Welcome to Kris Watches Too Much Simpsons. I'll be reviewing Simpsons episodes starting from the first, all the way to season 25. We'll be taking a look at how the show has changed and characters have evolved over the years. At first it might be a little confusing, as season one suffered a lot of problems, causing the episode order to be shifted around. The first episode, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", was in fact production episode number eight. Production episode number one was "Some Enchanted Evening", which suffered from some slight issues, such as 70% of the animation being unusable. You'll notice this when you watch it. Nearly killing the show, they were thankfully able to fix the animation problems for the other episodes, and "Some Enchanted Evening" was cleaned up enough to air at the end of the season.
To avoid confusion with who appeared when, I will be reviewing the first season in production order, not air date. So we will be starting with "Some Enchanted Evening", and won't get to "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" until episode eight.
Before we get started, remember that The Simpsons originally ran as 48 one minute shorts on the Tracy Ullman show. As I have chosen to focus on the series, I did not watch these. The following characters and themes appeared first in the shorts:
- Grandpa first appeared in the Tracy Ullman shorts. Patty and Selma did not.
- Krusty, who doesn't appear in this episode, first appeared in the Tracy Ullman shorts.
- Two of the recurring movies that the characters watch in early seasons, the Space Mutants movies and The Happy Little Elves movies, first appeared in the Tracy Ullman Shorts.
Some Enchanted Evening
- Air Date: May 13, 1990
- Production Episode: 7G01
- Written by: Matt Groening and Sam Simon
- Directed by: David Silverman and Kent Butterworth
"Some Enchanted Evening", the final episode of season one, was originally the pilot episode. This is evident in the complete lack of the larger community of characters aside from Moe's tavern and the regulars there.
The episode has a storied past if one listens to the commentary included on the season one DVDs, released way back in September of 2001. Initially intended as a pilot that expanded on the characters past what little we saw in the 48 one minute shorts, it came back with an animation style that was completely unusable. At the time, there were only two styles of animation in America. The Disney/Warner Bros "noodle arms" method, where everything is made of rubber, and the Hanna Barbara method. The rules of The Simpsons world had not yet been done. Groening wanted a realistic style, with characters moving in a manner that real people would move in. The animation studio gave them, as James L. Brooks put it during the test screening, "shit".
At this point, the show was unusable. It was moments away from being canceled altogether. Instead, a second chance was given to fix the issues with the animation. The next episode delivered, "Bart the Genius", fixed most of the issues. You can see, as the season goes on, where the animation moves more towards what we know and love. The show was pushed back to a mid season replacement, with the Christmas episode, production episode eight, airing as the new pilot. This resulted in a bit of inconsistency with Santa's Little Helper not appearing in seven of the episodes in season one.
Five minutes of the original footage are included in the season one DVD. Even more can be seen in the episode itself. While as much as possible is fixed, you still see instances of characters being off model or reacting in the "rubber limbs" manner. Notably, when Marge is getting ready for date night, she looks nothing like Marge. Nearly all scenes with the babysitter are off model, with the babysitter, Ms. Botz, being an obvious indicator of when. The difference between her original and updated models are distinctive.
Also notable is the original intro sequence. There's no Burns or Smithers in the power plant, being replaced by a man eating a sandwich. Instead of racing past recurring characters, Bart skateboards past a group of random people who then chase after their missed bus.
At the beginning of the episode, a neglected Marge calls a relationship advice radio show. We see the first appearance of Dr. Marvin Monroe here. When we move to Homer listening to it at the nuclear plant, we do not see any of the regulars. We do see Homer in his first position, sorting radioactive rocks or something, as he does not become safety inspector until episode three.
Upon realizing it's Marge on the radio, he heads off to Moe's for a drink and advice. We see an early model of the bar, with saloon style doors and a lot more decoration. We also see Larry and Sam (the two rarely speaking barflys) and Barney, with blonde hair.
Homer takes Marge on a night out, they hire a babysitter, Bart and Lisa discover she's the Babysitter Bandit, she proceeds to tie them up and rob the house. At this point, we see the first ever instance of Maggie being a badass hero who can take care of herself. Often referred to as a newer character trait developed after "Who Shot Mr. Burns", there's actually several instances of this prior to that. She unties her siblings and even helps leads Ms. Botz into a trap.
Due to the lack of town characters at this point, it's interesting to note that they run to a phone booth (the phone line was cut) to call the police, when ever helpful Flanders should be right next door. Of course, Homer and Marge arrive home early, discover Ms. Botz tied up, and let her leave with her suitcases packed with their valuables. The police arrive, minus any of the familiar squad members, to reveal to Homer his mistake.
As it stands, this was many people's favorite episode from the first season. It attempted to bridge the gap between the wacky antics of the Ullman shorts and the more fleshed out episodes of the half hour series. We can see the beginnings of character traits here, although Bart and Lisa are just generic out of control kids at this point.
Stay tuned as we move on to episode two, "Bart the Genius", which introduces a lot more characters, and comes a lot closer to the show we know today.
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