I always meant to rewatch The Simpsons in
order, and when the opportunity came up to watch with someone else, it seemed a
good plan. I’ve watched the Tracey Ullman Show shorts before, but we
wanted to simply watch the first full season, which kicks off with a Christmas
special.
The early episodes of The Simpsons are often
referred to with a mixture of reverence and affectionate mockery, but what is
usually stressed is how different things were from how the show became, not
just now but in its glory days. But what surprised me was how well-established
a lot of characterisation and plot structures were. Yes, sometimes Smithers has
the wrong skin tone or Barney’s hair is the same colour as his face, but there
were bigger gaps I expected. For one, I often hear it said that at the
beginning, Bart was the major focus of the series, but it shifted to Homer when
everyone realised he was both more complex and more entertaining. But while
that may be true of the marketing – which was very much Bart-focused in those
early years – the same is not really true of the series. If anything, Homer and
Marge are the real focal points.
Then there’s the characterisation. The idea that
some Simpsons characters begin multi-faceted and were gradually boiled down to
flat caricatures defined by a few exaggerated quirks is called
‘Flanderisation’, and while I haven’t really seen the worst seasons of The
Simpsons, it feels like these early episodes are painted with very broad
brushstrokes, so to speak. But then, there hasn’t really been that much time to
flesh out secondary characters, with Mr. Burns being the most nuanced in this
season. Some parts seem a bit off – I never quite felt like Lisa should find
Bart’s prank phonecalls to Moe as funny as she does, and Marge leaving Maggie
to wander after Bart and Homer in the woods doesn’t ring true to her character
later at all, but what I was most surprised by were how well-established some
traits were very early on.
I didn’t expect Sideshow Bob to be introduced so
soon, let alone be so fully-realised way back in season 1. Apu has yet to be
well fleshed-out but appears more than I expected him to, and Reverend Lovejoy
and his wife are a bit two-dimensional at this early stage. But Barney and Moe
despite odd appearances are pretty much as they will always be, as are Otto and
Principal Skinner.
A recent Treehouse of Horror had fun harking
back to these days – the episode was weak but it was fun to see the animators
mocking the very fluid animation back then, especially the way Bart’s face
would often twist (bringing back Marvin Monroe was also a clever touch). That
fluidity was actually a lot of fun and rather missed. The eccentricities and
unconventional risk-taking in the animation is fun and I would prefer to see
more of that over the sleek and smooth animation of today.
It will be interesting to see the show develop, but
the thing that I’m most surprised by is that the show had a strong and
established identity even this early on, and little has really changed over the
high points and low points of the show’s long history.
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