The Simpsons is known for starting off its series run with a Christmas episode , but it didn't do A Christmas episode every season. It's probably for the best to have your series have one big Christmas episode that will be memorable and playable every year. But, eventually, they did take another crack at the holiday being shown for a plot. The very next time was in Season 7 with "Marge Be Not Proud".
This episode aired December 17, 1995 which is 6 years to the date of them airing the first episode. Both days were Sundays. It's fitting in a way for them to do this.
The Krusty special in the beginning is funny in how it both homages the classic Christmas specials like with Bing Crosby would do, but also go off the rails because it's Krusty the Clown. It also is a good way to bring in something during the commercial break Bart sees the commercial for a video game for video game Bone Storm. He wants his parents to get it for him. Also Marge saying the game costs $70 which is funny that the price of average video game now $70 so why don't Simpsons predict the future didn't run with this?
Storm of Bones? Copyright Fox
The thing that this episode is really about is Bart and Marge. It was a rarer pairing for this show to take at the time, where most Bart and parent stuff was Bart and Homer. Bart doesn't like that his mom baby's him , he doesn't want her to tuck him in and sing to him a good night song. It will play well when things get switched up later.
Millhouse is funny for refusing Bart a spot to play the game and that he would call his mom just to get rid of him. It plays well into how kids are and yeah I think Bart would have done the same if he was the one with the game. I love the added sauce of Bart doing minor swears when he was trying to tell Millhouse's mom that he wasn't swearing. This episode really adds in a lot of little things that add to it.
Bart goes to the store and he sees some kid who can his mom names and can get the get the game. He sees Nelson and Jimbo who are shoplifting. The Simpsons acknowledging they are cartoons with 4 fingers is funny. Bart struggles but with the encouragement of video game characters he decides to steal the game. He forgot he's not a minor character so... uh oh and gets caught by security.
Bart has gone down/ Copyright Fox
Security guy Don Brodka is an interesting character. I like how he looks with his Marine tattoo and clinched cigarette. He shows Bart a shoplifting is bad video but hates it and stops it. This is a man who loves his job and shows it well. He calls Bart's parents but does it so well to convince Bart he called them live, but only left a voicemail. Lawrence Tierney really plays this role well. He tells Bart a parting line that if he sees him in that store again- it's over.
There's not a lot of Homer in this episode. He takes a back seat to Bart who takes over Act 1 and Marge who will be part Act 2 a lot more. Both of those in Act 3 with Bart getting a little more. He does get some funny moments though. I like his reaction to Bart saying "Go to Hell" and he just says "There's a little thing called please" and his listening to the tape that Bart swapped out for the answering machine and asking Marge if Lisa went to camp Granada was funny.
Uh oh guess where Marge wants to have the family picture taken? He tries to figure out away to make sure that Brodka can't figure it's him. There's a painfulness to wondering to see what happens and does Bart get away with it. Lisa, like Homer, doesn't get much to do this episode. Her moments she does get range from funny to a little charming. Bart does get found.
Marge, because of Bart being able to make sure she and Homer didn't get the voicemail, goes up to bat for Bart and it's sweet that she does. That is until the guy shows her the tape and Bart tries to make her not see it but we get a multiple TV frame instead.
Woah I don't have time for Home Alone! / Copyright Fox
This is where the episode changes tone a little. You can kind of tell Marge feels broken and not happy. She skips him for the good night song and tuck in and just says good night and closes his door. She tells Homer maybe she mothers him too much. It's a flip in where Bart feels bad at not having his mother's attention and even ends up hanging out with Millhouse's mom because he misses it. The episode does this in balance where it doesn't seem that Marge has pushed Bart away it's more she feels that maybe he needs his space and her mothering was bugging him and he realizes that maybe he kind of likes some of it still and doesn't want her to totally detach from him.
Bart comes home and looks like he shoplifted, episode has us going in that first half there. But he ended up buying her a gift. She lets him open a gift early and it's kind of sweet that she got him a video game. It was the wrong one, but done in earnest.
I think the episode is fairly good. It stays towards "The Simpsons" tone without getting syrupy or sappy to the point it feels like you'd be watching an episode of "Full House" on Christmas where Stephanie stole something and everyone is concerned she might end up becoming a future murderer. It does a story that many can fit with. At some point, a kid feels like they are too old for their parents to be so parental, but then sometimes might miss something that their parent did they weren't expecting to miss if it didn't happen.
Something that can be noticed in this episode is how Christmas is more the background and not the main plot. The Christmas special Bart watches gives the catalyst to him seeing the ad for the video game but that could have really been anything. If anything, Christmas comes into play really into Bart using his money to buy Marge the gift photo. But Christmas is lightly sprinkled into the episode. It's not a bad thing, I like how it works here for a balance of the story not having to try and force itself around Christmas but still fit the Christmas spirit.
A lot of fun of the episode is the Simpsons charm and hallmarks. It makes you feel for Bart and Marge in what's going on in the episode. It knows how to keep the beats of funny going as well as sprinkling in the heart. It's a good one , there's a reason why this one is liked.
That's it for now, tune in next time when we stop this shoplifter and force him to write a post.
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