from what i have seen in the earlier parts of the episode, marge commented that parents are also entitled to keeping secrets, or something like that...


so,if we were to strictly follow the little to non-existent timeline of the simpsons and to treat this cartoon like it was "real", it is possible that most of what happened or shown in "the way we was" was partly true (it was a story/flashback right?, who are we to say that they were entirely the truth?)..

lets not forget that this cartoon universe exists in a floating timeline, so having Bart born in the 80's wouldn't really makes sense because he's 10 and it's 2008. I think this was their way of updating the show...

i also liked the way they wrapped up the '90s. i for one think this episode was for the fans that watched the show during the era..

What? This episode does not change the continuity any more than any of the other flashbacks did. At least this episode explained why there were +5 years between when Homer and Marge graduated from HS and when Bart was conceived.

I think that the saddest thing about this episode is that it clearly marks the end of any social relevance the Simpsons ever had. Not that there was much left to begin with, but now we can rest assured it is gone for good.
Part of what I felt was so poignant about the original Marge-Homer story is that it depicted the life of two working class kids who fucked up, were disillusioned with their lives, but somehow managed to keep a semi-happy life for their family. Marge was the smart girl who never made it out of small town, working class life. Homer was forced into a miserable job from the get go to survive. They represented a great fuck you to the pedantic establishment of the 90's that claimed to have delivered prosperity to the doors of all Americans. Marge and Homer were among those left behind.
The humor came from the very real problems of a working class marriage that consistently failed to make ends meet, unable to cope with anger, regret, and disappointment. This gave the show both its edge and its humanity.
Now this has been dropped for bland middle-class respectability. Marge makes it to College. She is no longer the knocked-up smart girl forced into marriage to a good guy with no future. Homer loses his whole past to serve the purpose of a dumb pop parody of Grunge.
Now, when they eventually get married, it will be made to look as a choice, rather than a desperate attempt to cover up a life-changing mistake. Surrendering the working class roots of the show, have given up their identity, exchanging scathing social critiques and sincere humanity for the vacuous pop irony that fuels Family Guy. This I'm sure, will allow them to connect to the new breed of fans who care very little for social issues and live for random pop references.

Moan about retconning as much as you like, but Lisa had a point. Homer is near-40, and Bart is 10. There is no way they had him just after they graduated, unless they graduated in their late 20s.

Personally I loved the episode, even as a huge Simpsons fan from the beginning. I don't look at it as somehow tossing out the old history, basically look at it as a one-off episode that doesn't necessarily have any permanent impact on the history of the show. We're seeing a lot of those in recent years. I just felt it was a great episode compared to many in the uneven last few years of the show - good emotion between Marge and Homer, Homer's amazing grunge songs, and 90s references galore.

Remember as Lisa memorably said to Bart - "It seems like every week something odd happens to the Simpsons. My advice is to ride it out, make an occasional smart-aleck quip and by next week we'll be back where we started from, ready for another wacky adventure"

I thought it was a funny episode, and that the retcon was itself one of the funnier bits in it. I just wish they could have really addled up the continuity by, say, having a Sadgasm fan ask Homer to sign an old Be Sharps album...

Has anyone mentioned the Behind the Laughter episode spoofing VH1? It showed us that the Simpsons we watch is actually a fictional world within another fictional world of cartoon actors playing the characters in the Simpsons. Arguably the most recent episode was not inconsistent with our continuity because we are actually watching the fictional "real world" cartoon actors playing Simpsons. Now, if you were in the fictional "real world" as part of the cartoon audience you should be bitter that they screwed up continuity. Actually, they should do another meta-espisode with fictional "real world" Simpsons discussing the re-boot of the Simpsons continuity.

Why does everyone insist the time line was changed, this is an obvious one shot episode that will probably never be mentioned again. Did I miss where all of Homer's money went? It seems like tis was a one shot and wont be mentioned again, I took it like that and enjoyed the episode very much.

Next thing you know, people will be getting angry and saying that they "retconned" Weird Al's songs.

What I hated about this episode, in addition to the fact that they flushed all continuity down the toilet, is that it just wasn't very good. Yeah, it had funny moments, but the story just didn't hold together the way earlier episodes did (like, say, anything from seasons 2-12 or so).

OK, sure, you have to suspend disbelief if you're going to watch a show for 18 years (holy crap) but not have any of the characters age at all. But a show can still have its own internal continuity, and that's now gone.

Not to be all Comic Book Guy about it, but it's just annoying.