With 36 seasons and over 700 episodes under its belt, The Simpsons is an almost inexhaustible source of information. We've previously explored some of the craziest theories, the improvements in its animation, and even the lifestyle of its main characters, but today we're turning to an episode so controversial that Matt Groening himself considers it a mistake…
There's no denying it: the Golden Age of The Simpsons is behind us, and it probably never will return. Fans still share ideas, trying to define exactly where it ended... but the general consensus is that something happened between the eighth and tenth seasons that changed everything.
Lists published online usually focus (logically) on the 'best episodes', but when looking for that breaking point, you have to look more closely at the bad episodes. The folks at SlashFilm mention two interesting examples: Monty Can't Buy Me Love (10x21) with Mr. Burns capturing the Loch Ness monster, and A Star Is Burns (06x18), the crossover with The Critic that Matt Groening tried to remove until the last minute. However, there's an episode whose scandal factor is far above the rest, so much so that Matt Groening called it "a huge mistake".
The Principal and the Pauper, or How to Ruin Principal Skinner
September 28, 1997, second episode of the ninth season. The Principal and the Pauper (also known as "El director y el pillo" and "Vida prestada") reveals that Seymour Skinner is actually Armin Tamzarian/Armando Barreda, an impostor and criminal from Capital City who stole the real Skinner's identity after his return from Vietnam. In Groening's own words, at the end of the episode they realized they had made a huge mistake. This was reflected with the judge changing Armin/Armando's name to Seymour Skinner at the end of the episode, essentially ordering that the subject never be discussed again, under penalty of torture.
Harry Shearer, who voiced Seymour Skinner at that time, was even harsher: He said they were taking something that the audience had built up over eight or nine years and threw it away without a good reason, for a story they had already done before with other characters. The decision was arbitrary and gratuitous, disrespecting the audience... but all that was buried with the Ok, action.
For SlashFilm the episode isn't as bad as its reputation suggests, but many fans prefer not to give it the benefit of the doubt, and point to it as the true end of the Golden Age of The Simpsons, that "jumping the shark" moment from which it never recovered.
Source: SlashFilm
