For the second part, I agree, although they risk alienating their fan base. That's their choice. As for the first part, speak for yourself. For some of us it was very painful. :frankiemad:

I have gotten to the point where I can tolerate that episode (acceptance does not necessarily mean approval). I never understood why some people have to get what they want at the expense of others - but it happens.:cheese:

Cheese is the perfect icon to use for that statement.

I don't believe that I've yet given my opinion upon this, quite possibly the most hotly-debated of all Foster's episodes. To be honest I've been a little cautious about doing so in the past, given how much of a sore spot it is for some fans, but here goes.

In many ways, the structure of this episode reminds me very strongly of the Frasier episode, Crane vs. Crane, in that it spends most of its duration convincing us to place our sympathies within a particular cause and then rather cruelly opts to pull the rug out from underneath us at the very end, possibly in the interests of unpredictability, but ultimately at the expense of the viewer’s feelings and the episode’s own story arc. In both cases, the end result is more frustrating to the viewers (or at least a significant proportion of them) than anything else, and winds up pretty much obscuring whatever moral point the episode may have been attempting to deliver. As much as I adore Frasier, the episode “Crane vs. Crane” has never sat particularly well with me. It’s certainly not without its merits, but its final message, that Frasier is far from infallible and that Niles will occasionally get things right, doesn’t feel nearly as important or satisfactory as the point that the episode originally appeared to be making, and ultimately sacrificed, about society’s rather shallow and narrow definitions of normality.

Swap “Frasier” with “Frankie” and “Niles” with “Bloo”, and you more or less have the final rhetoric offered by “Imposter’s Home for Make Em Up Pals”, and again, it feels somewhat irrelevant, almost petty, compared to everything that’s come before. That Goofball may have been telling the truth all along about his identity doesn’t quite excuse the fact that he was still a complete nuisance to poor Frankie throughout his stay at Foster

Interesting comparison, JJ! I like Frasier too, and have since before I moved to the Seattle area. ;) I think I remember what episode you're talking about. I don't like seeing any character being persecuted to such a great extent, at least without getting some comfort and/or revenge in the end. I don't remember feeling as let down when watching "Crane vs. Crane", but then I was never attached to Frasier like I am Foster's. I do remember however the episode didn't impress me either. :P

Yeah, the comparison probably isn't entirely perfect, particularly seeing as how at the end of "Crane vs. Crane" Niles, unlike Bloo, does at least have to acknowledge that his final victory was a pretty hollow one. Plus, unlike "Imposters", the bulk of the episode doesn't consist of a particular Frasier character having to undergo an agonising endurance test - indeed, if not for that rather nasty twist ending, CvC would be a pleasant enough episode to watch, more or less. I guess the connection has less to do with the specific content of the episode than it does the basic structure - ie: encouraging the viewers to empathise with one side of an issue merely to spring an unpleasant "Gotcha!" moment upon them at the end. I'm left with a rather bitter aftertaste in both cases.

I don't like this episode. Not only because it tortures Frankie, it was just not funny. If it had a character who deserved it like Bendy, I still wouldn't of last. It's like the writers said let's do a horrible episode about torturing some good character.

I just didn't care for this episode. It could have been good, borderline okay at best, but it just... didn't sit right with me. It was just kinda... bleh. :P

Now, I have NO INTENTION to see this episode, nor did I ever want to post in this thread, but I just saw something from TV.com that caught my eye regarding the episode:
It kinda makes me wonder if Craig wrote this episode without Lauren not knowing about it. :frankiemad:

I'm sorry are you implying that Craig (Lewis) just went ahead and wrote this episode behind everyone's back and just kind of sprung it on everyone at the last second?

That sort of unprofessional behavior would get any television writer into so much hot water that their career would essentially be sunk for good.

So I hardly would think that was the case at all, especially with the other Craig at the helm creatively constantly checking in on every script from first draft to last.

And that said, C.Lewis while yes was the assigned writer for this episode, it's a safe bet that CMC, Lauren, the other writers and possibly network executives would have given their feedback and made contributions to the story here and there as it was being made.

And despite all that there is also the time factor at play, deadlines must be followed to letter. So maybe they did in fact have the best episode ever at one point but a lot of it had to be sacrificed without destroying the basic structure of the story in order to get the thing out on time.

Who knows? None of us can really say for sure because we weren't there.

BTW C.Lewis left the show not because of the feed back associated with this episode, but because he wanted to move on to his own projects (One of which was his short lived Adult Swim series "Saul of the Mole Men") So this would have been his last episode no matter what.

I've summed my opinions on this dull episode on the Five least favorite episodes thread (idea was good, coin jar was good, the rest was tedious and cruel), and I have summed up that this is by far the most universally disliked Fosters episode ever (with Bendy and Europe behind).

Asides from the main Fosters fanbase (you know, us!), do we know how this was received by the show's target audience (children), or from the more casual fans?

Did the writers receive any negative feedback for this? If so, have they made a response?

If you can find it, Lauren did mention something about negative feedback on the Toonzone.net forums around the same time the episode aired, in which she made the point that they were not trying to intentionally hurt people with this episode, but were doing what they always were doing, just trying to tell a funny story.

Do you mean the Characters or the viewers?

I meant the viewers.

In case anybody wanted to read this post for themselves, here it is:
http://forums.toonzone.net/showthrea...88#post1902488

She appears to regret Everyone Knows It's Bendy, and wasn't so proud of A Sight For Sore Eyes, but has defended Imposters

Hmmm... avery interesting point of view. I for one did not mind the Bendy episode, whreas with "Imposters..." Due to decorum, I will not open any wounds, and we will leave it at that.:frankiemad:

I thought Everyone Knows It's Bendy was great. I enjoyed Squeakerboxxx quite a bit, too. :bloogrin:

As for Imposter's, I dealt with it and Goofball in my own special way, and I'm done with it. :blooevil:

Yeah, I agree with you on this one, Cass. Aside from IOHSFY, this was by far the worst episode for me as well. Even now, several years later, it still stings when I think about it, although I will give it credit for having a somewhat decent ending, which IOHSFY lacked, which is why I hate that episode slightly more. But even so, they're both old history, and I prefer to think that either they never happened, or they were resolved somehow in the end.

Everyone probably knows this, but this episode really angers me to no end. Frankie spends all day working her butt off, but it ends up being more work when it's really all Goofjerk's fault. :edmad:

And honestly, I wish that Goofball WAS an actual human pretending to be an IF. Good gravy, I hate him so darn much! :frankiemad:

If I had a chance to change the ending, it would go like that, then the friends who doubted her would have apologized to her. However, having gone through all the trouble she had been through, Frankie says, "Apology NOT accepted! I quit!" But, however, she wouldn't really quit in the end.

And why the fudge did Frankie apologize to Goof-doof?! He's the one who should be apologizing to FRANKIE for being a moochy little brat! :scaryberry:

I think the whole idea is that this episode was created just to tick off us viewers is a bit extreme.

I know you all feel an emotional attachment to these characters, and don't get me wrong, I do too. I felt sorry for Bloo when he was adopted by Kip and locked in a cage with nothing to eat. I felt sorry for Wilt when he got his arm crushed and his eye all mangled :( and I definitely felt for Frankie in this episode. But like Lauren said, Conflict is more interesting than non-conflict. Their intent was to tell a story, and I'm sure they didn't mean any harm by it.
:frankiesmile:
Besides, Goofball was only a one time character. And so was Bendy. Good thing they were, or else there would be some serious fan backlash XD

As admin here I try not to get too opinionated on this forum so as to not alienate anyone, but I agree with like everything Mr Bloo Veins said. I guess that's all I'll say.

I also share that opinion as well, save for the thing about Bendy...I would liked to have seen him at least one more time before it was all said and done, just because his VA Jeff Glen Bennett is awesome.

Hhmm, I have looked at Lauren's comments about the episode again, and I don't think she really understands why people don't like it. I think she was coming to the wrong conclusions.

Anyway, I don't think I'll dwell too much on this episode, I think I can ignore it!

Is this one of the Imposter's threads? Because I have something to share. See, if I had my way with the ending, it would go something like this:

Because she pretended to be an imaginary friend, Frankie was forced to scrub the hallways and miss her concert. Later that night, everyone came home from the concert SHE missed, and who's to blame? Goofball! Finally, she snaps and jerks Goofball's false nose off, revealing.....






A REAL HUMAN NOSE!!!!!

Seeing this, Mr. Herriman literally kicks the false imaginary friend out the front door and tells him never to come back! Regretting ever acted rude and harsh to Frankie, Mr. Herriman apologizes for not knowing the truth. Her reaction?

Well, it goes something like this:

Frankie: (upset) You're... sorry? (getting angrier and angrier) I've been through Heck and back, had to do half of the chores more than once, went to the grocery store again for nothing and you're SORRY?!?! "Sorry" isn't going to reverse time so I can see the concert that I was hoping to see tonight, is it?! All day, I've been working my fingers to the bone and that so-called "imaginary friend" has only made it even harder for me and your siding with him didn't help! In fact, am I just a servant girl to you?! Well, apology NOT accepted! (throws bucket's contents on Mr. Herriman before shoving bucket and sponge into his hands) Find a new caretaker, MISTER Herriman! I QUIT!!!!!!! :frankiemad:

After that little spat, Frankie storms off to her room to start packing and leaving. The Foster's gang is still in the foyer, surprised by Frankie's meltdown, mainly because she was right all along. Madame Foster then appears and scolds them for not believing her for the obvious. The gang is unsure of how to make it up to Frankie until Mac gets an idea and dials a phone number.

Later, Frankie is halfway down with packing everything in her room when there's a knock on the door. She answers it and, much to her annoyance, the ones who "didn't believe her" are standing there. They say they're really sorry and to make up for their wrong, they have a surprise for her.

So, to keep it a surprise, they get her on the bus while making her wear a blindfold. Once they reach their destination, they tell Frankie to remove the blindfold and, much to her shock and happiness, the surprise is....



An encore concert, which was put on at the gang's request!

Frankie is then thankful and sorry for blowing up on them as she and the others enjoy the concert! Oh, and there's a little karmic retribution in mind for the so-called "imaginary" Goofball.

After the concert, he's forced to clean up the entire stadium!

... With a toothbrush. ;)

I think Goofball is already burning in cartoon he...er inferno!:frankiesmile:

Well, I think Goofball was a big fat karma houdini. That's kind of why I imagined the ending, to give that little prick some karmic retribution. He frickin' deserves it! :edmad:

Easily the worst episode of the series.