Hello and welcome back to picsandportraits.
Today we are going to be doing something a little different.
With Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, love is in the air, and so I wanted
to revisit the romantic beginnings of one of my favourite shows, The Simpsons, and one
of my favourite episodes, season 19’s “That ‘90s Show.”
Now I know this is an unpopular opinion, for reasons we will get into, but I think it is
a brilliant example of a property providing meta commentary in a way very few can.
For those unfamiliar, this episode appears on many worst of listicles but I don’t think
that’s necessarily fair or right.
In this video we are going to see why it’s so hated but first I want to take a look at
the beloved history it supposedly destroys.
One of the first videos I made for this channel was Bartmania, looking at the Simpsons phenomenon
through promotional material.
I’ll link it but heads up, audio’s rough.
To summarize, the series premiere coincided with the dawn of the 1990s and its influence
over that decade can’t be understated.
The show’s breakout star, Bart Simpson, became the poster child for the 90s.
He was rebellious, loud and in your face and through references and guest stars, the show’s
first 10 seasons are the perfect time capsule for that period.
Given that The Simpsons took place in the 90s, it makes sense the family’s roots were
in the 1970s and 80s.
There are two episodes that really inform the family’s lore: The Way We Was and I
Married Marge, from season two and three respectively.
There are obviously other flashback episodes but these two cover Homer and Marge’s origin
story quite nicely.
The Way We Was finds them as seniors at Springfield High School in 1974.
Homer, a slacker, read: stoner, is introduced to Marge in detention after he is caught smoking
and she publicly burns a bra.
He’s immediately stricken when she walks in, we hear the Carpenters and he falls in
love.
Homer pursues Marge, eventually deceiving her into tutoring him in French even though
he is not enrolled in that class.
They hit it off, he asks her to prom, to which she accepts but discovers his lie and storms
out, never wanting to see him again.
Enter top student Artie Ziff, played by Jon Lovitz, probably my second favourite guest
star, after Phil Hartman of course.
Artie is obsessed with Marge and seeing her vulnerable asks her to instead be his prom
date.
She accepts, again, and the couple is crowned Prom King and Queen while Homer goes it alone.
However, Marge’s night is soured when Artie later attempts to touch her against her will.
It’s then Marge realizes it’s Homer she wants and the two are reunited, seemingly
forever.
I Married Marge picks up six years later in 1980, with the couple still happily dating.
Just so you know its 1980, after a screening of the Empire Strikes Back, Homer and Marge
make love inside a windmill at the mini-putt course where he works.
This turns out to be Bart’s conception.
After all, this flashback is brought on by a pregnancy scare.
With money tight and a child on the way, Homer sets out to find a better job.
He applies at the power plant but loses out to Smithers’ old frat buddies.
Defeated, he leaves Marge, vowing not to return until he has made something of himself.
He eventually finds work at a fast food restaurant where he is spotted by Marge’s sisters,
Patty and Selma. Despite despising Homer, Selma informs Marge where he is.
When they reunite, Homer explains his shame of not being able to provide the finer things
in life but Marge explains that anything he can give is enough because she loves him.
With the power of love, he puts his in-laws in their place and demands Mr. Burns give
him a job at the plant, which he does.
Bart is then born and in the present, Homer says parenthood is the best gift a person
can receive, before celebrating, learning Marge is in fact, not pregnant.
And that is more or less The Simpsons canon.
Jump ahead sixteen years and many revisions to this history, and Homer and Marge are now
living in a condo, he, an aspiring R&B singer, and her recently accepted to Springfield University.
To cover the costs, Homer starts working at Abe Simpson’s laser tag while Marge is introduced
to her teacher, Stephane August, a woke professor that feels right at home in 2020.
He teaches Marge the founding fathers were all straight, white men, the epitome of evil,
and that America was founded on lies.
Stephane attempts to manipulate Marge into a relationship with him by turning her on
Homer, to his obvious objection, and they split up.
Feeling dejected, Homer turns to grunge music, converting his R&B group to Sadgasm, a Nirvana
analog, and assumes the appearance of Kurt Cobain.
Sadgasm become a sensation.
At the same time, Marge is realizing Stephane’s manipulation and breaks away from him, only
to see Homer wrote a song about her on MTV, the seminal Margarine, a take off of Bush’s
Glycerine, but the video is interrupted by Kurt Loder, who reports Sadgasm has broken
up.
In a direct parody of him breaking the news of Kurt Cobain’s death, he also reports
Homer is battling a drug addiction.
Marge rushes to find him with a needle in his arm.
It’s a very upsetting image but it is later revealed to be his insulin.
He drank too many frappacinos.
The story ends with them driving to a mini-putt course to apparently conceive Bart.
Now for those unfamiliar with the episode, I’m sure that’s a lot to digest.
Many treat this like a sacrilege, though I’m sure those who would have such a strong reaction
probably long stopped watching by the 19th season.
Personally, I love it.
And here’s why.
In it, The Simpsons step outside itself and reflect on a culture and time it influenced
so much.
It was a pop culture phenomenon, endlessly quoted throughout the ’90s, and it outlived
expectations and other shows and its own canon.
They needed to reboot it.
People hate this episode and yet Homer’s Barbershop Quartet gets a pass despite being
similar but somehow less believable, being barbershop.
Granted I wasn’t there. Could've been huge.
This was also not the first time The Simpsons broke its universe, there was season nine’s infamous
The Principal and the Pauper, another much maligned episode that is perfectly fine and
enjoyable in hindsight.
There was also another of my favourites, Behind the Laughter, which is similar in the way
in comments on the Simpsons and their legacy.
I think it should’ve been the finale but the show obviously continued.
However, to treat this as the same show is ridiculous.
The Simpsons has been rebooted so many times but because it’s been continuously airing
for 31 years, it doesn’t get the same benefit a show that has been cancelled and comes back gets.
Now I’m a reasonable person.
I admit the original is far superior, the animation is gorgeous and it packs more heart,
but as a child of the ‘90s I love this reboot.
Sure, the writing isn’t as strong and a lot of personality was lost in the move to
digital animation but this is the truest they could’ve stayed while still updating it.
It is consistent with the show’s canon while expressing it in a different way.
This is not saying it is without fault.
I think they tried to squeeze way too many references in and I would have preferred if
they set it in a specific year rather than just a pastiche of the ‘90s, such as 1994,
given the Cobain allusions.
I also, would’ve liked to have seen a couple of references to themselves.
The Simpsons is a victim of its own longevity and they were kinda screwed either way.
They could continue the original timeline, which chronologically didn’t make any sense
in the 2010s, or reboot it and alienate an audience that again probably stopped watching
a decade earlier.
These characters have been around for so long and are so engrained into pop culture that
I believe they transcend the need for continuity.
I understand who they are can suspend my disbelief enough to see them in situations that contradict
what they did 30 years ago.
Because of this, I think That 90s Show is among some of the later season episodes that
not only are worth watching but are among the series best.
Am I off base?
Out of touch?
Probably.
Let me know in the comments what you think.
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