If Music Could Talk

I like the episode where Elizabeth Montgomery flaunted her giant 70's areolas and danced with wedding apes to the superior New Order tunes. Jimmy Carter.

matedog wrote:I like the episode where Elizabeth Montgomery flaunted her giant 70's areolas and danced with wedding apes to the superior New Order tunes. Jimmy Carter.

Black hair.

matedog wrote:I like the episode where Elizabeth Montgomery flaunted her giant 70's areolas and danced with wedding apes to the superior New Order tunes. Jimmy Carter.

I might be back on the bandwagon.

BostonBeaneater wrote:Season 4, particularly when the Germans take over the plant.

Seasons 4-8 are what I rate as the peak.

I don't know if I'd start with a classic episode. A lot of the reasons why they are so funny is familiarity with the characters. Little things like how awful Moe is as a person and that one time he tried to kill himself by sticking his head in an oven and had a piece of paper on his back that read "no funeral." Or anything related Lionel Hutz. I'm thinking season 4 is a good starting point because it's still early but also in the classic period. Not sure what a good starter episode would be though.

matedog wrote:I like the episode where Elizabeth Montgomery flaunted her giant 70's areolas and danced with wedding apes to the superior New Order tunes. Jimmy Carter.

Best Hoy post ever*










*Grading on a curve.

matedog wrote:

BostonBeaneater wrote:Season 4, particularly when the Germans take over the plant.

Seasons 4-8 are what I rate as the peak.

Absolutely agree, but seasons 2 and 3 have some really great episodes.

Silent Majority wrote:

matedog wrote:

BostonBeaneater wrote:Season 4, particularly when the Germans take over the plant.

Seasons 4-8 are what I rate as the peak.

Absolutely agree, but seasons 2 and 3 have some really great episodes.

Yeah, 4-8 (I don't know why I cut it off at 6 earlier) are the grade A stuff. But there are stone cold classics in 2 and 3.

The Way We Was may be a good starter, actually. That's one of my early favourites.

what was the shark? Phil Hartman's death?

tepista wrote:what was the shark? Phil Hartman's death?

There was no pure shark. It was around that time, though.

A lot of reasons contributed, and the decline was gradual. There were still very good episodes for the next few years.

tepista wrote:what was the shark? Phil Hartman's death?

I think that's Doc's theory.

I found half of season 9 to be as good as 4-8. To me that is the very very clear transition season. 10 is alright but noticeably worse than 4-8. I bought season 3 but was surprised by the lack of out loud laughing I did in nearly every episode.

When Smithers goes on vacation and homer is Burns' assistant is a good one.

Burns knowing Homers name may be shark too.

matedog wrote:

tepista wrote:what was the shark? Phil Hartman's death?

I think that's Doc's theory.

I found half of season 9 to be as good as 4-8. To me that is the very very clear transition season.

I totally agree with you here too. However, I think season ten is, perhaps two episodes aside, irredeemable.

matedog wrote:

tepista wrote:what was the shark? Phil Hartman's death?

I think that's Doc's theory.

I found half of season 9 to be as good as 4-8. To me that is the very very clear transition season. 10 is alright but noticeably worse than 4-8. I bought season 3 but was surprised by the lack of out loud laughing I did in nearly every episode.

I don't see Hartman's as the cause of the show's decline, but if you have to pick a moment when things went noticeably downhill, it was there. Still, seven seasons or so of genius is remarkable, even with this black hole of awfulness that's followed.

I think the show would have held together a lot longer if Phil Hartman didn't die. It would have still gone downhill, but losing him was a huge loss for the dynamic of the show. It's mostly coincidence that it started to suck when he died, but it hurt.

The loss of hand-drawn animation kind of killed the aesthetic too. Same thing happened to King of the Hill. It got too clean and artificial looking and it made sight gags and visuals much more boring.