(originally aired May 13, 1990)
So we cap off the first season with the very first episode produced, oddly enough. When the writers and producers got this episode back from overseas and screened it, they were horrified: characters were off-model, the look was brash and ugly, and the laws of physics seemed to not apply to people and objects in motion. They considered it unsuitable for air, and left the fate of The Simpsons in limbo until the next episode, “Bart the Genius,” ended up being a huge improvement in quality. As such, “Evening” was sent back to be reanimated, with over three-quarters of the footage completely redone. Perhaps this was all for the best, though: transitioning the Simpson family from the five-minute Tracey Ullman shorts to a Christmas special, and then to series seems like a smoother transition than than a premiere episode featuring a deranged, thieving babysitter and a rocky marriage saved by seedy motel sex.
The episode begins innocently enough: once again, Marge finds herself unappreciated and unacknowledged by her family, particularly her husband. Fired up by the urgings of radio psychiatrist Marvin Monroe, she stands by the door, stewing with bottled up rage ready to unleash at her husband when he comes home. Having overheard the radio show at work, Homer attempts to make things right with a box of chocolates and one piddling rose. When Marge opens the door and Homer lets out a sincere but trembling, “I love you,” all of her hate dissolves into a puddle of love. They make plans for a romantic evening: dinner, dancing, and a night at the Ye Olde Off-Ramp Inn.
The children are left in the care of a mysterious Ms. Botz, a snidely, hunched-over woman who treats the kids with nothing but contempt. While channel-surfing to “America’s Most Armed and Dangerous,” the kids discover that Botz is actually the “Babysitter Bandit,” a notorious crook who cons parents to gain access to their home and raid their stuff. Again, it’s so odd to think of this as the pilot; Ms. Botz is a truly bizarre and unsettling character, even before the reveal of her larcenous ways. Two young children bound and gagged whilst a stranger robs the house blind would be horrifying on any live-action sitcom, but this show manages to squeeze dark comedy from the set-up, with baby Maggie becoming their savior and Bart enacting swift vengeance on their captor. However, a bumbling, oblivious Homer lets a tied-up Botz go free (paying her triple, no less) right before the police arrive, giving this dark show a similarly dark ending.
With some of the original footage sprinkled through this episode, it feels pretty rough to watch after seeing the show evolve and improve over the season, but there are still a lot of bits of animation I really appreciate, like Homer and Marge dancing and the thoroughly creepy movements of Ms. Botz. There were still kinks to be worked out, but the overhaul of the episode ended up mostly successful, giving us a very suitable finale: bizarre happenings befalling a simple American family.
Tidbits and Quotes
– Always loved the psych call-in number: 555-PAIN.
– “You’re a pig. Barney’s a pig, Larry’s a pig, we’re all pigs, except for one difference. Once in a while, we crawl out of the slop, hose ourselves off and act like human beings.” The animation on Moe during this line is such grotesque, but wonderful at the same time, very befitting to what he’s saying. His face just morphs as he speaks, he’s so misshapen.
– Homer’s expressions on being inadvertently insulted by the babysitter service receptionist are so great, growling through gritted teeth (“Actually, the Simpsons are neighbors of ours, and we’ve found them to be a quite misunderstood and underrated family.”)
– I’ve always loved the Happy Little Elves. We barely see them now, but they were a brilliant parody of limitedly animated, overly peppy kid’s shows of the past.
– Maggie proves once more to be an infant savant in escaping her crib and working a remote control. That kid’s gonna go far.
– The end moment with Homer and Marge is pretty sweet, with Marge successfully commending her husband (“The way I see it, you raised three children who could knock out and hog-tie a perfect stranger, you must be doing something right.”)
Season 1 Final Thoughts
One down, nineteen to go. As I mentioned at the start, I used to kind of write off season 1 when I categorize the classic years. Sure, parts of it feel like a different show, and there’s plenty to be ironed out and retooled over time, but this season surprised me a lot. A lot of these twenty-year-old shows really hold up, with solid stories, great gags and character humor, and a consistent theme of the misadventures of this quirky family against the world. For a show that broke so much new ground with its concept, its material and its medium, I’d say this is a dynamite first season. Cheers all around. I’m ever so ready for season 2!
The Best
“The Telltale Head,” “Life on the Fast Lane,” “Krusty Gets Busted”
The Worst
I have a feeling I’m not going to make much use of this column until season 9 at least, but for now I’ll name the two stand-out “meh” shows of the season: “The Call of the Simpsons” and “The Crepes of Wrath.”
Me Blog Write Good 
The Best: Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire, Moaning Lisa, Krusty gets Busted
The Worst: The Call of the Simpsons, Crepes of Wrath, Some Enchanted Evening.
My picks for the best and worst of season one:
Best: Bart the Genius, Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire (I think this may have been the first Simpsons episode I’ve seen and owned on videotape when I was a kid), Crepes of Wrath, The Telltale Head, There’s No Disgrace Like Home
Worst: Homer’s Night Out (not that it doesn’t have a good message about how men should treat women with respect; it’s just that the writers should have stuck to making Princess Kashmir a stripper instead of a pro belly dancer that performs at bachelor parties and really play up the fact that Homer is this magnet for sexy ladies, despite being married with children. They played it too safe), Call of the Simpsons (never really took to this one, though Lisa saying, “The Simpsons have entered the forest” after the RV falls off the cliff is good for some laughs), Some Enchanted Evening, Homer’s Odyssey (though I do like the part where Homer saves his family and becomes a safety advocate for the city. And the appearance of Smithers as a black, blue-haired man), Moanin’ Lisa (barring the subplot of Homer trying to beat Bart at a “Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!” style video game)
I have mixed feelings on the looser animation in this episode. On the one hand, I love squash and stretch animation, such as what is frequently seen in classic cartoons. On the other hand, I’m more used to the “stiffer” animation style in the show; it wasn’t until later that I saw this episode and the Tracey Ullman shorts. As a result, this kind of style felt like the outlier, despite that it didn’t begin that way. It doesn’t help that the character designs in the Tracey Ullman shorts and the Kent Butterworth-directed sections of this episode are pretty ugly and unappealing; the David Silverman-directed sections may have been stiffer (he hadn’t quite found his visual groove yet), but they were a lot more consistent and professional.
All that said, I will say that I still love the scene where Botz threatens that Bart better watch the tape. It’s done in a full animation style that you don’t often see on the show.
I’d love to see the full unaired version of this. We only got a few minutes of it on the season 1 DVD.
^Speaking of the season 1 dvd, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGhMp_yklUI for those who haven’t seen the animation outtakes. Interesting stuff.
The first episode I ever saw … the greatest line is from Botz to Bart… “Hmm…time to brush your teeth, wash your face, and say your prayers”.
I love the motions of Botz’s face when she tells Bart that if he doesn’t shut up and watch the video she’ll do something to him, which she’s never had to do because everybody’s always listened to her.
WHAT A BORING EPISODE.
…Care to explain why?
Maybe it was the writing but I never cared for this one as much among season 1, and to say I never cared for call of the simpsons either that’s saying something.
It’s not that it’s bad, it just feels flatt, this crook randomly tying up kids and robbing homes and getting away, it’s as if the writers weren’t really sure of tone, which makes sence if this was indeed the first story written, —- though I do love the sadistic way she makes the kids watch the happy little elves after tying them up (wow that’s evil!).
I’ve got mixed feelings on this episode. Sometimes when I watch it I hate it. Sometimes I like it. Tonight was one of those times where I enjoyed it. No, it’s not a particularly great episode, but it shows off how badass Maggie is and the kids tying Botz up and making her watch the elves show was awesome. Not to mention we get two prank calls to Moe.
Oh, and the bit when Homer was shaving was hysterical.
My favorite episode of Season 1 is Tell Tale Head while my least favorite is probably Homer’s Night Out.
This is a pretty good episode. It’s not the most memorable, but Botz is a fun character.
Season 1 is a pretty solid first season. It’s definitely not as good as the next few seasons, but it’s still pretty good. My favorite episodes are “Bart the General”, “Moaning Lisa”, “The Telltale Head”, “Life on the Fast Lane”, and “Krusty Gets Busted”.
I didn’t hate any episodes this season, but “The Call of the Simpsons”, “Homer’s Night Out”, and “The Crepes of Wrath” are my least favorites.
I totally binged Season 1 during quarantine and rated and ranked them accordingly. Here’s my list:
#13 Bart the General…5/10
#12 There’s No Disgrace Like Home…5.5/10
#11 Homer’s Odyssey…6/10
#10 The Call of the Simpsons…6/10
#9 Some Enchanted Evening…6.5/10
#8 Moaning Lisa…6.5/10
#7 Homer’s Night Out…7/10
#6 Bart the Genius…7/10
#5 Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire…7/10
#4 The Telltale Head…8/10
#3 Krusty Gets Busted…8/10
#2 The Crepes of Wrath…8.5/10
#1 Life on the Fast Lane…10/10
Overall, better than I remembered on first watch long ago. I feel like this season gets unfairly forgotten. This season sees Homer at his most sympathetic by far for me as the season’s biggest consistent pro. I also feel like basically everything from rank #7 on down stands up on its own, not just as building blocks or warmups for the seasons after. Also, even though some of the stories are over-basic I feel like there’s a certain charm in that too, even on the lesser episodes. Killer!
I would add, “Life on the Fast Lane” would be at least in my top 5 episodes of all time overall, if not top 3. Hell, maybe even top 1 (I’ve still got a hell of a lot of rewatching to do).
I never got why Lisa was so into The Happy Little Elves. It’s clearly a cartoon that was meant for the 5-and-under set, and you’d think Lisa of all people would recognize how deeply condescending it is.
While this episode isn’t the best, I still think Season 1 went out on a high note. I found the first half of the episode to be real fucking great whether it’s Marge’s radio call and Homer getting exposed, Marge growling, the 5 second smooth animation scene or Bart bashing the green elves.
Like with Homer’s Night Out, the reason the episode isn’t great because the second half leaves a lot to be desired. Miss Botz the babysitter is a criminal and Bart and Lisa taking her down, only for Homer to let the babysitter get away with her actions. Despite my issues with the episode, it’s still pretty good.
Anyway, I really like this season. Although this season has its fair share of issues. This season makes up for its shortcomings by being charming, being grounded in reality, tackling serious subjects head on and having great character moments. Here are my 5 favorite/least favorite episodes since this season has 13 episodes. Also, just because an episode from the earlier seasons go into my least favorite list, doesn’t mean the episode is bad. It just means the episode doesn’t quite live up to the best of said season.
My Favorite 5:
1: Moaning Lisa
2: Life on the Fast Lane
3: Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire
4: Bart the Genius
5: Krusty Gets Busted
My Least Favorite 5:
1: Homer’s Night Out
2: The Call of the Simpsons
3: Some Enchanted Evening
4: The Crepes of Wrath
5: Homer’s Odyssey