The Simpsons: “'Tis The Fifteenth Season”
In a way, yes. Sure, it’s a cynical appraisal of this, the season of giving, but just about everyone has experienced that mysterious pang—despair, alienation, the feeling that something is missing—as the holiday season descends like a gingerbread fog. Critics have decried The Simpsons for being cynical from the beginning, when the show debuted with a Christmas special on Dec. 17, 1989—22 years ago tomorrow. Hand-wringing, “won’t someone think of the children ?!” types used that time’s obsession with “family values” to decry a vulgar animated family that was ruining the future with its “Underachiever And Proud Of It” T-shirts.
The Simpsons premiere—“The Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire”—found the family struggling, as so many do, with the costs of the Christmas season. Mr. Burns discontinues bonuses at the plant, and Marge has to use the Christmas fund to get Bart’s tattoo removed. Homer doesn’t tell Marge about the bonus, then takes a second job as a mall Santa for extra money—when that doesn’t pan out, he bets it all on a dog named Santa’s Little Helper at the track. DESPAIR! CYNICISM!







