After twelve episodes that set the stage for the groundbreaking Simpsons, we end an amazing Season One with a more wacky episode that seems to be more Season 4 to 6 like. The animation in this episode feels off, and the episode originally actually had horrible animation because it was apparently created in Korea, but regardless I can easily overlook all of those surface faults to see the Simpsons at work underneath it all.
We begin the episode with Marge, calling a telephone hot line to Dr. Monroe, after being ignored by her family during breakfast, complaining that she doesn't get enough appreciation from Homer. Dr. Monroe feeds her horrible advice, claiming that her husband sees her nothing other than a mother for a pig. It is a wonderful satire about those radio telephone hot line, claiming to have experts on the line to help you with your marriage, but really offering nothing other than to break your marriage apart. However, Marge listens to the advice and plans to explode at Homer when he comes home from work.
Homer overhears the radio at work, and is horrified of coming home. Instead, he goes to Moe's and gets some advice there, and buys a bunch of flowers and plans a dinner at a fancy restaurant and a motel room. When Homer comes home with flowers in his hands and a timid "I love you", all is forgiven as Marge and Homer call for a babysitter for the kids and goes off into the night.
The other story in this episode is about the kids and the babysitter. After some prank calling entertainment from Bart, Bart and Lisa settles in to watch TV as Maggie is put to bed. However, the two children manages to spot a TV show about escaped culprits which apparently shows that their babysitter is a bandit. When the babysitter comes in, Bart and Lisa are tied up as the babysitter goes off to steal the family's items. Maggie manages to come downstairs and untie Bart and Lisa, and the kids hit the bandit on the head with a bat and hogties her.
Back at the motel, Marge calls home and finds that no one is answering the phone. Homer and Marge races home to find the kids missing and the babysitter hogtied. Without any questions, Homer frees the babysitter and lets her go free with triple pay. When Bart finally manages to get the police and reporters to the house to take the babysitter away, Homer is caught freeing the bandit. Homer moans about how stupid he is, and Marge consoles him by claiming that he is able to raise three kids that are able to hogtie a stranger.
While this story can be a little wacky and walks the fine line between unrealistic and probable, it is still a nice little show that is able to come up with a theme and tie everything together. Like "The Call Of The Simpsons", because this episode is also mostly based around wackiness and jokes and much less about realism, I have mixed feelings about it as well. If I really want to scrutinise this episode harshly, I can say that similar to Maggie taming a bear, it is impossible for Maggie to untie Bart and Lisa, so the plot believability maybe a little off. But again like "The Call Of The Simpsons", because this episode is also more about the storyline and less about the characterisation, I will mostly let it go as well. All in all, there are enough jokes and interesting and cohesive story telling in here to make me like this episode and deemed classic worthy.
Characterisation: 5/5
Plot: 2.5/3
Subjective: 1/2
Overall: 8.5/10
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