Let's take a trip back to the Tracey Ullman Show before we start our review of "There's No Disgrace Like Home". In the Ullman shorts, Homer's character was more of the authoritarian of the family. he could still be goofy, but his tome was almost always far angrier and usually the stricter one to punish the kids. This mentality of Homer being the one embarrassed by this family's dysfunctional mentality should be kept in mind as we review this episode, which first aired January 28th, 1990. Not exactly the best day to air a new Simpsons episode as this aired at the same time as Superbowl XXIV. So not as many eyes caught this one on the initial release.
CHALKBOARD GAG: "I will not burp in class"
COUCH GAG: Family runs to the couch, but Homer pops out. Feels a bit similar to Bart the Genius, honestly.
We open as things are already getting a bit too hectic at the Simpson household. Homer is prepping for the picnic at Mr. Burns' mansion, and his sole wish is that his family behaves. Unfortunately, as if on cue, Bart and Lisa are being a handful. Packed with plenty of gelatin dishes to please the boss, the family head to Stately Burns Manor.
I neglected to mention in the first review that the majority of Burns' voice work in season one was actually not done by Harry Shearer, but Christopher Collins. Collins (also referred to as Chris Latta) was a voice actor who is best known for his voice work as Starscream in Transformers and Cobra Commander in G.I Joe. Collins was brought in to The Simpsons to provide voice work for Moe and Mr. Burns. However, due to not being able to get along with Sam Simon, Collins left the show and Moe's lines were mostly redubbed by Hank Azaria. Sadly Christopher Collins passed away in 1994 due to a cerebral hemorrhage. Apparently this is one of the few appearances by Burns in season one not voiced by Collins, but by Harry Shearer. In other news, Smithers is about his right color and design, save for looking more pale, his attire being the wrong colors and his hair being blue. But we're getting closer.
Burns greets his employees at the door, and the bratty behavior of one employee's kids is enough to get him in a firing mood. He greets the Simpsons, though he needs cards to know their names (a reference to Ronald Reagan, as well as the first reference to Burns' spotty memory.) Things don't go off to a good start as Bart is being a nuisance and it turns out that Burns hates gelatin dishes (since Homer brought up to everyone how much he supposedly loves them).
And as if things don't get any worse, the kids start on the horseplay while Marge gets in with the employee wives and gets wasted on the spiked punch (complete with a "Hey, Brother, Pour the Wine" rendition). Homer and Bart compete in the company sack race, although despite Bart's attempt to actually win, Homer stops him and lets Burns win. The picnic comes to a close as Homer tries one last grasp at sentiment from Burns, even bribing Bart for a kiss to prove he's a good father in Burns' eyes. It doesn't work. Homer finally realizes
That other people's families are better.
And that's he's literally living in hell.
Homer finally tells the rest of the family of his disappointment in them. It's actually weird to see Homer as the authoritarian of the family and Marge being the one laying on the sofa scarfing down a microwave dinner watching TV. Any other time, this role would be reversed with Homer. The family eat at the dinner table, but even there they gorge into their meals like slobs. Homer says grace, but in the end, it just goes down to trashing the family. We also get one of the first uses of "Don't Have a Cow" by Bart, which would be one of his dozen catchphrases throughout the early days. It does look good on a bootleg t-shirt.
Homer drags the family around the neighborhood to spy on the other families in town. This goes as expected, with the family being shot at for trespassing. They eventually see their own house and realize that they live in a dump. The rest of the family doesn't care, but Homer feels defeated. He goes to Moe's. At the bar, Homer sees an ad for Dr. Marvin Monroe's Family Therapy Center. This finally gives Homer an idea to take his family to therapy to fix their dysfunctions.
LINE OF THE EPISODE:
"When will I learn? The answer to life's problems aren't at the bottom of a bottle. They're on TV! " - Homer Simpson
The family are at home enjoying Itchy and Scratchy (even Marge seems to be blankly watching), when Homer turns off the TV to tell the family that they're going to therapy. The therapy is $250, but they don't have enough. So, they do the unthinkable, something that Homer of now would never do, pawn their television.
They arrive at the family therapy center (interesting note: you do see the "perfect family" from early on in the lobby). After seeing a family leaving that is the perfect version of them, they finally meet Dr. Marvin Monroe. He gives them some exercises, first drawing the member of the family causing them the most stress. The others pick Homer, while Homer just draws an airplane. The next exercise that does no good is having the family use foam mallets to whack each other. Bart mentions it would be more fun without the foam and whacks Dr. Monroe in the knees. Eventually this convinces Dr. Monroe to go to the most infamous exercise.
Full on electroshock therapy.
They are all wired to each other, with the ability to shock one another. This proves to be a horrible idea as they just press the buttons constantly to zap the others. In fact, they shock each other so much, they cause a near blackout in Springfield. With this being a total failure, Monroe gives them their double their money back to get them to leave. Interestingly, this entire experience and the prospect of a new television, has actually brought the family together at last as we end this episode.
There's No Disgrace Like Home is a strange episode. The main issue as I've harped on before is Homer being the authority of the family, the one embarrassed and the one who tries the hardest to change them. Sadly, where this could build to a fun episode, the quality drops quickly after the scene at the company picnic. The second act is bland and forgettable. We do come back with some more entertaining moments with Dr. Marvin Monroe, but outside of the image of the family bonking each other with the mallets and the electroshock therapy scene, it's kind of underwhelming. Maybe it's a victim of time, but it isn't as classic as I was hoping on this look back. It doesn't help that therapy scene was akready done of the last Ullman shorts where the family go to a therapist with similar results, sans electrocution.
In the end, this was probably the driest episode of the season so far, which is a shame. But things should get more interesting with the next episode:
"Bart the General"
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FIRST APPEARANCES:
EDDIE AND LOU (Lou also not correctly colored)
DOCTOR MARVIN MONROE
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