Season 1 Episode 4 - There's no disgrace like home

Quite good this one. Chalkboard gag- "I will not burp in class", sofa gag- the family rush to the sofa and Homer is squeezed out onto tue floor.

This episode provides a fascinating insight into just how complex the characters personalities and character traits would become. Having been disgraced by his families behavior at a power plant picnic, Homer enrolls the family on a behavior therapy course run by reoccurring secondary character, Dr Marvin Monroe. To afford this expensive treatment Homer breaks into the kids college fund and pawns the Tv. The doctor fails to correct their behavior with electo shock therapy and pays them double to get out! Homer uses this money to buy a better TV which the family then bond over.

We see Homer acting very differently in this episode from previous outings and indeed, fro
the way he would go on to act. We also see Marge disgrace herself by getting drunk and leading a cracking "hey sisters pour the wine" routine. In his pawning of the TV Homer shows that he is willing to sacrifice one of his most precious items for the sake of his family, yet when given the opportunity to shock or not to shock, he does so willingly!

Interestingly, when the BBC aired the season for the first time, this was the episode they chose to show. I wonder whether the person who made the decision watched them all first, as surely it would have been better not to set the views up for a shock when they discovered that this episode was atypical. Had this episode come in a later series it would have been Marge who would have adopted this stance.

3/5 in my humble opinion