"The Simpsons" 19x1

THE SIMPSONS 19x1 "He Loves To Fly, And He Doh's"

Homer! You smell like Chicago! Did you fly there in a Commercial Airline?
No Way! Commercial is for losers and terrorists!

Nineteen years and still going strong. I'm so sick of all the people that don't watch shows like this and SNL and bitch about how they're not good anymore. Sure things aren't the same, how could they be after 400 episodes? The Simpsons evolves in humor and style, and has reached a place where the foundation of characters and talent has produced a consistently high level of achievement, and I'm hoping that the success of the Movie will remind the naysayers that there's still plenty of life in this old girl.

The season premieres with an episode that immediately builds on the movie, with the opening credits. I would have thought they'd never top the "live action" version that was done for British TV then used on the Ricky Gervais penned episode, but this was stellar. It's also interesting to watch the style of it, as you can really see how they've started using computers to do a lot on the show (We can thank "Futurama" for a lot of that I think). You can really spot it when you compare these shots that are similar to the old traditionally animated versions you're used to seeing for those shots in the opening.

Simpsons episodes are done in advance as I'm sure most know, and usually the first chunk of episodes were actually produced in the previous season, which is why the plots of these shows won't directly refer to the Movie.

I think one of the best things about the current style of the show is seeing how the first few minutes set up a story, then the rest of it has absolutely nothing to do with that setup. You'd think a show like this would hold onto any plot they came up with and milk it for all it's worth, but they happily use up plots as if they have a neverending bag filled with them.

My biggest question about this episode was "is it going to grab people giving the show another chance?" And I think the answer is, yes.

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