America's Favorite Non-prehistoric Cartoon Family - The Simpsons Thread

[Johnny Unusual]

Bart Jumps

With a show idea in place, the next thing to choose was a studio. Brooks wanted to just go with basic line drawings but one studio offered colour for the same price. That studio was Klasky Csupo, which was founded in 1982 by producer Arlene Klasky and her husband, Hungarian animator Gábor Csupó. The duo's company had primarily been working in marketing, garnering a presentation for innovative logo designs, film trailers, TV show titles and commercials but the Simpsons was the studio's big break, the first narrative work for the series, even if it was 20 second shorts. Many animation fans know that while the Simpsons and Klasky Csupo parted way, the studio would remain big with the studio creating a lot of series for Nickelodeon including Rugrats, Aaaaah! Real Monsters and the Wild Thrornberries. But this is the studios humble beginning. Very humble.

Homer wants Bart to jump into his arms but Bart keeps missing and bashing on the floor.

This is definitely the worst of them so far. Like Watching TV, it is a series of little strips but somehow the jokes feel even more tired. It seems closer to what a kid would think up. That's not inherently a bad thing; a lot of comedy is slapstick but the fun is in the pretext for such a thing happening. But the gags really do see poorly timed and paced and the animation is still rough. I don't even mean the flow, I just mean the editing, while good for a studio doing it's first major production, in that it isn't incompetent, it just feels off, (notable in the second part where Homer is distracted by a pun). The jokes really do feel like they are from a bad kids joke book. That said, Homer going off to look up a world (and finding both are acceptable) brings to mind how the show will kind of love characters interest in the minutiae of language at weird times.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Babysitting Maggie

At the time, Klasky Csupo had only three animators working; CalArts grads Wes Archer, David Silverman and Bill Kopp. Bill Kopp left after one season on the Tracy Ullman show but would go to have a long career as a voice actor and animator, most notably on Eek! the Cat, a cartoon in the 90s about a Pollyanna-ish cat prone for getting into trouble where he also played the title role. Wes Archer would stay with the Simpsons as a director until season seven of the series proper. After that, he became a go to guy for animation aimed at adults, moving onto King of the Hill, Bob's Burgers, Rick & Morty and Disenchantment. David Silverman would have the longest relationship with the series and though his last directed episode was 2015 (and one of the series low points, The Man Who Came To Be Dinner), he remains a producer on the show and only left the series for a few brief years.

In this episode, Maggie gets into a few scrapes, completely ignored by Bart and Lisa.

Not quite as bad as the last one, this is also very hokey. It also feels like despite putting Maggie in real jeopardy, the show is already trying to utilize her cuteness, which I fond often doesn't work (though far worse is when the show would do more overt "baby acting like a grown up" stuff). But I feel like while this isn't strong, it is a big part of the DNA for whenever Maggie stuff happens, it is often that she is going on an adventure and is often oblivious to peril. Later on, she would be painted as hyper-competent, which, again, is not as funny to me as her not recognizing being inches from danger.

Kavner's Marge definitely sounds more lethargic here. Part of me wonders if the animation was completed before the voice acting and they just wanted to match, dubbing-style. There is something quintessentially 80s about the Marge design. I feel like in her first appearances her hair was a more clear signifier of the 50s kitsch that became an obsession of the 80s. After a certain point it really looks like her hair is covered in bumps but in the early cartoons it could be seen as a more scraggily beehive hairdo. It's also interesting to consider that all of the creators were pretty young at the time so even though EVERYONE in the family was pretty broad, I imagine they might see Marge and Homer as more of an "other", the parents they had rather than later episodes from when the show goes to series where it feels like they are related to as adults (especially season 2). Marge is odder looking, hunched over with a long top lip. She's definitely the one who will feel most visually evolved going forward of the main family (especially when in the 2000s, she's a sex symbol appearing on the covers of Maxim and Playboy).

 

[gogglebob]

I'm not certain if it was mentioned in this thread before, but Groening has mentioned in DVD commentaries and other bits that the original "joke" of Marge was she was going to take down her hair, reveal rabbit ears, and she was a rabbit from Life in Hell all along. I think early Marge designs distinctly had that in mind.

That's Bongo the Rabbit (not the usually featured Binky), but it is illustrative.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

I'm not certain if it was mentioned in this thread before, but Groening has mentioned in DVD commentaries and other bits that the original "joke" of Marge was she was going to take down her hair, reveal rabbit ears, and she was a rabbit from Life in Hell all along. I think early Marge designs distinctly had that in mind.

I feel like it's been mentioned a few times. That said, I don't think the hair was developed with that in mind. I have no doubt he came up with it early on as an injoke, especially before the show really took on a life on it's own but I think the design is informed by the 80s obsession with 50s kitsch. The beehive hairdo seemed to get used a lot ironically because it's such an overproduced hairdo, it feels like a quick way to seem quirky and amusing.

 

[gogglebob]

Oh, to be clear I drew the comparison not to disagree with the hair kitsch, but to confirm a possible reason Marge from the ol' days was a long way away from being a Maxim model. She's not supposed to be human, left alone relatable and/or sexy.

 

[MetManMas]

Marge being a Life in Hell bunny in disguise is like how they originally wanted Homer and Krusty to be the same guy. Like, I get the idea behind those kinda things given Matt Groening's origin as an absurdist indie comic writer, but it's all for the better that The Simpsons kept things (comparatively) more grounded.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

The Pacifier

With the animators in place, Archer, Silverberg and Kopp began to adapt Groening's scripts (Wikipedia doesn't specify how many) and they were completed within one week, including layouts, in-betweening, and animating by hand. Groening submitted sketches to the three and assumed that they would be cleaned up but instead they crudeness became part of the initial look of the shorts. The decision to make them yellow came from colourist Gyorgyi Peluce, a Hungarian veteran of animation who would be a background painter and colour designer on Simpsons series for the first three seasons, as well as the first two episodes of season four. This decision would be a part of what makes the characters instantly recognizable.

In this episode, Bart and Lisa decide to torment Maggie for being a baby and sucking on her pacifier. Nothing seems to work and eventually Maggie convinces Bart and Lisa to suck on pacifiers, too.

It really is interesting not only how different this is from what the show becomes but even from the early episodes of the main series. Not only that it's rough but the characters and reality are different. Bart and Lisa are kind of the same character. Bart would become a prankster but here he and Lisa are kind of just bullies. I mean, there's a pranking element, namely putting the pacifier in hot sauce but it doesn't feel the same. Partially because his plan is instantly undone. But it goes into the other area that is different, the reality.

The Simpsons relationship with being "grounded" is interesting. In the main series, there would be some wacky zoom animations but when characters get hurt, they can bleed. There are in-jokes but there's no asides to the camera except "outside" the episode, like General Bart as an epilogue or the Halloween show opener. The War of the Simpsons was contentious for Matt Groening who really didn't want, even if it was snarky and ironic, for the giant catfish General Sherman to wink at the camera, to break the reality.

But here, this is just crude Looney Tunes. It's interesting because I feel like what little I read of Life in Hell is often observances of the human condition but the Simpsons is, at this point, Groening getting to do an old style cartoon. Both here and in the last episode, Maggie is constantly looking into camera and smiling after each "win", in a very cartoon character way. It's wild that even the first short is somehow closer to the Simpsons in it's complete form than 5 episodes later.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Burp Contest

Next came casting. Considering it was going to air on the Tracy Ullman Show, it only made sense for the cast to include a Tracy Ullman regular or two, so the producers asked some to take part. Homer was cast with Dan Castellaneta in the role, doing a loose vocal impression of Walter Matthau. Matthau was already a legend at that point and with his iconic roles as slobbish Oscar in the Odd Couple and the crass and cynical but eventually helpful coach Morris Buttermaker in the Bad News Bears. Dan would eventually change the voice, due to it being hard to sustain in longer recording sessions and having limited range.

In this episode, Bart, Lisa and Maggie have a burping contest, much to Marge's displeasure. As she is making one final plea for the kids to stop burping, Homer enters and burps, amusing the kids.

This isn't a particularly good outing, even by the metrics of these shorts but it certainly is interesting for the anthropology of the show and of animation in general. It's just funny to me that this in itself is supposed to be amusing, just the subject of burping. It feels so nothing today. Yet I remember as a kid being blown away after years of "sanitized" cartoons when Ren and Stimpy would have boogers and farts and burps. Kids find that stuff funny. And I think it brings to mind that while the Tracy Ullman Show was not really aimed at families, the Simpsons does feel like Groening started making it with the kids point of view.

It's just a reminder how humble the show is at this point. This is where we were for what TV was. I think with the presumption that animation would be for kids, just having burping, despite being ridiculously childish, somehow seemed like it was crazy enough to hang a story on it in those days. The Simpsons is not afraid to be immature and occasionally in the early seasons of the main show there would be characters burping but outside of a few spots, such as Jay Sherman stealing Homer's burping trophy, burps and farts are really not what would be the hallmark of the show. Marge calls the burping "crude" and she's right... but it's less a "uncultured" crude here and more like a rudimentary beginning for the show before it finds it's non-gaseous voice.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Eating Dinner (AKA Dinnertime)

Kavner was also cast from the Tracy Ullman show as Marge the matriarch of the family. Kavner was known for her unique voice compared to honeyed gravel that she attributed to a bump on her throat. She added a bit of raspiness to Marge's voice to make it unique. Though Kavner is one of the least interviewed actors on the show, it seems she might take it the most serious. She has rarely been shown doing "the voice" in person because she feels it shatters the illusion. Cast and crew have all also described her as being a big believer in the show. Still, she isn't a shill, as part of her contract precludes her having to promote the Simpsons on video. Currently, Kavner has lowered Marge's register because the higher one she used to use puts more of a strain on her vocal cords. Kavner is currently known for being a "near recluse", refusing to be filmed while working.

In this episode, Marge serves the family dinner and decides to remind them of manners and family etiquette.

This is another one that feels really humble. It does go into what is at the heart of the show, which is the idealized family vision being superseded by a crasser, less glamourous reality. This also establishes that with the exception of Marge, the Simpsons have bad eating habits, wolfing down food like there's no tomorrow. It's hokey as all get out but it is a big building block of the show and I think it represents a crude idea of what the show will be more than Bart Jumping.

Again, things are still quite cartoony, as when Marge drops the food on the table and the impact bounces the food out of the bowl onto plates. There's also a gag where in each subsequent piece, the mountain in the painting on the background erupts. At least that gag, as anemic as it is, does feel like a push towards playing with the background. The show would become famous for it's hidden background gags inspired fans like me who recorded the show on VHS to pause and read the messages hidden in each scene.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Making Faces

Nancy Cartwright was a voice actor with experience. In fact, she was the only member of the original main cast originally trained in voice acting, having worked for years on cartoons like Richie Rich, My Little Pony and the Snorks. She was even the protege of legendary cartoon voice actor Daws Butler. Nancy originally went to audition for Lisa but finding the middle child lacking in definite personality, she decided to audition for Bart, attracted to the characters deviousness, cleverness and irreverence. Groening let her try out for Bart and gave her the job on the spot. She has stated compared to most other characters, Bart is easy to perform, though feels Bart's voice is much different than hers.

In this short, Bart, Lisa and Maggie amuse each other by making faces, much to Marge's displeasure. She tells the kids if they keep making faces they'll stay that way. Eventually, she pulls a trick on them and tells them their faces have stuck, which they believe, looking at the mirror at their own regular faces.

This is basically following the same formula as Burp Contest, probably knowingly. It makes sense; audiences like a certain level of familiarity and getting the audience used to a certain simple set up-punch formula can prepare the audience for something they think they'll like. But like Burp Contest, the gags are pretty predictable and straight forward. The last one is interesting. I don't think it lands but I get what it's going for. And when I say it doesn't land, it's not just that it's unfunny. I think the premise is solid; the joke being the kids see their normal faces as "hideous" because of an idea planted by Marge. I get what it is going for but for whatever reason, I feel like it doesn't sell me on the kids buying this, possibly because of the way these shorts need to get in and out with a gag quick. It's really the simpler gags that are landing, rather than the "clever" ones. It's also interesting to see Marge play this kind of trick. She doesn't seem like she's enjoying it but still I can't imagine the Marge of the main series lying to the kids like this to scare them straight.

Clearly, more than the jokes, Groening is having fun coming up with weird faces. The faces do look good and it would be something the show comes back to a tiny bit in the first couple seasons of the main series (and occasionally beyond). The show is still more "cartoony" which allows Matt to go wild with some of the faces and have fun. I mean, I'm not laughing but I'm just happy Matt gets to make money doing what he loves; remembering that as a kid, making faces was fun and drawing weird faces is also fun.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

The Funeral

Yeardley Smith, an actress with Broadway experience in The Real Thing with Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close, as well as less-than-successful feature films Heaven Help Us, The Legend of Billie Jean and Maximum Overdrive, auditioned for the show for the role of Bart. However, it was decided her voice was too high for the role. Casting director Bonita Pietila asked her to read two lines and was told "Thanks for coming" but her voice sounded too much "like a girl" according to Smith. So instead, she was given the voice of Lisa, a role Pietila "always" wanted her to play due to her performance in Living on Salvation Street. Smith raises her voice higher to play Lisa and early on would provide the squeaks and occasional words for Maggie.

In this episode, the Simpsons go to a funeral for their elderly Uncle Hubert. Bart is excited to see a dead body but faints when he does. Bart also tries to make himself the center of attention by directing the pall bearers. Homer and Marge are so upset, they vow never to take the kids to a funeral again, much to their dismay.

The Funeral feels a little closer to what the show would become, at least early on. It feels slightly closer to actual observations than strip gags (though the tone is still there). Bart excited to see a dead body, only to faint, reminds me of the Homer's Night Out gag where he orders squid with extra tentacles to gross out his family, only to become grossed out himself when it gets there. The third gag of Bart trying to direct the funeral doesn't land super-well but it definitely does feel like a kid would want to be the center of attention (and knowing kids, a lot of them who do that would also think they are helping).

The first gag where Bart explains death with a series of fun euphemisms only to sadly say he died feels weird but I kind of like the tone shift in the moment of Bart, a gag that would become stronger later on. The last gag is a bit of an odd one because the kids are all in trouble but Bart really did only one obnoxious thing we see and by the metric, it's annoying but not "grumble in the car" annoying. It really feels for the gag. I guess we can assume other stuff happened that we didn't see. Overall it feels like the shorts are starting to play in a few new avenues as it evolves itself.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Maggie's Brain

The primitive look of the show also matched the primitive tone of the recording sessions. Rather than utilizing a full studio, the cast would use a makeshift studio above the bleachers on the Tracy Ullman Show set and record their lines into a portable tape. Since the recordings would be done on the same set, Nancy Cartwright would appear early for recording sessions, hanging out with the cast and crew in the hopes of finding her way onto the live action segments.

In this episode, Bart and Lisa play with Maggie and ponder what she's thinking. Maggie sees them as monsters and fantasizes about tickling Bart and Lisa in a crib until they cry just as Bart and Lisa do to her.

I don't strongly recommend this one but I will say that the middle segment is inching closer to the show's ideas. Obviously, the world through the eyes of a baby would become the basis for Klasky-Csupo's hit series Rugrats but the Simpsons would sometimes toy with the idea, most notably in the episode Bart's Dog Gets an F where the world is viewed through the eyes of Santa's little helper. I will say though, considering the show is more cartoony here and Groening seems to enjoy funny faces, Bart and Lisa's scary monster faces seem uninspired.

The third segment does seem to be Groening playing around a little. I don't just mean the fantastical element but the composition actually changes with Maggie looming above in a way that is more pronounced than the very simple ones for much of it. It still looks fairly crude but it is interesting to see this things evolve visually to something that looks more than the Jim Davis/Charles Schutlz shot of the characters from the side.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Football

The Simpsons finally aired on April 19, 1987. Interestingly, it wasn't the only animated short on the series but it was by far the most successful. The other was Dr. N!Godatu, a surreal comedy by National Lampoon veteran cartoonist M.K. Brown. The same animation team worked on it and it followed a professional psychiatrist as she tried to help patience through her trouble and kept a cool demeanor through pretty much everything, including the frustrations of daily life. It's actually interesting to watch this cartoon by the same team because while I won't be raving for it, I feel like it is a better cartoon than the Simpsons. It feels much more assured in it's tone, it looks better and overall just seems less crude. It also seems like a more fitting match for the Tracy Ullman Show, with Julie Pain giving an understated sardonic delivery as a character who is understated in an overstated wacky world. I can see why the Simpsons stuck around though; crude as it is, Groening is tapping into something universal in the North American childhood experience and there's something almost punk rock about the aggressive colouring with yellows and pinks. Dr N!Godatu never made it past season one and though more were planned, the Simpsons completely took center stage.

In this episode, the kids are promised frosty chocolate milkshakes if Bart can catch a football. After many setbacks, he finally does, with his mouth. Eventually he needs Lisa to help stick the straw in his mouth past the football.

Football is another cartoon that feels both like classic animated hi-jinx and a comic strip formula. The visuals aren't quite as wacky and it's pretty basic gagsmanship. Still, as generic as it is, I feel like some episodes have slightly more attempts at gags that are more specific that don't land (like tricking the kids to be scared of their own faces) while this feels like it's a much more conventional joke that actually kind of gets the job done. It's interesting to remember Lisa isn't really Lisa yet and in terms of character is the one who will go through the most evolution when we finally get to series. Until then, she's basically Bart's foil. I haven't seen all the shorts but I suspect that Bart, Maggie Homer and Marge will all have focus but Lisa won't have any.

It took me a while to notice but one thing that I do see now is seeing so much more of the characters teeth and gums. The show would become much more economical about teeth and gums is just too distracting. It's funny that the crudeness isn't just lack of detail, it would be detail in places that would fade away eventually. Part of the evolution of the show is figuring out which details to keep and which to through away. After all, though the designs are simple, I think of the Simpsons as a show with an eye toward detail, such as background gags. Eventually our family will be come smoother and less gummy.

One other note is the beginning of the non-catchphrase, "frosty chocolate milkshakes". It points to Homer being a very different character and it's such an odd attempt to latch onto something with it's specificity, the show would go onto mock it when bringing up the weirdness of the old seasons.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

House of Cards

The Tracy Ullman show was off and running and that included the introduction of the Simpsons. The characters were established and in many ways were shadows of who they would become. Homer was still prone to rage as in the show proper but when not angered he appeared as more of a soft sitcom dad who seemed more invested in the kids. Marge was the long-suffering mother but seemed more to represent an authority for the kids to bump up against rather than a full character. Bart is a smart alec and a trouble maker but he also seemed to have less of an edge than when we get to the Bart-mania era and many stories were often about him put in peril by his oafish father or pestered by his sister. Lisa was the most far-removed. The character would later be re-established as the intellectual and soulful member of the family but mostly she's Bart's foil, often bickering with him, sometimes palling with him and usually there to watch or contribute to Bart getting in trouble.

In this episode, Bart tries to make a house of cards while Lisa and Maggie watch and interrupt.

I think it would be easy to forget that throughout the series, Bart is actually pretty industrious. I could easily see Bart getting into making a house of cards, though weirdly, I feel like later Simpsons would spend half-an-act showing how, ending with an awed "wow" before he starts doing it and doing it very well. Of course, I think this is less building the character of Bart and simply starting with a conceit that has inherent comedy, tension (you KNOW the cards are going to fall but how will it be a gag) and conflict between Bart and Lisa. It really points out where Lisa is right now. I think a lot of us have been pointing out that Lisa is poorly defined at this point but I don't think that's the issue. The issue is she's defined largely by Bart.

In the show, Lisa is never doing her own thing. And she's never really doing anything with JUST Homer or Marge or even Maggie, except for the "bedbugs" gag in the very first cartoon. Outside of that, she's always with Bart while Bart gets to play off Homer. Part of me wonders that Groening is writing this in response to his childhood specifically and his point of view. Even though he's not always the "lead" of a story, so far Bart is the only one who is in every cartoon (looking ahead, that also seems to be the case, except maybe part of the three part finale. So perhaps Groening is primarily interested in looking at this family through Bart's lens and is not ready to explore the whole family yet. It will be interesting to see if this holds true for the rest of the shorts.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Bart and Dad Eating Dinner

With season 2 of the show, The Simpsons made the jump from appearing in every other episode to appearing in every episode that season on the Tracy Ullman show. With Dr. N!Godatu gone (more sketches were planned but not picked up), now Groening and Klasky-Csupo had to fill slots for a 22 episode season, unlike the thirteen episode midseason they had before. And through the first three seasons of the show, the creative team of Groening, Archer and Silverman remained, though Kopp moved on.

In this short, Lisa, Maggie and Marge go to the ballet while Homer and Bart stay homer and have dinner together. Homer mixes pork-a-roni with fish nuggets, much to Bart's disgust, Bart tries to avoid eating it but can't. They both wind up on the coach, Homer dreaming of eating more and Bart having a nightmare about eating more.

This one is pretty forgettable. It dies bring up an element of the show that gets dropped, which is the Simpsons eating... like weird purple goop-balls. I feel like they just wanted a generic food to animate and also represent the kind of unpleasant foods didn't want to eat. Also. a lot of these people grew up in the 60s and 70s, the heyday of weird recipes with jello, which is kind of that weird retro-kitsch that defined the show early on.

Does this one evolve anything in the show? Not really. I guess it begins Homer being willing to pretty much each anything but I don't think that's what they are going for here. This feels more like "kid doesn't like adult food." But it's weird because assuming "pork-a-roni" is either rice-a-roni (the San Francisco treat) or Chef Boyardee's beef-a-roni and fish nuggets are like battered fish... I wouldn't put them together but I don't think it would be "ew gross". But maybe that's just me. Frankly, I feel like kid me definitely would have put those together given the chance. Overall, it's a pretty weak short with not much visual flair, creative humour or insight into childhood. It's usually the last point that only comes up anyway but even from the classic "kid doesn't want to eat what mom and dad serve", it's not that great.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Space Patrol

The Simpsons made it to season 2. Rather than alternating between episodes and sharing time with Dr. N!Godatu, The Simpsons now appeared in each and every episode of the Tracy Ullman Show and became the stand out of the series. John Ortved, author of The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History, has stated that the crew even began airing the shorts for the live audience and had the biggest reactions of the evening. And therein would lie the problem for both the Simpsons and the Tracy Ullman Show.

In this short, Bart, Lisa and Maggie decide to play "Space Patrol" with Lisa and Maggie as space heroes. Bart puts a vase on his head which gets stuck so Lisa insists he play the role of a berserk robot. Lisa and Maggie torment Bart until Lisa frees him by smashing the vase. Bart is shocked and still in character, Lisa and Maggie decide to hide until their parents get home.

This is one of the shorts people will remember because like a few others, this actually aired on the show proper as part of the 138th Episode Spectacular. The interesting thing about that episode it was really taking the piss out of the show's own legacy. And the show is quick to point out how wildly different the show's sense of humour is from these VERY humble beginnings with Groening as sole scripter and then when it went to series hiring some of the most clever comedic minds in the industry. And Al Jean. (I kid. He... he's written something good.)

This is basically the first Lisa-focused episode, sort of, because still, everything she does at this point is in relation to Bart. Even though it's called the Simpsons, this era really does feel Bart-centric, even more than the first season which kicked off Bartmania. I have no doubt a lot of families said "let's watch Bart Simpson" but even in the first season EVERYONE gets an episode and of the 13 episodes, only 5 were "Bart episodes" (and only one Lisa but to be fair, it is deeply important in fleshing out the character). Lisa was kind of "girl Bart" but even that's misleading; I feel like Lisa is a tormentor and though Bart is a troublemaker to an extent (though less "pranky" and more trying to get attention), he feels more like "just a kid" and something more akin to Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes. Not quite as verbose but a great outlet for exploring the feeling of being a kid.

The short itself isn't that funny. It slightly less obviously set up/punch than the earlier ones that felt like comic strips which I appreciate. I have no strong feelings toward this characterization of Lisa except obviously what comes much later is better. But yeah, Lisa is mostly just a Bart tormentor here. I feel like Bart gets tormented more in these shorts when often in the series he's a little more confident (sometimes overly so) because I think the everykid feels like they are at the whims of the parents and other forces they can't control.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Bart's Haircut

What began as a promising collaboration was taking a turn. The Simpsons popularity made them a little less popular with the staff of the Tracy Ullman Show, having to fight attention away from what were intended as interstitials. This is somewhat similar to the first season of Saturday Night Live, which included elements created by Jim Henson called The Land of Gorch. The key differences were the Land of Gorch was tonally a poor fit for the tone of Saturday Night Live (yes, it was adult focused but despite the popularity of Henson didn't have the same hip youthfulness that marked the show's early days) and that no one seemed to like the Land of Gorch. The Simpsons, however, was possibly the most liked and iconic aspect of the show, meaning it was a little harder to deal with than simply getting rid of it.

In this short, the family notes Bart's hair and tells him it's time for a haircut. Bart reluctantly does but the barber shaves his head. Bart tries to create his own wig but it doesn't work and he asks the family not to laugh at him, but they can't help but do so.

This is another one that feels like not only is it trading on 50s kitsch but this feels like it could be a fictionalized tale from Greoning's childhood. Though unlikely because while here Homer and Marge seem upset by Bart's "beatnik" look (this REALLY feels like this is set at least a couple decades before it's release), I'm given to understand Groening grew up with fairly liberal parents but I honestly can't cite that so maybe I'm off. (I know his dad was a cartoonist as well, as well as an advertiser and writer). But a bad hair cut experience, a vain attempt to put it back on and being laughed at when your family is supposed to be sympathetic feels like a real tale of youth.

I think that's why this one, though not really strong, works better than a lot. It lacks any artistic ambitions but weirdly feeling like it's not chasing a big headline almost makes it, intentionally or not, feel more like slice of laugh than comedy in a way that's a bit successful. I will also say the family struggling not to laugh but then giving in feels like it would be done better later comedically in the show. Still, I think the detail that they really are trying not to laugh gives makes them more sympathetic. I feel like Bart gets the most sympathy so far, though it isn't an emotional show so it's nice to see them trying not to be mean, even if they fail.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

World War III

James L Brooks, the producer of the Tracy Ullman Show was at the cast and crew Christmas party when he was approached by David Silverman. David Silverman impressed upon him the idea of a half-hour series and that it wouldn't just be a good move for the show, it could play an important role in the animation industry. After all, a lot of the animation done at the time in the US was "kids shows" (which in that era were stuck in a nadir) and advertising. There were very few prime time animated series and The Flintstones, which was really a very conventional and cheesy sitcom, was the only success. It should be pointed out that Silverman was apparently quite drunk at the time. But he also wasn't wrong; The Simpsons certainly WOULD become not only a huge success but influential in a larger number of ways in the animation industry including the rise of animation aimed at adult and comedy writing in general. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

In this short, Homer does "World War III" drills with the family to their fear, frustration and exhaustion. It ends with the family giving Homer a drill and locking him in the bunker.

This simultaneously an example of something of it's time and something that could reflect how Groening grew up. I would definitely believe even if his family wasn't prepared for the coming WWIII, the cold war fear in the air probably meant that it was in the atmosphere and could get the idea seeing other families, as well as the news and general cultural osmosis. But it also comes around because it was also a prescient fear again in the 80s, inspiring some of our darkest media. If you thought Dr Strangelove was bleak, it doesn't hold a candle to Threads. It was real palpable paranoia again and it felt darker this time.

For that reason, I feel that it was probably a story that both hit harder but was also funnier. It's the MAD Magazine reaction of trying to laugh at the news today; not exactly the most hard hitting but a goofier approach to real fear. Homer being a prepper dad is something... I can buy in the context of an episode (I can be Homer or any family member becoming almost anything with the right rationalization). But it really is hard to imagine Homer as we know him just BEING that guy with no justification. It's just not who the character becomes. For now, he's more a generic grumpy (but also sometimes weirdly jovial) sitcom dad, which means less focus on the lazy and selfish side and more really into the family following certain rules while still being uncouth himself.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

The Perfect Crime

Brooks decided to move forward with pushing the Simpsons to series. However, it wasn't an easy sell, at least the way it was intended to be done. Fox was very uncertain that the Simpsons, who had previously only appeared in about one and a half minutes per episode could sustain the attention of the audience for a full half hour. They suggested the audience could be eased into it with four specials and episodes that included 4 shorts rather than one long story. But despite this, the team felt they could do it.

In this short, Marge makes cookies and convinced it will be the Perfect Crime, plans to steal them. Eventually he does but gets a stomach ache in the process.

So we've sort of returned to our "comic strip"-style formula. It's funny because I think of Bart being a mischievous brat but there are actually very few shorts about that. This is one of them and it's not very good. The problem with a lot of these is how inefficient they are. They take WAY too long to set up very simple punchlines. It's not so bad in the third one but in the one where Bart is caught talking with his mouth full, it feels too much energy was spent on set up.

It's crude but it is experimenting with a few different camera angles to take it out of the comic strip composition zone. Once again, Maggie's winking at the camera and shit. It's funny how that came around with them stopping that, then doing it ironically and now the irony is so thin it often just feels like they are straight up doing that. I guess that's the funny thing, it's a show that I remember being very steeped in irony and anti-comedy (particularly setting up a conventional comedy set up, then making fun of it) and this is so cheesy and sincere with it's comedy. It definitely works better in this era when it tries kids POV but not so much with the comic strip formula.

 

[John]

Thanks for doing all these write-ups! It's been years since I've revisited the Ullman shorts, and they're an interesting time capsule.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Scary Stories

With the show given the go ahead, Brooks decided to recruit the help of Sam Simon, who also helped produce the Tracy Ullman Show. Same was a veteran of both sitcoms (being a showrunner on Taxi for three seasons and a producer and writer on Cheers) and animation (cutting his teeth storyboarding Fat Albert and Heckle and Jekyll) and Brooks, whom we worked with on the Ullman Show and Taxi, new he was the man for the job. The showrunners were now in place; Groening, Brooks and Simon. And soon the characters would be making a quantum leap in creating something beyond "the Simpsons shorts, but longer". A sensibility was to develop, one that would set it apart from everything else airing, even the Simpsons shorts.

In this short, Bart tells Lisa and Maggie scary stories but keeps getting himself scared before the story is over. In the last tale, all the kids are scared when Homer and Marge suddenly enter.

This is another of the shorts "set up/punch" bits. It's pretty straightforward and it's not as clunky as it sometimes gets. It's just a very straightforward wacky comic strip bit. Again, it is a fun reminder how cartoony these shorts were before the main series rejected that, then sort of rejuiced it. After all, the "eyes in the dark" ended up becoming part of the Simpsons on the regular again, just like asides to the camera. I think the thing is the Simpsons would evolve it's reality but it was still more grounded than most humour-cartoons that preceded it. No splat and squish, characters bleed, like the infamous "Homer falls down the cliff" moment that was sort of funnier because how weirdly brutal it was (and because it happens twice).

But mostly, this is a series of bits. It does feel like the kind that would be used in the first Treehouse of Horror when the show decided it needed a framing device. I can hear the relish in Nancy Cartwright's voice as she plays this character, having fun with both the hushed towns and the joy of talking about psycho killers and bloodsucking vampires. And though it's not the strongest gags, I can feel Groening having fun injecting this stuff into Bart. It feels true to the kind of stuff kids want to scare each other which. Lastly, the show of Marge and Homer opening the door and letting in a streak of yellow light really does feel like the shorts inching towards being visually interesting.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

The Money Jar

The showrunners were in place and the Simpsons had a vision and an advantage that few other shows had. The vision? An alternative to the "mainstream trash" as Groening put it, that was on TV. Having lived through the Golden Age of TV, it is easy to look at the era prior to that as being poor. It's easy to forget there WERE good shows on in the 1980s. But at the same time for every Cheers and the Wonder Years, there were a dozen Full Houses and Perfect Strangers, formulaic and lazy comedies that, granted earned some nostalgia, are largely no looked at that well. Creating a show like that would mean finding a unique voice and point of view. And their advantage that Brooks managed to get would allow them to do just that; a provision in the contract with the Fox network that prevented Fox from interfering with the show's content. Considering Fox was far from a big network probably meant that fighting for this freedom was only possible here rather than on an ABC, CBS or NBC.

In this short, Marge tells the kids not to steal from the money jar. Lisa is tempted but the angel on her shoulder warns her off. The same thing happens to Maggie. But Bart's angel and devil are in total agreement... though Bart is disappointed to only find one dollar in the jar.

This is another pretty run of the mill kind of gag. A lot of these feel like comics strips but rather than 4 short pieces, this one is made of two slightly longer pieces so because of that, it actually feels like a Sunday strip. It's funny that the show would become an enfant terrible for a lot of boomer parents because of how toothless these original shorts were. Like, generally, I would have no issue showing these shorts to a young child, certainly more than I would the Tracy Ullman Show itself.

One thing weirding me out is that as rough as a lot of the show looks, it's layout of the house is actually very similar to what it would be in the main series. So when we go into the Simpsons kitchen in this short and there's, like, an island, it really weirds me out. Like, there are parts of the house that look off in general in the show and I can deal with it. I don't even mind them having a bomb shelter. But for some reason, this one really throws me off my game. Especially since the show usually presents the kitchen very similarly to how it would look in the series proper: with the big round table in the middle of it.

Again the show is going cartoony but devil Bart would definitely be an image that shows up several times in the franchise. I remember it on t-shirts but mostly I remember it from the Simpsons arcade game. While in general, the show would have Bart be mischievous but ultimately moral when push comes to shove, it always did like playing around with the devil imagery and that Bart was friends with the dark side.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Grampa and the Kids

With the workload increased, there was no way Klasky-Csupo could handle the job of 13 new episodes alone. AKOM, which stands for Animation KOrea Movie, is an animation studio with a long history of doing a lot of freelance work for American series. AKOM was dependable in a lot of ways but there are stories where the finished product proved to be a disappointment, particularly when compared to how the actual show from the domestic animators looked. But they were always taking on a lot of work and proved invaluable to a lot of series. Still, their subpar animation would result in them getting fired from Batman: The Animated Series as they produced some of the series poorest looking episodes. This issue would become relevant later...

In this short, Grampa pays a visit to the kids and while Bart tries to sass him, Grampa proves he can take it and dish it out. This culminates in Grampa pranking Bart by pretending to have a life-ending heart attack, scaring the Hell out of Bart, even when the prank is revealed.

These shorts aren't very good but this might be the strongest so far. I think it's because Grampa comes out almost completely fully form. His voice is a little more decrepit but he's an old coot with long-winded stories, he is sassy and he's the kind of person willing to fake a heart attack as a prank. Even more than Lisa, he also seems designed to be a foil for Bart, not being phased by his pranks but proving to be the better prankster. That's not to say the jokes aren't a little corny. The "clumsy little elf" bit doesn't quite work (though the specificity of the phrase, used before the Happy Little Elves are established on the show, sounds kind of like this might have been an actual reference to something told to Groening from his childhood.

But there are elements that feel like the show as it would become. As I said, a lot of these feel like they are fine for kids but Grampa faking his death and Lisa asking Bart whether he'll get the electric chair or the gas chamber is appropriately dark. Though Lisa isn't "Lisa" yet, this is much closer in tone to the first season of the show than most of the other shorts. Grampa's still a long way from being one of the show's most absurd characters but his character seems even more well drawn than Lisa. Despite Bart's eyes literally blinking out of existence early on, it's one of the more solid Ullman era shorts.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Gone Fishin'

Sam Simon had one of the most important roles in the series; finding, hiring and leading a team of writers to give voice to this new show. This included National Lampoon writers Al Jean and Mike Riess, Harvard Lampoon writers Jeff Martin and Jon Vitti (Vitti also having been the president), Ullman show writers Wallace Wolodarsky and Jay Kogen and George Meyer and John Swartzwelder, two former SNL writers (known for the more absurdist/surreal sketches of the era) who went onto writer their own obscure but acclaimed satire magazine Army Man. Each of these writers would stay with the show not just for the first season but also into what is known as the show's Golden Age (look, I'm not getting into the argument of where that ended).

In this short, Bart and Homer go fishing. Homer forgets the baloney for the baloney sandwiches and puts the bait in the sandwich instead, though Homer doesn't notice. After going through rapids, the two go over a waterfall.

I'm not a terribly big fan of any of the shorts but this one seems particularly... I don't think it's lazy. Well, the writing is lazy but the animation team feels like they are given work for faces. Weirdly, it's not the screaming that gets my attention, it's that the direction is almost TOO good at making Homer seem angry in a way where I am genuinely fearful for Bart. It's weirdly uncomfortable and I've seen this man strangle this child already on multiple occasions. I think it's just that stony silence is... intimidating.

Though the show has gone back to it later, I guess I can't imagine Homer as a fishing guy. Homer's pretty lazy and I can't imagine him getting up early unless food or a wacky scheme is involved. It's sedentary, which Homer likes, but it feels like it takes a lot of work to actually get there. Interestingly, as basic as this is, it does seem to be pushing the show into slightly less kid friendly territory with mild gross-out humour and a kind of scary dad. But this also feels more in line with Season 1 of the Tracy Ullman Show. It really is another example of the series' tone being a comic strip and a reminder how strange a journey it is to get to the tone of the series proper.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Skateboarding

Sam not only stacked the writers room, he really became the man who would inspire the writers to really develop who the characters are. Writer Ken Levine says that he was responsible for the tone, level of comedy and storytelling and Jon Vitti said that he was the man the writers wrote for. He was interested in making the characters more three dimensional and even sketched out the world of Springfield and even designed models for recurring characters such as Mr. Burns. Dr. Hibbert and the police force. I don't want to just fawn over him; writer Mimi Pond (who did the Christmas Special, the first episode aired) said that she wasn't a full time writer because Simon didn't allow women in the writer's room (this has neither been confirmed or denied by other parties, to my knowledge). But everyone agrees that the tone that the series would take was largely because of Simon, who was the driving force of the series.

In this short, Bart does some skateboarding, but Maggie and Lisa keep one-upping him.

Another comic strip-styled bit that establishes two elements for Bart. One is that he likes skateboarding. It's definitely a thing they put on the main series a lot early on, probably because it was sort of a hip things kids like (see Back to the Future). The skateboard would be his weapon in the arcade game and would come with toys as an accessory. If anything, this is the Bart I think of when I think of Bartmania as a marketing ploy. Which is not to say "Bart shouldn't be on a skateboard" so much as that iconography feels more like this is representative of a "hip" character what Bart is to me.

The other funny element is the use of "Cowabunga." By this time, it's re-entered the cultural lexicon by way of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which started airing by this point. Originally a phrased used by Howdy Doody character... *sigh* Chief Thunderthud (guess what his deal is) as a mock-indigenous (that's what his deal is) exclamation. It eventually entered surf culture as an exclamation of exhilaration. Weirdly, Bart has said "Cowabunga" a rare handful of times but the marketing really treated it like a catchphrase to the point that the show itself mock itself for that.

It's interesting to see a Bart who, even though he keeps "losing" in this short, feels very much the Bart marketed to us when the show first came out. It's not quite as cringy as you might think because it actually does feel correct for what this short is but it also feels like marketing was really trying to make Bart a Poochie. Oh, shit, I just realized that like "The I Didn't Do It Boy", the Poochie episode is kind of about not only cheesy new characters to inject life into a show. It's also, as Homer pleads that the character can be deeper than his catchphrase and marketed attitude with the joke in that episode being the heartfelt plea is ignored. It's funny, the rise of Bartmania is probably the best thing to happen to the show in terms of getting a big audience and the fall really allowed the show to start thriving on it's own merits.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

The Pagans

Simon's goal as someone who previously worked in animation was to take what he didn't like about working on Saturday morning cartoons and solve those problems. The first big one (which would also be about how they got one of the show's biggest names as a regular) was to have all the performers in the same room, rather than recording their lines separately. This would allow them to play off of each other like a classic radio show. He also added collaborative script re-writing, which meant that the whole team of writers could have adjust the stories and jokes. Interestingly, I think this might be both what helped the show stay strong but also turned it into a sausage factory in later years, with personality and meaning, the very things Simon was praised for bringing to the series, being phased out in place of jokes.

In this short, the family is driving to church but Bart and Lisa decide to become pagans so they don't have to go. After the car breaks down they thank nature. Lisa does a rain dance, which seems to work. Eventually Homer gets angry when the kids replace their clothes with leaves and hide out in the church, thankful for sanctuary and planning to sneak out once mass ends.

This is a short that definitely gets closer to the "edge" that made the show controversial. And it is coming in during the very conservative 80s so a cartoon where kids reject god to worship nature... it does have teeth. Baby teeth but teeth. It's interesting to remember despite this, the Simpsons are one of the few cartoon families who regularly attend church and it would become a mainstay of the series. It would both mock organized religion but also seem to have a deep love for spirituality and, to a question extent, understood the value of community with a church. But it also understands kids find it boring and would rather not go. So why not change religions.

This feels like one of the rare times Bart and Lisa are on the same page in these shorts. Unfortunately, it hammers home that these characters are almost a little too similar. It's not that Lisa adds nothing but without rivalling Bart, it's like having two of the same character. It's not like these shorts are super great but they seem to work better when the two are at odds. It is also the debut of "why you [those] little". So that's not nothing. But while I appreciate Groening is allowing the cartoons to play with religion, there's not a lot here. Still, I think this works better than the formulaic comic strip style I associate with the shorts.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

The Closet

Groening had not paid close attention to what TV was like in that era. I suspect largely he wouldn't have liked it but it also means he was unaware of changes to certain expectations. One was that most TV series didn't have long opening sequences anymore. But Groening, to take a few minutes of work off each episode, created a long, detailed opening.

Knowing that the long sequence repeated weekly would be tiresome, he included two gags within the opening that would change every week; the chalkboard gag and the couch gag. When Bart was writing on the chalkboard as punishment, it would always be a different message (usually part of an increasingly ludicrous form of bad behaviour) and when the family would sit on the couch, something different or zany would happen each time. Both would become instantly iconic, with the later becoming more and more elaborate as years went by including guest animators and directors and little stories that would go on for a couple minutes.

In this short, Bart hides in a closet when Homer calls for him, thinking he's expected to do chores. However, the closet door is stuck. Eventually Bart gets out and decides he'd rather do chores than be stuck. He finds a message revealing Homer was taking the family out for frosty chocolate milkshakes but couldn't find Bart so they went without him. Completely defeated, Bart goes back in the closet.

This one isn't bad. I won't say it's quite the same comic strip punch but it does feel like when a humour strip has a story that lasts about a week. The second gag, Bart asking Maggie to "do what I would do in your shoes" feels a lot closer to what the show becomes later on. Not the most clever gag but it says a lot about the characters. Maggie works best for me when she's NOT looking at camera (technically she does this but it isn't a fourth wall-breaking move) and when she is a bit out of step with everyone else. I don't mind her being smart but when she is, it's important to me that she has that far-away look, like she's in her own world. I feel like early and later Simpsons don't always know how to do this. Heck, the Who Shot Mr. Burns reveal works better because she isn't planning anything but later on the character is a sharpshooter who is sometimes smirking. I'm not saying giving Maggie literal emotions doesn't work for comedy but I think this is one case where the character needs to just not be engaged the way other characters are.

While I compared it to a comic strip, this also has a "from life" element, in the broader sense. I'm sure Matt has been in a situation where he missed out on a fun family thing because he was distracted or hiding for fun (not necessarily hiding from chores). I think we've all had that moment as kids were we felt bad for missing out so this is another case that helps support my idea that this era is The Bart Show and that like the Wonder Years, that it wants to evoke a universality of boyhood. I don't even think Groening was necessarily think in those terms (I think we was when he planned out individual skits but not as a whole) but I think that's how a lot of this comes across, rather than a rejection of traditional TV families as I've often assumed.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

The Aquarium

In addition, the opening sequence would have something else to set it apart, a theme song by composer Danny Elfman. Elfman was the frontman for and founder of the band Oingo Boingo, named after his older brother's surrealist theatre troupe and by that point was known for composing quirky film scores for Tim Burton. Elfman was dialed into the renewed interest in 1950s kitsch, taking some of the tackier and goofier elements and utilizing them with humour and irony. He and his brother even made a whole film of it called Forbidden Zone, a surrealist musical fantasy film in the Rocky Horror vein. So for the dysfunctional Simpson family whose house is full of the stuff (plus a mother with a giant bouffant), it was a natural fit. Appropriately, Groening asked for a retro-style theme and Elfman came up with it in a few days. Elfman admits the piece is his most recognized piece of work (though likely the last version you heard was an arrangement by Alf Clausen, the series in-house composer for many years).

In this short, the Simpsons go to the Aquarium and Bart wants to swim with the fishes. Eventually he does and is nearly eaten by a shark. It seems Bart is dead when they find his swim trunks but he turns out to be alive. He does jump back in the water, though, deciding to take his chance with the shark rather than Homer's wrath.

OK, even though Sam Simon, who I mentioned is created for giving the show it's voice when it went to series, is not involved, I feel like this is a short that inches closer to what we know as the series, albeit in smaller details. This has been probably happening for a while and I just didn't close it but Homer's voice, still at a lower register than the modern version, feels like it's shaken off a bit of the Matthau qualities to make it sound a little less sluggish. Some of the gags are minor league versions of more successful ones as well.

The fish that looks like Homer and Homer insulting it, unaware of the similarity is a joke that feels pretty much the same today, except it would probably delivered better (and there's a chance that it would also play with or mock this cheesy joke set up). A character being thought to be dead only to not be to have an interesting reaction is an old trick but I feel like on the Simpsons, with Bart there would usually be an object left behind, namely his "lucky red swim trunks". This feels VERY similar to the much better and more absurdist gag seasons later in the box factory.

You know, in retrospect, I kind of want to know what happened between when Homer found it and when he went home to Marge to deliver the news. Did Skinner try to correct him and he wouldn't listen or did Homer just run out with the box before anyone could respond.

Oh, right, the Aquarium short. Anyway, after hearing so much about Sam Simon essentially creating the show as we know it, it's a good reminder that Groening's DNA is still strongly in the show, not only for character designs or even the anti-authoritarian attitude but also the structure of jokes before the characters and style got punched up

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Family Portrait

Everything was in place and the creators began work on their first episode Some Enchanted Evening, an episode designed to reintroduce the characters and build the world of Springfield. There was a big problem, though, as when the episode came back from AKOM, who did the inbetweening, coloring and filming, it looked... awful. The characters followed the rules of splat and squish animation, which the creators wanted to avoid. This is because AKOM's experience was primarily with those kinds of cartoons. After all, in this era, the two major kinds of TV cartoons were wacky comedies or more stilted-looking adventure cartoons like He-Man or the Smurfs. The rubbery doors and exaggerated sound effects, did not fit with the vision for the show and would become a point of contention when it finally was screened...

In this short, Homer keeps trying to take a family portrait but things keep going wrong. During the taking of the last photo, Bart won't stop making faces and eventually Homer gets mad and ruins the picture strangling Bart.

This is one that actually got play on the series proper as an opening to one of the series' anniversary episodes. It's also the first episode to feature the classic running gag of Homer strangling his child. It's... one I'm happy to see them drop. Even considering it's a less fun gag now, I basically never found it funny and I think it was simply counting on the visceral response to get a laugh. I think Itchy and Scratchy does that kind of thing a lot better with more imaginative violence. The animation looks fine, though and I think The very last face Bart makes before the punchline is very strong. Groening definitely has an affinity for "making faces".

It's always weird to see Homer put into the role where HE wants to bring the family together and do normal family stuff. It's the driving force of the early episode No Disgrace Like Home where Homer learns to accept his family's disfunction. But Homer is at the heart of that and despite Homer's surprising ability to spring into action like a big fat dynamo and become an entrepreneur and go-getter when the story demands, seeing him as the catalyst doesn't quite work after the character is established more. It's sort of the same reason I never think of him as a fishing guy (a hobby that often means getting up early); I feel like it makes sense when he's inspired by an outside source like all of his endeavours in the series proper. Homer as will be later established won't care unless a plot point causes him to try to use his whole ass at parenting. Here, he's trying to make everyone care as much as him. It's not as different as Lisa's "Bart but also" phase but he's just not quite "Homer" yet in this one.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Bart's Hiccups

When Some Enchanted Evening finally screened for Gracie Films in their bungalow, there was a huge swell of disappointment. The episode of TV everyone had worked so hard on was nowhere near what they envisioned for the show. "This is shit." exclaimed Brooks. The room nearly emptied. A heated argument arose between Brooks and Gabor Csupo, co-founder of Klasky Csupo, who thought the issue was the script. A lot of the episode would have to be redone and there was already another episode, Bart the Genius, at AKOM as they argued about it. They decided that if Bart the Genius had the same problems, they'd abort the entire series. Thankfully, that episode had problems the animators deemed fixable. But Some Enchanted Evening was going to take a lot of time to fix and the series premiere needed to be pushed back a considerable amount.

In this short, Bart has the hiccups. Lisa and Maggie try a gross drink mix and spinning Bart around but they stay. Eventually they decide to try the previous two cures along with scaring Bart with a picture of Homer, which seems to work at first but Bart hiccups again.

This is another "Lisa torments Bart" piece and I think this one is among the weaker efforts. The last gag feels much more like a child who has seen the Simpsons trying to come up with their own wacky Simpsons scenario. And there's some charm to that if that were the case, like reading Jeff Smith's Bone comics from when he was 14 where Fone Bone meets Mel Brooks (an actual thing) but Groening's been at this for a while and he can do better.

There's not too much to say beyond that. I guess one of the other lost characteristics of Lisa from this era I didn't clock isn't JUST that she and Maggie are a team, they are a team of pretend quite often and torment Bart as characters sometimes. This is Maggie when she's more cartoony and making faces. There's far less of her mugging for the camera since "The Perfect Crime" but she's still making faces to represent other characters. This is definitely one of the weaker shorts and that's saying a lot. Also they give Lisa a weird trance face for some reason.