably 10 years. LOST is actually the only American TV show that interests me ATM.

No, it doesn't, you ***!!!

you know what is pretty sad? I find my self watching my dvd box sets of tv series and cartoons from the 90's and 80's more often than I watch actual TV. :ohwell: Thats pretty sad when you you are so out of touch with what is currently airing on television that you turn to the past to for quality shows and animation to enjoy. :| I hardly watch anything on tv now except for a few select tv shows and American cartoons. Am I alone in watching mostly watching dvd box sets of old tv series and cartoons instead of what airs on television?

Nope, you're not alone. I am using present days to catch up on all the good TV of days gone by that I missed because I was too busy to watch TV period.

I'm just turning to crunchyroll.com for anime. That's the only way I can get my new animation fix now. That and the fact that I don't have many DVDs from my favorite shows.

Don't hate me, but I think you're all a bunch of elitist asses. The show still makes me chuckle. That's all I ask of it. I can't say that for many any other show created within the past ten-thirteen years. TV is a dying medium.

Yes it does! Wheeeeeee!!!!!!!

Seriously, I lost track of the plot a long time ago. I also quit caring when I realized they were never going to explain "the button" or the polar bears.

Elitist asses? Maybe. I just hate the show right now.

And when in the seven blazes of hell did Lost get polar bears?! I only saw the first three episodes before school life took over.

That is why I have a few Batman TAS dvds, as well as some seasons of JLU and Batman Beyond. You guys do the same thing I do.

Also, my VHS tapes of Ferris Bueller's Day Off and two of the TMNT movies, as well as other Batman TAS episodes/movies have gotten a LOT of mileage as well.

It always seems like I have much more time to watch TV now than before, when the stuff that I cared about was actually brand new.

TV being a dying medium is the only thing I can agree with right there. The only elitist asses here are the zero talent writers who think they're great because they just so happen to be writing for a show like the Simpsons, before they use it as a spring board to become executive producer of some 2 season sitcom of their own design (Note to Simpsons writers: Not everyone who writes it is going to become Conan O'Brien.) They care zero about the show's fans, and anyone one who doesn't like the direction of the show, they feel, can go suck an egg.

A lot of them produce work that screams, "look MA! I'm on TV!!!"

I fail to see how they think they're so clever relying on pedestrian gaggery making "Cletus is a redneck" jokes, and yet putting in as many obscure ellitist guest stars as possible. All they're thinking is WOW! We got Frank geary to say DOH! I'd be more impressed if Frank geary wasn't just thrown in for no apparent reason.

If there's one thing I want them to do, I want them to get to the A storyline in the first act, and no more of this one stupid thing leading to another, leading to another, leading to another, and getting to the A story 5 minutes before the show ends.

[QUOTE=ThirdMarioBro;613818]Don't hate me, but I think you're all a bunch of elitist asses/QUOTE]

Thankyou.

:( Man, I can take that abuse from someone else, but not from you.

Anyways, I still like Lost, but I really thought the 4th season was lacking.

I think you're just a bit intimidated by Locke's awesomeness. It's OK, there's no shame in that.

You just mentioned my number one reason for being angry with Lost. I <3 LOCKE!

They explained the Polar Bears! The island was a secret experimental lab some 30 years earlier...The Others were descendents of the scientists....the Polar bears had escaped their cages....so had the um..sharks. :P

The button was um...ok I didn't see the ep where that was explained....course I don't like the show and only know what's going on from paying attention to convos in the chat.... :P

But anyways...I hardly watch tv these days....except for maybe a couple reality shows and documentaries (Deadliest Catch!!! Dirty Jobs!! Meerkat Manor!! Ax Men!! FTW!!) and some sci-fi shows (1 more month till the new season of SGA! ). There's a couple cartoons (Spectacular Spider-Man and Transformers Animated mostly) I watch but I don't watch the Simpsons. I generally find something else to watch at that time like Extreme Make Over Home Edition.

The button was also explained (it controlled the magnetism on the island). TMB is an idiot.

Holy F*CK, I haven't watched LOST since season one. BYE EVERYONE!

I've heard the island's recently become a TARDIS...how stupid IS this show?

I watched the UK "The Answers Are Here" documentary, mainly consisting of the narrator taking the piss out of the show and pointing out Jim from Neighbours is in it over and over again

Oh c'mon people... hardly any love for the Simpsons. I personally have liked the last season a lot, I liked the "Donnie Brasco" spoof (feat. Topher Grace!), I loved the Vermont episode where Moe became a poet (which had freakin' Tom Wolfe and Michael Chabon!) I crapped myself when they got Jack Black, Alan Moore, Daniel Clowes, & Art Spiegelman (tho he IS a longtime friend of Matt Groening.)

These sound like good guest stars to me... and I still laugh out loud during every Simpsons episode.

Yeah... apperantly the island has the ability to move thru space and time....and did so in the season finale.....

*reads what happened on Wikipedia* WTF? Claire is/was Jack's sister?!

That time travel element would probably explain the Polar Bear in the desert....

Ah, you just mentioned the could have been gold Comic Book episode. I thought it was half decent. Had they followed up on that, and made either the rest of the episode about the new comic store, or made a follow up episode. But they completely lost the episode in a parody of Curves (Take that slightly overweight women in their 40's :trazz: ) and a Homer and Marge's marriage is in trouble plot.

I think the problem with the Simpsons recently is that they have a few really amazing episodes a year, but they fill the rest of it with pure junk, and a lot of it pandering to the younger audience.

I would have liked the Departed parody a lot better had Recess not done a plot EXACTLY like it (and much better, IMO too) years ago.

But the Primary episode and especially Homer's Mom passing on were pretty well done. I stilll watch as I am a loyalist, and the show does make me laugh every so often, but most of the times I just wish Matt would fire the current writing staff and get as many old schoolers as they can back.

Oh yeah.. der... The Departed. I said Donnie Brasco. I watched them both recently and had a brain fart. :lol: Gotta love rat movies. Never saw the Recess parody, but that show seemed pretty good. I'll try and find it.