TruthMedia Review: The Simpsons: Golden Age

Overview: America’s favorite family, and finally living up to that title. If you don’t know about this popular family consisting of a happily married couple and 2.1 children, perhaps you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade. But that’d be ok, since as you’ll see in this review, you didn’t miss much. It took them 12 years, but they’ve finally found their stride. Directed By: 20th Century Fox. The Pros: Finally, the show is living up to the hype. It’s hilarious without fail, and always delivers... The Cons:...but it took them 10 seasons of crap to get to this level. Honestly I can’t fathom why it wasn’t cancelled earlier.

It seems the old writers felt Simian Obesity was a humorous topic. I don't know about you, but I wasn't laughing.

For 11 years, I have watched the Simpsons and wondered what the fuss was about. It had funny writers, such as Conan O’Brien, Jay Kogen, and Jay Leno, but it just didn’t work. Episode after episode, I would watch, and laugh maybe once per episode, and that was on a good episode. I watched them shamelessly rip off Rodgers & Hammerstien’s "The Music Man," without any credit given to that wonderful musical. A monorail? HA. More like a rip-off-o-rail.

And then there was the episode where Homer and Moe are candidates for going into space. The only laughs to come from this episode were how inaccurate and unfunny it was. Not only is it unfunny, but downright tasteless to show that when Moe stops drinking, he automatically is improved. It’s a tease to everyone in the world stricken with alcoholism. It’s saying to them, “Look how much better off you’d be without drinking you pathetic bum!”

However, despite 13 years of horribly unfunny events such as Homer traveling through time, Mr Burns being shot by a dog, the family moving to a planned community in another shameless ripoff, and Grampa being stricken with Polio in a particularly tasteless episode, The Simpsons have finally found their groove. As of this season, as well as the previous one, The Simpsons are finally living up to their billing as America’s Favorite Family. Episodes such as Simpson Safari, which takes the family on a wacky trip to the wonderful land of Africa, are nuggets of pure comedy gold.

And then there’s Kill the Alligator and Run, arguably the episode that proves the Simpsons are here to stay. In it, through a series of events that the everyday person can relate to, the family ends up going on a wild adventure through the American South. And to top it all off, it has a delicious cameo by famous rocker Kid Rock, as well as his sidekick, Verne Troyer of Austin Powers fame! If there was any doubt as to the quality of this episode, it was erased at the sight of them. It’s so nice to see a quality episode like this, as opposed to some utterly boring and trite crap about some secret society called the Bricklayers, or another tasteless mockery of Sexual Harrasment.

I must say, it’s a rarity in today’s industry for a show that was as bad as The Simpsons was in it’s middle seasons to remain on the air as long as it did. However, it made for a major payoff. Episodes like “Tennis the Menace” make it worthwhile to sit and bear through ones like the one where Homer fakes his death to become a fisherman. This seems to be characteristic of Fox though. It’s not until recently that shows like The X-Files got good either. I only wish shows with true promise, shows like The PJ’s, That 80’s Show, or Ed McMahon Controls the Universe would get the same treatment in terms of longevity of their on-air runs..

Each category in the rating system is based out of a possible 10 score (10 being the best). The overall score is based out of a possible 50 score (50 being the best).

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