ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT vs. THE SIMPSONS What's on TV, ILX? It's the American Sitcom Tournament FINAL MATCH

dear usa, you've done some funny shit but not much of it is as funny as Arrested Development

all-time great show vs smarmy turd

And the only shit funnier was the Simpsons

also Supertrain

morbius one day you will realize what a terrible mistake you have made dismissing AD out of hand for so long

and on that day

i will be there

shaking my head

now... if i had to vote based on like, percentages, it would be AD easy, as at this point it must be like 80% of the simpsons has been total shit, right? what season are we on? 35?

but at its peak, nothing could touch it... it was really, really tremendous... nothing was ever that good

with s1ocki on this one.

it must be like 80% of the simpsons has been total shit, right?

No. Even the shit Simpsons was never total shit. Opie never narrated.

I'm still upset The Golden Girls lost out in the 2nd round.

i can remember liking the simpsons, but it was a very long time ago

was family guy even in this poll?

Simpsons crushed Family Guy to dust in the 2nd round.

No. Even the shit Simpsons was never total shit. Opie never narrated.

― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Monday, September 6, 2010 7:32 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

their loss then!

i mean, he did appear as himself a few times on the simpsons so...

The Simpsons

Easiest round in the whole thing.

what? is this a joke? this is like comparing some old expensive french wine to coca-cola.

poll

tbh, I'd go Coca-Cola in that poll.

^^

Isn't the aughts wave of network comedies (of which AD is apart of) influenced by The Simpsons to some extent?

man i love arrested development as much as anyone but...come on

you love it as much as all the people that will vote for it ahead of the simpsons then?

voting ad is kind of like thinking ralph considers himself a literal viking in that i can see where you're coming from but you're still the worst

No. Even the shit Simpsons was never total shit. Opie never narrated.

"Oh that's it. You're going down!"

http://www.fancast.com/blogs/files/2009/05/simpsons-11-ron-howard.jpg

let's be real- every time someone mentions the 'viking' debacle, simpsons loses ten votes.

Simpsons is probably the only thing that would make me hesitate before voting AD. I'm gonna have to think on this.

As much as I love AD, I don't remember much in the way of pathos, whilst The Simpsons has some of the most devastating found in televised comedy.

No episode of AD has affected me as much as the episode where Homer eats the poisonous fish and thinks he is going to die.

On the other hand, AD never had a tortuously bad early 90s retcon flashback episode.

Simpsons will boringly but deservingly win this. Yes, there have been many, many bad Simpsons seasons, but that still leaves it with a longer and higher peak than Arrested Development.

These are without a doubt the 2 best sitcoms ever, and actually constitute a hard choice. There have been times where I've preferred things to the Simpsons, particularly AD (I've often thought that, because of its untimely demise, it was a quintessentially perfect series: 53 episodes and not a dull moment), but the Simpsons* is always what it all comes back to, for me. More than anything else it has been definitve of sitcom quality.

*This is just the Simpsons seasons 1-10 or so mind you.

The Simpsons

Going to pretend there isn't even another show to be discussed here.

kinda weird for a poll, what are you going to talk about then

The Simpsons.

prediction:

AD: 11 votes
Simpsons: 97 votes

US Office beating South Park wtf

Would prefer How I Met Your Mother to AD

Simpsons ftw

Family Matters lost to Family Guy? How is that possible?

Maybe I'm just too nostalgic about Urkel, though.

Yes you are

goodbye seinfeld, i'm glad you are dead.

voted ad because it quit before it got shit.

AD is nice but it's sort of hermetically sealed, innit? group of quirky dudes bounce around in a Skinner box.

if we really are voting on the best American sitcom then I don't even see how AD enters the discussion. there has never been a show as incisive and revealing of American culture (as well as being an influence on) as The Simpsons.

If we were going by percentage hit-rate: Arrested Development, but it's got to be The Simpsons really hasn't it?

this is really only a tough decision before you think about it

love how morbz is saying all the shit I said when I'd seen one-and-a-half episodes of AD (the gratuitous narration drove me crazy), criticisms that went out the window entirely once I'd finished the first disc. I'll still avoid something I don't WANT to get into (like, say, Mad Men), but after my AD experience I won't announce some "pshaw!" final verdict of a show unless I've made it through at least one disc - TV shows are designed for regular viewing, its values are rarely immediately clear.

It's really three great seasons and THAT'S ALL FOLKS vs. eight plus great seasons and STILL GOOOINGG FOR TWELVE MORE WHAT THE FUUUUCK???

The Simpsons is funnier when Homer's a douche but fuck all y'all for voting down Larry Sanders tbh

The Simpsons is funnier when Homer's a douche

this is way too reductionist for me

Yeah it is but I get so bored/wound up by the "Simpsons needs heart" crowd

and the over-rating of the mid-period show that it implies

fair nuff, but dropping Homer's good intentions and making him a pure jerk in later episodes is part of why I eventually gave up on the show. By season 9-10 or whatever I'd rather watch early Family Guy because if I was going to see a bunch of random-riffing from assholes I'd rather not have an emotional investment in the characters. what the simpsons needed was to STOP AT A LOGICAL POINT.

Usually I hold with the sitcoms needing to stop thing but I feel like Simpsons is invested enough in comic book nerdery that it makes sense for it to go on relentlessly, mostly missing but still usually hitting a couple of lols out of the park every ep.

Like it's more Bazooka Joe than Fawlty Towers

new adventures in OTMing

Arrested DevelOTMent

Okay. Tobias Funke, never-nude and clearly-closeted husband of Lynsey Bluth, is discussing his unsuccessful career as a psychiatrist, and states that business seemed to suffer when he announced himself as a combination analyst/therapist.

Cut to: Image of his business card, reading "Tobias Funke, Analrapist" (a conflation of the words therapist and analyst)

Now, you may not find this funny. You may think it peurile or stupid or offensive. You may be so irritated by the presence of Ron Howard as the narrator that you're reduced to stony-faced silence throughout regardless.

But it is a joke, not a premise. So there are jokes in AD, as well as premises.

I whole-heartedly support Shakey's right to think AD is trash and unfunny. But there are jokes.

That's funny, reminds me of a Benny Hill sketch where a succession of women keep coming up and slapping a guy in the face 'cos he'd inadvertently covered part of the sign on his office door that read Therapist so it said Rapist.

In fact, it might have said The Rapist, which is funnier

I'm about 2/3 of the way through Season 1 of AD, and yeah, there are definitely jokes. And I've even LOLed a few times, but nothing so far has made me laugh as much as anything in the first ten seasons of The Simpsons. Henry Winkler has so far been the funniest thing on the show!

but you agree, Tom, that its "a joke" yes?

^ leading argument imo

just requesting clarity is all dara

:)

see, that was a premise, but not a fully fledged 'joke' imo

pls to explain

o no u dont

Homer Simpson, Eric Cartman, and George Costanza are the best characters TV has ever seen.

SGT ERNIE BILKO
BASIL FAWLTY
PHILIP E. MARLOW

MAUDE FINDLAY
JERRI BLANK
BOB ROSS

RITCHIE
RALPHIE
POTSIE

JFK
BLOWN AWAY
WHAT ELSE DO I HAVE TO SAY

5 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick) cut into quarters
3 tablespoons good-quality cocoa powder
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (5 oz) all-purpose flour

Would Eat

MEL
VERA
FLO

JOEY'S DUCK
CHANDLER'S CHICKS
THE ARMCHAIR WITH THE POP OUT LEGS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jm6B31HKBw&feature=player_embedded

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

Fair results.

So, as predicted from the beginning, The Simpsons = Pizza.

margin shoulda been even wider

need 51 to sb 51

happy enough with that showing tbh

jesus 51 major challops

at least it wasn't a total blowout

wow I thought this would be 5-1

The Plain People of ILX have spoken.

ILX gets harder and harder to stereotype everyday
Many of the polls prove that there must be 100s or lurkers

Yeah, The Simpsons win a poll on an Internet message board, no stereotypes there.

don't know why polls have to avoid stereotypes.

this poll isn't surpising (did I say it was. no)

but the one where arrested development and cheers beat 30 rock and frasier surprised me.

also curb your enthusiasm (a show I never saw because I don't have HBO) lasting as long as it did surprised me. I mean, I didn't realize so many people have HBO.

If anything this poll had a surprising amount of arrested development votes. I like that show and own all 3 seasons on DVD but come on

I think I voted for the simpsons, but there's something to be said for a kick-ass show that didn't wear out its welcome (I know the last season has haters, but whatever), esp compared to a show that is the deathless poster child of wearing out its welcome.

If it would just die we could totally give it the Michael Jackson treatment and pretend the last decade didn't happen.

nobody I know who watches curb your enthusiasm has HBO, they all either torrent it or watch the dvds

xp

this poll isn't surpising (did I say it was. no)

wasn't responding to yr post, tbf?

i was responding to jeff

oic

pronounced "hoick"

but the one where arrested development and cheers beat 30 rock and frasier surprised me... If anything this poll had a surprising amount of arrested development votes. I like that show and own all 3 seasons on DVD but come on

will never understand people who are actually SURPRISED that everyone on a poll doesn't reflect their opinions exactly, and wonder what they actually think the purpose of a poll is... if i were a psychiatrist i would name this pfunkboy's syndrome.

i mean its cool and all, but isn't the purpose of a poll to find out what other people think? why should their tastes reflect yours?

That's not why I was surprised. I was surprised because the 30 Rock thread on ILX is humongous and I thought the demographic of ILX was a little more skewed towards people being of the age of Frasier vs. Cheers (but that was a dumb of me to think that)

i must admit, it hurt to watch cheers, one of my favourite shows of all time, exit the poll

It fought the good fight for many rounds.

at least 51 ppl who don't know when to laff

and no fewer than 51 who do

*pats self on back*