There are 3 Simpsons
Simpsons One. (Seasons 1-8).
Simpsons Two. (Seasons 9-13)
Simpsons Three (Seasons 14+).
Simpsons One are the Classic episodes most everyone enjoyed, that balanced Simple plots, funny jokes and emotional moments all in one. There were some misses, but for the most part, it was a success and everyone who watched it enjoyed it. Guest characters were used, but served some sort of purpose as themselves or another character.
Simpsons Two took away the emotion and character development from the episodes and put the Family in zany comedic adventures that didn't have to make much sense. The plots were simple, and were classified as having a disjointed beginning with are a fairly forgettable (if not horrible) ending. The hottest celebrities were brought in to make someone say "Look there's So and So" for about a minute or so.
Simpson Three tried to put back in emotion and the drama from Simpsons One, and also complicated the stories a lot, making them far to confusing and weird to even enjoy that much. While there are no real horrible episodes, there are few good ones. Simpsons Three also has incredibley outdated humor generally, and gives little about continuity or trying to change the status quo. The celebrity guests were lesser known and usually only had one or two lines. Hell, even the freakin creator of the show was reduced to that.
"Simple Simpsons" is a good Simpsons Three episode. There's an attempt at emotion (Homer choosing between continuing to be Pieman even though it's against Lisa's wishes) but still has those complicated plot problems. (The plot goes from Homer trying to win a golden ticket to go to a bacon factory to judging a pig competition to pieing the Rich Texan to becoming a Superhero to being forced to work for Monty Burns to the ending). The outdated humor in this sense is a "Spiderman" Parody. You know, the two year old movie. Then again, Shrek 2 is also going to parody Spiderman at least in one scene, so I guess animation (that isn't South Park) is usually behind the times. The only real continuity mentioned was that Lisa is still a Buddhist. None was really broken (more so then usual) but the episode did succumb to the "bring a celebrity in for 30 second" joke. In this case, it was Nicole Nicholas, who had an ACTUAL purpose when she guest starred in Futurama (in "Anthology Of Intrest One" and "Where No Fan Has Gone Before"). You can't say the same here can ya? Addmitngly, there were some funny jokes (like say Nelson introducing Milhouse to Fist Face, or Bart being the Cupcake Kid, or Marge saying only an idiot wouldn't know that Homer was Pie Man) but is that what's the Simpsons have come down to? A few jokes we can laugh at each weak and then cringe or meh at the other ones. Looks to be that.
