ArthurFarhat

Hi Everybody!

Im a huge Simpsons fan from Rio de Janeiro, and im doing a college work about the changes that happened from the 1st to the 21st season.

Ill share with you some that i´ve already spotted and would like very much to read your opinions about it, and also the changes that you've observed by your own.

- The jokes are now more frequent and insistent, while in the 1st season they were much more subtle.

- The characters are more superficials, seems like they dont have deep feelings, specially Homer.

- The 1st season scripts are about day to day life of a medium class american family, while the 21st season is more fantastic and far from the reality.

- The grafic evolution is remarking with more vibrant colors, more sophisticated "camera" perspectives and some kind of 3d effect.

What do you think?

Thank all!!!

r3tr0_gam3r

Hi, some good observations there. I am just wondering what college course it is you are doing this for?

ArthurFarhat

I study Communications. In fact, im taking the changes of The Simpsons as a central object to talk about the changes of the viewers and the young people in general.

So you agree to the observations? Something you'd add?

Grilka

I'd have to disagree. In my opinion, I think some of the minor (non-Simpson) characters have evolved through the years. Two examples are Nelson and Barney. Nelson started off as being the school bully...just the school bully. He has shown that he has emotions, especially when it comes to his absent father. In the case of Barney, he was always drunk. Through the years we've seen him quit and resume drinking, even struggle with sobriety. At one point, he learned to fly a helicopter. That was later explored in another episode where he had to rescue Marge's school rival (and his former gf) from the volcano.

ArthurFarhat

I agree on that.

In the recent seasons the minor characters have won a lot more space, maybe because the exhaustion of histories involving the Simpsons.

There is a bigger variety of characters, and those that where smaller in the beggining are now deeper and more complex, also because they didn't have no space at all in the early seasons.

Maybe the Simpsons are not more superficial really, but they are more fantastic, further from reality.

Lisa and Bart have lost some of their child naivety, and Homer is now crazier than ever, in the 1st season he had interest and problems much more similar to the real people.

Grilka

Do you feel that the characters moving away from reality is done on purpose? At times I think it is. It's nice to have those episodes that show multidimensional characters, but we also are reminded that it is a television show made up of fictional characters.

Some fans were angry when the show had the storyline in which Seymour Skinner was not the real Seymour Skinner, then eventually forgot about the storyline. I want to say to them, "It's an animated, comedy tv show - don't overanalyze it, don't take it so seriously!"

22 Umbrellas

I agree that the tone of the show has shifted from being simply comedic to embracing a more blatant absurdity. I do find myself nostalgic for the old seasons more often than not, because as you say they were more realistic and I therefore found them more relatable. At the same time, it is an animated comedy that has been on air for many years and I appreciate the writers allowing the show to evolve and push the envelope in ways other shows maybe can't. On top of that, I think the show still maintains the "heart" that it had in the old days, even if I think it's sometimes not as well portrayed.

This is definitely my favorite thing that has changed. There are probably some people that prefer the more simplistic animation, but I think they've done a good job of keeping the overall look while still applying advances in technology. I remember that one episode last season where Lisa found the beached whale and some shots were downright breathtaking.

ArthurFarhat

Yes Grilka.

In a tv show or in a movie, they don't have to be real at all, specially in a cartoon. But the more fictional caracteristcs of today are done on purpose for sure. In its whole history, more than 100 writers participated on The Simpsons script. The producers hires and fires them depending on what they want for the show.

The Simpsons was in many aspects a groundbreaking piece of Communication, but in the bottom end, they're still belong to FOX, which is a majos studio and want to make as much money as they can with the cartoon.

Scripts are exhaustively discussed, and nothing is there by chance. There is a great book "The writers journey" by Cristopher Vogler. It gave me a total new perspective on scripts when I readed it. If you like scripts, you sure going to like this book.


22 Umbrellas,

Im also a little bit nostalgic on the reality aspect. I do prefer the early seasons, despite the fact that there are still some great episodes today. But the producers have done a great job. The only reason that The Simpsons still exist is that they evolved with the time.

The grafics are really greater than ever and that is really awesome!

Lain

Interesting topic.

I have stopped watching any new episodes after season eight or nine. But for me, I think one factor is more celebrities playing themselves rather than different characters. It was not as frequent in the early seasons compared to now. Yes, I'm aware that some of the newer episodes have guest stars that don't play themselves but then there are those actual celebrities popping up more often like N*Sync, Tony Hawk, Ron Howard, etc.

For being on the air for twenty years, from what I've glimpsed when flipping through the show, the plots feel a little stale in at least the last ten years. There is a significant contrast from season 1-9 and post season nine.

Homer in the early seasons was actually a bufoon but at least a funny one that has his serious moments. And at least he tries hard to love his kids (ex. Lisa's Pony, Saturdays of Thunder) as well as Marge when he screws up (ex. the episode where Homer and Marge go on the retreat but Homer sneaks off in the morning to catch General Sherman). When I watched the Simpsons movie, his character changed significantly. Sure, it's Homer but maybe a bit too goofy. Sometimes I wonder about the parallels between him and Peter Griffin of Family Guy but at least Homer's funnier and loves his kids more.

I probably will have more later on if my brain can find a way to put it in to words.

ArthurFarhat

I completely agree with you Yamiko,

Nowadays, there are much more references to the Pop culture, to the subjects and the people that are shown on the media, than it was.

And Homer, just like the scripts in general, is much more fictonal and fantastic than he was in the early days.

Lain

Don't get me wrong, the show poked fun at pop cultures during its early seasons. For example, the slang (Bart's phrases), Michael Jackson was referenced a bunch of times, hell they made a lot of references of the past such as Citizen Kane, The Twilight Zone, King Kong/Godzilla, Nightmare on Elm Street, the obscurity of manual labelmakers. I don't mind the poking fun at pop culture of today but I feel like it's being shoved at the face of the viewer instead of being entertaining. They're taking it to episode titles too. Some make sense, others...well...look at the opening that lip synced to Ke$ha's "Tik Tok" song.

On the other hand, I don't mind the new "HD" opening too much. Would make sense after twenty years. A lot of anime (with possibly the exception of Sailor Moon 1-4 in terms of music) change their openings every season with new songs and new opening or closing sequence.

22 Umbrellas

Yeah, that's another thing, I love how they've changed up the opening sequence with little differences from episode to episode. Although that Tik Tok one was pretty out there.

To be honest, I kind of prefer it when celebs play themselves, but I enjoy it both ways.

ArthurFarhat

Thanks everybody for your opinions.

Its being very useful for me.

Good vibes for all!

drdrakeremoray

Can anyone separate all the seasons into groups, like

- season 1 and 2 being the classics
- season 3 till 10 being the funny years
- season 11 bla bla bla

I've been watching Simpsons for the greater part of my life and loved the first 10 seasons very much. I started Simpsons from the first season at the age of 10, and back in the 90's the Simpsons was really cruel and rude, for a cartoon. Even so it aired past 20:00 in the Netherlands, which is weird for a cartoon. As far as I remember in my opinion the decline started of in Season 11.

Episode E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt) was at the time the most surprising episode ever. Things just happened and there was absolutely no fun to the story. Somewhere Homer even tasted plutonium and I think this marked the border where Homer Simpson went from fun-dumb to stupid-dumb.

And I am not even going to talk about season 15 and past that. The season from 15 till now has average 3 episodes I like, from none are better than anything before. And the Halloween aren't fun to look at anymore.