Topic: FOX Prime Time Cartoons - Simpsons, Season 1

[UncleBob]

I've finally got around to popping Season 1 in the DVD Player.  Watching the Christmas Special now.  It's funny how all the background characters are various generic people - whereas now, pretty much everyone would be someone we've met in a previous episode.

Hints of series staples to come are all over in this episode - Homer's "D'oh" and "Why you little...!", silly messages on background signs, Barney's Burp, the crows at the power plant... they're all there, even in this raw, archaic episode.

[UncleBob]

Only three episodes in, but something interesting - there's no B stories.

They missed the perfect joke - something that wouldn't happen later in.  Homer's carrying a boulder to the bridge with the intent of killing himself (rather dark subject matter).  He's walking in the street when someone almost runs him over.  Homer yells out at the driver, but he totally should have yelled "Watch it, jerk!  You almost killed me!"

[ShyGuy]

There were fewer jokes in earlier Simpsons

[UncleBob]

Moe's has a Black and White TV.  Funny.

Homer's hocking the TV and the Pawn Shop guy asks "Is it cable ready?" - wow... talk about dated.

I want a Frosty Chocolate Milkshake...

Wow.  Homer's at an arcade.  And it's busy.

So, Moanin' Lisa had a B story - to an extent.  Homer's attempt to beat Bart at Video Boxing.  Sadly, this was more interesting than the "A" story.  Perhaps this is why Family Guy craps on Meg so much - Lisa is just generally an uninteresting character - and always has been.

Worst couch gag ever.  Entire family runs in and jumps on the couch....


...and nothing happens.

Another funny thing.  Marge has one of the first (as far as air-dates, the first) singing role.  I seem to recall somewhere (commentary, perhaps?) that Julie disliked singing in her Marge-voice (even though it's supposedly not that far off from her real voice) because it's hard to maintain...

[UncleBob]

Life on the Fast Lane and Homer's Night Out - the animation in these episodes has really cleaned up.  The backgrounds are still raw, but the details in the forefront are pretty crisp.

Cold Pet Rat - these kinds of jokes just don't show up any more...

Anywhoo, is there anything more to say about Season 1?  Should I throw up the next poll or is someone still watching the episodes waiting to comment?

[TJ Spyke]

Lisa was not that interesting in the first season, but that's because they hadn't really developed her that much. She was basically a female Bart, she got more interesting in later seasons.

"There's No Disgrace Like Home" is an odd episode. In it Homer is basically like a normal person and you can't blame him for being embarrassed by his family, normally he would be the one embarrassing the rest of the family.

[Ian Sane]

He's walking in the street when someone almost runs him over.  Homer yells out at the driver, but he totally should have yelled "Watch it, jerk!  You almost killed me!"

I thought that fact that he yells at all was the joke.  Like it was clearly implied that he's upset the guy almost killed him when it should be of no concern to him.  The joke is there but it is subtle.
 
I always forget that the Bleeding Gums Murphy episode has the Video Boxing.  That bit is one of my favourites from the first season but it is surrounded by such a weak episode I often forget which one it is in.
 
Lisa went from female Bart, to being the anti-Bart where she was smart and well behaved, and then later into a preachy self-righteous character.  I really don't like what Lisa became and it more or less started with the vegetarian episode.  But the in-between Lisa was a perfectly acceptable character and actually pretty likable.  Lisa was funny when she was smarter than the rest of her family but had not yet realized she was smarter than them.
 
One example of preachy Lisa that is funny though is the Malibu Stacy episode.  It works because it is more of parody of Lisa being preachy.  They make fun of it with Bart complaining about her making them march in the gay pride parade and her throwing red paint at the Keebler people.  The humour is from Lisa being over-the-top in her moralistic crusade.  In later episodes it's like Lisa is the voice of the writers who are using her as their own soapbox.
 
In "There's No Disgrace Like Home" I think it is implied that Homer is not "normal".  He blames his family for being disfunctional but fails to realize he contributes to it himself.  And of course the big joke is the "perfect" family he saw at the company picnic is later at the psychiatrist's office themselves.

[NWR_insanolord]

I really do hate what Lisa, and also Flanders, became over the years. They went from unique, complex characters to stupid stereotypes.

[TJ Spyke]

Really? Flanders has actually moved away from a stereotype. He used to be little more than a parody of these conservative religious types, he has developed into a more robust character since then. As for Lisa, occasionally she is too preachy (like in the episode "Lisa the Tree Hugger", but for the most part I think she is fine.

[NWR_insanolord]

I haven't watched the show much in the last few years, so maybe he's improved, but a few years ago he was just a right wing religious stereotype, someone to go against Lisa. Back in the "good old days" he was so much better of a character.

[TJ Spyke]

He is still religious, but I would argue he is less of a stereotype than he was in the first 8 seasons. For example, the episode where he and Homer became bounty hunters. He also no longer blocks 99% of the channels on TV (kinda funny how he would pay for satellite but then block everything but one or two of them).

[NWR_insanolord]

I'd argue he didn't even become a stereotype until well after the first 8 seasons.

[TJ Spyke]

You really think so? Stereotypical stuff he did that you would expect from ultra religious people:
*Scoutmaster for Junior Campers:
*Obsessed with church and Bible (he actually wanted to ask Reverend Lovejoy if it was OK to play Capture the Flag on Sunday) and goes to church every day
*Part of the Citizens' Committee on Moral Hygiene (the conservative groups who think they have a right to tell everyone else what they can say, watch, and do)
*Doesn't gamble, smoke, curse, or anything similar.

And so on. Don't get me wrong, I thought he was a great character even early on, but he was a parody of religious stereotypes very early on. Once they had him have that mid-life crisis though, it gave them room to grow by finally letting him become angry at people and say when he is upset.

[Ian Sane]

Tying it back to season 1, does it ever actually indicate the Ned is a super positive Christian guy in that season?  We see Homer feeling the need to one-up Flanders by buying his own RV but do we yet know what a nice guy Ned is?  He comes across kind of as a generic "better off than you" neighbour.  In that situation you would understand why Homer hates him.

But once it is established that Ned is like the nicest guy in the entire world Homer looks like a huge prick for hating him... which is of course absolutley hilarious.  Though I have not watched recent Simpsons episodes in like ten years so I have no idea what Ned is like now.  When I watched he was goofily over-the-top in his religiousness but seemed like a really nice guy who helps out everybody.

[TJ Spyke]

I don't think they were trying to make Ned come off that way, Home was jealous because Ned could afford better things than him (something that would continue in season 2 when he admitted to Ned that he was upset at Ned having better stuff). But yeah, they didn't really establish his religious nature in season 1 (but he was only in 2 episodes, and both were pretty brief).