What writers survived their classic status during the Scully/Jean episodes?

[Drunk Barney]

As I pointed out in the thread about whether OFF could ever possibly return to the golden years; writers are hugely influenced by their masters. John Swartzwelder is probably the best classic era writer the show has ever had. Consistently good from Season One through to Season Nine. However Season 10-12 Swartzwelder episodes were some of the worst that the show has ever seen. It should be noted that writers are said to often pen less than 50% of an episode. None the less here's my list of writers who have on the whole remained classic throughout.

Matt Selman:

Selman's first episode was quite possibly the last classic episode from the golden years or quite possibly the last classic episode from a classic Season. Natural Born Kissers was a gem. However whilst the likes of Swartzwelder hit the wall Selmans episodes were always above average under Scully and Jean. I think many would agree that Matt Selman could of easily of joined the ranks of Swartzwelder and Vitti had of written in Season 1-8. His list of episodes since Season 9:

They Saved Lisa's Brain: Flawed but a solid episode which was above average for Season 10
Eight Misbehavin': Average for Season 11, but this was pretty weak.
Lisa the Treehuger: Above average for Season 12, but again flawed.
Trilogy of Error: The highlight of Season 10-12
Jaws Wired Shut: Decent
The Dad Who Knew too Little: Decent and above average for Season 14
All's Fair in Oven War: Average
Pranksta Rap: Decent
Future-Drama: Decent
Girls Just Want to Have Sum: Another decent episode at a time when the show began to decline.
The Haw-Hawed Couple: Again very good.
That 90's Show: Mixed
Bart Gets a Z: Haven't seen it but gets slightly above average reviews
O Brother Where Bart Thou: Haven't seen it but seen as one of the best of the Season

So I thinks its fair to say that Matt Selman is a bloody good writer.

Jon Vitti:

One of the best writers of the show returned in Season 13. His episodes were very good.

The Old Man and the Key: Very solid for me. Above average.
Weekend at Burnsie's: Solid.
Little Girl in the Big Ten: Could of come from Season 7.
Marge vs. All: Underrated and average
Simple Simpson: Neat.
Sleeping with the Enemy: One of the best of the Season.

Never once went below average for me and produced some of the Seasons' best episodes. Reputation still in order!

Larry Doyle:

Never wrote during the classic years and entered and left the show during its worst period.

Girly Edition: Average for its time.
Wild Bart's Can't be Broken: Top 5 for Season 10
Pygmoelian: Top 5 for Season 11
Mad Marge: Erm...
Worst Episode Ever: Another top 5 for Season 12

Can anyone spot any others? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_writers_of_The_Simpsons

 

[Nauru-1]

When I read the thread title, Jon Vitti instantly came to mind. I don't see any horrible episodes in the lot. His classic era episodes, as with pretty much every writer, stand out well above his post-classic episodes, but even for their respective seasons they're at minimum quite acceptable outings.

Even though I prefer Vitti, I'm not sure if it's perfectly fair to compare him to Swartzwelder given considering that he wasn't writing for the show at all during the era that most of Swartzwelder's controversial works were penned (Scully regime). Who's to say that Vitti wouldn't have suffered from a Scullied script too? I do think this has a bit of weight considering that the Swartzwelder episodes from the Jean era were pretty comparable to Vitti's in being fairly decent.

Anyways, as far as post-classic writers go, I guess Matt Selman and J. Stewart Burns appear to be the most unscathed. What I found when looking through each of them was that everyone was maddeningly inconsistent.

 

[Bart's treehouse]

Other than Selman who wrote what I consider the 2nd best post classic era episode (The Haw-Hawed Couple). David S Cohen wrote some good post classic era episodes(Bart The Mother,Das Bus). For writers that stared in the post classic era Dana Gould's record is pretty good(Caged Bird,President Wore Pearls) although he wrote some stinkers (C.E.Do'h) Meyers classic status is one I don't find tarnished by his work in the post classic era with the episodes Brother's Little Helper and Behind The Laughter