Somewhere, Over The Shark Tank, Part 2

We've already pointed out one of Hollywood's attempts at self-destruction. Now comes another.

Most recently, the producers of "The Simpsons" have decided to prove their political correctness by depicting one of Marge's sisters as being a lesbian. How this advances the general theme of the show is beyond us. We must also admit that we stopped watching that particular episode around 5 minutes into it.

Have ratings for the show dropped that badly? If so, the producers have no one but themselves to blame. As one critic so aptly pointed out, the show works best when the regular characters are allowed to be themselves. The worst episodes were when outside "talent" was brought in to "spice things up". There's more than enough fodder for hilarity given the foibles of the regular cast.

Then, too, perhaps the miniscule attention span of the average American might be part of the problem. The hunger for thrills shows no sign of abating.

Regarding "8 Simple Rules", we can only note that the show seems to have survived despite the presence of Mr. Spade, not because of it. The writers have at least managed to keep some quality in the scripts, although it could always be better.

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