SIMPSONS season 7 poll

top 3 from this season are my 3 fav simpsons of all time no bullshit

1. "Marge Be Not Proud"
2. "Bart Sells His Soul"
3. "A Fish Called Selma"

"the day the violence died"

1. "itchy runs afoul of an irishman."

2. lionel hutz: "so are you saying, UNDER oath, mr myers, that your dad didn't steal any of his characters?
roger myers: "well, i don't think i am under oath, but yes, that's true. (tugs on tie, nervously) well, except for flatulent fox...THAT was based on a true story...

3. "as long as i have my solid gold house, my millions of dollars and my rocket-powered car, i don't need anything else."

4.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/ba/3F16.png/200px-3F16.png

I'm very fond of King Size Homer.

there's a lot of episodes i don't really like this season ("home sweet homediddly...", "king-size homer," the sideshow bob one) but the rest is solid gold.

http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/3142/thrillhouse5ul.jpg

Two Bad Neighbours is excellent also - "I'll ruin you like a Japanese banquet!" "Honey, we mustn't show weakness in front of the Russians!"

season 5 is the best, though

not sure yet if I'm voting for "Bart On The Road" but 3 reasons it's one of my favs:
1. grammar rodeo
2. Nelson <3s Andy Williams
3. Milhouse's dad's job at the cracker factory

this season did have the weakest Sideshow Bob ep, though, and I never really liked the George Bush one.

Bart Sells His Soul is probably my favorite of all time, reasons to come later.

lotsa lols in The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular

my fav troy mcclure moment:

"you're probably thinking to yourself, 'troy, i've seen every simpsons episode. there's nothing new you can possibly show me.' (menacing) well, you've got SOME attitude, mister. (back to normal) besides, you're wrong!"

"But of course, for that ending to work, you would have to ignore all of the Simpson DNA evidence, and that would be downright nutty!"

radioactive man

Bart on the Road

1) i make references to this episode probably more than any other
2) the whole idea of going to the knoxville world's fair is LOL
3) there's something kinda nostalgic and pleasant about the premise...it resembles some real fantasies i had as a kid.

also, isn't that the one where bart pours milk directly into the cereal box?

I think I'll say Bart Sells His Soul because it's one of those simple premise ones where Homer doesn't render everyone else kinda redundant (i guess he's under-used tho) and it balances sweetness and warmth so well with a little menace (inluding the eerie magic atmosphere of Bart's dream, the E.T. parody, how isolated Bart becomes - sleeping on the sidewalk outside the comic shop). Really interesting story without having to do anything big or OTT.

Homer The Smithers 2nd just for pure sweet lols (burning cornflakes etc.)

EASILY my 2nd favorite season.

Bart Sells His Soul is my all time #2 ep

Marge Be not Proud, Team Homer (Pin Pals), The Day the Violence Died, and Summer of 4'2" are all in my top 10.

Radioactive Man has literally one funny written joek ("the goggles; they do nothing!") and one funny site gag (bart making himself taller with vertical stripes and platformed shoes).

Two Bad Neighbors can suck twelve donkey dicks.
Two Bad Neighbors can suck twelve donkey dicks.
Two Bad Neighbors can suck a total of 36 donkey dicks.

and it balances sweetness and warmth so well with a little menace

This DEFINES 2/3 of the Bill & josh episodes.

Homer The Smithers 2nd just for pure sweet lols (burning cornflakes etc.)

Quintessential Swartzwelder joke/script (and reads like his books). His scripts have the least re-writes by "the room", and by season 7, he was no longer writing with the team, but rather, submitting scripts from home (as a stance against the new smoking rules of the building, of all things).

the '60s batman parody in "radioactive man" might be obvious but it still kills me.

a few of these episodes have a real second/third season sweetness and even "lisa's substitute" kind of simplicity and innocence about them -- "bart sells his soul," "marge be not proud," "summer of 4 ft 2," "bart on the road." probably the last time we got that from the simpsons.

oh! "homer the smithers" just for burns answering the phone:

"ahoy, hoy? no, you have the wrong number...i suspect you need more practice working your telephone machine."

A Milhouse Divided from s8 is kinda sweet in a similar way but yeah (xp)

60s batman was parodied to perfection in season 4's Plow King. Kinda redundant when Mirkin goes for that here, and no where near as effective (and one of those Swartzwelder conscious of skewering the industry scripts that tries to say too much).

Bill & Josh ran a chunk of season 8, so much of that holds up. The rest of season 8 was Mike & Al returning from the cancellation of The Critic, and they really went downhill. Bill & Josh abandonned the Simpson's mid-8 to begin Mission Hill.

Season 9 is Scully. Ugh.

The parts of this season that don't work (or work best) are all the David Mirkin holdovers, and Bill & Josh's experimental episodes (which occasionally work, but usually fail).

Mirkin was ok -- certainly better than Scully -- but Mirkin jokes can be so obvious and limited. Thus, the best of the Mirkin years is:

Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Seymour_Skinner%27s_Baadasssss_Song

Telling, as it was the first major script by Bill & Josh.

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1. you don't win friends with salad.

2. when i grow up, i want to go to bovine university.

3. Lisa: When will those fools learn they can be perfectly happy eating fruits, breads, grains, and cheese?
Apu: Ooh, cheese!?
Lisa: You don't eat cheese, Apu?
Apu: No. I don't eat any food that comes from an animal.
Lisa: Oh. Then you must think I'm a monster.
Apu: Yes, indeed I do think that.

Top 5 from this season.

"Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily"
"King-Size Homer"
"Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield"
"Homer the Smithers"
"Summer of 4 Ft. 2"

Summer of 4 ft 2 is probably my least favourite from this season.

No one going to rep for Homerpalooza?
"Dude, are you being sarcastic?"
(looks dejected) "I don't even know any more."

Also:

"Bands like Jefferson Airplane, Grand Funk Railroad and The Alan Parsons Project, which I believe was some kind of hovercraft."

The Milhouse thread of Summmer of 4 ft. 2 is by itself a wonder to behold.

"Marge Be Not Proud" is my least favorite from this season. It seems like a fake episode somehow.

"Marge Be Not Proud" is a classic, in my opinion. I voted "Bart Sells His Soul," though.

yeah "Marge Be Not Proud" is fulla laughs

i don't like "home sweet..." cuz it's depressing! flanders also seems nastier than in other episodes.

"lisa the vegetarian" is great, though watching it now the bit where they hawk linda mccartney's frozen dinners is pretty weird.

Love the eurotrash techno music in "Flying Hellfish"

Who Shot Mr. Burns Part 2
1. "Hmmmmmm... Let me... let me... let me think here...."
2. Groundskeeper Willie being interrogated by Lou and Eddie ("This is your last warning about that.")
3. Moe and the lie detector test!! Absolutely one of the funniest Simpsons gags ever!!

Looking over the list, I must say that some of these other episodes are flat-out horrible, like the George Bush episode, the Mother Simpson episode, and the one where Marge buys an expensive suit. This was right when the Simpsons started to turn completely to shit, never to recover again. Granted, I haven't seen them in about ten years, so maybe now that I'm older and wider I'll get all the obscure cultural references now, but I remember watching them at the time and thinking, "My God! People think this is funny???"

I love season 7 (it's tied for number one with season 3). The one about Marge's dress/the country club is one of the most interesting episodes they ever did.

i knew that if i googled "Mother Simpson" the top image would be the last shot of Homer sitting on the car staring at the stars

all three of the episodes snrub cites are outstanding!

I often confuse the good Mother Simpson with the half-assed D'oh-in in the Wind (discovers his middle name):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%27oh-in%27_in_the_Wind

The Eurotrash music in Flying Hellfish was DJ Keoki, I think. Weird to hear something so contemporary being used at that time (which is now the norm post-Family Guy era).

The Marge country club episode was written by Jennifer Crittenden (the 1st script by a female), which accounts for its different tone (or so say the writers and show runners).

For those who judge episodes by solitary gags, this one always has me at the "Magnet Box" TV's for sale at the outlet store, but the narrative arc is kinda limp at times. The Groucho paraphrase as the clincher was really weak.

Snrub, ironic your screen name is based on a Simpsons gag, and you haven't rewatched these in 10 years.

There was an underlying (openly stated) philosophy behind season 7.

Bill and Josh wanted to "restore" the show to it's season 2/3/4 glory, basically stating outright that they felt Mirkin did more harm than good with his over-the-top antics in 5/6 (thus, warm, realistic scripts such as Marge be Not Proud).

The situation was the senior writers/runners all got development deals during season 4, leaving the show near creatively bankrupt at the start of season 5. Mirkin was recruited (based on the strength of his work on Newhart and Get a Life), who looked to jr. writer Conan O'Brien as his newly elected head writer since Conan had been on staff for a couple years. Conan contributed one episode (Homer Goes to College) before breaking contract to become Conan. This left Bill & Josh as senior writers, and they always had issues with Mirkin's ideas. The other writers Mirkin hired were nearly all great though (Jace Richdale, Greg Daniels, David Cohen, etc)

Ironically, the two star writers who left in 4 eventually returned after their deals failed (George Meyer and John Swartzwelder). Jon Vitti , who left in 4 to join Larry Sanders, wrote an episode of Sanders that addresses George Meyer's situation (Vitti is George Meyer's brother-in-law).

I cannot find any stated reason why Mirkin was demoted after season 6, but I figure it had a lot to do with how few episodes he turned into Fox during 6. Seems he put so much into the Who Shot Burns affair that he failed to meet his contracted number of episodes.

Bill & Josh inherited the show in 7 as a result, and were able to execute their "restore" plan of attack once Mirkin's holdovers were reworked and aired (Team Homer being their best rework by far).

But during 8, Bill & Josh's contracts expired and they too got a development deal, leaving the show to Scully in 9 (who wrote some good scripts, but was pitiful as a show runner).

You people have the worst taste in Simpsons episodes, but Snrub takes the cake.

Snrub, ironic your screen name is based on a Simpsons gag, and you haven't rewatched these in 10 years.

I only rewatch good Simpsons episodes. :P

jesus

I'm watching season 7 on dvd right now. a lot of these shows, like Marge Be Not Proud and King-Size Homer, are the ones I've seen most frequently through reruns over the years and I can't really judge them fairly but overall this season is tight as hell.

I vote Team Homer or Radioactive Man or maybe Bart on the Road. Or the itchy & scratchy one.

"a caller? at this hour? you dial 9-1, and when i tell you to, dial 1 again"

But during 8, Bill & Josh's contracts expired and they too got a development deal, leaving the show to Scully in 9 (who wrote some good scripts, but was pitiful as a show runner).

i didn't know all this but it's really striking how much these changes correlate with my personal perception of the show's decline, altho i guess many felt it started to fall off around the same time

i wonder what the best episode of the 00s is

I actually am quite fond of 22 Short Films... but for me the winner here has to be A Fish called Selma for the way they reduced Troy McClure to such wibbling patheticness.

Louie: Hey, I thought you said Troy McClure was dead.
Fat Tony: No, what I said was: "He sleeps with the fishes". You see...
Louie: Uh, Tony, please, no. I just ate a whole plate of dingamagoo...

And the Dr Zaeus song, come on!

And I think the show was fine up til at least season 12, personally. I'd be interested to know how many of the "it went shit way earlier" people have actually rewatched *any* of it in recent times properly. Get em on DVD, they do bear up well I think. I just got S11 and there's some corkers on it.

I think the show went to crap at the end of season 8 and continued to be crap until Season 12 or so... Season 12, 13, and the first few episodes of 14 are pretty OK; Season 13 is probably the best Simpsons season outside of the classic 2-7 designation.

I actually used to say openly that I loved all until season 11.

Then I bought season 9, and was like, wtf? I remember it being better than this.

Still bought 10, thinking that Scully needed a year to get up to speed or whatever. Bought it based on episode descriptions read online. I ended up watching about 1/3 of it and put it away indefinitely.

Also though, I really can't blame Scully completely. Futurama did begin in 1999 (Simpsons' season 10 ran 98/99), and Matt Groening did pinch David Cohen to develop/write for Futurama.

Scully had to pull a Mirkin and rebuild a writing staff, bringing in Matt Selman and company (who I think suck dongers).

Greg Daniels, of course, developed Office US.

oh FUCK I forgot about Team Homer. I use this in everyday conversation every chance I get:

"Yeah, Moe, that team sure did suck last night. They just plain sucked! I've seen teams suck before, but they were the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked."

Bart sells his soul

I. Ron Butterfly

yeah i wasn't gonna say anything but it is kinda creepy how PappaWheelie only ever refers to 2 particular extra special Simpsons writers by their first names only.

yeah, quincy always used to do that too

"this sounds like rock and/or roll!"

i saw some season 20 episode the other night which consisted of a flashback to homer and marge's early days -- which now appear to have been "updated" to the late '90s. sigh.

there's some recent episode where it turns out Homer and Marge met as little kids and kissed. actually the explanation for this almost kinda worked but NO.

i didn't know they'd done two more episodes in recent years ft. Homer's Mom. are these any good?

there's some recent episode where it turns out Homer and Marge met as little kids and kissed. actually the explanation for this almost kinda worked but NO.

lol and Mad About You pulled that bullshit first too!

Who's The Boss pulled that even earlier, and I will now hang myself for knowing that.

yeah that's gotta be a whole category of jumping the shark, isn't it

eh, whatever, strawman me all you want

bottom line. this is one of those topics i have obsessed over the way many have over beatles history (myself included on that one). season 7 was the season where the new showrunners had an agenda to return it to original heights, and they did. i think we agree on that.

it's just frustrating to see what was once the greatest show on tv go to shit overnight. and when discussion arises, it's difficult to argue with the "but that one joke was funny, so it must be a good episode", followed by a chorus of "yeah, and that other joke too; you must be stupid not to see that."

i should learn to stop taking the bait on this topic...

In the meantime, i've left those who love to attack strawmen with a few quotables. flog away. i admit it. i plan on marrying a carrot :-(

how are you being made a strawman here?

I've actually said "I can't believe I used to go out with you" in the Ralph voice to exes. It's especially funny when they've never seen that episode.

Pappa Wheelie OTM

What is your fave season Pappa?

Please give me just a number and not 4 paragraphs of inside baseball on how you decided on it and who the key grips were.

I thought that moment was actually kind of sweet in Mad About You.

the key grips were, in order: 4, 7, 3, 8, 2, 5, 6, 9, 10

best ep: last exit to springfield (from 4)
most rewatched/quoted: the otto show (from 3)

thanks for the backup whiney, but yeah, i have to abandon this as it's the last topic on the internet i can actually still get worked up about

I find your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter

see what i did there?

Now I'm a big fat dynamo! And where's that cake?

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

two bad neighbors

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Was this the last great season? 8 was really good, but probably a step down.

"King-Size Homer" 1
"Marge Be Not Proud" 1
"Team Homer" 0

you lot r insane

not voting for something as your very favorite isn't the same thing as saying it sucks or is your least favorite. those episodes could be most people's 2nd favorite based on those results.

the insane part is that someone actually picked "Two Bad Neighbors" over those three

"two bad neighbors" is amazing

every single thing george bush says in that episode is gold

also notable for being Disco Stu's first appearance (and the only funny one)

"let's see, what do we have here...a 'krusty burger.' well, that doesn't sound too appetizing...what kind of stew do you have?"

"i'd have a cheesburger sir."
"aah, that's really more of a weekend thing ray"

you both posted exactly what i was thinking : )

i also love "don't understand lemonade myself... not my forte."

Proud voter of Two Bad Neighbors.

"Marge Be Not Proud" 1

insane

The man and his boy

Bar, what's the name of the man?!

Glad #1 won

For me:

The Day the Violence Died #2

Marge be Not Proud #3

Team Homer #4

Summer of 4'2" #5

I think mine are:

22 Short Films About Springfield
A Fish Called Selma
Radioactive Man
Homerpalooza
Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in 'The Curse of the Flying Hellfish

(which has to be the longest title of a Simpsons episode ever?)

the eps that got 0 votes are the best things to have not received a single vote in any ILX poll

Huh, thought Bart Sells His Soul was WAY earlier than this for some reason... Got a S3/4 kind of vibe to it.

so did i! maybe because pogs seems like something out of the primordial past now.

Really? Feels more like a S8 episode to me.

"Radioactive Man" w/ only two votes is crazy

I'd go
1. "22 Short Films About Springfield"
2. "Radioactive Man"
3. "Lisa the Vegetarian"

My four-year-old is going through a phase of being militantly vegetarian (by which I mean we're all vegetarian in the house but she's way more obsessed than we are) and she just discovered Lisa the Vegetarian. I've never seen her so excited about a TV show. She watched it four times in a row.

that is weet! just say "no-one never mind" when she asks who Paul and Linda are.

Oddly enough, her previous favourite episode is the one where Marge gets a letter from Ringo.

followed by the B-Sharps ep no doubt