Episodes 3 to 5

Let's get right into the third episode of season one, Homer's Odyssey, which starts on the 30th of December, 1989. I used to always get this title mixed up with the season eight episode El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer, which was annoying, because I like that episode a lot more, and I'd see Homer's Odyssey in TV listings and get my hopes up. Right from the start, there's some season one weirdness: the Springfield Tire Fire is still just the plain old Springfield Tire Yard, then the kids get to their field trip at the nuclear plant and we see the first (and only?) appearance of the infamous Black Smithers! There's also a shot of a three-eyed fish in the river outside, a throwaway joke that becomes a big episode plot point later on. That's nice.

If we follow the rules strictly (and we do), then this is a pretty depressing new year's eve: Homer gets rejected by a bunch of jobs, breaks open Bart's piggy bank, then attempts suicide. In contrast though, the way he runs to save his family with a boulder tied to him is a display of superhuman strength and agility, so it's ups and downs I guess. I'll assume that the town council meeting takes place the next day, ringing in 1990. Happy new year! Then, there's a quick montage of five Springfield Shopper frontpages featuring Homer's safety crusade, all with consectuive days on them (but no dates), taking us all the way to the 6th of January! On the seventh, Homer addresses a crowd in front of the Power Plant, and they all look like bizarre mutants, a nice little laugh that's only possible thanks to the rougher visual style of the early seasons. The episode ends shortly after that, which means that the next, There's No Disgrace Like Home, naturally starts on the eighth.

First day with Homer back on the job, and the Simpsons are already going to the company picnic, on this amazingly balmy January afternoon. I did say that we were following the rules even if they didn't entirely make sense, didn't I? For the record, Smithers is now white, too. Would it be giving too much credit to the writers of later seasons to suggest that Marge getting daytime drunk at the picnic is an early sign of her addictive personality that crops up a couple of times in later years? Probably. The next night, Homer insists they eat their gross-looking trays of multicoloured goo at the dining room table. Everyone else seems almost oblivious to his familial dysfunction-fueled angst, which is really strange considering later versions of Homer, who only gets more and more oafish and inconsiderate. He also mentions his mother calling him a big disappointment, which conflicts with what we later learn about his past. I know this kind of nerdy nitpicking is frowned upon, but this is a blog about pointlessly figuring out exactly when each episode takes place, so it's unavoidable, really.

It's the tenth when we get the first appearance of Dr. Marvin Monroe, in the form of a TV advert, and the next night has the first appearance of Itchy and Scratchy! Homer pawns the TV and cashes in the kids' college funds and they go straight to meet Dr. Monroe in person. So that leaves us with this post's last episode, Bart the General, starting on the Twelfth. Over the course of the day, we see Bart's daydreams about getting murdered by Nelson, including the funeral where he has Xes for eyes, used in so many "DEAD BART LOST EPISODE" hoaxes, then in real life, we get another one of my earliest Simpson memories: Bart in the bin, rolling down the hill, then sitting despondant in the bath when he gets home. The next day, there's more first appearances from the old bearded man, Jasper, and the gun/war memorabilia shop owner, Herman. The big training montage seems to take place on the fourteenth and fifteenth, and the actual battle on the sixteenth, judging by the number of sunsets we see during the montage (two of them).

I'll assume Bart's fourth wall-breaking anti-war message at the end is non-canon, so the episode and this post end on the 16th of January, 1990, and the next post, we'll be starting with Moaning Lisa, on the 17th!