7. The Call of the Simpsons

(originally aired February 18, 1990)
Thus far we’ve seen season 1 maintain a pretty consistent tone of low-key, more emotionally-driven episodes, an animated sitcom that tweaks conventions but remains true to the characters. The show would evolve into much more than that, and this episode feels like the forebearer to the more crazier, out-there episodes. It’s such an odd man out in that respect, a wacky, jokey episode in the midst of these major character-driven stories we’ve had, but sadly, I think it’s the weakest of the bunch so far.

The beginning of the episode is fantastic, however; envious of Flanders’s newly purchased RV, Homer takes his family to get one of their own at Bob’s RV Round-Up, where they are hawked to by the eponymous Bob, voiced by Albert Brooks. Brooks has done many guest voices on the show, classic characters like affable super villain Hank Scorpio and bowling Lothario Jacques (more on him later). All of Brooks’s Simpsons characters seem to have some level of smarm, and Bob definitely has a lot of it, a sweet-talking shyster with a big hat and big ears who can talk anybody into a sale, whether they like it or not. Brooks obviously is doing a lot of ad-libbing here, and you can tell he was just having a lot of fun with the character. Every line of his is great: his claims of the ultimate RV having four deep fryers (one for each part of the chicken), buttering Homer up asking if he’s of Roman descent (“You’re like a God, sort of,”) and admonishing Homer’s wish to talk his potential purchase with his family (“If you have to talk it over with those humans over there, there’s something wrong with all of us.”) It’s such a fresh, flowing performance that you really feel disappointed when the family leaves the RV park and the episode has to continue onward.

Homer ends up with an RV he can afford: a really shitty one. It isn’t long before he accidentally drives the camper off a cliff and the family must fend for themselves in the woods. Homer and Bart go out into the woods to look for help, but end up victim to various misfortunes: they lose their clothes in a waterfall, Homer is attacked by various animals, and finally ends up being mistaken for Bigfoot. Video footage of the mud-covered Homer causes a media frenzy. A lot of this material feels very silly, but not in a good way. There’s no sharpness to it, a lot of the gags feel like they’re out of bad Saturday morning cartoons. After the shrewdness of the first act with Bob, this feels very rote and childish. There are a few good jokes here and there (broadcast news of the “Bigfoot” sighting interrupted the live Presidential address), but it all just felt very empty. Even the ending with the great scientific minds debating whether Homer was man or beast felt a bit dumb. Even after doing full medical tests and examinations on his body, they can’t tell that he’s clearly a human being?

This show would certainly feature set pieces and plots much much more ridiculous than this one, but the most successful ones featured some kind of meaning to the madness, or at the very least a great set-up. Not only is it superior humor-wise, but the first act feels so disjointed from the rest. Homer’s rampant jealousy of Flanders at this point in the series was enough for him to go out camping? It feels so alien of Homer to do, even with this early version of him. So all and all, great first appearance by Albert Brooks, the lone savior of this episode.

Tidbits and Quotes
– As I said, every Bob line is great. Right off the bat when he spots the Simpson family as clueless rubes and remarks, “Thank you, God.” Also great is the scene when Homer’s credit check results in a loud siren going off (“Is that a good siren? Am I approved?” “You ever known a siren to be good? No, Mr. Simpson, it’s not. It’s a bad siren. That’s the computer in case I went blind telling me sell the vehicle to this fella and you’re out of business! That’s what the siren says.”)
– There’s also a couple of mini-subplots. Marge and Lisa bide their time by sweeping with make-shift wooden brooms, for some reason. A troupe of bears hold themselves in reverence of baby Maggie, which is cute, but doesn’t make much sense. I dunno, it never sat well with me.
– Bart asking Homer if they were going to hang themselves with the noose-like animal trap he set up seemed unusually dark. I laughed all the same, though.
– I’m a bit confused by the timeline of this episode: an entire crowd of Bigfoot spotters, vendors and gawkers sprouts up in the forest over how much time? A day or two? And in all that time, Homer and Bart are still lost, and the former hasn’t bothered to find a stream to wash the mud off himself? I know Homer’s a slob, but come on.
– Reporters flocking Marge with questions about her Bigfoot husband, resulting in the tabloid headlines is a good bit. Another subtle racy bit when a reporter asking Marge if marital relations with her husband to be “brutish,” Marge briefly smiles, then asks if the interview will be on TV.