Holy shit, you guys. I knew “Moaning Lisa” was famous as the first Lisa episode, and that it characterised her as soulful, intelligent, and introspective instead of as Girl Bart, and I even knew about the speech Marge delivers at … Continue reading The Simpsons: S01E06 “Moaning Lisa”

HELL YEAH SWARTZWELDER A recurring kind of plot throughout The Simpsons is the semi-ironic children’s adventure, with Bart and/or Lisa going on an actual adventure, with triumph and fear infused with the show’s typical cynicism and self-awareness. This episode is … Continue reading The Simpsons: S01E05 “Bart The General”

Well, we had to get a major off-model episode eventually. While it’s consistently funnier than any episode up to this point, this episode is rooted in some ideas that never took hold in The Simpsons, with the chief one being … Continue reading The Simpsons: S01E04 “There’s No Disgrace Like Home”

This episode is known as the season one episode where Homer attempts suicide because he’s been fired from the plant, absurd both because it becomes out of character for Homer, and for how dark it is. In context, it’s still … Continue reading The Simpsons: S01E03 “Homer’s Odyssey”

The Simpsons, Season one, Episode Two, “Bart The Genius” It’s a famous story now: when Matt Groening was in the waiting room for Fox to negotiate making a cartoon out of his comic strip Life In Hell to pay off … Continue reading The Simpsons: S01E02 “Bart The Genius”

Happy New Year, everybody! I’m ringing in 2017 with possibly the most crowd-pleasing concept possible: weekly write-ups on The Simpsons! With these write-ups, I hope to create a space where we can come together to quote The Simpsons incessantly, because … Continue reading The Simpsons: “Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire” S01E01