like Homer, too. Homer comes very naturally to me: I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing. A lot of my favorite episodes are the ones when Homer and Lisa are in conflict with each other ... They're very human, I think that's their appeal." Scully became showrunner of The Simpsons in 1997, during its ninth season. As showrunner and executive producer, Scully said his aim was to "not wreck the show", and he headed up the writing staff and oversaw all aspects of the show's production. During his time as showrunner he was credited with writing or co-writing five episodes: "Treehouse of Horror VIII" ("The HΩmega Man" segment), "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday", "Beyond Blunderdome", "Behind the Laughter" and "The Parent Rap". Scully was popular with the staff members, many of whom praised his organization and management skills. Writer Tom Martin said he was "quite possibly the best boss I've ever worked for" and "a great manager of people," while Don Payne commented that for Scully "it was really important that we kept decent hours". Scully served as showrunner until 2001, during season 12, making him the first person to run the show for more than two seasons. He returned in season 14 to write and executive produce the episode "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation", and co-wrote and co-produced The Simpsons Movie in 2007. Scully's tenure as showrunner of The Simpsons has been the subject of criticism from some of the show's fans. John Ortved wrote "Scully's episodes excel when compared to what The Simpsons airs nowadays, but he was the man at the helm when the ship turned towards the iceberg." The BBC noted "the common consensus is that The Simpsons' golden era ended after season nine", while an op-ed in Slate by Chris Suellentrop argued The Simpsons changed from a realistic show about family life into a typical cartoon during Scully's years: "Under Scully's tenure, The Simpsons became, well, a cartoon. ... Episodes that once would have ended with Homer and Marge bicycling into the sunset (perhaps while Bart gagged in the background) now end with Homer blowing a tranquilizer dart into Marge's neck." The Simpsons under Scully has been negatively labelled as a "gag-heavy, Homer-centric incarnation" by Jon Bonné of MSNBC, while some fans have bemoaned the transformation in Homer's character during the era, from dumb yet well-meaning to "a boorish, self-aggrandizing oaf", dubbing