I watched David Letterman last week, for the first time in a long time on the teevee (a different and far more constrictive media experience than shifting through the show on the Internet.)  The man’s show has seen better days, by which I mean all of them.  Letterman is going through the motions, and it’s easy to see current Letterman viewing as coming with a sample bias that tilts toward various moments of inspiration — his sex scandal and Leno versus Conan brought him some good mileage — which fades back to a stagnant status quo.
Still, I’ve tended to shift from any present day Letterman to youtube to see something out of the 1980s or first half of the 1990s — which probably has a more acute selection bias.

One more thing irritates.  The commercials.  There are MANY of them, and they are populated by commercials telling me that I am depressed and should ask a doctor to get me some pills.  They do a trick — now a smidgeon more desirous to get a doctor to get me some pills as I am slightly more depressed for having seen the commercials.  I guess they know their midnight audience, waiting for the Johnny Depp interview.

The Simpsons has seen worse days.  As you’d expect with a twenty year run, it’s had an uneven course.  It would be interesting to review the program and chart its course, and when characteristics that have defined its highs and lows crept or plowed in.  Go to the wikipedia page and there are a few tid-bits:

Mike Scully, who was show runner during seasons nine through twelve, has been the subject of criticism.^[182][183] Chris Suellentrop of Slate wrote “under Scully’s tenure, The Simpsons became, well, a cartoon. […] Episodes that once would have ended with Homer and Marge bicycling into the sunset now end with Homer blowing a tranquilizer dart into Marge’s neck. The show’s still funny, but it hasn’t been touching in years.”^[182] When asked in 2007 how the series’ longevity is sustained, Scully replied, “Lower your quality standards. Once you’ve done that you can go on forever.”^[184]
In 2003, to celebrate the show’s 300th episode “Barting Over“, USA Today published a pair of Simpsons related articles: a top-ten episodes list chosen by the webmaster of The Simpsons Archive fansite,^[185] and a top-15 list by The Simpsons’ own writers.^[186] The most recent episode listed on the fan list was 1997’s “Homer’s Phobia“; the Simpsons’ writers most recent choice was 2000’s “Behind the Laughter“. In 2004, Harry Shearer criticized what he perceived as the show’s declining quality: “I rate the last three seasons as among the worst, so Season Four looks very good to me now.”^[187] In response, Dan Castellaneta stated “I don’t agree, […] I think Harry’s issue is that the show isn’t as grounded as it was in the first three or four seasons, that it’s gotten crazy or a little more madcap. I think it organically changes to stay fresh.”

Mike Scully — was that the time the show used that device of snapping the story into a very different direction after the first commercial break, a meta-joke that may have been amusing once or twice, but generally fits into Harry Shearer’s opinion?
The episode Matt Groening had his “Alan Smithee” – esque removal of name was actually a moderately funny episode, if jarring in its commercial designs. 

“The Principal and the Pauper” (season nine, 1997) is one of the most controversial episodes of The Simpsons. Many fans and critics reacted negatively to the revelation that Principal Seymour Skinner, a recurring character since the first season, was an impostor. The episode has been criticized by Matt Groening and by Harry Shearer, who provides the voice of Principal Skinner. In a 2001 interview, Shearer recalled that after reading the script, he told the writers, “That’s so wrong. 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 so arbitrary and gratuitous, and it’s disrespectful to the audience.”
A “What the Hell are these guys” doing moment?

As a general rule, right now The Simpsons has found its way to basics.  The Earnest Lisa episodes are dampered a bit and avoid some preachiness.  Bart looms larger on the show than he has at times in the past.  The last Christmas themed episode was a bit disconcerting, though — The Muppets parody was sort of noxious.

Hm.  Animated Cartoon Special?

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