That '90s Show

That '90's Show was a terrible episode. I'm halfway through Season 19, and this season has been lots of ups and downs. There are some really bad episodes, but then there are some really good episodes. For now. I would give Season 19 a 6.1 out of 10. Now, let talk about this episode. This episode shouldn't even exist. The past if Homer and Marge has been revealed in many other episodes. Basically in this episode the Simpsons are saying that Artie Ziff isn't a real person, that Homer never sang in the Be Sharps, and that Homer and Marge gone to college. In other episodes this is clearly proven wrong. I just don't understand why they even made this. This just lacks heart and comedy. The best part about it was obviously Weird Al. This isn't the worst Season 19 episode, but it is one of the worst. In all, I give this a 4.5 out of 10. It just barely rounds up to 5.

We are living in 2008, not 1989 or 1995. It used to be that Homer and Marge were these 37 year old parents with a family of three that often reminisced about their days as teenagers and young adults in the 70s. But as we live in real time, the 37 year olds of today were 18 in 1989 and college aged 21 or 22 year olds in 1993. It's bizarre beyond belief to see Homer and Marge being "grunge kids", when the heyday of The Simpsons was IN the 1990s, where Bart and Lisa grew up in that youth culture. Heck, technically Bart Simpson is a complete product of the late 80s, his "don't have a cow", buzz hair cut and skateboard obsession is all 80s. We can stretch Homer and Marge into the early 80s, possibly even 1984 or 1985, and see them listening to stuff like Asia, The Police or other early early 80s stuff instead of their usual 60s or 70s flair. But I'm sorry the 90s? Doesn't work. Will NEVER work. This is like doing a Growing Pains reunion where the Seaver parents remember being college kids in the 80s, or a Leave it to Beaver episode where the Cleaver parents remember how they were the youth in the 1950s. The Simpsons have officially jumped the shark with this episode. This was the nail in the coffin, it's over. I don't care if real 37 year olds were kids back in the 90s. Plus this episode just makes everyone feel too damn old.

I really don't see how this episode could get such a bad rap. What's made the Simpsons so great throughout the years is how it continues to change with the times to stay relevant and although most of the foundation has remained relatively untouched throughout the years there are plenty of examples of really good content that deviates from the original story. If it hadn't, Bill Clinton would still be president instead of Arnold Schwarzenegger or Obama. I really think that weather or not you take it as cannon or not, this was a good episode that modernized the characters in a funny parody of the 1990s. Keep in mind that unlike the children (as far as I know) Homer actually has a set date of birth in 1954 making him 54 years old by the time this episode comes around and makes it hard to keep them all timeless. Also you don't have to take this episode as canon if you don't want to since unlike the original story, I doubt there will be reference to any of the characters in it since what they really wanted was to make a 90s parody and I think they did that very well!

This episode is about Marge and Homer telling the kids about their life back in the 1990's, it also uses culture pop references for example Sonic The Hedgehog with Amy Rose which didn't debut until 1998, Marge in this episode was very unlikable because of her snobbish attitude towards Homer Simpson, it also tries to hard to make a homage to the 90's and of course the Tracey Ullman show, Marge's professor is even more worse than her because she encourages Marge to cheat on with Homer and not only that, it even destroyed the continuity from their movie and the 19th season from 2007-2008, it even uses the sign of jumping the shark, but at least Weird Al Yankovic's cameo was decent even though he also voiced Milo (Milo Murphy's Law) which i find him a better version Milo (Mars Needs Moms) aka the worst Disney movie from 2011 that killed Imagemovers Digital's sign with Disney after they were planning to make the Yellow Submarine Remake and of course the Roger Rabbit sequel, but no this episode is poorly written, lame, lousy and very cliché.

This episode was cute and funny for a satirical period piece but becomes the first in many a string of obnoxious canon disrupting timelines of the simpsons history so carefully curated over nearly 20 years. In my personal experience, I'm fine overlooking continuity errors such as the use of new technology despite no aging of the characters; but when flashbacks happen with Homer and Marge specifically, it's so frustrating for newer episodes to completely change what we know about their history rather than supplementing it with storylines that fit what we know and accept.

Still I love Homer and Marge love story episodes, but this is one I like to pretend doesn't exist canonically speaking