[Redway]

Originally Posted by MTVN

I sometimes think I should go back and watch the Simpsons from the start onwards. Growing up it was already such a big thing so you'd just see random episodes all the time and never really get a sense of any continuity or when and how the show had developed

That’s a good shout, to be fair. A lot of things we know as characteristic of the Simpsons now (Homer being a doting-but-dim-witted doughnut-loving papa) weren’t firmly-established when the show first came out. The early episodes show Homer’s character in a much darker (and way less trippy/stupid) lens than the Homer we know today but for some reason that was dropped after the first season-and-a-half and it was decided that he’d just be a harmless goof instead. He still had those paroxysmal outbursts of “why, you little!” with Bart (strangling for black-comedy trimmings) but not in the borderline-abusive way that sort of typified their relationship in the beginning.

Taking the dark-but-slightly theatrical and ditzy-but-still-kinda-smart characters (Jean Slater, Chelsea Daniels, whoever the characteristically-dumb one was between Kenan and Kel, Eric from Boy Meets World, London Tipton) and turning them into total comedic buffoons is a character trope I’ve never really liked (at all) but in Homer’s case it did sort of evolve his character and make him someone to root for (much more naturally than with Peter Griffin, who’s always had far fewer redeeming features even when he was less stupid). I thought it was fair enough but Lisa turning into a perpetual/static vegetarian off the back of that one old episode with the lamb had gone unchecked for way too long and it just doesn’t represent who she needs to be as a character. I’ve never liked that.