Despite its decline in quality in the past few years, The Simpsons still has a claim for the greatest TV series ever made. The first adult animated sitcom to gain widespread attention, the series first took the form of a recurring skit on The Tracy Ullman Show before morphing into a fully-fledged television dynamo.
It’s not that the post-Golden Age episodes are bad; it’s just that, compared to the dizzying heights of the Simpsons' Golden Age episodes—some of the finest installments of television to ever hit the airwaves—the decline in quality is noticeable. The show had some perfect seasons in the early days, but what's the best Simpsons season?
Updated on October 27th, 2021 by Tanner Fox: As viewership continues to decline, recent entries in the long-running animated anthology that is The Simpsons still can't seem to find their footing. Once one of the most hard-hitting satirical series ever to air, The Simpsons now feels like a ghost of its former self.
That said, there's never been a better time to reminisce about the series glory days. The show attained such legendary status for good reason, and, while its glory days may well be behind it, persisting fans can still find plenty to like in episodes from years gone by.
Season 27
Arguably one of the best Simpsons seasons in recent memory—though that's not saying much—Season 27 was a able-if-forgettable affair that offered a few laughs and, most notably, featured two separate Halloween episodes. Holidy-themed episodes were nothing new for the series, but this actually marks the first time the family has celebrated Halloween outside of a Treehouse of Horror installment.
Cracks in the show's framework were beginning to manifest in the form of oddball episodes like "Every Man's Dream" and "Teenage Mutant Milk-Caused Hurdles," but, on the whole, the series remains competent enough to be worthy of a watch.
Season 18
Many longtime Simpsons fans consider season 18, which premiered in 2006, to be fairly forgettable save for one semi-legendary lampooning of FOX's then-popular action series 24. Though it's lost some luster over the past fifteen years, the episode "24 minutes" is still one of the few post-2000 episodes that fans need to see.
Season 18 also includes a few funny-enough episodes like "Stop! Or My Dog Will Shoot" as well as the heartwarming "Moe'N'a Lisa," but it also has a couple of complete duds like "Marge Gamer."
Season 17
2005's Season 17 showcased a surprising willingness on the part of the show's writers to focus on minor, oft-neglected characters; episodes like "Milhouse of Sand and Fog," "The Italian Bob," and "Million Dollar Abie" heavily feature characters like Millhouse, Sideshow Bob, and Abe Simpson. The mid-season episode "The Seemingly Never-Ending Story" also won an Emmy, marking the series' ninth overall win.
While it doesn't contain any crucial or culturally relevant episodes, season 17 was a solid continuation of the series which comes across as worlds apart from The Simpsons' apparent decline around ten years later.
Season 20
The first episode of The Simpsons to broadcast in HD, season 20 served as something of a milestone for the series. Tying Gunsmoke in total number of seasons, The Simpsons still had enough charm to reel viewers in, though, even in 2008, some gags and premises were starting to wear thin.
There are a lot of forgettable installments in this season, but that's shouldn't overshadow some of its best episodes. "Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes" and "Coming to Homerica" are hilarious, while "The Good, The Sad, and The Drugly" offers a poignant message.
Season 11
In the sweet spot between Homer’s storylines getting zanier and the rise of “Jerk Homer,” season 11 sees the Simpson patriarch try to connect with Maggie, team up with Mel Gibson, become a food critic, a motorcycle gang and a leper colony, and become a Christian missionary on a remote island to outrun his creditors at PBS.
Season 11 was particularly good to those who can't get enough of Homer. Episodes like “Bart to the Future,” “Alone Again Natura-Diddly,” and “Saddlesore Galactica” might represent early low points for the series, but, in some ways, the controversy those episodes invited made them fascinating. Season 11 also ends with the brilliant meta episode “Behind the Laughter.”
Season 16
Few fans would argue that The Simpsons' Season 16 deserves to be ranked among the series' greatest installments, but it's by and large a competent collection of episodes that serves to entertain without relying too heavily on the played-out jokes and uninspired satirical takes that would doom later seasons.
Some of the season's best offerings include "Sleeping with the Enemy," "Midnight Rx," and the humorously outdated "Future-Drama" in which the Simpson kids get a glimpse of what their lives are like in the distant year of 2013.
Season 9
Although it’s let down by “The Principal and the Pauper” which controversially revealed Seymour Skinner to be an impostor, season 9 has plenty of gems. Opening with the hilarious “The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson,” the show’s ninth season contains such greats as “Bart Star” and “The Cartridge Family.”
It also has some terrific Lisa-centric episodes, such as “Lisa’s Sax,” “Lisa the Simpson,” and “Lost Our Lisa.” This season’s “Treehouse of Horror” installment is delightfully eerie, too.
Season 13
There’s a lot going on in each of season 13’s episodes: “The Bart Wants What It Wants” layers Hollywood satire over a love triangle involving Bart and Milhouse, “The Lastest Gun in the West” lampoons western tropes, but it also comments on alcohol abuse, and “I Am Furious (Yellow)” spoofs the comics industry with a great caricature of Stan Lee played by the Marvel legend himself.
The season also has some pretty thoughtful installments, like “She of Little Faith” in which Lisa questions her Christian faith and converts to Buddhism in an honest reflection on freedom of religion.
Season 1
The Simpsons didn’t get into any wacky or absurdist territory until the Springfield Gorge jump in season 2’s “Bart the Daredevil” marked an integral stylistic turning point. In its first season, it was a traditional family sitcom. But, with the series’ dense plotting and huge cast of ing characters, more traditional sitcom-esque episodes of The Simpsons still rank among the genre’s all-time greats.
The tone of the series might not be there yet, but Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and even Maggie arrive as fully rounded characters, unlike Family Guy’s Griffin family, who morphed into more distinguishable characters a couple of seasons down the line.
Season 12
By the series’ twelfth season, fans were pretty familiar with the Simpson clan. This allowed the writers to come up with self-referencing concepts like “HOMR” and surreal premises like the existential, paranoid “The Computer Wore Menace Shoes.”
Season 12 also has a ton of great episodes based around ancillary characters: “Skinner’s Sense of Snow,” for example, is one of the best Skinner-focused episodes. Unfortunately, this season also has “Homer vs. Dignity,” which has that infamous panda scene.
