Jean and Reiss served as showrunners until the end of the fourth season in 1993. Since the show had already established itself in the first two seasons, they were able to give it more depth during their tenure. Jean believes this is one of the reasons that many fans and critics regard season three and four as the best seasons of "The Simpsons". Bill Oakley, another "Simpsons" writer, has commented that "Mike and Al are responsible for the best thing that ever appeared on television, which was the third season of "The Simpsons"." Comedy writer Jay Kogen has said that "those years with Al Jean and Mike Reiss running it were pretty darn good. And then the ones after that maybe not so much. Some people ran it better than others."