Where it all began (The Simpsons - The Complete Season 1 (DVD))

Member Name: martyfarty69

Product:	The Simpsons - The Complete Season 1 (DVD)
Date:	03/12/08 (50 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Sharp humour in places...and I mean ITS THE SIMPSONS !!

Disadvantages: You can see its not as polished as later seasons and was still finding its feet

The Simpsons is one of the if not THE most revolutionary shows on TV, its hard to believe that its first official full episode aired in the United States 19 years ago this month ( In fact there were short episodes running on the Tracy Ullman show since 1987 which would technically make the simpsons 21 years old !! )

I am a self confessed Simpsons nut and have been when I first started watching the show on Sky One in the early 90's , yes some of the later episodes and seasons have lost their way a little and don't have some of the sharp humour that was displayed in the first 7 or 8 seasons, but its still one of the best shows on TV today and the show that Family Guy, South Park, King of the Hill to name just a few, owe everything to.

I own all the seasons on DVD so decided to dig out the very first again to see how it compares to some of the later seasons, the first thing you notice is the animation, its very crudely done compared to the animation on display in current simpsons episodes, also the character development is still a work in progress, perfect examples are the voice of Homer, which is a little deeper and with a slightly different pitch to the well known voice, also some of the characters have a slightly different appearance to the established, like Moe who starts off with Black Hair, and Barney, who in a couple of episodes is blonde !!! But you can see that this season was used to establish the characters and of course you can see the creators clearly trying to establish Bart as the main star, where later in its life we'll see Homer being the defining character of the Simpsons.

Also it is aimed slightly more at Kids early on in its life with less of the subtly adult humour displayed later in its life and never is that more apparent than in this season, but there is still some sharp humour ( Like when Homer is applying for credit at a Dealership, and the Siren sounds which prompts him to ask " is that a good Siren ? " to which the salesman responds " Mr Simpson, you ever known a siren to be good ? " )

I won't go into detail with all the episodes in the season but I will pick out my Top 3

3: Krusty Gets Busted :
This episode marks the first appearance by Sideshow Bob, and sees Krusty the Klown framed for a robbery by his sidekick and Homer witnessing the Robbery and despite Barts pleas, testifying against Krusty to send him to Jail, then Bart and Lisa go on a trail to prove Krusty's innocence.

2: There's no Disgrace like Home :
This episode sees Homer being embarrassed at his Company Picnic by his family ( which is odd as in later episodes it would be Homer doing that to various members of his family ) and as such takes them to Dr Marvin Monroes Family Therapy Center to improve their situation.

1: Call of the Simpsons:
My Favourite episode of the first season, this sees the classic scene at Cowboy Bob's RV round up where Homer tries to purchase the "Behemoth" RV but after discovering his credit is less than perfect has to settle for a used RV they go camping in the woods and Homer ends up driving it over a cliff, here we see an early picture of Homer being the dumb oaf he would later turn out to be as he tries to survive in the wild and is even mistaken for Bigfoot !!!

So there you have it, certainly not the best season of the simpsons, ( seasons 2 through 7 were in my opinion the best ) but by far the most important and the stepping stone for the rest.
Still entertaining and if you're a simpsons fan you need this in your collection

Summary: One of the best shows of all time, in its infancy