I have loved “The Simpsons” from day one. Their dialogue peppers my speech on a daily basis. I buy the box sets the second they hit the shelves. I’ll be the first to admit that the show was less than perfect when Matt Groening was running both “The Simpsons” and “Futurama” concurrently, but the last season had some episodes that stand up to the best work the show has ever seen. Last year’s season finale, where Bart is expelled and goes to Catholic school, is one for the ages. (“Ahhh, yer just like yer mother! Ya can’t take a punch neither!” Heh heh, beating your wife is funny.)
They should have quit then. This season has been a colossal disappointment. Tonight’s episode, where Homer once again tries to win back Lisa’s love (dressing as a saftey salamander, don’t ask), feels as though it was written by people who have never watched the show. The viewers, however, have watched the show, and they’ve seen this episode in particular, in one form or another, at least half a dozen times. Even worse, they’re getting reeeeeeeeaaaalllly preachy these days, wearing their pinko colors on their sleeve even more than they did in the past. And don’t get me wrong, I tend to side with them more often than not on those issues. But I liked them better when they respected our opinions and weren’t beating us over the head with their leftist views. I never thought I’d say these words, but I really hope that they take “The Simpsons” off the air at season’s end. It’s dead, dead weight.
Groening has finally announced that a “Simpsons” movie is in the works. That came as spectacular news to some, but not to me. I think they should have done what Trey Parker and Matt Stone did with “South Park”: They hit early, they hit really hard, and got the monkey off their backs before anyone had any unreasonable expectations of them. There is no way that any movie the creators of “The Simpsons” make will have a song as funny as the Stonecutters’ theme song “We Do” or Lurleen Lumpkin’s “Bagged Me a Homer,” nor will it have an exchange as funny as Homer cheering Lisa up by reminding her of the time he hit a referee with a whiskey bottle. This ship has sailed, people. If Fox is at all smart, they keep “Arrested Development,” and they kill “The Simpsons.”
