This The Simpsons review contains spoilers.
The Simpsons: Season 1 Episode 1
When the Simpsons are good, they can be very good, but when they are bad they are so much better. The Simpsons came out of the gate chasing Shirley the mechanical rabbits and screaming for lumps of coal. America came to know the sloppily drawn family from The Tracey Ullman Show, which squeezed them in between short sketches and skits as even shorter bumpers, like yellow chestnuts. Without skimping on executive bonuses at no cost to the consumer, Fox regifted us with a TV classic: “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” also known as “The Simpsons Christmas Special,” AKA The Simpsons season 1 episode 1. Although it was initially slated to come in at number eight that season.
Number 8 is also the name of the Christmas Miracle which marked its territory on Evergreen Terrace from the very start. Santa’s Little Helper is no Snoopy, Charles M. Shultz’s Peanut creation. Charlie Brown’s dog was a World War I devil dog in the air fighting the Red Baron through the imagination of the kids imposing their imaginations on him. Santa’s Little Helper won’t dance at a Christmas show or ever be Joe Cool. Santa’s Little Helper might just scratch and sniff at himself, but he is as much a heart of The Simpsons as a bird-house ornament is on a Christmas Tree. So much more than Snowball II, the little cat the family bought after Snowball was “unexpectedly run over and went to kitty heaven,” as Marge writes in her friends-of-the-Simpson-family holiday letter.
Further reading: The Simpsons Christmas Episodes Are Cost-Effective Chimneys of Horror
In the first season Bart and Lisa are still kids and think, behave and talk like kids. Maybe not polite kids. The boy introduces himself to Santa by saying “I’m Bart Simpson. Who the hell are you?” before yanking off his beard. The Simpson children are written far out of their grammar school grade level at this point in the series. And how could you blame them? Regardless of what class they’re in, they’ve endured a lot, the death of their teacher, a next door neighbor, a jazz mentor and several family members and even more pets.
We get clues to the Simpson kids’ precocious nature seeing the saucy scribble of second grader Lisa’s last flaming torch juggle as Tawonga the Santa Claus of the South Seas wearing a witch doctor mask and a grass skirt. It is scarier than Hotiashi, the Japanese priest who acts like Santa Clause with eyes in the back of his head during Kurisumasu. Lisa also precociously admonishes her aunt Patty, pointing out that, “aside from the fact that he has the same frailties as all human beings, he’s the only father I have. Therefore, he is my model of manhood, and my estimation of him will govern the prospects of my adult relationships.”
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Ned Flanders is not yet the hyper-religious family foil he will become. Here he represents more of a class consciousness. He has the best lights on the block. He can afford an armful of fancy presents. He and one of his sons are on their way to the best Christmas ever. Stupid Flanderses. The nuclear power plant debuts as a nightmare, and Mr. Burns as an elderly Grinch. The episode also introduces Barney, Milhouse Van Houten, Sherri and Terri, Wendell Borton, Dewey Largo, Ralph Wiggum and Waylon Smithers.
The jokes are paced slowly compared with where the show would soar very quickly after, but the subversion is already visible. When Bart says “there’s only one fat guy that brings us presents and his name ain’t Santa,” he steals a cookie from the perennial mythology. This episode also confirmed at the time what everyone always knew, Nixon and Donna Dixon were indeed reindeer.
“Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” was directed by David Silverman, with storyboards done by Rich Moore, who designed Ned Flanders. Gwen Stefani’s brother Eric did some layout. The episode was written by Mimi Pond, who never made it to the writing staff because executive producer Sam Simon “didn’t want any women around.”
“Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire,” which premiered on December 17, 1989, is a darkly satirical Peanuts special which subverted the TV landscape as much as the perceived nihilism of Seinfeld. Bart could be Lucy van Pelt, pulling out the football just as Chuck is about to kick it. Miracles happen to poor kids at Christmas all the time, just like we learned on TV. Lisa doesn’t need Linus’s blanket to give her the confidence to speak a simple truth to power.
The Simpsons would go on to create a “Miracle on Evergreen Terrance” every year with episodes like “She Of Little Faith.” They may not be as frenetically funny as the “Treehouse of Horrors” episodes that come out every Halloween, but they are as memorable. The first “Christmas Special” may have been crudely drawn and not as crude as Christmases yet to come, but it set a high standard. South Park‘s “Woodland Critter Christmas” may have edged it up a bit. “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” is a masterpiece which could pass as a work in progress. Who is Tiny Tim anyway?
The Simpsons‘ “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” aired Sunday, December 23 at 8:00 p.m. on Fox.
Culture Editor Tony Sokol cut his teeth on the wire services and also wrote and produced New York City’s Vampyr Theatre and the rock opera AssassiNation: We Killed JFK. Read more of his work here or find him on Twitter @tsokol.
