Worst classic era episodes?

Financial Panther

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I think it’s part of the classic era, yeah. I agree that it’s a bad episode, but there were episodes before that that were worse.
 

Homer Samson

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I think it’s part of the classic era, yeah. I agree that it’s a bad episode, but there were episodes before that that were worse.

The thing is you are a huge fan of Donnie Fatso, which I still like, but you have to admit it followed a very similar story to TTWT
 

Financial Panther

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Lisa the Iconoclast, Lisa on Ice, Homerpalooza, Dead Putting Society, Krusty Gets Kancelled, Lisa’s Date With Density.
 

John Smith 1882

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Eh, to each their own. I find Homerpalooza to be greatly overhated. People would like it more if if it didn't have so many guest voices.
 
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Am I the only one who absolutely hates the episode My sister, my sitter? I don’t like how nasty Bart is to Lisa and think he went too far. It’s pretty much the only episode in the first 10 seasons I don’t enjoy. I have always avoided that episode on my DVD sets and I wondered if anyone else has the same opinion?
 

Homer Samson

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Phantomstrider hates it and convinced a bunch of his fans to hate the episode. He actually called it the 3rd worst episode ever
 

kwijibo

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Am I the only one who absolutely hates the episode My sister, my sitter? I don’t like how nasty Bart is to Lisa and think he went too far. It’s pretty much the only episode in the first 10 seasons I don’t enjoy. I have always avoided that episode on my DVD sets and I wondered if anyone else has the same opinion?

You're not alone, my friend.
 

J.J.Watts

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'Worst' is such a strong word, because even the weaker episodes of the Classic Era are still amazing television. If we're including season 1, I dislike 'Homer's Odyssey' and 'Homer's Night Out', but that's forgivable because the show was only just finding its feet. Eps like 'Lady Bouvier's Lover' and 'The Canine Mutiny' are definately below average for their era, but like others have said, they're leagues ahead of the typical content found in seasons 10 and beyond. If we're including season 9 (which I personally do) then 'The Trouble With Trillions' is an episode I'm not crazy about, but really only for the ending and the characterization of Mr. Burns. Other than that I find it really funny.
 

tyler

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slightly old thread but dont care cuz i came up w a list of twenty for this. these episodes are all at least notably flawed and a few are honestly bad, which few will admit is even possible in the classic era but i'm a trailblazer what can i say. feel free to dissent but please offer more than Why Do You Hate X I Like X or im not responding to you

s1e10 homer's night out
s2e20 the war of the simpsons
s3e5 homer defined
s3e22 the otto show
s4e10 lisa's first word
s4e14 brother from the same planet
s5e21 lady bouvier's lover
s5e22 secrets of a successful marriage
s6e5 sideshow bob roberts
s6e8 lisa on ice
s6e20 two dozen and one greyhounds
s6e22 round springfield
s7e5 lisa the vegetarian
s7e12 team homer
s8e3 the homer they fall
s8e4 burns baby burns
s8e9 el viaje misterioso de nuestro jomer
s8e13 simpsonscali
s8e21 the old man and the lisa
s8e25 the secret war of lisa simpson
 

jal90

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Been too long a while since I last watched any classic episode but in general none of them was bad. Even the most boring, uneventful, nonsensical, stupid or just uninspired could benefit from a few good jokes and well-paced comedy and/or dramedy. Even the pure referential nonsense of Lady Bouvier's lover, the absolute trainwreck of a plot in Marge in chains, the irrelevance of Fear of flying or the heavy-handed and uninspired satire from Bart's inner child made entertaining episodes, had some fun jokes, and pathos when they needed to.
 

Bohdan

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For me, the worst of classic era is The Springfield Files despite it's funny a bit.
 

Snorky

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For me, the worst of classic era is The Springfield Files despite it's funny a bit.

What's your beef with the Springfield Files? It has another great appearance by Leonard Nimoy, great appearances by Anderson and Duchovny and was a great parody of the show in an animated context. Granted, the reveal of the alien as Mr. Burns was anti-climactic, but it was always going to be a nonsensical, humorous reveal. Seriously, what makes it stand out as the worst of the classic era?
 

Homer Samson

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Yeah, I don't get what this site has against The Springfield Files. I always thought people considered it one of the best ever episodes.
 

Bohdan

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Entirely, The Springfield Files is decent episode. But it's somewhere weak: the plot is not the best, a little of really funny jokes, not the best (IMHO) X-files references + unfortunately, bad ending.
Actually, when I saw the episode for the very liked it, but after some rewatching, unfortunately, my mind has changed.
But, it's only my opinion, which may be differ from other's.
 

Scrooge McDuck

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Am I the only one who absolutely hates the episode My sister, my sitter? I don’t like how nasty Bart is to Lisa and think he went too far. It’s pretty much the only episode in the first 10 seasons I don’t enjoy. I have always avoided that episode on my DVD sets and I wondered if anyone else has the same opinion?

It is definitely not one of my favorites. But it's not because Bart was a bit of an asshole but the whole idea that so Homer and Marge can go out let's put Lisa in charge who is an eight year old babysitter. Bart is a sibling and siblings do stupid shit to to each other, sometimes out of spite. Plus Ralph, Rod and Todd are no Bart Jojo Simpson.
 

jal90

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It is definitely not one of my favorites. But it's not because Bart was a bit of an asshole but the whole idea that so Homer and Marge can go out let's put Lisa in charge who is an eight year old babysitter. Bart is a sibling and siblings do stupid shit to to each other, sometimes out of spite. Plus Ralph, Rod and Todd are no Bart Jojo Simpson.
I don't really agree about My sister, my sitter, but then again this comes down to what I said before, that even the least cohesive, the dumbest or the most boring episode in the classic era finds its way to be entertaining and be a fun half-hour of tv.

My sister, my sitter is a particularly interesting case to me though because it's not just a fine experience, it's extremely good at what it tries. The story seems forced to draw those emotions from various plot points. Real Bart would never be overdo his stupid brother act so much to injure himself just to make Lisa look bad. Real Homer and Marge would have some sense to determine that their daughter can't possibly take care of her older brother. Real Homer wouldn't be a jerk to a visibly exhausted and scared Lisa.

And yet this works because this whole episode is like a bad dream from Lisa's perspective, because it explores her anger and panic in ways that were rarely seen even in the classic era, because it is infuriating and frustrating and psychologically disturbing, and because at times it is a gorgeous effort of atmosphere. It's not something that is fit to be reviewed and analyzed logically, in terms of characterization and pointing out inconsistencies in character behaviors according to what we should expect from them, and I get every kind of criticism from that angle, but it made me feel a lot and there's definitely a reason why, which is what so many episodes in later seasons don't manage to achieve with similarly wacky and plot-convenient characterization.
 
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CousinMerl

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'My Sister, My Sitter' is an fairly excellent episode.

Feels like I've defended it way too often so here I'm just gonna say that I'm inclided to agree with [MENTION=25164]jal90[/MENTION] on his points. It's really quite the strong and bold episode which to me does work and comes together well (and it's one that quite a bit show some of Lisa's strengths; she doesn't give up and tries her best despite everything going against her).
 

Scrooge McDuck

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'My Sister, My Sitter' is an fairly excellent episode.

Feels like I've defended it way too often so here I'm just gonna say that I'm inclided to agree with [MENTION=25164]jal90[/MENTION] on his points. It's really quite the strong and bold episode which to me does work and comes together well (and it's one that quite a bit show some of Lisa's strengths; she doesn't give up and tries her best despite everything going against her).

Because only a Simpson would go to a doctor that says, "As good as Dr. Hibbert."

ksy75aznrb411.jpg
 

Squall Hammer

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'My Sister, My Sitter' is an fairly excellent episode.

Feels like I've defended it way too often so here I'm just gonna say that I'm inclided to agree with [MENTION=25164]jal90[/MENTION] on his points. It's really quite the strong and bold episode which to me does work and comes together well (and it's one that quite a bit show some of Lisa's strengths; she doesn't give up and tries her best despite everything going against her).

I agree completely with this "My Sister, My Sitter" is an episode I've always really loved and I've never understand why so many people seem to think it's one of the worst (at least among the classic episodes). I think Lisa's characterization is great in this episode, and babysitting seems like exactly the type of job she'd want to do and be motivated to do well. I also like Bart's characterization; of course he's being an asshole, but he's being an asshole in a very believable way, and it's a way I can sort of sympathize with. I feel like most older brothers would react somewhat similarly if they were babysat by their younger sister. I do think that Homer and Marge (Marge in particular) are exceptionally naive to think Lisa babysitting Bart could have worked, so I do understand having a problem with that.

But for me, the one thing that really puts "My Sister, My Sitter" over the top is the fact that it culminates in Lisa pushing an unconscious Bart in a wheelbarrow with Maggie in a pet carrier. I love that image, and think it's an excellent bit of dark humor. The stuff at the Squidport is also fun; I especially like the joke about the classy Moe's storefront being a tunnel that leads to the actual Moe's.
 

Venomrabbit

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This is a bit of a hard question for me. I guess in part because it's trying to be objective. I could list off episodes I'd rather skip over when they come up but then those kinds of dislikes are for purely subjective and in many cases retroactive (after S28, just about anything starring Lisa save for one or two eps lost a lot of points with me, especially the ones where we're supposed to care about her like Lisa's Substitute or ones like Separate Vocations where Bart makes a huge sacrifice for her knowing how little she cares about him if at all) and it's neither fair nor correct to say they're the worst just I don't like 'em.

For similar reasons, I can't list Homer's Night Out. It's pretty annoying, sure, but that's pretty much solely because it came right after the episode where Marge strongly considered cheating on Homer over a bad birthday present. Maybe if they were spaced apart it'd go over better but hey.

And on a lot of the other weaker ones, or the above, there's still points that make it pretty strong or one extremely quotable moment that made it stand out.
So I guess the "worst" ones would have to be for the most part left little to no real impact. So I guess I'll nominate "Dancing Homer" I barely remember that one, don't even think it has any of those notable moments like some of the others like My Sister, My Sitter ("Diagnosis? BAD BABYSITTING!" May not come up much as a quotable bit but it's stuck in my head anyway) and it just kinda petered out.
Also probably Another Simpsons Clip Show. But not the first. By no means a masterpiece (if anything it's existence is a compromise) it at least had a fairly entertaining opening and surrounding story to tie it all in. Don't remember the second one having anything like that.
 

Tilly

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I agree completely with this "My Sister, My Sitter" is an episode I've always really loved and I've never understand why so many people seem to think it's one of the worst (at least among the classic episodes). I think Lisa's characterization is great in this episode, and babysitting seems like exactly the type of job she'd want to do and be motivated to do well. I also like Bart's characterization; of course he's being an asshole, but he's being an asshole in a very believable way, and it's a way I can sort of sympathize with. I feel like most older brothers would react somewhat similarly if they were babysat by their younger sister.

Bingo. I have older brothers and if one of them got the news that I had to babysit them back in the day, they would act very close to how Bart did. They would be pissed.
 

John Smith 1882

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If we're excluding season 9, which is a bit dubious as a classic season, then I'd say The Twisted World Of Marge Simpson. It's not outright bad, but the story is weak and there are not many funny jokes. They struggled to come up with an ending, and it shows.
 

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