The Simpsons Season 1 Reviewed

Introduction: This is sort of unlike other projects I've done and mainly it's just me watching episodes of The Simpsons and firing off a paragraph or two as quick capsule reviews for each of the episodes. Sort of see this as more of a fun exercise than anything that's meant to be demanding, so yeah. Separate write-ups for each episodes and then an overarching write-up on each of the seasons.

This sort of series did come about because I made a sentiment along the lines of "Whenever I'm feeling a bit burnt out and looking for something to write, I'll write about The Simpsons. So I'm doing just exactly that. Will be much quicker to write and reflect a much looser tone compared to my other writing pieces, but I hope people enjoy reading this, nevertheless. Is sort of an extension of "Five Important Episodes about our Homer" that I wrote a year ago, but a bit more truncated that that was.

No images as well, sorry. Starting from Season 1, but I will also get into the Tracey Ullman Show skits and the Butterfinger commercials as well. (like if there's much to write about, lol.)

Season 1 of The Simpsons reviewed

S1E1 - Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire

Pretty good debut episode. Only episode that was aired during the 1980s, and is a bit more constrained in terms of its satire with characters who feel just a bit more realistic. More of a sombre tone than other episodes combined with the sitcom shenanigans, playing off of what is essentially just a string of misfortune played for both laughs and emotional effect, and also just the way that it ends. Juxtaposition between this thrust of capitalistic consumerism and how this episode ends is quite effective.

S1E2 - Bart the Genius

Bart shenanigans cross with Martin Prince's pompous intellect, and because of Bart's antics, Martin is now a recurring character in the show. Did like this episode and I think there's just a lot of Season 1 episodes where it weirdly builds characters more often than not, rather than engaging mostly in sitcom routines. Bart's pranks and the consequences of them really come into play in this episode, and it has a weird sort of tension where he's clearly faking being a genius but then how much are people actually clued in on that?

S1E3 - Homer's Odyssey

Episode where Homer loses his job at the nuclear power plant and experiences alienation with subsequent unemployment and the futility of trying to get another job. Colour pallette looks quite strange in Season 1 compared to the rest of the series, notably where Smithers is depicted as being a brown person with blue hair. Actually a weird dark episode with explicit themes of depression and suicidal ideation, and reveals a weirdly sad side to Homer Simpson where he can become quite neurotic when dealing with problems in his life.

S1E4 - There's No Disgrace Like Home

Episode that really begins to probe the dysfunctional family unit of The Simpsons, that winds up culminating in a scandal involving shock therapy. Ending of this is pretty funny, but it's kind of strange in terms of how it involves the family acting out of character and trying to improve themselves, and how self-conscious it comes across. Liked the images in this where Homer imagines his family as literal hell-spawn, but there is a bit of a sort of family-friendly like sentimentality that seems way more noticeable here.

S1E5 - Bart the General

(not the GHXYK2 videos)

Bart meets Nelson, the bully, after one of his cohorts winds up destroying Lisa's cupcakes. Rest of the episode is just Bart planning an elaborate revenge against them with the help of his grandpa and Hermann Hermann (who claims to have lost his right arm sticking his hand out of a school bus window.) Has a sort of childhood innocence to it, with exaggerated fantasy sequences where Bart imagines his funeral after a run-in with Nelson, rest of the show follows that same sort of logic where Bart standing up for himself is framed like him being this soldier with towering low-angle shots. Not as good as the GHXYK2 videos though.

First episode written by the legendary John Swartzwelder, who also wrote The Call of the Simpsons, Life on the Fast Lane and The Crepes of Wrath in Season 1.

S1E6 - Moaning Lisa

"Nothing personal, I just fear the unfamiliar." - Marge Simpson

"Blues isn't about feeling better. It's about making other people feel worse."

Actually a pretty good episode in terms of capturing feelings of inexplicable depression and sadness. Taps into that sort of alienation of being a child and having people telling you that "you have no reason" to be sad, and also an example of where the satirical elements of The Simpsons are used to more of an effect than just strictly comedy. Two quotes I've highlighted above sort of reflect this, but also just that sort of thing of hearing phrases and sentiment that just doesn't really answer anything. Way more moody than in terms of something concrete like Homer's Odyssey.

S1E7 - The Call of the Simpsons

Flanders jealousy is introduced in this episode, and it has that sort of "Flanders get so much nice stuff, but The Simpsons get so little." through the framing of Flanders' new RV, so the Simpsons family buy one of their own. Has that sort of gender difference vibe where Homer and Bart get split up from Marge and Lisa, and Homer and Bart are presented like the more stupid, impulsive people of the family. Also Homer gets confused for Bigfoot by panicked locals, and there's a bit more of an emphasis on slapstick comedy in this episode.

S1E8 - The Telltale Head

Simpsonswave clip of Bart listening to 'vaporwave' and Homer banging his head against the steering wheel appears in this episode. Largely composed of religious satire and then about juvenile delinquency, where Bart decides to steal the head off a statue. Only nobody finds it impressive and "Whoever did this has gone too far." sort of thing. That feeling of having done something bad but then having nobody who actually knows about it is tapped into quite a bit here, which also feels like a pretty pervasive aspect of Bart.

"Five finger discount" said the four-fingered Simpson, a story by Harlan Ellison

S1E9 - Life on the Fast Lane

Marge gets into bowling as a retaliation for one of Homer's schemes and gets involved with another guy who is this sort of smooth-talking, charismatic type. One of the episodes that really teases this whole thing about "Why is Marge married to Homer?" before showing how solid their connection actually is, and there's also just something about the guy she goes out with that feels a bit off. Whole bit where he goes on about the "physical sensations" of a bowling alley and the dream sequence stood out a bit, but it is the first in many episodes to feature marital struggles.

S1E10 - Homer's Night Out

Homer gets a picture taken of him in a compromising position, after Bart gets a spy camera. Slightly innocent but also revealing of the side that Homer has where "He's out doing something important with the guys." when he's really just breaking away from the family to get drunk. Episode is primarily about Bart antics but also is a bit more on the moralising side with how the story of a photo circulating of Homer dancing with a female belly dancer at a party develops. Has a pretty good message, if a bit awkward..

S1E11 - The Crepes of Wrath

Bart gets sent to France because of a foreign exchange programme as a result of a cherry bomb prank and a stern talking to from Principal Skinner - Bart is sent to France and a boy from Albania is sent in to swap his place. Albanian boy is subject to a conspiracy and Bart gets exploited by a bunch of nefarious winemakers, and a bunch of stuff where it is just kind of commenting on other cultures. Has some weirdly dark themes bordering on child abuse, but it's handled in a pretty delicate way though, like it's never too explicit even with the anti-freeze subplot.

Contains a lot of anti-French discrimination. 

S1E12 - Krusty Gets Busted

"If cartoons are meant for adults, then they'd put them on prime time."

Krusty apparently robs the Kwik-E-Mart, which Bart catches wind of and suspect that something else is going on. Does clearly set it up where it's an imposter and it's more just the way in which Bart figures out how he's not the imposter, the sort of connection he has with Krusty, and how he's told that "Maybe, he's not all you thought he was be." by Marge, banking on misinformation. Is meant to introduce the rivalry between Bart and Sideshow Bob, who takes over from Krusty after he's arrested.

Also of note is how Krusty's character design is very similar to Homer's, where a conceptualised (then scrapped) idea was that Homer was Krusty. Episode here also shows that as being impossible since Krusty and Homer are shown side-by-side as well.

(An aside, but Marge Simpson was originally supposed to have Life is Hell style elongated bunny ears underneath all her hair as shown 1991 Simpsons Arcade Game, which was apparently going to be revealed in the series finale but is never actually shown in the show.)

https://www.bullfrag.com/the-end-of-the-simpsons-was-going-to-reveal-that-marge-hides-rabbit-ears-under-her-hair-and-the-only-proof-that-remains-is-a-game-from-1991/

S1E13 - Some Enchanted Evening

Produced in 1989 and was originally meant as the pilot but then served as the season finale, and it sort of feels weird because it is basically a sort of kids version of a psychological thriller where children are tormented and mistreated by a babysitter. Really taps into those sort of feelings of mistrust of being around an unfamiliar adults that your parents seem to trust, as well as that sort of feeling of adults going on about how misbehaving you are, that's actually way more reflective of how badly they are treating you. Overall, not too dark, but does tap into that mindset of a child's terrified imagination. This was explicitly meant to introduce the characters and seems to act like an extension to the Tracey Ullman skits with Bart, Lisa and Maggie, but was substituted with more Homer-oriented Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire instead.

It is also kind of weird in terms of animation because it's often quite choppy at points, and then there's bits where it's unusually smooth (see this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEZsR4PYhJM)

Overall

Season 1 of The Simpsons is pretty strange because it does feel a bit more laid-back and where there feels like more of a deliberate construction to the episodes in terms of introducing characters and the emotional beats of it. It is weirdly not as cartoonish as later seasons, favouring itself a slight bit more in terms of realism, although it definitely has an exaggerated quality to it that you'd find in a cartoon. Again, it does feel like it's literally just building the groundwork up which feels like a prevailing theme throughout the entirety of this season, instead of the vignettey one-shots of The Simpsons during the late 1980s with The Tracey Ullman Show and the Bart Simpson Butterfinger commercials.

Special mention probably has to go to how Homer's voice in this sounds. He sounds a bit more aloofish than later episodes, and it does kind of go towards that dynamic where Homer is a loving father who just doesn't quite understand the world at large. Characters aren't as consistently defined as later seasons, yet a lot of their qualities feel a bit more subdued than how they would be later in the show, and the art style varies a bit from episode to episode. Goes from choppy to bouncy to weirdly smooth a lot of the time, and character designs aren't as well-defined as they are. At least two instances (Smithers and Officer Lou) where characters had skin tones that they didn't have in later episodes.

Also a weird example of how there's a sort of tendency away from 'Flanderisation' aspects of characters, because they aren't as well-defined as later seasons. Makes sense considering its establishing the characters and the writers aren't really given as much of a window to play about with and exaggerate character traits. Also more of a favouring towards prototypical or generic characters that don't appear much in later seasons, such as Dr. Marvin Monroe, or various unnamed, literally one-shot characters. Lenny and Carl aren't featured until Life on the Fast Lane and Homer's Night Out respectively, for instance, and there's a bit more of a focus on generic co-workers who work with Homer rather than characters that are a bit more defined.

Liked this season but it is quite atypical when compared to the rest of The Simpsons, lots of early weirdness, some of which is noticeable and other things where you can't quite put your finger on it. Definitely a good season though, from my view.