Amen to that!

Sadly, a lot of that authenticity fell to the wayside when the original Simpsons writers left the show to work on "Futurama" and "The Critic" and Fox retooled the show for syndication.

I'm personally more of a KOTH fan - I found it to be a much more grounded example of middle class life in the late 1990s and early 2000s while also recognizing that the Hills had it good. I find a similar strain of authenticity in Bob's Burgers (unsurprising since much of the team worked on KOTH).

> Frank Grimes is one of the best characters on TV

I remember getting enraged as an elementary schooler watching that episode because his statement hit true, but we were also a family of 4 living in a 1 bedroom apartment at the time and newly immigrated, and even then I felt similar to Grimes when watching the Simpsons.

When I reached my teens, I finally understood it was a callout by the writers trying to remind viewers that the Simpsons wasn't reality.

<< When I reached my teens, I finally understood it was a callout by the writers trying to remind viewers that the Simpsons wasn't reality.

Interesting. This is not how I interpreted it at all in my initial viewing ( or subsequent ones for that matter ). If Grimes criticized anything, it was Homer and people like Homer. If it was a meta-commentary, it was certainly not drawing a distinction between reality of Grime's life and the imaginary one income head of the household doing surprisingly well given the circumstances. Grimes story was a story of a guy, who just had a bad luck.. over and over again, but even when the good luck did show, he failed the test and focused not on what he gained, but others have despite being, in his eyes, lesser than him.

That is the moral of the story. Don't be Grimes. He may wish he can be Homer Simpson, but he sure can't touch those high voltage signs.