There's No Disgrace Like Home

Mr. Burns picnic makes Homer realize that their family is messed up. After they are victimized by the evil employer, Home decides to fix the family. He turns to a television psychologist who guarantees success in improving family relationships. There are many great bits, but the shock therapy one is quite good. We also have the beginnings of some stuff that will become staples in the future. Itchy and Scratchy make their debuts as super-violent cartoon characters.

After a bad experience meeting Mr Burns, Homer insists the family goes into therapy.

This is a strong early episode that satirises the dysfunctional side of families and the influence of the television upon life.

There are plenty of memorable moments such as the awkward day spent at the Burns residence with Homer trying to avoid embarrassment, plus the entire family spying through the windows of other houses, and of course the famous shock therapy scene.

I can identify with a lot (not all) of the aspects of family interactions portrayed in this episode as there are a lot of home truths still to be found in it. I think for the twenty first century the hold of the TV has given way to general screen time but it is equally as relevant as what we see here.

One thing my girlfriend and I insisted on doing when we became parents was to eat together at the table away from the television with no phones or tablets in reach. This came from our own experiences growing up eating from trays on our laps in the sofa.

The message here for me is that you cannot pretend you or your family are something you are not, you either accept who you are or make the effort to really change.

After a Peanuts-like, Simpsons-styled Christmas special, an episode that delved into Bart's psyche (along with "The Simpsons'" relationship to intellectualism) and an episode showing us a bit more about Homer's personality, it was time to look further into the Simpsons relationship to each other as a family unit.

The family has to attend one of Mr. Burns' annual, mandatory company picnics, and doing so, in addition to observing different kinds of behavior from his family at home, makes Homer despondent. He wonders why they can't be like other families, like the ones who ride off from the picnic in glee, with exemplary etiquette, while Heaven shines a special light on them and guides them home.

As they leave the picnic, the Simpsons instead turn into demons and ride through a desolate, Hellish landscape (in one of the first completely surreal sequences of the show, promising the many marvelously hallucinogenic side-trips to come in the series, and even more literally foreshadowing the Halloween specials). After the introduction (without title or other identification) of Itchy and Scratchy to the series, and while Homer is sitting at the bar of an oddly black-haired Moe, Homer sees a commercial for Dr. Marvin Munro's Family Therapy Center and decides to--horror of horrors--hock the television so they can have a session.

It's worth noting that as in episode 3, Homer's Odyssey, this is still not quite Homer as most of us would imagine him down the road. We'd usually think of someone else in the family--either Lisa or Marge, probably--becoming upset that the Simpsons are so unruly. But again, it may be that we've forgotten about Homer's complexities as much as that creator Matt Groening and the writers have changed his personality over the years.

Of course, things do not go as planned at Dr. Munro's. The Simpsons are too dysfunctional for that. Throughout the episode, we're treated to some of the funniest family dynamics of the series, including the family's typical manner of eating dinner and their response to quickly drawing what's bothering them for the psychiatrist (the latter event is also a great opportunity to note just how subtle the show can get--look closely at the differences in the drawings, considering each character's personality and abilities). The family is so dysfunctional that even the normally well-behaved and intellectual one, Lisa, goes off the edge many times--joining Bart in a funny pushing match, goofing off in an intellectual way at Mr. Burns' fountain, and gleefully engaging in the mayhem at Munro's office.

But Groening and the writers cleverly slip in a very benevolent and understanding moral of the story in the end--they show that as screwed up as they may be in some ways, the Simpsons are really a very happy family with a tight bond who function well as a unit. They just don't function in socially normative ways much of the time. The family who earlier slipped off into Heaven did so to emphasize the myth of that kind of family. The Simpsons tend to triumph, happily, in their own manner, just like most real families do.

A memorable episode which explores the Simpsons' attitudes to each other in a funny and dysfunctional way. This episode had many firsts as well, for example, Bart says "don't have a cow", The Itchy and Scratchy Show and Mr Burns threatens to release the hounds. A very good episode with memorable moments and fantastic humour!

I think this is the funniest episode so far. There are glimmers of potential here hinting at how great the show will eventually become.

This time we examine the Simpsons family as a whole unit. I love the segments where perfect idealised families are contrasted to the Simpsons.

It's interesting that at this early stage it's actually Homer fighting to save the family by selling their TV. Very out of character for him.

Ultimately the message seems to be that it's them against the world. Although they are far from perfect, they bond and find common ground over the things that others would judge as being undesirable. Such as shovelling in food and overdosing on television while constantly bickering. I can definitely relate more to this reality, as I'm sure most families can which is why the show became so successful.

I particularly enjoyed Marge's post-punch bacchanal.

We also get a bunch of great Mr Burns moments. Even though he doesn't really conform to the character of Mr Burns that the show will later develop.