When did the Simpsons get good again?

From 12 on that show was garbage. I own all the ones before that on DVD I would buy them on day one they were so good.

It didn't, if you think it did you have awful taste, sorry, I think 'new' Simpsons is just garbage.

The first 8 or so seasons are still gold though.

@gristlemcthornbody:

Gristle, I was turned off around 2000 like you. I watched the Simpsons religiously, from age 5 in 1989 when their special aired, and had seen every episode up until 1999. Something in 1999 changed for me - and I was in the 11th and 12 grades during that year. During 2000, in high school, I knew I was turned off of the Simpsons because for the first time in my life, I was not watching the new Sunday night episodes and identified the repeats as the best. I only enjoyed watching the repeats because the local DC Fox 5 started playing Simpsons at late times like 11PM, 12 AM, or 1 AM around 2000. This is common now.

I spoke with another friend, around 2002-4, who had the same thing and called it out as outright bad writing.

Now, I'm catching the 2011 episodes and loving them I laughed at the Theodore Roosevelt episode and some others. I also realized there was some 2002 episodes I liked - which I never watched in college at the time.

I think we had the highest quality episodes from the beginning, all through the 90s, and then saw it drop in 2000. I can see where the writing is better now. Also, as adult, the old episodes have more jokes we could never pick out as a kid. I bought the 2010 DVD, to view for first time, but was not really impressed. So I'm happy in 2014 that I'm catching up on episodes and seeing an up-tick in writing quality.

simpson merchandise was everywhere in the early 90s along with parachute pants and MC hammer and looney toons tiny toons