The Principal and the Pauper

I'd heard a lot about this episode and what people feel is its relation to the decline of The Simpsons. Judging it as a lone standing episode it really isn't that bad. It's not the best for sure but there's some funny moments. I reckon that to some degree its reputation proceeds it.

However I do completely understand the rage that this episode brought about. I was also somewhat bewildered after listening to the on disc commentary of the episode how surprised the writer and producers seem to be at the amount of criticism the episode got, In particular the writer who seems to suggest, to paraphrase, that this is possibly the best bit of TV writing he's ever done. It's easy to understand why they came across as somewhat bitter about the whole thing given the amount of "verbal abuse" they apparently received over the episode, which of course is completely unacceptable, but I'd still much rather they just admitted that this wasn't a great idea.