The Simpsons 2-5 

Bart The Genius

On Sunday night, January 14, 1990 The Simpsons regular series premiered between America's Most Wanted and Married With Children, the show ran opposite 60 Minutes, Disney and Free Spirit (a show about a family that hires a good hearted witch as a nanny/house keeper) Although the network was worried about running an animated sitcom it became an instant hit and would launch the new era of prime time shows and even open the door for copycat programs from King of the Hill to the original programming on Cartoon Network. Welcome to the new era of animated television.

The plot was pretty straightforward, Bart is taking an aptitude test but switches his paper with the smart kid in the class, Martin. When the test is graded they discover he has an IQ of 216 and they want to move Bart to a special gifted school, Bart loves the idea of being in an unstructured class, however he soon finds that he is in over his head. He tries to confess to Homer but for the first time his dad is truly proud of him so he doesn't. When Bart mixes two chemicals together and causes an explosion that turns the whole school green he confesses to the principal and finally to Homer. In the end he's hiding in his room, naked and green btw, while Homer tries to lure him out for punishment.

Being the start of the regular prime time episodes the show has lots of firsts. We see a pan over shot of Springfield including the nuclear power plant, the tire dump, the Semi-Painless Dentistry and then Springfield Elementary. For the first time we see Bart at the chalkboard writing out his punishment, ironically it says "I will not waste chalk". Behind Homer we see a guy eating a sandwich with a pair of tongs (considering it's a nuclear power plant that probably isn't very safe). Marge is at the grocery store where Maggie gets scanned at the register (the price is blurry but the creators of the show said it was the average cost of raising a baby in the first year of their life). Homer tossed a plutonium rod out of his shirt in front of Moe's Tavern as a skateboarding Bart steals the bus stop sign. On the side of the bus we see an ad for "Can't get enough of that wonderful Duff", this is a first introduction to the local beer. Lisa is seen twice in the original opening, once at band practice where she gets kicked out for playing a jazzy version of the song and again while riding her bike. The opening scene ends with the classic couch gag, in the first one the family crowds onto the sofa and Bart pops off, straight up into the air and doesn't come back down. Also at band practice we see two regular characters, the twin sisters Sherri and Terri however they won't be seen in the main episode.

The show featured a brief gag that would eventually become a regular thing, Maggie is stacking blocks and the letters spell out EMCSQU hinting at her being extremely smart. Of course nobody in the family notices. The show also has the Scrabble game where Bart plays the word KWYJIBO and claims it's a fat balding stupid North American ape, an insult towards Homer, thus ending the game. 

The show introduces several characters, first is Martin Prince, the smart kid in school and kind of a suck up to the teachers. Interestingly enough when they find out it was his genius test he isn't sent off to the gifted school but remains at Springfield Elementary. We also meet Edna Krabappel, Bart's teacher. She is voiced by Marcia Wallace who at that point was best known for her roll of Carol, the sassy receptionist on The Bob Newhart Show. Interestingly enough she only took the part because her husband had become ill and she needed the money for his medical bills, she would end up voicing the character until she passed away.

On a "Back In The Day" note, Bart paints Skinner's image on the side of the school wall and they want Homer to pay for the damages, a total of $75. Adjusted for inflation that would come to $177 in the modern world.

And so we are now into The Simpsons. Two episodes down, 748 to go.

Homer's Odyssey

This episode premiered on January 21st 1990 opposite Full House, Murder She Wrote and Sister Kate

In this episode Bart's class visits the nuclear power plant on a field trip. While there Bart shouts at Homer who turns to look and crashes his cart into a set of pipes, rupturing one and causing an emergency, he is immediately fired. After a series of job rejections he decides to kill himself by jumping off a bridge while tied to a rock, kind of a dark theme for a primetime show. When Marge and the kids show up to stop him they are almost hit by a car and Homer decides that the street needs a stop sign. He finds a new purpose in life trying to make Springfield a safer place. Eventually he takes on the nuclear plant itself and to appease him Mr. Burns offers him a job as the safety inspector (a bit of a joke considering how incompetent Homer is).

The chalkboard gag in this episode is "I will not skateboard in the hall" which Bart does as soon as the bell rings. The couch gag is they all crowd on and it collapse.

This show introduces Otto, the stoner bus driver, who manages to get lost on the way to the power plant. It also has Sherri and Terri in their first speaking roll. Milhouse is seen in the background but as of yet hasn't had any dialog on the series and is still an unnamed character and has only spoken in the Butterfingers commercial. At the plant the kids see a film featuring the plant mascot, Smiling Joe Fission, he'll appear in other episodes but mostly as advertising. We also get our first look at Mr. Smithers, who is Black in this episode, the producers later stated that he was always meant to be yellow like the rest of the characters but there was a mixup during production and they didn't have time to correct it. On a side note Groening said he originally created yellow characters so people at home would try to adjust their sets, something you could do with 1990 TV but modern TVs do automatically. Police Chief Wiggum makes an appearance at the City Council meeting to discuss the graffiti bandit El Barto. Sylvia Winfield and her husband first appear in this episode, they are an older couple happy to see Homer going to commit suicide. We also learn that Homer was originally a technical supervisor at the plant. Marge goes back to work in this episode and it turns out her old job was as a roller skating car hop at Berger's Burgers, the angry customer is Otto.

Other firsts on the show is the appearance of El Barto graffiti and the first time Bart pulls a phone gag on Moe, "Is Mr. Freely there? First initials I. P." You couldn't do that in the modern world with caller ID. We also see a commercial for Duff beer. 

The creators of the show got away with a clever gag, when Bart gets Homer to sign his report card his grades are UFUFUD, the animators slipped a F. U. into the show.

And so we've made it through the third episode of The Simpsons, fun times.

There's No Disgrace Like Homer

The fourth episode of The Simpsons premiered on Jan. 28th 1990, opposite the Super Bowl, 49ers vs the Broncos, the movie special Annie and Love With A Twist (a dramatic recreation of true love stories).

 In this episode the Simpsons go to the company picnic at Burns Manor. Homer tries to get his family to act normal but they almost ruin things, Lisa plays in the fountain, Bart tries to win the sack race against Mr. Burns (only being stopped when Homer tackles him at the last minute) and Marge gets drunk on the punch and leads the other wives in a song about alcohol. This will be the first musical number on The Simpsons. When leaving the party Homer sees another perfect family and in a vision they fly off to heaven while he drives through hell with his family. While waiting in the car Bart tells Homer "Room for one more" which is a line from a rarely seen classic Twilight Zone, Twenty Two.

After the picnic Homer tries to force the family to act normal from dinner at the table to spying on other families. He gives up and goes to Moe's where he sees a commercial for Dr. Monroe's family clinic and decides this is the solution to their problems. He uses the "college fund" and then hocks the family TV to come up with the money, which actually upsets the children. However they fail at getting cured and when they scare off the other patients Monroe is forced to uphold his promise of double their money back. In the end Homer decides to buy a new TV with a remote and wheels so they can watch it in the dining room during holidays.

The chalkboard gag is Bart writing "I will not burp in class" and the couch gag is when it's overcrowded by the whole family Homer pops out and lands on the floor. 

In this episode we see Mr. Smithers as yellow and he'll remain that way for the rest of the series. We also see the two cops but at this point they don't have names. Dr. Marvin Monroe also appears and will be seen in a few more episodes but doesn't really become a regular character. Although introduced in the Ullman shorts we see the first Itchy and Scratchy cartoon in this episode, Groening created the idea after the complaints about violence in cartoons so they get rather graphic, in this one Itchy shoves a bomb into Scratchy's mouth and blows his head off. At the end of the company picnic Mr. Burns issues the warning "The hounds will be released in 10 minutes", it is a precursor to his classic line "Release the hounds".

During the show Homer has to come up with $250 to pay Marvin Monroe for the treatment and gets $500 back. Adjusted for inflation that would be $592 and $1184 in the modern world.

So that's four episodes down and one more to go for tonight.

Bart The General

The fifth episode of The Simpsons aired on February 4th 1990. It ran opposite a Sammy Davis Jr. special, Murder She Wrote and the Disneyland 35th anniversary special. There was no chalkboard or couch gag.

In this week's plot Lisa was making cupcakes for Mrs. Hoover's birthday (her teacher), a couple of bullies stole them and when Bart stood up to the kid he found out it was one of Nelson Muntz's toadies. Bart takes a swing and accidentally punches Nelson, who then says he classic line "you made me bleed my own blood" and vows to beat up Bart after school. Nelson then beats up Bart every day after school. Homer gives him some advice on how to fight dirty but none of the tricks work so he goes to Grandpa Simpson instead, who in turn takes him to meet Herman, the slightly crazy owner of an army surplus store. Herman gets Bart to train up an army of kids and then plans an attack upon Nelson and his toadies. After a water balloon battle they force Nelson to sign a peace treaty and celebrate with cupcakes.

Although Mrs. Hoover is mentioned she isn't seen. This is also the first episode where they mention how smart Lisa is. Nelson, the school bully is introduced but his toadies will later be replaced by other bullies. In one scene Bart fantasies about shooting Nelson with a machine gun, that is something that wouldn't get past the censors in the modern world. Milhouse has lines in this episode but still isn't mentioned by name. This is the first episode with Herman, he'll make appearances in future episodes but only when the plot needs him.

A funny bit in the show is Abe writing an angry letter to TV complaining about stuff including the term The family jewels", something Homer had said when teaching Bart how to fight dirty. Abe uses a typewriter as this was the pre internet days.

All the training of the army scenes spoof Patton, Platoon and An Officer And A Gentleman. At the conclusion of the water balloon battle a kid in a sailor hat runs up and kisses Lisa like the famous Times Square photo from VJ Day.

Herman has only one arm and when Bart asks how he lost it he tells the story of hanging it out the bus window. Miss Krabappel had given the kids the exact same warning in the previous episode.

When they are plotting out their attack on Nelson they build a scale model of the town with includes the Kwik-E Mart although they don't go there or see Apu.

At the end of the episode Bart does a PSA about wars and includes talking about going to your local library, where they have books full of gory photos. This was a spoof on PSAs that ran in the day encouraging kids to read more books. 

Including the Christmas special this concludes my first five episodes of The Simpsons. When they first aired there was no telling which of the characters would return or what lines would become catch phrases. After all these years it fun to see how it all started knowing where it would go, for the most part.

Only 745 more episodes to go, and a few specials. Why did I decide to do this again?