[Redway]

I feel like The Simpsons peaked between seasons 3 and 12. The first 2 seasons were very strange, almost like a whole pilot show where they were still trying to figure out characters’ identities and what they were about. Lisa wasn’t intelligent in the very beginning (IIRC) and Homer, like Oliver said, was more of an abusive alcoholic (the long-running “why, you little!” strangling gap was obviously there to stay) than the bumbling loveable toad we know him as today. It’s so weird.

Season 3 is old, classic, vintage but the characters actually have recognisable form.

Bart was always Bart, still. But so was Lisa in the very beginning. Or maybe that was just on the Tracey Ulman Show (a very bizarre prelude). The whole vibe from 1987-1990 was just so different to what we grew accustomed to later.