....Yeah, season 9 was a great season. Season seven and nine are the only two I currently own (I want eight. It has the Beer Baron episode which is possibly my absolute favourite).
I also think that the show is nowhere near as bad as some people seem to think. It definitely hit a huge snag for a very long time, but the few episodes I've seen from the past few seasons have all been laugh out loud funny. Its a very different show from what it once was though.
I see it like this:
The Simpsons started struggling, Family Guy came on the scene and tried to be a zanier version of the Simpsons. People loved it but it got the axe. When Family Guy came back, it tried to be even ZANIER, and sucked horribly, but people watched anyway, and the face of Sunday Night primetime was changed forever. The Simpsons tried to follow Family Guy's example, because for some reason people seemed to find this drivel funny. In so doing, The Simpsons got even worse and more people stopped watching. But in the last few years, The Simpsons has finally come around and settled intself somewhere between old Simpsons and old Family Guy.
Personally, I want to see it keep going, if only because South Park and Family Guy are both on pace to match it season for season should it get the axe.
Anyway, the dispute was settled for now. All the voice actors, producers and just about everyone involved in anyway with the show took a pay cut in order to keep doing the show. We got two more seasons coming, which puts it around 540 episodes. Al Jean says he wouldn't mind making it to 30 seasons and surpassing Gunsmoke for the longest running primetime series.