This isn't too surprising. Harry Shearer has refused to toe the "everything's great, the show just keeps getting better" line for several years now. He turned down the Family Guy crossover. His public comments about the show just keep getting more and more bitter. I don't think it's about money at all - he's just…

Building next door: Meet the Patents - Patent Attorney
Exterminator: The Baiting Is the Hardest Part

With the "Marge vs. bullying" storyline, I feared another "Sweets and Sour Marge" or "Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens, and Gays". Part of me is glad they abandoned that for a better plot… but it would have been nice to see the bullying law be abused or backfire (outside of a couple quick gags),…

And he actually sounded okay this week!

It's kind of strange that Lisa was more articulate than when she was 3 in "Lisa's Sax."

I completely understand the view that the series got better after Jean returned, and for a while I tried desperately to believe it. Pulling back the zaniness and making Homer less of a jerk than the Scully years were both good decisions… but now we've traded that for a sea of blandness.

The clown bed and Grandma Flanders were the laziest of callbacks - there was no humor other than "Hey, we remember these things!" (and I suppose the clown's head falling). At least give her a different first line!

I think Kearney is the only one who's confirmed to be that old - though Dolph and Jimbo do look like they shouldn't be in elementary school.

I gave up on Jericho before the first season ended because it felt like a boring soap opera, but this show is still a(n increasingly guilty) pleasure.

I'm a well-wisher, in that I don't wish you any specific harm.

I agree. "Summer of 4'2"" is close, though. "Behind the Laugher" gets thrown around a lot as a potential series finale, and it would have served well enough if we had to go beyond 8 seasons.

I can hear SNPP complaining from here from the mere idea of that happening.

Thanks, everyone, for your support and feedback through the 19 or so episodes I covered this season, first with syndication cuts and then later adding the commentaries. (We shall not speak of King of the Hill.) It was my first time following something on this site as a (semi-)regular commenter from week to week.

Hello, mother. Hello, A.V. Club. I missed you during my uneventful absence.

I'd say it was forgotten before it was canceled - most people I know had no idea it was still on when its cancellation scare came in season 11, let alone when it was actually canceled in season 13. KotH wasn't even one of the top 100 network shows in seasons 8-12, and in season 13 it was #95.

I don't know. I liked Sally, I loved how Linda doted over her, and Teddy got some great lines in. It may not have gone much of anywhere, but the dialogue makes up for it.

I'm a furry and this disturbs me.

Building next door: Shelfies: Pictures of Shelves
Exterminator: Bugs Done-y Pest Control
Burger of the Day: Let's Give 'Em Something Shiitake 'Bout Burger

Maybe it's sacrilege, but King of the Hill aired "Peggy the Boggle Champ" after this episode, and I think (for the only time this season) KotH had the better episode. Of course, that began happening more and more as time went on.

This is definitely in my bottom 10 in the first eight seasons. Nothing egregiously bad about it - it just didn't land, didn't feel like much of anything happened.