Skinner—newly liberated from a Chinese sweatshop—Skinner reveals his true name of Armin Tamzarian and his Rebel Without A Cause past: “Those who recall my fight to outlaw teenage rudeness may be shocked to learn that I, myself, was once a street punk.”. In which that’s not a funny story, but I guess you had to be there…. 14. Close. Club’s classic The Simpsons coverage, there’s been something akin to an air of dread hanging over our reviewers, the feeling that in this journey through the show the best is almost over. [17], In his 2004 book Planet Simpson, Chris Turner describes "The Principal and the Pauper" as the "broadcast that marked [the] abrupt plunge" from The Simpsons' "Golden Age", which he says began in the middle of the show's third season. “The Principal And The Pauper” (season nine, episode two; originally aired 09/28/1997) ... this is the one the majority would agree is the jump-the-shark moment. He also refuses to take part in mother-son activities with Agnes, who realizes she misses having Armin as a son. Look at the tremendous “Sweet Seymour Skinner’s Baadassss Song” from season five, or the wonderfully touching “Grade School Confidential” only a few episodes before this one. Skinner’s speech about giving up half his life for Springfield transforms everyone else into the bad guy. Great sight gag: No one bothered to take down Skinner’s anniversary banner between the party and his assembly to announce his resignation. The series would continue to produce good-to-great episodes—several of which are still present in season nine—but the show’s batting average would never again be what it was. I always felt the focus on the Principal and the Pauper as a shark jump as ass backwards, The SImpsons never had perfect consistency and often made fun … The family’s discussion of the merits of Shakespeare’s “rose by any other name” quote is a delightful non sequitur (Marge: “I’d sure hate to get a dozen crapweeds for Valentine’s Day. The episode starts off with Super Intendent Chalmers telling all the teachers that it is Principal Skinners twentieth year of being a principal at Springfield Elementary,so the teachers decide to throw a surprise party for him. Seymour told Armin that his dream was to become an elementary school principal after the war. While the existence of Tamzarian can never be revealed in the show under penalty of torture. He always stood up for the kids, albeit in his … Next time: As we prepare you for a review of “Lisa’s Sax,” Kyle Ryan would like to pass along the words of advice his father gave him: “You’re as dumb as a mule and twice as ugly. Keeve. The matter-of-fact way he goes about cutting ties with his life is a very Skinner thing to do (“I know we were planning to see a film tonight but instead, I’m leaving town forever,” he tells a heartbroken Edna), and the way he tries to slide back into the role of Armin is rife with comedic potential. Keeler said he later received a "curtly phrased" letter from Tamzarian, who wanted to know why his name appeared in the episode. The commentary track on this episode is worth listening to for the degree of frustration that runs through Keeler’s voice. He was sent sailing straight over the shark.The shark smelled blood.The shark started to circle.We spotted a fin.But the damage had been done.The shark had moved on to its next victim.If hearing those phrases repeatedly does not bother you, then you will enjoy the abridged audiobook version of Jump the Shark, written and read by John Hein. In your opinion, which episode did The Simpsons "jump the shark"? HighOnCraic. Updated 8 mins ago: I didn't like the movie either. So we reach the most controversial episode of the simpsons the shark jumping to many The Principal And The Pauper an episode remembered … He can’t go back to being Armin Tamzarian from who he is now—though again, largely because it makes no sense he was ever this guy in the first place. Our Skinner, it turns out, is really a former bad boy called Armin Tanzarian. But (a.) I could go on a VERY long rant about ruining one the supporting casts best characters but if you're a Simpsons fan you know already. The so-called Golden Age of The Simpsons, that point where the show churned out classic after classic, finally reached its end as the eighth season wrapped up, its satirical engine and sense of the world of Springfield finally starting to run out of steam as the writers struggled to find new stories to tell. I think The Principal And The Pauper was definitely one of their worst. A small moment perhaps and it was great for the rest of the series but it was (I think) the first moment where they had an ending that ignored logic and joked about it. From music legends to sports heroes, from TV shows to politics, Jump the Shark catalogs those priceless moments when the magic vanishes and the mighty become the fallen! If I had to pinpoint a moment when it jumped the shark, it would have to be the episode where Maude Flanders dies. Actually, I’d rather call the original Skinner “protective” of his school and of the children in it. * Moreover, her death was stupid, tacky, tasteless and offensive. 1 April 2019 . Skinner's not really close to these people—you know, he's a minor character—but they get upset when someone comes in and says, 'This is not really the way things are', and they run the messenger out of town on the rail. This episode features the revelation that Principal Seymour Skinner is, in fact, an impostor, when the real Skinner returns from a POW camp long after the Vietnam War. This is a wild … Commentary for "The Principal and the Pauper", in, Moore, Steven Dean. Do people confuse a bad … The episode writes itself into a corner, and the only way out is to ride Sgt. In other cases, critics dispute the exact shark jumping moment. "The Principal and the Pauper" was the last episode of The Simpsons written by Ken Keeler, who also pitched the original idea for the episode. Season 9 was the last good season. Armin was once a troubled young man from Capital City who enlisted in the Army in order to avoid a jail sentence for petty crimes. * Again, they did it for no reason whatsoever, aside from … Here's why: * They took the most inoffensive, beautifully understated and subtle character in the entire show and killed her for no good reason. It aired in the United States on September 28th, 1997 with Martin Sheen guest starring as Sgt. There, he met and befriended the real Sergeant Seymour Skinner, who became his mentor and helped him find meaning in his troubled life. But of the episodes I've seen I don't consider … The fact is, The Simpsons jumped the shark a decade ago. Years before that, however, they got it right. 1 Answer. "The Principal and the Pauper" is the second episode of The Simpsons' ninth season. This is the best episode of television I feel I ever wrote. "The Principal and the Pauper" is the second episode of The Simpsons' ninth season. Springfield is as malleable and mob-ruled as ever, pushed in whatever direction is most convenient, not up in arms that this destroyed their comfortable bubble. Oakley said he and Weinstein "spent a month immersed in the mind of Seymour Skinner" to prepare that episode, and from that point forward, took every opportunity to "tinker with [Skinner's] personality and his backstory and his homelife". Commentary for "The Principal and the Pauper", in, Weinstein, Josh. [14] The Fox network's ratings average for the week was 6.4. Matt Groening, in the ninth season DVD introduction, calls it out as one of his least favorite episodes. Yet Agnes’ strong-arming her adopted son to return leads to the greatest sin of “The Principal And The Pauper,” the ending. Martin Sheen as the real Seymour Skinner[1]. The decline of The Simpsons is a source of great pain to me. "The Principal and the Pauper" was written by Ken Keeler and directed by Steven Dean Moore. That man is the real Seymour Skinner.” Armin Tamzarian (Fake Skinner)'s confession "The Principal and the Pauper" is the second episode of Season 9. “The Principal and the Pauper” on the other hand is an episode where the writers tried to throw in an elaborate war era backstory and ended up making an episode, which many mark as the decline of The Simpsons. 10 Times The Simpsons Jumped The Shark. [16], In July 2007, in an article in The Guardian, Ian Jones argues that the "show became stupid" in 1997, pointing to "The Principal and the Pauper" as the bellwether. [4][5] According to animation director Steve Moore, one of the working titles for the episode was "Skinnersby". Does "The Principal and the Pauper" being the Simpson's "jump the shark" moment make sense if there were many classic episodes that followed? … Relevance. The Simpsons are dressed as astronauts and sit on the couch just as it blasts off into space. [13] The episode was the second highest rated show on the Fox network that week, following King of the Hill. 10 June 2013 at 12:56 pm. When did The Simpsons jump the shark? [12], "The Principal and the Pauper" finished 41st in the United States in the ratings for the week of September 22–28, 1997, with a Nielsen rating of 9.2. Voiced with aplomb by Martin Sheen, who was cast based on the producers’ affection for his work as a Vietnam veteran in Apocalypse Now, Sgt. [33] In the season fifteen episode "I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot", Lisa addresses Principal Skinner as "Principal Tamzarian" when Skinner chides her for naming her new cat Snowball II, after a cat that had died earlier in the episode. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on September 28, 1997. The celebration goes well until a strange man arrives, claiming to be the real Seymour Skinner. Some good Ralph Wiggum lines here too: “Principal Skinner is an old man who lives at the school.” “Teacher made me go to Principal Skinner’s office when I was dirty.” “When I grow up, I wanna be a principal or a caterpillar. The decline of The Simpsons is a source of great pain to me. It’s also doubly insulting that they use this plot to discredit Skinner’s previously alluded Vietnam experiences, a detail as key to his character as the way he’s cowed by Chalmers and his mother. A lot of people point towards The Simpsons episode 'The Principal and the Pauper' as a 'jump the shark' moment. our Inventory on subplots shows threw out the window. It’s nice you’re alive, but you’re just not what I’m looking for in a son. It's like they're punishing [the audience] for paying attention. [22], Other figures associated with The Simpsons have publicly criticized the episode. “The Principal And The Pauper” scratches against the fourth wall without ever breaking it, and can’t get its message through as a result. 1. And while far more time is spent defending the idea of the episode than discussing the specifics other tracks get into, he does reveal that the name Armin Tamzarian came from an insurance adjuster who helped him out following a car crash. Try Prime EN Hello, Sign in Account & Lists Sign in Account & Lists Returns & Orders Try Prime Cart. They realize it was a horrible mistake. Harry Shearer has over the years used such terms as “arbitrary,” “disrespectful,” and “a horrible … 7 mins ago. The reactions are never outraged or indignant enough to feel like that’s what the episode is about—indeed, when Marge addresses the topic directly, her argument on why this makes her uncomfortable is entirely valid. [26], In contrast, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, the authors of I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, praised the episode, calling it "one of the series' all-time best episodes, mainly because it shows us a human side, not just of Principal Skinner, but of his hectorish [sic] Mom as well." Her rejection of her real and fake sons displays some great willful ignorance (“I have one stranger and one fraud!”), and her admission that “there was a weenie you could be proud to call your son” is the one time she feels like an affectionate mother. He takes the job, but finds himself isolated by the townspeople, who realize they prefer Armin to him. Skinner isn’t the unlikeable character that Poochie was or that Frank Grimes became—a key detail that allowed both of those earlier jokes on the audience to work. It jumped the shark figuratively around the point of the Tomacco,literally I'd say it jumped either in the episode "Kill the Alligator and Run" (Replace jumping the shark with running over the alligator) or that episode where Homer disowns Santa's Little Helper and it ends with a shark getting drunk (Replace jumping in this case with boozing the shark) (movie, 2014, days) User Name: Remember Me: Password : Please ... the pivotal moment for me was when it was revealded that principal skinner was an imposter , apparently his real name is arman tanzarian or something , nothing could recover from that 01-11-2013, 11:15 AM topchief1 : Location: Charlotte, NC. [3], Producers Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein were excited about the episode because Principal Skinner was one of their favorite characters. It's so arbitrary and gratuitous, and it's disrespectful to the audience. Books . They resorted to ever more outlandish episodes. While Shearer’s never hidden his distaste for the episode in the ensuing years, he does a great job applying Skinner’s typical monotone delivery to his radically changed circumstances. This page was last edited on 13 January 2021, at 19:22. This episode features the revelation that Principal Seymour Skinner is, in fact, an impostor, when the real Skinner returns from a POW camp long after the Vietnam War. “I can’t remember who came up with the idea of destroying the series,” he half-jokes at the start, but his sense of irony is short-lived the deeper he gets into his arguments. You're taking something that an audience has built eight years or nine years of investment in and just tossed it in the trash can for no good reason, for a story we've done before with other characters. It's pretty well established that The Simpsons just hasn't been the same since the late 1990s, but when do people think it jumped the shark? The episode garnered controversy from fans and critics, with many citing it as the moment when the series, "This [episode] is about a community of people who like things just the way they are. Compared to other episodes with a more overt aim to skewer, like “Homer’s Enemy” or “The Itchy And Scratchy And Poochie Show,” the satire on the people of Springfield isn’t clear enough beyond a mid-episode Kent Brockman dig at the town’s “adaptable” citizens. Bill Oakley considers "The Principal and the Pauper" the most controversial episode from his tenure as executive producer. There's still some gems up to season 15, but it's not nearly as consistency good as seasons 3-8, which is really the golden era. 1 year ago . Fox. Does "The Principal and the Pauper" being the Simpson's "jump the shark" moment make sense if there were many classic episodes that followed? The Principal and the Pauper. 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