The secret to success in show business is to always leave them wanting more — so I guess Flanders’ Leftorium wouldn’t have failed if he only stamped half the ticket, or something like that.
While it may seem from an outside observer’s perspective that the writers of The Simpsons are openly hostile to their own canon and care little for progressing the character arcs within the show in between each post-credits world reset, nothing could be mostly-correct-but-still-slightly-further from the truth. Yes, the ethos of The Simpsons necessitates that the town of Springfield will always return to neutral despite whatever seemingly world-shaking events take place in each episode, but even beyond the occasional killing-off of a beloved side character or the occasional adoption of a Chinese orphan, there are subtle, ingenious, multiple-season storylines woven into the world of The Simpsons that demonstrate the extreme level of care and inspiration that holds the floating timeline together.
I recently …