Who Shot Mr Burns… played over 5000 times… over 29 years… repeatedly in your living room.
I haven’t watched a new episode of the show in over ten years. It’s one of my favorite shows of all time.
Seasons 33 and 34 and 35 are pretty good, no seriously, they’re highly regarded as a minor renaissance in quality.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Simpsons+season+33+return+of+quality
I wish we could just let entertainment brands die. How many other opportunities were denied to other creators so the Simpsons could keep its budget over the decades.
I don’t care about Fox’s profits, it doesn’t help me in my personal life or make new better shows.
Let stories have endings again.
On the other hand how many shows got their start sheltered under the languishing hulk that is late season Simpsons?
How many of them lasted enough to justify an ending?
Honestly I’m just jaded with the American entertainment industries all together (fyi I’m American).
Unfortunately as long as there’s a profit to be made, some corpos will always buy your favorite IP out and wear it like a skin suit.
Classic TV shows never had endings. They were always ridden into the ground before being surprise-cancelled.
It was rare that a show would have an actual last episode like MASH or Cheers. Those too went far longer than they should have.
If I recall correctly, MASH didn’t even have comedy anymore in the end. Just some bleak dark meh.
I don’t think there’s Simpsons will ever die, even if all the voice actors pass on. They have way more than enough audio to train AI on their voices, and the Simpsons predates any agreement to not train on their voices. It’ll go for 60 years if it continues to bring in money.
I remember the cast of Friends wanted to stop after season 8 I think.
Then they got offered $1 million per episode along with residuals.
It’s not just corporations that want to keep things going. The actors actually “unionized” (so they all got paid the same amount) and agreed that they wouldn’t continue the show unless they all wanted to.
How I Met Your Mother got to the point that Jason Segal wanted to leave. The last season was just awful and you could tell that he was phoning it in.
The recent seasons are . . . fine. They’re not terrible. I’m not a big fan of changing the voices out but obviously Fox (or Disney, now) will never let it die so we’ll have Simpsons for the rest of time.
HOWEVER. What it is now, is a pale shadow of it’s groundbreaking, culture-changing self that broke into mass consciousness with such wit and charm that fans can, and do, engage in entire conversations based solely on the show’s quotes and contexts.
Those first few years were stunning in the quality of humor they provided. The fact that it kept going - for years afterwards - was no less amazing. When it began to falter, people were not just annoyed or bored with it - they were alarmed.
Of course that in itself was a long time ago. All that’s over now. It’s just a glow in the rearview mirror for most of us, but I say unto thee - in all seriousness - it’s the cultural equivalent of Shakespeare and will be taught for generations.
The first 8 or so seasons, anyway. It’s not Batman.
…fans can, and do, engage in entire conversations based solely on the show’s quotes and contexts.
Skinner and Chalmers at luncheon.
Seymour, his house on fire.
