10 Times The Simpsons Jumped The Shark
1. When Family Guy Took Off
Fundamentally, The Simpsons only had to jump the shark when the show-runners were FORCED to. And it's pretty easy to pinpoint where that happened.
It seems crazy to think that, back in 1990, The Simpsons was revolutionary enough to provoke the ire of the First Lady of the USA. Barbara Bush described the show as “the dumbest thing [she’d] ever seen”, and her president husband later said that the American family should be “a lot less like the Simpsons”.
In the wake of shows like Family Guy (and even before that, South Park), these opinions and soundbites seem laughably quaint. The Simpsons never set out to be offensive or button pushing (like the other two did), of course, but when other animated comedies are taking greater risks and in South Park’s case are able to remain far more modern, the elder statesman of TV animation is at risk of looking a little stale.
The Simpsons will always be legendary, but with other shows grabbing the headlines, it has at times been running to catch up, becoming increasingly cynical and pop culture reliant in order to stay with the times. It hasn’t really worked; it simply limps on now, with no end goal in sight.