Our 'Simpsons' Nostalgia Is Ruining the Show for the Next Generation of Viewers

This article originally appeared on VICE UK.

It goes without saying that it's time for The Simpsons to call it a day. To be ushered out the door, a FOX executive waiting with a samurai sword in hand, ready to lop off its head and watch cash pour—fountain-like—from its neck stump, in the form of movie deals and endless extortionate merchandise.

Problem is, we've now been having this conversation once a year for about 15 years. We reminisce on our favorite moments—the dog-faced woman, " One: where's the fife? Two: Give me the fife," Man Getting Hit By Football—then we bemoan its continued life and go back to forgetting it, only engaging when there's a good re-run on FXX.

However, a bigger question must now be asked of this childhood mainstay: How can it continue when the actor who voices half its cast wants to leave?

Harry Shearer—voice of Mr. Burns, Ned Flanders, Reverend Tim Lovejoy, Kent Brockman, Principal Skinner, Dr. Hibbert, and many more—has decided he will not be returning to the series. He tweeted a comment from executive producer James L. Brooks's lawyer stating as much, giving his reason as: "I've wanted what I've always had: the freedom to do other work."

Shearer can be seen as a metaphor for the show. He is 71-years-old, has been voicing all those characters for longer than I imagine he—or anyone—had anticipated, and is getting tired. He wants to do other things, and when you reach that age, the realization that you may not have a great deal of time to do so becomes startlingly apparent.

The Simpsons as a cultural phenomenon meant a great deal to a great many people. It informed and moulded the humor of a generation of kids, teens, and young adults. It provided a platform for exceptional talents like John Swartzwelder and a young Conan O'Brien, among others. It is untouchable in its glory years, the dates of which are subject to great debate. I personally think it started going downhill after the tragic murder of Phil Hartman, voice of Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz, two of the show's more pointedly ludicrous characters. A part of its soul was lost, and it appeared to be irredeemable.

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But what if it isn't? Perhaps the real reason so many people don't like it now is because they feel a sense of betrayal. It's not what it's supposed to be. It doesn't conform to the ideal you have in your head. The stories are different. The characters are different. I don't want to see Bart use an iPad. I don't want to hear Homer talking about retweets. I feel sick at the prospect of Moe's Tavern becoming a "hipster" bar. Even the use of the word hipster by any character strikes fear into my heart. But is my war cry for the preservation of the-way-it-was a fair one?

The Simpsons has endured for so long because, clearly, people still like it. Even though the show hit an all-time low in ratings this year, it still gets more viewers than new shows like ABC'sRevenge, and CBS' The Good Wife, or NBC'sBelieve. For every detractor saying the series peaked at "Last Exit to Springfield"—that everything from there on in has been an utter shitshow—there is a loyal viewer, watching week-in, week-out. That loyal viewer might be a child, like you were when you loved it. They might enjoy the old episodes, obscure as they may seem now to fresh eyes, but love that their favorite cartoon is saying something relevant to the world they're currently growing up in.

But really, older fans of the show will never rekindle their love for it. It has changed too much. It's too different, like Jack Nicholson after his lobotomy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. To us, Shearer's departure is the biggest nail yet in the coffin of something we all wanted buried long ago, a corpse whose odor makes us delirious as it seeps like a gas leak through the cracks in the wood. But there are others out there, who are still enjoying the show much the same way we did when we were young. I'm as opposed to the Simpsons still being on TV as much as anyone else who grew up in the 90s, but won't somebody please think of the children?

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