The Simpsons boss: "I think it’s impossible for us to compete with our fourth-season selves"

The A.V. Club

Showrunner Al Jean was asked in a wide-ranging interview with The A.V. Club how he reacts to criticism. Jean responded that The Simpsons isn't the same show as it was in its glory days of the early 1990s. "I also think if you took an episode from the fourth season and aired it now, it wouldn’t get the same reviews," he says. "Back then, when the fourth season was airing, I was there and people were sort of dismissive of it. I remember people going, 'Oh, The Simpsons has gotten too silly. It’s lost its way. What’s this ‘Monorail’ show?' A lot of people didn’t like the 'Monorail' show at first. And now you say, as I’ve heard, that people voted it the best ever. So I think you can judge relatively what episodes are better or worse based on what people react to now. But in terms of an all-time standard, it’s hard for me to be objective about that. We did just win the Outstanding Animated Series Emmy for 'Mad About The Toy,' (in 2019) which I guess proves that if the standards of The Simpsons have fallen, so have the standards of the Emmys."