Harry Shearer quits the Simpsons

[Mowgli37]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-32733873

Beginning of the end. The show should have called it quits years ago in all honesty.

 

[TomandJerry]

Doh!

 

[Grassman]

Maybe it means Tap are touring again! Let's hope....

 

[carteater]

It should've ended in the early 2000s where even then it had clearly reached its peak...

 

[Megazone]

Does anyone even watch it?

 

[AlbionPics&SouthCoastTwit]

Hey, Harry Shearer!

 

[SAC]

Does anyone even watch it?

I don't and haven't for years but it it still gets healthy viewing figures for C4 considering its early evening time slot.

Be interesting to see if they kill off these characters or get someone with a similar voice. If it was me I'd have them all operated on and given new voice boxes for some obscure reason.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Time to wrap it and Family Guy up.

 

[AlbionPics&SouthCoastTwit]

Time to wrap it and Family Guy up.

Family Guy sure has had it's share of wrap ups.

 

[Gullflyinghigh]

They're going to recast his characters apparently.

Hopefully it'll be taken as a sign that maybe it's time to end the show, it's been on life support for a while now (or appears to have been anyway).

Then again, with the amount of money it probably still brings in through other avenues (merchandise, games, box sets etc.) it might be too big a loss to ever kill it.

 

[Whitechapel]

As a massive Simpsons Fan/Snob I hope this is the first nail in the coffin. It should have ended ages ago. In fact, like a lot of others I don't see the episodes over the last 10 years as The Simpsons, but rather "Zombie Simpsons". The shows share characteristics but the new ones are just a poor knock-off of the real thing. In fact the perfect way of summing it up is an extract from an article by one of the main Zombie Simpsons sites.

"To be sure, Zombie Simpsons does bear a cosmetic resemblance to The Simpsons. After all, the two shows share a great deal of their casts, as well as a few writers, producers, directors and artists. Even the surface similarities are fading with time, though. The fluid and vibrant hand drawn animation has been replaced by militarily rigid computer templates. The exquisitely talented cast members can’t resist a quarter-century of wear and tear on their vocal chords, and many characters now sound only vaguely like they once did.

Things have changed even more beneath the surface. The two have polar opposite senses of humor. The Simpsons trafficked in tightly plotted stories that were cynical, anti-authority social satires that often bordered on nihilism. They managed to get away with it thanks to a clever veneer of sweetness and slapstick. Zombie Simpsons reverses those priorities. It leans heavily on sweetness and slapstick, leaves plot threads all over the place, and only rarely musters even a fraction of the hilariously bleak cynicism that was a big part of what made The Simpsons what it was.

Broadly speaking then, “Zombie Simpsons” is the regular television show that remained when The Simpsons stopped being The Simpsons. There is much argument among fans over when precisely the change took place, but there is wide consensus that such a change has indeed occurred."

Think this sums up the fall in quality:

(taken from http://deadhomersociety.com/zombiesimpsons/zs1/)

 

[brightn'ove]

As a massive Simpsons Fan/Snob I hope this is the first nail in the coffin. It should have ended ages ago. In fact, like a lot of others I don't see the episodes over the last 10 years as The Simpsons, but rather "Zombie Simpsons". The shows share characteristics but the new ones are just a poor knock-off of the real thing. In fact the perfect way of summing it up is an extract from an article by one of the main Zombie Simpsons sites.



Think this sums up the fall in quality:

(taken from http://deadhomersociety.com/zombiesimpsons/zs1/)

Great post. Sums up my thoughts exactly. I could watch the 'proper' Simpsons on repeat ad infinitum. I can barely sit through five minutes of the 'zombie' Simpsons as you call it.

 

[BBassic]

This is a really good write-up of when some people think The Simpsons 'jumped the shark':

http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/22/6056915/frank-grimes-the-simpsons-jump-the-shark

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

Don’t forget our own Mark McGhee got a mention on the Simpsons 20[SUP]th[/SUP] Anniversary no less

Mark McGhee on IMDB

 

[StonehamPark]

The US Viewer Ratings for The Simpsons have been fairly low for the past 3 seasons.

The most recent season has featured 3 of the least viewed Simpsons episodes since creation.

They've signed up for 2 more seasons. I wouldn't be surprised if they call it quits at Season 30.