The Simpsons Project #8

The Simpsons Project #8 (Season 1, Episode 8)
The Telltale Head
Original airdate: 2/25/90

“The Telltale Head” is one of the most famous early episodes of The Simpsons, dealing with Bart’s response to peer pressure and his desire to be popular and fit in with the cool kids at Springfield Elementary. His struggles with self-confidence and his yearning to be more accepted at school provide the dual consequence of deepening Bart’s character exponentially and giving us one of the most relatable of all Simpsons episodes.

We open with Homer and Bart carrying the severed head of the statue of town founder Jebediah Springfield while being chased by an angry mob through the streets of Springfield. No group of people forms a better angry mob than the denizens of Springfield, who come complete with pitchforks, torches, and threats of death and dismemberment. They eventually corner the two Simpsons, and Bart pleads with them for a little time to tell the story of how they came to be in their predicament. The show begins its long run of self-aware jokes, with Bart pleading that he only needs “twenty three minutes and five seconds” to tell his story.

The episode then flashes back to a recent Sunday morning. The family is off to church, and Homer has some golden moments here; frantically watching a football game he bet $50 on and then listening to it on headphones while in church. The radio broadcast of the game matches perfectly with the mouth and body movements of Reverend Lovejoy, providing a humorous moment where Homer screams for joy out loud because the team he bet on hit a game winning field goal. The first act of “The Telltale Head” helps to establish that Homer’s constant boobery and the perennially bad example he sets for Bart build the foundation for the boy’s misbehavior.

On the drive home from church, Bart notices that the Aztec Theater is playing Space Mutants IV. Marge forbids him to see it, but Bart sneaks out and goes anyway and encounters local bullies Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney (in their first appearances). They’re the “worst” and coolest kids in school, and they invite Bart to sneak into the movie with them. Bart is conflicted because he doesn’t want to steal, but his desire to fit in causes him to join them anyway.

It’s interesting to watch the initial interactions between Bart and the bullies. Feelings between Jimbo’s gang and Bart have vacillated throughout the course of the series between mutual respect to the bullies treating Bart like any other potential victim in the school. These characters have been around so long and have been so fleshed out over 21 seasons that it’s refreshing to see the origins of their relationships and a time when some of these tertiary characters were unknown and still being developed.

The group ends up being caught and kicked out of the theater, and they take to the town square to watch passing clouds. One looks like the statue of Springfield patriarch Jebediah Springfield, only without his head attached. The bullies start talking about how funny it would be if someone did cut the statue’s head off, to which Bart objects. Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney rag on Bart for defending the town’s history and leave him behind, planting the idea in his head to cut the head of the statue to show how cool he is.

Before he acts on his impulse, Bart decides to ask Homer whether it’s really important to be popular, which was probably a bad decision. Homer, of course, says that being popular is the most important thing in the world, pushing Bart further toward vandalizing the statue.

Bart eventually goes through with the act, and everyone in town mourns. The bullies have even changed their tune, now respecting Jebediah and wishing to pummel the perpetrator. Bart’s guilt over the incident causes him to start hearing the disembodied head speaking to him, telling him to fess up and admit his wrongdoing and replace the head.

Homer is cajoled into helping Bart due to his earlier idiotic advice, and the two head downtown to replace it. We rejoin the beginning of the story at this point, and the crowd, swayed by Bart’s honesty, decides not to kill him, and instead basks in the glory of the repaired statue.

The early episodes of The Simpsons often do not contain the mind-boggling hilarity of what would come later in the series, but the stories are amazingly strong. “The Telltale Head” continues to strongly establish the characters of Homer, Bart, and Marge, while shedding some light on Homer and Marge as a parental unit and the influence they have on their son. It brings in some other players for the first time while giving lines to other secondary characters like Moe, Barney, Mr. Burns, Smithers and Krusty. Another early winner.

B+

“I can understand why they wouldn’t let in those wild jungle apes, but what about those really smart ones, who live among us, who roller-skate and smoke cigars?” – Homer, upon hearing from Bart that his Sunday school teacher said apes aren’t allowed into Heaven.