yes they were paroding themselves by the end but I'd say it was still much better than 99% of the sitcoms on television at any time. not as brilliant as it had been but it was still very good even if it was only based on gags.

the Seventh Season is my second favorite by the way and I'll give you that the last two seasons are sub-par but there are good episodes all the way to the end. one of the very very last, "The Frogger" is really funny IMO.