The Simpsons

[OverTaker]

WOW Four Hundred Episodes. Whats your favorite episode?

I like the one where Homer smokes weed.

[DaveWadding]

the baseball one.

[OverTaker]

lol when all the celeb team members all got injurys before the game.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I'm a big fan of the classic episodes. Don't particularly have a favourite, because a lot of them are just perfect television to me.

[Stickman]

the first 8-10 years.

[Stickman]

to be more specific, anything with sideshow bob.

[Triple A]

Hank Scorpio one is the one that immediately comes to mind.

[Blitz]

Cape Feare, prolly.

[Blitz]

With Weekend At Burnsie's a close 2nd.

[Jeritron]

I love Cape Feare, and Last Exit to Springfield.
I love the Itchy and Scrathy focused episodes, and the Radioactive Man movie one.
I love the one where the PTA disbands, and the one with the monorail.
Also love the XFiles episode.

I love every episode from seasons 1-9 really

[Xero]

They've FINALLY started airing old ones in the NY area again. It's been like two years, they've just been airing the later seasons in the daily spots. Up to 95/97 now.

IAnyway, I'd say any season from the beginning until 2000 had great, great episodes. I really don't have ONE favorite episode. Some of my favorites that come to mind:

Homer at the Bat
Itchy and Scratchy Land
Almost any Sideshow Bob episode before 2000 (Though the one with his brother I liked, and that may have been post-2000)
Mr. Plow
The Flaming Homer episode
The Gay episode where Homer thinks Bart is gay
The one with Bart down the well
The Pin Pals episode

That's just a few of my favorites, there are so many good ones.

Also, here's a list of a few of my favorite Treehouse of Horror mini-episodes:

The one where the advertisements come alive
The Shinning
The one that was a parody of Soylent Green

Yeah, The Simpsons have had a shitload of great episodes.

[FakeLaser]

It's impossible to pick a favorite episode.

Some of my favorites though:
$pringfield
Homer at the Bat
Homer Alone
Mr. Plow
Homer Goes To College
You Only Move Twice (Hank Scorpio)
Homie The Clown
Team Homer (Pin Pals)
Homer The Smithers
Homerpalooza
Summer of 4 Ft 2
The Joy of Sect

[El Fangel]

Im going to go with Episodes 1-399. Especiallt Episode 238.

[Vietnamese Crippler]

Too many to name off the top of my head, but just about everthing pre-2002

[Vietnamese Crippler]

Actually, one I just remembered: the Stonecutters episode :y:

[El Fangel]

I forgot, definatly Stonecutters.

[thedamndest]

The Beer Baron

[ct2k]

The Monorail one
Homer in clown college
One with Hank Scorpio
The one with the Lemon Tree
Homer smoking weed

[Stickman]

Wow, every episode mentioned in this thread could be the best ever.

[Xero]

Actually, one I just remembered: the Stonecutters episode :y:
No Homers Club :D

[ct2k]

Homer as a food critic was pretty darn good to


CHEWWWIE?

[ct2k]

Oh just remembered Mojo the monkey:D:love:


I can't wait to eat that monkey

[Silent]

The one with Hank Scorpio, and Homer at the Bat.

[Lock Jaw]

The episode with Frank Grimes.

(Not the crappy one with Frank Grimes Jr.)

[Tornado]

Cape Feare, Itchy and Scratchy Land, $pringfield, Mr Plow, Marge vs The Monorail.
Pretty much anything up to Season 10. Then it went shit.

[The Destroyer]

Oh just remembered Mojo the monkey:D:love:


I can't wait to eat that monkey
Pray... for... Mojo....

I'm a fan of Homer At The Bat, $pringfield and Homer: Bad Man, plus a few others that I can't even remember the titles of.

[FakeLaser]

Shit, forgot about Homer Bad Man.

"Father Goose"

[Kane Knight]

With 400 episodes, it's really hard to pick.

[Boondock Saint]

I've always been a big fan of "Lemon of Troy"

[Skippord]

Scorpio

[Ben Rodrigues]

Why does everyone dislike the newer ones? I think they're a lot better because they are so unrealistic. Homer's no longer a little dumb, he's become a complete moron which is hilarious. Some might argue that it's become a bit too much like Family Guy, but funny is funny.

[Jeritron]

I've always been a big fan of "Lemon of Troy"

awesome episode

[ct2k]

Why does everyone dislike the newer ones? I think they're a lot better because they are so unrealistic. Homer's no longer a little dumb, he's become a complete moron which is hilarious. Some might argue that it's become a bit too much like Family Guy, but funny is funny.

I liked the fact that Simpsons had some sense of reality to it, yknow a story, and yeah Homer was dumb but he was also a family man, now he's just an unlikeable, mostly unfunny fool.

They tried to incorporate family guy style random humour into it to the extent that they ruined it imo, Futurama > Simpsons of the same period and to this day.

[Xero]

I love Family Guy personally, but after Family Guy basically took over the Simpson's popularity and Simpsons started using their humor (for instance, this past week's bit where they had the snake measured out off a roll) it just threw them off. It still has it's moments, but the stories are suffering because they're forcing the humor.

You can say the same about Family Guy, but they didn't have 10+ seasons before they started doing it, they were doing it from the get-go.

I see Simpsons and Family Guy as two completely different genres of animated sitcoms. Simpsons being story driven and Family Guy being joke and gag driven. They're now one in the same as far as I'm concerned and I'd rather watch the original (Family Guy) than the rip-off if I had to choose.

Of course, I still watch both.

[Jeritron]

I think this is how the shows differ, aside from comedy. What Family Guy lacks is the wealth of story and characters. The supporting cast is deep on The Simpsons. They usually have stories, and use many types of humor and subtle satire. Whereas Family Guy goes to the random in your face gag, like Mr. T or David Hasslehoff jokes, I mean come on. Plus the Simpson family itself has been treated in a way that gives them heart over the years. They're much more than just cartoon characters or jokes. There's actually something there with Bart and Lisa's siblinghood, and Homer and Marge's marriage, as well as the parent/kids individual relationships, and Homer and his mother and father, and other relationships and friendships throughout the show.

[ct2k]

What Xero said sums up my feelings pretty much. It doesn't hurt to spend 20 mins watching the Simpsons for the couple of good gags they have each time but really, its not the same show as it was. The fact that every episode named here pretty much is from before Family Guy came along is telling imo.

[ct2k]

I think this is how the shows differ, aside from comedy. What Family Guy lacks is the wealth of story and characters. The supporting cast is deep on The Simpsons. They usually have stories, and use many types of humor and subtle satire. Whereas Family Guy goes to the random in your face gag, like Mr. T or David Hasslehoff jokes, I mean come on. Plus the Simpson family itself has been treated in a way that gives them heart over the years. They're much more than just cartoon characters or jokes. There's actually something there with Bart and Lisa's siblinghood, and Homer and Marge's marriage, as well as the parent/kids individual relationships, and Homer and his mother and father, and other relationships and friendships throughout the show.

Yeah but they've just basically decided to ignore the depth they brought to the characters over the years in favour of nonsensical 'humour', random pointless gags and that 5 minute storyline which goes nowhere at the beginning of every episode.

[Theo Dious]

Homer at the Bat
Sideshow Bob Roberts and Brother From Anothe Series (The sideshow Bob episode where he becomes mayor, and the one with his brother)
You Only Move Twice (the Hank Scorpio one)
Pin Pals
Stonecutters
The Be Sharps episode

[Jeritron]

I think it comes down to the Simpsons creators and characters having the balls to occasionally take themselves seriously over the years, especially early on. This is what made them a classic and immortal TV family.

Take for instance the episode where Homer meets his mother, and she goes back on the lam. The episode actually ends with Homer sitting on his car looking into the stars and stuff. Very touchy for a animated comedy, they actually had the show end on a serious moment with sad music that gave Homer actual depth.
You know Family Guy and Seth McFarlane would get weirded out and afraid of this, and Chuck Norris would swoop in on a jetpack and they'd fly off on an adventure in some absurdly random go to comedy joke.
Sure it's funny because it's so random and outrageous, but that's really all it is. It'll get old, if it hasn't already.

[Theo Dious]

When you boil it down to its basics... Homer Simpson is, in his truest essence, a likable character, and Peter Griffin is not.

[Xero]

Of course another problem is that The Simpsons is 400 episodes old, much longer than normal sitcoms run. They're running out of ideas clearly and I've seen a lot of rehashes within the past few seasons.

Running 400 episodes and 20 years is great and all, but there's a point where you just say "okay, go back to so-and-so episode and get a general idea for an episode". They started going really south around the 300th episode, and it's commendable that they made it that far.

And another thing I want to just mention. People who say "OMG Family Guy stole from the Simpsons" are idiots. Of course they did, everyone does it, they've run for 20 years. But they don't fucking STEAL from them blatantly, the things people complain about are usually general storylines like gambling addiction (Marge/Lois). I'll bet if you go back, you can find at least one show that did this-or-that BEFORE the Simpsons and at least one after the Simpsons. Does it mean they stole directly from them? No. It just means that, as the South Park episode came out and said, The Simpsons already did it.

[ct2k]

Jeritron I think you're missing my point here, the Simpsons creators DID have the balls to do serious storylines and try and inject some relavent satire into there, but its all gone, the charm of the show, what made it so good for so many years has gone and been replaced by just...Stale Family Guy-esque randomness which does nothing for me as far as the Simpsons go

[Jeritron]

I kinda agree, I was just stressing that I feel Simpsons was superior than Family Guy ever has been or is, and will probably forever go down that way. Simpsons has run it's course, but the characters and popularity are still there and probably always will be. I just think they should end the show and let it live on in legend.

[Jeritron]

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[ct2k]

SNUH!


lol, yeah Simpsons despite its complete downturn will always be superior to Family Guy imo, purely because when it was at its peak it was just amazing

[Erebus]

I've always been partial to the Bart the General episode from season one.