4. There's No Disgrace Like Home

 

Episode Title: "There's No Disgrace Like Home"
Episode Number: 4
Original Air Date: January 28, 1990

Plot Synopsis: Despite his best efforts, the entire family embarrasses Homer at the yearly company picnic held at stately Burns Manor. Lisa won't stop playing in the fountain, Bart almost beats Burns in a sack race and Marge gets bombed on alcoholic punch. After observing a completely normal family who seems generally love-filled and dysfunction-free, Homer begins to feel down about his own family's relationship and sets out to repair it. First he demands to eat at the dinner table like a normal family, which they ruin. Homer then demands that they observe other families in the neighborhood acting normal by spying through their windows at night. After seeing a television commercial for Dr. Marvin Monroe's Family Therapy Center, Homer decides to book an appointment. The episode ends with the family ruining Monroe's attempt to bring them together as a family via shock therapy and as a result get double their money back, which ends up sort of bringing them together as a family anyway.

Overall Thoughts: Well, that certainly was an episode of "The Simpsons," I guess. There's nothing particularly noteworthy about it. We get to see more of Mr. Burns, though he's still being presented as just a regular old man who is kind of a jerk. I look forward to watching his evolution over time. We get to see more of Barney in Moe's Bar, though it's a weird version of Barney who isn't a loveable, cartoon alcoholic but an off-putting and surprisingly coherent alcoholic who hates Bart and Lisa, for some reason.

What Works: The episode on the whole isn't that funny, but there are certain single jokes that are pretty great. After a night of eavesdropping on normal families doesn't work out, Homer refuses to go back inside the house and tells Marge "I want to be alone with my thought." Little things like that, though let's go ahead and emphasize the term "little things" in relation to this episode.

What Doesn't Work: This episode seems like a step in the wrong direction. The characterizations aren't just off from what they would become later in the series - they're off from what we've seen in the last two episodes. Homer's quest of "we must be a normal family" seems more like a Marge story than anything. Homer doesn't seem to think Lisa has a chance of getting into college, which is weird. Out of the first four episodes, this is the one that suffers the most from "Early in the Series Syndrome." I'm trying not to grade the episode down from a perspective of "Hey! They're not acting like they should!" However, even if you just take they way everyone IS acting into consideration, it just isn't really that compelling of a dynamic. I'm glad that the family was eventually tweaked the way it was.

Closing Thoughts: I definitely don't actively dislike this episode. However, there really isn't much here. The basic premise is decent enough, but the execution drops the proverbial ball pretty hard. Maybe the entire family shocking each other was great in 1990 (or when watching Die Hard 2: Die Harder), but it definitely isn't now.

Final Grade (out of 10): 5