'manatees' delivers, real manatees still useless
Unquestionably, I am a Simpson nerd. For the past 17 years, every Sunday - and for a brief period, Thursday - night I have invited their family into my home for a half-hour of entertainment.

In that span of almost two decades I have learned much from the show. New vocabulary such as "cromulent," "carhole," "boo-urns" and "groin-grabbingly good" has entered my lexicon. At a young age, "The Simpsons" taught me that authority doesn't necessarily need respect and, for the most part, they're just as scared and clueless as the rest of us. I also learned that that putting "speed holes" in your car helps it go faster.

But it seems the only thing I've been learning from the newer episodes of "The Simpsons" is the show just isn't very good anymore. Saying that "The Simpsons" is past its prime may be as trite as calling "Saturday Night Live" "Saturday Night Dead," but the animated family has been on life support so long that the firing of a completely incompetent head writer (Tina Fey in the case of SNL) won't solve the show's problems.

If you've been living a generally productive and healthy life, I don't expect you to know that the downhill slide of "The Simpsons" started around 1997 with the promotion of writer Mike Scully to show-runner status. Under his four-season reign, the show's humor grew much broader, Homer got much more stupid (and was injured violently more often), and many of the empathetic qualities of the show were sacrificed in exchange for changing the characters from people into "joke tubes."

When Al Jean, the man who co-ran seasons 3 and 4 (considered by fans to be part of the "golden years"), returned to his former position, many fans saw him as a possible savior of the show. Since his return in 2001, the show and its fans have had a rocky love-hate relationship. "Bonfire of the Manatees," the seventeenth season premiere, marks Jean's fifth season as show-runner.

In this season premiere, Homer turns the Simpson house into a makeshift porn studio in an attempt to pay off some gambling debts to series regular Mafioso Fat Tony. Upon discovering this (Marge: "How could you allow this? In the room where we do puzzles!"), Marge leaves Homer and decides to go on a journey of self-discovery. Just as she is at the turning point of going back to Homer, Marge develops a non-sexual crush on rugged marine biologist Caleb Thorn (guest star Alec Baldwin). Completely dependant on Marge, Homer takes a journey of his own to find her and win his wife back.

The "Homer and Marge have a huge fight" premise has happened so much in the past few seasons of "The Simpsons" that it was hard for me to get excited about the season premiere. However, despite the old ground it covers, "Bonfire of the Manatees" is a very solid - not to mention funny - episode.

A huge problem with much of the new Jean era has been a lack of focus, yet "Manatees" is extremely focused, and doesn't meander. It is a little strange that Marge would leave her children with Homer, knowing how dangerously unqualified he is at fatherhood, but I was willing to buy a little uncharacteristic behavior in exchange for some good comedy.

It's very nice to have an episode full of laughs with very little cringing on my part. The annoying puns that have plagued the last few years of the show (the writers often seem to labor under the misconception that each and every line needs to be a joke) were actually absent from this episode. Homer's unique relationship with his children is explored further, with Lisa taking the role of authority and voice of nagging reason in Marge's absence.

While "Bonfire of the Manatees" does not live up to the unreachable standard of the golden years of "The Simpsons", it does give me hope for the future. And even though the show isn't as good as it used to be, in order to appreciate "The Simpsons", all you have to do is take a look at other shows on TV. For instance, Fox's newest sitcom "The War at Home," which premiered after "The Simpsons", is one of the worst shows I've seen and features the tired, yet creepy idea of "the father is gatekeeper of his daughter's vagina." And what do I have to say about that?

Boo-urns.