S01EP04 There's No Disgrace Like Home

There's No Disgrace Like Home
Air Date: Jan 28, 1990
Production Episode: 7G04
Written by: Al Jean and Mike Reiss
Directed by: Gregg Vanzo and Kent Butterworth
Another one of the first set of episodes produced, this one is the least true to the characters. Almost everyone is acting out of character, with the exception of Bart. Even in the DVD commentary, the writers acknowledge the fact that every character trait displayed is wrong. We also see the Simpsons wearing other clothes, something that rarely happens later on.

The plot of the episode involves a company picnic at the stately Burns Manor, where Homer's family proceeds to embarrass him. Upon returning home, he decides that they are going to shape up and be a normal family, leading to a session of peeping into their neighbor's windows. Later drowning his sorrows at Moe's bar, he sees an advertisement for Dr. Marvin Monroe's therapy clinic. Pawning the TV to pay for the session, the Simpsons end up driving Dr. Monroe nuts, where he kicks them out and refunds double their money as per his guarantee.

Going through the episode in order, we see Burns Manor for the first time, almost identical to it's later designs. We also see Mr. Smithers, now white, displaying his first obvious sycophantic traits towards Mr. Burns. His skin color was changed starting with this episode, as having a subservient black employee constantly kissing up to his rich white boss was obviously more than a bit uncomfortable.

Mr. Burns is slightly out of character in this episode. While he is aloof, forgetful of employee's names, and a tyrant, he is still opening up his manor for a company picnic, complete with food and alcoholic drinks. He also rewards employees with happy families and punishes those with bratty children. This is a far cry from the despot who looks down at all his workers with disdain. We do, however, see him threaten to release the hounds for the first time, so it's still Mr. Burns underneath that surprisingly momentarily generous facade.

At the picnic, we see everyone but Bart out of character. Homer is being well behaved and polite. Lisa is raising just as much hell as Bart. And Marge... well, Marge is the alcoholic in this episode, embarrassing Homer. Another trait, as noted in the DVD commentary, in this episode, and early on, is that Homer was more concerned with how people saw him, and his social standing. This is later dropped in favor of Homer being the clown.

Granted, Homer is still stupid. But in these first four episodes, it's played more subtly, and mostly with him acknowledging the fact that he's stupid rather than showing it. It isn't until later that he embraces his stupidity and runs with it. As said in a later commentary, the writers were on a mission by season 10 to see how stupid they could make Homer before he'd forget his own name.

The day after the picnic, Homer decides the family should eat dinner together, after walking in on them eating in front of the TV. Marge is right there with them, and objects to the TV being turned off, completely out of character for her. She also objects to having to sit through Homer saying grace. We still see Homer's stupidity, though, as he complains about his family to God while sitting at the table.

Homer takes them out to peep on the neighbors, with them being chased off by the last house. Depressed, Homer goes to Moe's bar, where we once again see the original layout, Barney, Moe, and a crowd of random people. Surprisingly, the two barflies are not there in this episode, despite being there from the start. We see Eddie and Lou, although a white Lou, enter as they're searching for the peeping toms that terrorized the neighborhood. We've now officially seen the entire Springfield Police Department. After they leave, Homer and Barney get into a fight over whether Homer's kids are bad. In later seasons, Homer would be the first to complain about his horrible kids, but here he's ready to defend them. He sees an ad for Dr. Marvin Monroe's clinic, and decides to take his family there.

Homer heads home, where we find the family, Marge included, watching Itchy and Scratchy for the first time since the Tracy Ullman shorts. It's noticeably shorter than what we see in later episodes, although still a violent parody of Tom and Jerry. Marge is watching the show, which is something she never does later, and in fact acts as if she's never seen it in later episodes.

Homer demands they go to the clinic, and decides to pawn the TV when the college fund comes up short. Again completely out of character, Marge offers to pawn her engagement ring instead of the TV. The family goes to the clinic, where they all state that Homer is a stern authority figure, while Homer ignores the session and doodles. Monroe thinks physical violence will solve their problems through aversion therapy. This results in the Simpsons being wired up to shock collars and given buttons to shock the other family members. Obviously, this results in everyone shocking eachother until Monroe turns off the machine and kicks them out.

It is here that we see a bit of the family we come to know. They treat their failure at the clinic as a success, as they are now $500 richer. Instead of buying back the pawned TV, they decide to purchase a new one. In a common theme throughout the series, their complete dysfunction brings them closer together. Stay tuned for episode five, where we go back to a reality where Homer and Marge haven't switched places, and Burns just plain hates everyone.