S01EP05 Bart the General

Bart the General
Air Date: Jan 28, 1990
Production Episode: 7G05
Written by: John Swartzwelder
Directed by: David Silverman

And now we come to the first appearance of Nelson Muntz, Bart's sometimes nemesis, sometimes friend, and Lisa's guilty secret, if you consider the future episodes canonical. In this episode, he's just your generic bully with some classic lines. We don't see his broken home life and poverty that make him sympathetic until later.

The episode involves Lisa making muffins for her teacher, and Nelson's generic cronies taking them. Bart defends her, incurring the wrath of Nelson, leading to him being beaten up daily. Lisa suggests going to Grandpa, already implied to be a war hero, who takes them to Herman, who teaches Bart how to wage a war. A classic sequence of war movie references follows, including a saturation water balloon bombing. Nelson is defeated, and forced to sign a peace treaty with Bart.

Homer is still a bit mature and grown up at this point. Muffins in the oven and he dutifully leaves them alone when told to? Shocking. Simply shocking. The muffins are for Ms. Hoover, who we still do not see in this episode, although this is her first mention. The backgrounds have dropped the overly busy look of previous episodes at this point. While the kitchen is almost identical to the final layout, the house is still nonsensical, with hallways and doors and other hallways running every which way.

We start the episode off with a good bit of character development for Lisa. Besides baking the muffins, her grades and smarts are brought up. She's finally stepped out of the "female Bart" role into her own character. We also see how she looks up to Bart at several points, (cheering him on) while still taking him down a notch when appropriate. (giving him the muffin that fell on the floor)

At the school, we see Nelson and his original two cronies, only known as "the weasels". They were quickly dropped for Jimbo, Dolph, and Kearney a few episodes later, although they continue to appear in children crowd scenes throughout the series.

Dreading his after school beating by Nelson, Bart falls asleep and has a nightmare. This brings up an interesting point of confusion. During the commentary, the directors mention how the censors complained about the knives being thrown at Nelson and the gun being fired at him. A common misconception is that the Simpsons have a contractual clause preventing Fox from censoring it. This is incorrect. The actual clause is for production notes, not censor notes, meaning Fox had no say in the creative side of the series. They of course were allowed to censor it, as they would have been risking fines from the FCC otherwise. This comes up multiple times throughout the series in interesting ways, including Rupert Murdoch having to personally approve a joke at his expense at one point.

After his second beating, Lisa suggests Bart go to see Grandpa Simpson, "the toughest Simpson there is". They go to the Springfield Retirement Castle, which we see for the first time. It's actually in excellent condition, compared to how we see it in "Old Money", which implies that it was upgraded to it's current state with Grandpa's inheritance. We also see Jasper, who gets a scene with Grandpa, along with the Old Jewish Man in the background when Bart asks to see his Grandpa.

Grandpa Simpson is exactly the same as he is today. Crotchety and writing rambling nonsense letters to various publications. His war experience isn't directly mentioned, but it is alluded to in his conversations with Herman, his speech during the attack on Nelson, and the fact that he buys a magazine that focuses on weapons.

We see Herman and his antiques store for the first time. Initially, he was supposed to be a recurring character, with a new story for how he lost his arm every time. This was dropped, along with Herman as a regular, although he has consistently appeared over time.

An interesting point about the series original run, the writers were facing a lot of controversy over the language and situations on the show. A reference by Homer to "go for the family jewels" was considered risque, and then lampooned by Grandpa compiling a list of words he didn't want to hear on TV, which ended with "family jewels". Younger people might not realize just how innovative the show was at the time. You simply didn't see dysfunction and kids solving their problems with violence on television shows, let alone in a cartoon.

Today, such complaints would seem ridiculous. The Simpsons would now be considered one of the tamer families on television, with McFarlane pushing the envelope so far with his shows as to have redefined the term "dysfunction". Even compared to a few years later, Bart's antics seem adorable and quaint. Dealing with a bully through a water balloon fight is one of the least offensive methods of conflict resolution seen on the show.

At the time, however, he was considered a menace, a terrible role model for children everywhere. Going through the first season, you see Bart always doing the right thing in the end, creatively solving his problems, and being supportive of his family even at his own personal expense. The Simpsons and Married with Children may have kicked off the dysfunctional but loving family trope, but the key part of both shows is the characters still loved each other deep down. This realistic dysfunction is what made the show a classic, and carried it on through a quarter century of success.