The Simpsons: when does it step into the golden age for you?

[Redway]

Is there any part of the bane of tragically-wistful, slightly strange, elegiac proto-surrealism era (season-1, partially season-2), which Marge’s voice embodies and exemplifies, that strikes you as a little more than just flaking-golden-at-most or are you one of those ‘non-weird’ people who don’t think that The Simpsons stepped into its own until season 3/4?

[Redway]

Big Brother really ain’t it this year so let’s talk about The Simpsons for a minute.

[Shaun]

2-10 are what I consider to be the only seasons worth watching, though I'm sure some of 1 is fine

[Redway]

2-10 are what I consider to be the only seasons worth watching, though I'm sure some of 1 is fine

There’s hardly a vein of humour, of any kind, between Marge and Homer in the first season. Jars very-much with Homer and Marge as we know them today. The personalities in-general are all-over-t.-place. But that there was something worth preserving, I guess, however-fractured, in the ghostly humanity of the earliest episodes, where awkwardness itself became a slightly unintentional art. I don’t mind season 1 as much as others do. Not my favourite but I can appreciate it, and not just as a foundation. It’s just that a lot of its subversive appeal is very time-coded and there’s only so far you can go with it if you weren’t actually watching in live time and very familiar with the cultural landscape of that particular time. So compared to the rest it isn’t very good and doesn’t consistently age well. And yes. The animation was hideous during the first season. It’s not the only detractor but it doesn’t help.