There were a few Simpsons episodes that got to me so much in how rounded the characters were. I cried during the episode where Bart shoplifted...it was profoundly moving. I was totally moved by the ending of the episode where Lisa makes friends at the beach for the first time. And the episode where Lisa and Marge try to understand each other when Marge talks about her belief in angels.

The whole series since season 12 or so has been progressively losing any heart, or ability to commentate on the foibles of life. It's just become "what can we copy this week?" They copy movies, other TV shows, have all these gimmicky episodes ala Lady Gaga Goes to Springfield. It's become as shallow as the shows it used to mock for not having any strength of character or plot, like childrens shows that are neutered of any possible conflict ala this episode.

I don't think I've heard of and definitely haven't seen a Lady Gaga Comes to Springfield, but not only do I believe you, I'd be shocked if there wasn't one at this point. Thing is, Simpsons started off that way, sort of, with the Michael Jackson one, Aerosmith, Sting, a fuckton of MLB players' voices, Spinal Tap.. I could go on and that was just Season 3. And in all those cases (with the arguable exception of the Jackson one) they were all just "passing through" Springfield or something along those lines. Even as an 8 year-old kid I thought it was pretty gimmicky, especially the way Fox would market them in commercials, reaching its peak with (I believe this happened) an Aerosmith live performance immediately following the Flaming Moe episode. And of course the world premiere of the Michael Jackson video after the MJ episode.

Maybe some of that was to get butts on couches, as it was a relatively new show. I noticed a shift towards celebrities lending their voices more and more and cameos less and less from as themselves from S4 on (with a couple of big exceptions, like the Jay Sherman and X-Files crossover episodes.) But the thing is, all of those episodes were well-written and incredibly funny. If I plopped the 8-year-old me in front of the X-Files episode today, assuming I'd never bothered to watch a 90s sci-fi show, I'd think it was great, even if I didn't get the reference. I didn't get the Twin Peaks reference in the Who Shot Mr. Burns episodes either, but it didn't matter. Now the celebrity appearances are flavor of the month (sometimes year.)

And another thing that bothers me, speaking of tear jerkers, are the flashback episodes. Maggie's First Word is my favorite when it comes to the waterfalls, I just can't help it. And the one where Homer has to leave his dream job at the bowling alley, once again for Maggie. Both are set more-or-less within the same time frame. So Dr. Hibbert has a Mr. T haircut when Lisa is born, and a Cosby sweater when Maggie is. But now they have flashbacks to Homer and Marge's Grunge years and bullshit like that, like "hey it's 20XX so a younger Homer and Marge would be in the middle of the Grunge era when they met" as a way to write in (and I'm taking a guess here) The Foo Fighters and Pearl Jam.

I remember thinking the Simpsons was coming to an end with the spinoffs episode. It was funny, but it screamed "we've run out of ideas." That, and the Behind the Music episode joked that the next season was going to be the last, because they ran out of places in the world to go, so they had to settle on Delaware. It's just kinda sad to see one of my favorite shows become so shitty, to the point where if I tell a date that I like the Simpsons, I have to rephrase that as "I like the GOOD Simpsons." Le sigh.

Dude are you slowly writing your autobiography in these comments or what

Ha