Simpsons Season 1 = Too dated?

Me too. Now they're evil wenches who, upon discovering that Homer needs to re-marry Marge, kidnap their brother-in-law and lock him in the basement, intentionally trying to ruin the lives of their sister, nieces and nephew. Ugh.



What's your deal man? There's no battle going on here. Just discussion.
 
The worst part is back in the day, they re-ran this particular one to death. Thankfully they don't show it much anymore.

As I've previously said, I only feel that a little less than half of the episodes still hold up (and barely), and the rest just don't feel like Simpsons episodes. As odd as it sounds, they sort of feel like episodes from those shows that tried to copy the Simpsons and ended up failing miserably.
 
It was the first episode produced, but the animation was so off-model that more than 50% of the show needed to be redone. As a result, it was held off until the end of the season. (You can still see some shots that were left over from the original version - the difference in animation quality is striking.)
 
It was actually closer to 70%, according to re-takes director David Silverman. I think the only Butterworth-directed material that remains in the episode is some random bits from act 3 (such as the rubbery door).
 
I wanted to see the original version of that episode myself. I knew a guy who mentioned a friend of his who worked at Klasky-Csupo had once borrowed a tape of that from the studio and he got to watch the entire thing besides the 5 minutes or so that's available on the Season One set.
 
That and it probably got the most number of reruns than any other Simpson episodes. They reran that episode (along with Bart the Genius, the Christmas episode and Krusty gets busted) to death. I'm just sick and tired of seeing it.
 
But I liked Krusty Gets Busted.:sad: But then again I did like Crepes of Wrath, Bart the General, There's No Disgrace Like Home, and Telltale Head. Personally that Babysitter one is sort of mixed, I only really liked the Bart, Lisa and Maggie parts. But even I know that it isn't the same as the what the show became later in season 2 and 3, personally my favorite season is between 5-9.

So yeah it kind of is dated in the terms that it isn't even up to what the current season are like.
 
Well, according to the SNPP Simpsons Episode and Air Dates List, every Season 1 episode except "Homer's Odyssey" and "The Telltale Head" aired four times on FOX, including the original broadcast, though the fourth airing was always well outside the 1990 summer rerun period (i.e. a rerun of "There's No Disgrace Like Home" aired on August 30, 1992, in the rerun period between Seasons 3 and 4; a rerun of "Bart the General" aired on January 22, 1995, in the middle of Season 6; etc.).

"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", the first episode ever, holds the record for the most FOX network broadcasts of any "Simpsons" episode - a whopping six times, almost always at Christmas (December 17, 1989; December 23, 1989, July 1, 1990; December 19, 1991; December 23, 1993; and December 11, 1994). I suspect this is what led to the production of "Marge Be Not Proud" in Season 7 - somebody at FOX probably said "Hey, we need a different Christmas episode."
 
It doesn't; it only covers the prime-time network airings. It's virtually impossible to keep tabs on every syndicated rerun on every FOX affiliate all over the country.
 
This basically sums it up. It's true of almost any comedy show. Usually the showrunners have to lay a foundation of fairly ordinary stuff before they can hit upon something really brilliant. A lot of season 1's jokes seem very blunt and pedestrian by today's standards -- although that can also be attributed to the show's influence on modern comedy and all the people who have imitated it. Still, seasons 2 and on don't age nearly as badly. And as stiff as the acting and animation are now, back then they were just... weird. Homer's voice just isn't right and the motion is a little too cartoony for the show's sophisticated brand of humor, IMO. The music can also be pretty strange at times. In a lot of ways the show feels like a kids' cartoon with adult themes at this point; the stylistic shift that started in season 2 results in a much more appropriate tone. It's unfortunate they went a little too far in this direction, resulting in the lifeless self-referential gag-fest we have today.
 
Well, Undrave and myself are from Canada, and the Simpsons aired on another channel back then. The babysitter episode and Krusty Gets Busted were aired quite a lot, even in comparison with the other season 1 episodes. Heck, they still air season one episodes quite a lot up here.
 
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