Christmas Reviews: “Marge Be Not Proud”

Tags

animated, Bart, Bart Simpson, bonestorm, Christmas, Christmas cartoon, christmas episode, christmas special, holiday episode, holiday special, Homer, Homer Simpson, Krusty the Clown, Lawrence Tierney, Lisa, Lisa Simpson, Maggie, Maggie Simpson, Marge, Marge Be Not Proud, Marge Simpson, Matt Groening, Mike Scully, Milhouse, mother and son, Season 7, Springfield, The Simpsons, try n save, tv special, video games

Happy Holidays everyone! That’s right, as a present to you all for sticking around for so long without consistent movie reviews, I’m bringing back mini Christmas reviews for the month of December. Once a week leading up to December 25th I’ll be sharing thoughts on some of my favorite shorts, specials and TV episodes that center around the most joyful time of the year.

Speaking of stories, sometimes the best ones can come from personal, even uncomfortable places. Mike Scully, longtime Simpsons writer who was behind the episode we’ll be looking at today, was once pressured as a boy to engage in some shoplifting and was caught almost immediately. The experience traumatized him, but as he jokingly told Variety in an interview, “It’s great to be paid for reliving the horrors of your life.” “Marge Be Not Proud” could have been an episode that wouldn’t feel out of the ordinary if it took place on any given day, but the fact that Scully decided to have it happen around Christmas gives it some extra weight both in context of the plot and in real life. This was the first Simpsons Christmas episode since “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire”, exactly six years ago to the day. Let’s see if it lives up to that one’s standards.

Christmas Reviews: “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire”

Tags

animated, animation, Barney Gumbel, Bart, Bart Simpson, Christmas, christmas bonus, Christmas cartoon, christmas episode, christmas pageant, christmas shopping, christmas special, Grandpa Simpson, greyhound, holiday episode, holiday special, Homer, Homer Simpson, Lisa, Lisa Simpson, Maggie, Maggie Simpson, Marge, Marge Simpson, Matt Groening, Milhouse, Moe, Mr. Burns, Patty and Selma, Principal Skinner, Santa's Little Helper, season one, Simpsons, Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire, Smithers, Snowball 2, Springfield, tv review, tv special

“Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” holds a very special place in my heart in terms of Simpsons episodes. It’s not only the first episode of the series, but also the very first one I ever watched at the impressionable age of two or three. This was before The Simpsons got its reputation for not being a particularly family-friendly show, but early enough that it was the only episode I saw in full for years due to parental interference. Then they released the seasons annually on DVD and my cousin got me into it after he started collecting them. I love the show as much as anyone else does (the first ten or so seasons were great, then it’s a long slow trip downhill). The Simpsons have done quite a lot of Christmas episodes in their nearly 30 season run, but how does their first one hold up? Let’s look.