Original Airdate: January 28, 1990
Chalkboard Gag: I will not burp in class
Couch Gag: Homer gets bumped off the couch
This episode is a welcome improvement over the last one, offering consistent laughs and matching the quality of "Bart the Genius". Though in terms of continuity with the rest of the series, this episode is still completely off, with none of the characters, except for Bart, acting as they normally would later. But the pace is quicker, it's light and funny even when dealing with violent family dysfunction, so it feels more like The Simpson's than the first and third episodes. It's also the first episode that focuses on the entire family, not just one or two of the characters, and I always find those fun.
Here, Homer and Marge have switched personalities and Lisa is just as bratty as Bart. Homer is embarrassed of his family after a disastrous work picnic at Mr. Burn's mansion, with Marge getting super drunk and Bart and Lisa wreaking havoc at every opportunity. In the most shockingly un-Homer action to occur probably in the entire series, he comes home to find the rest of the family stuffing their faces and watching TV, so he shuts it off and makes everyone sit at the dining table like a normal family! After seeing a commercial with Dr. Marvin Monroe (making his first of many early season appearances, after which he was killed off with no explicit mention), Homer sells the TV to have enough money to pay for the family therapy session. There they drive Dr. Marvin Monroe insane with their terrible behavior and unwillingness to follow the rules of his exercises. This culminates in a funny sequence of the Simpson's strapped to chairs covered in electrodes incessantly shocking each other, completely misunderstanding the exercises intention. Even little Maggie is wired in! This is the first time the show reaches a sort of fast-paced manic energy that would later be utilized to excellent perfect effect, sometimes for entire episodes. The Simpson's eventually are given back double what they paid for, since the therapy didn't work, and they walk off together hand in hand to buy a new TV.
It is a little off-putting to see many of the personalities so different from what they would become. Might I remind you that Marge makes a drunken fool of herself and Homer is embarrassed about it. And Lisa, who is equated with Bart as an unruly destructive child, only has one real Lisa line, where she laments that the money Homer is using towards the therapy session flushes away her dreams of Vassar. These early versions of the characters, while looking the same, are pretty far off from where they would end up. But it's fascinating nonetheless to watch these early creations, and how they gradually developed the traits that would define them for the rest of the series. And the family was violent and dysfunctional from the very beginning; Homer even picks up a lamp to hurl at Bart at one point! The basic family dynamic that carried the show throughout its long years was established right at its genesis, it was just a little jumbled up.
Also, I'm enjoying watching these episodes one at a time. I only ever marathon this show, and because of that they all bleed into one. By watching just 22 minutes at a time and writing about it, I can enjoy the construction of just a single episode, and I think it might in the long run give me an even larger appreciation of the shows technique and timing. If I had watched these first four episodes in a row and then decided to write about each one, I'd probably have less to say and my comments would be more general. One at a time, I can be more specific in my critiques.
Closing remarks: Apparently Smither's being black in the previous episode was an animation mistake, so he's now white in this episode (but not gay yet). Cops Eddie and Lou appear for the first time, and in another race mixup, Lou is white! Homer makes a reference to his mother telling him he's a disappointment, this being long before the "Mother Simpson" episode that contradicts that statement. And Bart and Lisa (and Marge for some reason) view their first Itchy & Scratchy cartoon, though the famed cat and mouse duo are not given names yet. Also, unless I didn't catch one previously, this episode features its first movie reference, to the horror classic "Freaks", where Homer, imaging his family as devils, chant to him "One of us! One of us!"
No comments:
Post a Comment