Rewriting the Simpson family tree over and over again

So the Simpsons are 1/64th Black, according to a recent episode reran last night. Yawn. I see what Bill keeps saying about The Simpsons having become a thoroughly boring show. The problem isn't just that Family Guy did it first (remember Nate Griffin?), but also that in two decades the show has managed to write a lot of the tree.

I remember Grampa Simpson reminiscing that the Simpson family came from "the old country" (he didn't remember which) as immigrants to Ellis Island, and lived on the Statue of Liberty for a brief period. Granted, Grampa Simpson is as reliable a narrator as Peter Griffin, and the immigrant story even if true does not rule out American, Civil War-era ancestors for Bart and Lisa.

There's something else. I can buy Grampa forgetting stuff, but not Lisa. Wasn't there a much earlier episode in which Lisa examined the Simpson family tree looking for an ancestor to be proud of? And wasn't the conclusion of that episode that the Simpson men are boozehounds at best, while the Simpson women are doctors, scientists, activists, etc.? I don't remember the title of that episode, but I would think Lisa Simpson would remember what happened in that episode.

Not so bad Sunday

Animation Domination on FOX Sunday nights had fallen into a pattern: bore us to death with The Simpsons, then fill up The Cleveland Show with disgusting, unfunny bathroom humor, then all the offensive, catty racial jokes into Family Guy, and then delve in Roger's eccentricities on American Dad.

This division of labor was not in evidence last night. I caught the last few minutes of The Simpsons; then followed The Cleveland Show with some cliched story about the paterfamilias spending money necessary for the children on something frivolous, in this case casino gambling; and then on Family Guy the drinking buddies are reunited with Cleveland on a quest to find the source of the world's dirty jokes. None of these shows are now anywhere near the heights reached in their golden pasts, but these breaks from the usual rut they had fallen into lately was a pleasant break.

Sad state of the Animation Domination

Yesterday I happened to catch a snippet of The Simpsons in the middle. Agnes was reminiscing how she participated in the Olympics long, long ago, while pregnant (weirdly paralleled in real life in Vancouver today), and baby Seymour's kick within her belly cost her the gold. Back in the present, Seymour says he remembers that. As big a grain of salt recollections from the womb would normally require, this one requires a huge monolith of salt. For one thing, "Seymour Skinner" is really Armin Tamzarian, who usurped the real Seymour's name and life after Vietnam. It's as if the show is begging to be nitpicked. One thing it's not begging for is laughs. Which reminded me why I had stopped watching the show. I turned off the TV, not to turn it on again until just before The Cleveland Show, in time to catch Homer dancing with a half-section of his face. Huh? Who cares.

On The Cleveland Show, Cleveland Jr. gets "pregnant" with Rollo's fish. You can just see the miscarriage coming from miles away. At least on TV they had to decency to describe it (likening it to Louisiana cuisine) rather than showing it; any sickos who would've actually liked to see that will probably be satisfied by the DVD. This is one episode I don't care to ever watch again, on any medium. Come to think of it, I should perhaps stop watching this show altogether.

Then on Family Guy, Chris is inexplicably enamored of a retarded girl who turns out to be Sarah Palin's daughter (Palin is not explicitly mentioned in that regard, but it's quite obvious that's who they were thinking of). Coming at the end of such a dreadful evening, American Dad! did not look so bad, and even had a few chuckles.

Cancel the Simpsons already!

The Simpsons used to be one of the very best shows around. But it's no longer funny. There is one important, increasingly common reason that needs to be added to the usual list of jump the shark reasons, and that is loss of continuity. With The Simpsons it means an increasingly constant rewriting of the backstory, as if no one thinks the fans will remember something that happened last week or earlier in the season, much less years ago.

I'm not the first to point out the rewritten backstory in the extremely lame episode "That 90's Show," first aired about a year ago today (KABF04) and already reran three or four times. So instead of the Be Sharps barbershop quartet (in "Homer's Barbershop Quartet," first aired September 30, 1993, years ago today, 9F21), Homer suddenly now was the leader of a grunge rock band called Sadgasm. Practically every flashback episode of the show this millennium contradicts past episodes. "That 90's Show" doesn't mesh that well either with "The Way We Was" (7F12, aired eighteen years ago today).

Another common continuity sin is to rewrite the backstory to have all the characters meet in the past. "Dangerous Curves" (November 9, 2008, KABF18) will now have us believe that Homer and Marge met Ned and Maude Flanders prior to being neighbors. Family Guy is also guilty of this sin (just one example: when Peter met Lois, was Glen Quagmire a sailor aboard an aircraft carrier, or a civilian residing in Rhode Island? There are two episodes to consider in answering this question).

I haven't forgotten that I declared that Family Guy jumped the shark with "The Man With Two Brians." But I will continue to watch Family Guy, giving the show a chance to impress me again (i.e., make me laugh). But I'm done with The Simpsons. No more new episodes for me. Do you hear that, Nielsens?