The more things change the more things stay the same.

I got Simpson’s the first season when I found it on a buy one get one free sale over Christmas. It had been a while since I had seen these episodes and they are all starting to hit the 2 decade mark.

Those who are new fans of the series should watch these episodes just to see how much has changed. The animation especially for the first batch of episodes is crude and a lot of characters personalities haven’t been establish so a few characters do things in the first season they wouldn’t do now. But even in the first season the show has a kiss my butt satirical style all it’s own.

Ok so what are the episodes like. The first episode is actually a Christmas special that was run a month before the series started, in this episode Bart gets a tattoo and Marge has to use all the Christmas money to get it removed. Homer gets a job has a mall santa to help pay for Christmas only to get screwed when his paycheck his only 13 bucks. So he decides to blow it all on dog racing but that doesn’t work out either. In the end though things work out when they get an abandon greyhound from the track called Santas little helper. He’s stupid, he’s pathetic, he’s a Simpson.

There are other great episodes that are timeless classics. These being Bart the Genius when Bart cheats on an IQ test he gets put in a school for geniuses. Things don’t work out so well when it comes to Bart and chemistry class.

Another Bart themed episode is Bart the General. In this one Nelson Munst the school bully is beating up Bart and Bart gets sick of it so he recruits and trains an army of his fellow students with the help of grandpa and crazy Herman.

In another episode after a cheery bomb prank goes awry Principle Skinner has Bart join the foreign student exchange program and Bart gets to spend 3 months in France. But it’s no vacation has the people he stays with treat him like there personal slave. Meanwhile the Simpson get an Albania student who has a deep curiosity of Homers job at the nuclear plant.

Of course there not all about Bart there are plenty of other episodes that feature the whole family or are Homer oriented for example the call of the Simpson’s puts them out on in an RV were they get stranded. Homer and Bart go for help only to get lost themselves and an accident with a waterfall and some Bee’s gets Homer misidentified has big foot.

And then in one of my favorite episodes There’s no disgrace like home has Homer trying to get the family to see a psychiatrists after they embarrass him at work. What happens in the therapy session is some of the funniest stuff to come out of the Simpsons.

Ok so what’s so different about season 1. Well the first thing you will notice is that for a lot of the episodes the animation isn’t to the usual level of the Simpsons. A lot of places have different backgrounds, Moes Tavern has a simple but ugly purple look to the background and Barts school has an almost similar Blue backgrounds. Some of the character designs are also different Moe has Blackhair. Smithers appears for the first 2 episodes he’s in has a black man with blue hair (tommy_lop video game knowledge: despite being fixed in season 1 this look for Smithers was kept for the only really good Simpson’s video game, the Simpson’s arcade game), and of course Barney has the same color hair has skin making him look even more crude then he all ready his. The animation improves each episode in the season and by episode 12 of the 13 it matches seasons 2 animation all most. Of course episode 13 was originally episode 1 but had to be sent back due to animation projects and it’s a weird one because you see the characters progress from end of season 1 animation to beginning of season 1 animation.

The characters are also different, season 1 is more focus on Bart then what the series would become. And that’s a good thing in my opinion has Barts screw ups are more on youth and you feel more sympathetic if displeased with his misbehavior. Compare to Homers idiotic stunts that happen in the more newer ones which are still funny often wonder how a man like that has survived all these years.

The answer is that Homer hasn’t been all that stupid and season 1 shows that. While he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed Homer is a lot smarter then what he has become. He worries about his job and money if he looses his job. He is always sucking up to Mr. Burns to make sure he keeps his job. He also sounds a lot like Walter Mathieu in the way he talks because his VA thought Homer should like that, he later changed it because of all the screaming Homer does.

The DVD
The DVD comes out in the typical fold out disc set that DVD season sets come in. It has a small booklet with a letter from the creators and a small summary of each episode. The menus are kind of basic but they get the job done. Has far has extras there are a lot of them, commentary on every episode, original scenes from episode 13 so you can see why they delayed it, anmaintics, and a short featturette on the creation of the Simpsons.

Final Recommendation.
Being able to find this box set for less then 30 dollars now days I do recommend it if you’re a fan of the show new or old. It’s were the show started and while a lot has changed since the first season, a lot more has stayed the same. It’s in your face satire is still there and present in the show and it makes it a great deal of fun to watch.