I mean marked "D" not "N." That'd be redundant :)

Didn't they scale up the show to fit widescreen TV's, thereby cutting off the tops and bottoms of the picture for older episodes? A friend of mine was complaining, but I didn't watch the marathon, so...

Yeah, they did that. It wasn't a huge deal, but it did cut off a good number of classic background jokes.

It seemed to me that they timed it so that a lot of the best episodes hit over the weekend. Friday thru Sunday covered about season 3 to 8, where every episode is amazing.

Good point. I can't really complain that Lisa The Vegetarian and King Size Homer aired at 4AM and 5AM respectively, (there's a list here: http://www.vulture.com/2014/08/simpsons-fxx-marathon-schedule.html ) as they were all completely solid.

I'm surprised the New York episode was played uncut. I used to have DVD seasons 4-8 before I had to sell them, but a coworker lent me his 9, in a heated argument about when The Simpsons went downhill. Since I'd seen them a million times before, I just listened to the commentary tracks. I think there was something about how Fox didn't even want them to put the episode on the DVD - just forget that it existed - and how it was obviously yanked from syndication post-9/11.

It really struck me that the early episodes had an animation level on the same wavelength as Rocky and Bullwinkle. These were doodles brought to life. The animation quality now is too crisp and too smooth. I actually don't complain much about the level of writing. The show is still not mean-spirited in it's comedy, so I don't fault it. Right now it's basically just Fox's lucky charm dangling from the rear view window. It will always be there in some form or another.

>>Didn't they scale up the show to fit widescreen TV's, thereby cutting off the tops and bottoms of the picture for older episodes? A friend of mine was complaining, but I didn't watch the marathon, so...

I believe that the Simpsons are best enjoyed as originally aired, as part of "The Tracey Ullman Show".

I liked it when the animation gained a bit of continuity (vs. black Smithers, no offense to Black Smitherses everywhere) but yeah. It's incredibly smooth which just takes away from the charm of the old animation. I can't remember the episode but I think there was one where Bart's red shirt kept changing from red to white. Maybe it was one of the Ullman shorts. A more prominent example of inconsistency was Kamp Krusty, which shared the character designs of S3 even though it was part of S4 where the designs became a bit more streamlined episode to episode. The powers that be must've been like "ehh, fuck it nobody will ever watch this show anyway. Just let the kids watch their cartoon, put them to bed and stay tuned for Martin." How little they knew.

John Holmes: Indeed they are! As I said, this was mentioned to me by someone who watched it. I didn't even know an FXX Network had been launched.

It makes me wonder if an FXXX channel is far behind.

You walked right into a Simpsons reference just there! I can't remember it verbatim but it's the episode where Lisa sees her future from the gypsy where she falls in love with the British guy and Homer and Marge are watching TV in 2012.. Marge says something referring to how Fox became a hardcore porn channel and the transition was so smooth that nobody noticed.

I'd look up the quote but there's far too much real simpsons porn out there :)

Wait, Lisa's Wedding took place in 2012?! God DAMN, we're getting old.

Oh, nevermind. I just looked it up; it's supposed to take place in *2010*. That's even worse.

When the show first came out, I was just a bit younger than Lisa. To me, Bart was the cool, older kid. 'nother five years or so, and I'll be Homer's age.

Oh yeah! It was 2010. And I'm two years from being Homer's original age (although at some point they changed it to 38.) I really wish I had caught that episode, or just figured out a way to record the whole thing. I don't come from money like Hugh did in the episode, but I remember feeling that same way, on my own wedding day. The things that I wanted (which weren't THAT absurd.. well some of them were) were just shot down. I wasn't expecting to get the Fresh Whole Rabbit or DDR arcade machine I put on our registry, but a wedding cake made out of sushi is cheaper, and folks would probably eat the whole thing. Plus I don't like sweets. The whole thing was so traditional that I was lucky to get my Pixies string quartet arrangement approved. Anyway, I felt a lot like Lisa that day, and probably should've run when I had the chance.

The current animation is way smoother, but also way less dynamic. Once upon a time the characters showed emotion, and had so much expressiveness in their eyes and movements and so on. Now they just seem incredibly rigid.

Look especially at the grocery scene:

http://vimeo.com/11623259

There used to be a really good side-by-side comparison video floating around but it seems to have disappeared from the Internet thanks to copyright lawyers. (There are others out there now but they've all been degraded to avoid the auto-copyright stuff in ways that completely ruins the comparison in the first place.)

Also EvilHomer, isn't Homer's age canonically 35? (per the early heart attack episode)

That means I'm older than Homer. :(

I always thought it was 36, but technically it's varied between his mid to late 30s; Homer's age has never been consistent, and it changes seemingly on whim.

I think the oldest he's been is 40, so if you're already at one of the various Homer ages, I guess you could bump things up and assume he's 40.

I remember in my 20s feeling this fear about getting closer to Homer's age. I'm 32 now and I've learned to accept it, if not embrace it.

NOT ME.

Everyone who counts, loves NED! Flanders!

It's D Ray, Jesco's father.

http://youtu.be/YqCOx0vYwe8

It's for your own protection.

Haha yeah enjoy your poutine and your..uhh.. far superior television programming and.. your national funding for the Canadian arts. Damnit that all sounds pretty good right now.

Yeah but the major drawback is "Canada."

"Far superior television programming"?

Eh, I was never into TRAILER PARK BOYS and most examples of great Canadian TV I can name are over a decade old.

haha I was thinking entirely of TPB and KitH. TV aside I love Canada.

ReGenesis was pretty good.