That '90s Show

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.

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

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.

I wonder if those that detest this episode were meant to take it seriously. I really didn't take it seriously, we know Bart is 10 in 1989 and is 10 in 2008. The entire city of Springfield has been stuck in a rift in the Matrix, where the space-time continuum is stuck in a loop.

This episode is merely a throwback to the 90s, I can't see how anyone that has watched more than a dozen episodes would assume this is part of the history of Simpsons. Every season has an episode or two that have no relevance on the history, ie, Simpson Bible Stories, and Tales from the Public Domain.

Relax people, the episode was far from great, though it had moments, but it hardly caused the series to "jump the shark."

This episode is clear evidence that The Simpsons - once the very best show on television - has way overstayed its welcome. Everything about it was awful. The gags fell flat; Homer as a grunge rocker (with a far bushier mop on his head than he ever had in the 1960s or 1970s) was mind-numbingly unfunny; the band Sadgasm was a stupid "spoof" of grunge; the use of the Verve's Bittersweet Symphony puts the action in 1997, a year when some of the best Simpsons episodes were actually made; the character Professor August adds nothing to the show and the subplot involving Marge attending university was pointless. Clearly, The Simpsons has been on television too long. Either it needs to go off the air or it needs fresh writers who can bring back the show's edgy 90s humor. Watching this episode reminds me of the bad old days when we were subjected to some of those later Happy Days episodes or reruns of Archie Bunker's Place or the final season of The Love Boat. Some critics were upset by the fact that "That 90's Show" more or less subverted the entire Simpson family history time line. For example, the episode invalidates just about all of the flashback episodes, including the classic "Homer's Barbershop Quartet," which was set in 1985 and showed Bart as a little kid. But this is not what offended me about the episode. It was tired. It lacked creativity. It didn't even have as much edge as your typical Suite Life of Zack and Cody episode. What a sad assessment of a show that in its heyday used to excite TV viewers so much with its splendid subversive humor.