- B
A Side: A few years ago, I ran through all of the Golden (and pre-Golden) Age Simpsons with my boys, and this episode really didn’t stand out in particular. Though, at the time, it wasn’t Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is such a different experience as an adult than as a kid. As an adult, you’re probably working the rest of the week. You’re worried about the cost of the meal, the traffic to travel, the pending expenses of the holidays, and any number of other adult things. As a kid, you’re just worried about food and whether you'll get to have fun. Which, I suppose in this case, Bart’s fun is the food and Lisa’s is showcasing her knowledge and artistic talents. That does get me thinking about the perspective of the episode, though. In this case, we (mostly) seem to be watching through Bart’s perspective. This is Bart’s story, which turns out to be one of forgiveness and second chances.
Watching this one out of order, and without the context of the rest of the era (even though the episodes themselves are standalone), Marge and Homer come off as pretty shitty parents. At least if you're judging by today’s standards. Not that I’m into helicopter parenting, but Maggie is left completely unattended and they fully lose Bart and need to call the cops. This comes down the line with elder family members as well, in the abuse cast Homer and Marge by parents and elder siblings. They criticize their cooking, parenting, and even the way they pray. Everything is wrapped up nicely by the end, and perhaps we’re left to assume that Lisa tells their parents that Bart apologized, but ultimately it's the kids (less Maggie) who figure it all out together. It has nothing to do with parenting skills (shockingly Homer didn’t sneak Bart several turkey slices of under the door. Even if this is just Bart’s perspective, and even though Bart has gone off the Deep, Deep Trouble end of behavior, I just don’t get the parenting... and that's likely due to the original targeted audience. The kids learned their lessons, and figured things out on their own. Second chances is the theme here, though: Bart gives the homeless chaps a second chance with some money, he gets a second chance of his own to apologize, and the family gets a second chance at their own Thanksgiving.
We won’t all get those second chances in life though, and Thanksgivings can be divisive. Even if you’re stuck with criticizing family, try and take a few moments for your own Thanksgiving time later on with those truly near and dear to you. Even if it's just over sandwiches around the same breakfast table you always eat at. (also, $12 for a blood donation? Get out of here!)
B Side: One of the first things that stands out to me about "Bart vs. Thanksgiving" is how small the episode is. I don't mean that as a negative, quite the opposite - knowing how sprawling the typical later season episodes can be, the fact that "Bart vs. Thanksgiving" takes place only over a few hours, in only a few locations, with only a few characters highlights the concise, compact nature of the earliest years. The stakes, too, are small: Lisa's feelings and the family's memories of yet another chaotic holiday. But while these may not be of great import in the grander tale of Springfield, the family, or the Simpsons series itself, they're taken seriously here and form the central conflict of the episode itself. The story's climax is nothing more than Bart experiencing empathy for his sister and what she's been through, but it's something the show takes very seriously and builds up throughout... even when Bart's not around.
When Lisa asks Bart why he acted so thoughtlessly, his answer isn't a quip or a "I 'unno" comedy beat we see so much in later seasons, but a moment of exasperated honesty: "I don't know," he cries, almost ashamed of his vulnerability, "I don't know why I did it, I don't know why I enjoyed it, and I don't know why I'll do it again!" And the thing is... he really doesn't. When Bart tosses Lisa's centerpiece off the dinner table, he's enacting the callous, selfish norm of those around him. From the cruelty of Marge's family to the greed and Mr. Burns's wasteful excesses to Kent Brockman openly stating he's only using the homeless to advance his own stature, we're reminded that this is the norm. It's present even within the core family - Homer is far more concerned about appearing like a normal family than he is about the family themselves... a common theme in early episodes. Interestingly, the one person who might feel justified in self-centered thought, Lisa, has one of her most visibly emotional scenes in the entire series when she breaks down crying from worry over her brother... although even she arrives at this point only after indulging in her own version of Bart-esque snark through a parody of Allen Ginsberg's "Howl." (It's a pity that Lisa's Beatnik tendencies, aside from her love of jazz, faded over time.) But her appeal to Bart, after she's gotten past the kind of superlative judgment that actually makes sense for someone her age ("Is it because you hate me, or because you're bad?"), her appeal is one of emotional understanding: "the only reason to apologize is if you look deep down inside yourself and you find a spot, something you wish wasn't there because you feel bad you hurt your sister's feelings." Lisa knows this is something that's hard for Bart, especially in the environment surrounding all of them, where the powerless (especially the elderly and homeless) are considered nuisances to be shunted away or, at best, an exploitable resource, where the most important thing to say to someone is the thing that will hurt them the most (Marge's mother's "it hurts to talk, so I'll just say one thing: you never do anything right" is truly devastating), and cruel excesses undertaken primarily for appearances are the norm.
As I said above, The Simpsons in its early years was a different kind of show, a funhouse mirror held up to our world highlighting the ugly aspects of ourselves the creators felt were absent in the glut of happy family sitcoms that characterized the era. While episodes generally ended happily, it was an earned happiness, and always of small scale. Before long, though, the show developed its own world, a dense self-created reality like nothing before or since.... and that's where its longevity lies. The series, as it was in its first couple years, probably wouldn't have been able to sustain itself for very long, but that only makes those brief moments where one child's feelings are treated with even more weight and gravitas than all the wild adventures to come all the more special.
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