The Simpsons is probably my favorite show of all time. But I realize it has jumped the shark. I can't pinpoint when (Maybe when Maude Flanders died?) exactly, but the new episodes just aren't up to the old standard.

I would love the movie to be great, but I think that ship has passed, and this ship may be headed for an iceberg.

There will be lots of Homer hurting himself, but will it be worthy of the Simpsons legacy?

I don't think Simpsons have jumped the shark (a term SO very much misused these days), but have simply been on too long.

superspaceboy said:

You may be right, assuming "jumping the shark" means a specific moment where the show crosses the line. The Simpsons got worse gradually and almost unnoticeably.

So will the movie be bad?

I'm afraid it's going to suck, too. I haven't watched any current shows in years because it stopped being funny.

"Jumping the shark" refers to a show getting away from the things that made it successful in the first place, and I think it can be used to describe "The Simpsons", since the show has gotten pretty far away from what it was at its peak (seasons 2-5 imho). All 9 seasons available on dvd are in heavy rotation at my house.

Still, the latest trailer for the film is pretty funny, so there's hope.

the trailer looks excellent to me.

the show has been fair to crap for about 7 seasons. they really suck compared to what it used to be.

cborgman said:

They are trying way too hard to be silly & clever. They used to make it look easy.

NDRU said:

exactly.

they have also explored just about every plot device known to man.

It's gonna suck big donkey balls.

cborgman said:

It used to be so cutting-edge and brilliant. I think that was Conan O'Brian's influence.

It's just 10 years too late for this movie. Hardly anyone is really interested.

Ellie said:

exactly my thought about it too. i'm surprised that the show's still on, i remember all the way back when it first popped up as an animated sketch on the tracy ullman show.

Ellie said:

I'm very interested, I just don't have much hope. You're right, it's way too late.

NDRU said:

The term Jumping The Shark does mean that, but it specifically refers to Happy Days in an episode when they all went to the beach and Fonzie was waterskiing with his leather jacket on and jumped over a shark. The show got stupid from that point on. So people try to think of other long running shows and an incident marking its decline.

applekisses said:

That's exactly what it was. The years where he was a writer were the funniest.

Ellie said:

Yes, it's just a clever term, though, not exactly scientific.

I would bet that Happy Days sucked long before that, though, and was amusing after it.

JustErin said:

really? i havent been into the simpsons forever, but i did like the earlier stuff. And I had no idea conan wrote for them! I LOVE Conan! It sucks I have to sit through jay leno to see his show.

Ribbed4UrPleasure said:

Conan didn't write for them until season 4, though, and the prior seasons were hilarious. His episodes are great, but they're not the best. He wrote the monorail episode, and the one with Bart's first crush. There's hope for the movie, though, being that they brought back several of the shows earlier writers and directors.

I still enjoy the Simpsons but the show's glory days, sadly, are over.

I don't know what to expect from the upcoming movie. I'm looking forward much more to the new episodes of Futurama!

I think it'll have enough laughs to be worth at least renting on DVD.