History EarlyInstallmentWeirdness / TheSimpsons

* First were the Creator/TraceyUllman shorts (which focused on the Simpsons family and had Lisa as being just as devious as Bart). Then come the first season or so, most of which is very different in tone and humor style to everything that came after it. In general most episodes are rather straightforward antics consisting of one storyline (contrary to later episodes where usually two or three story arcs are combined). The pacing is slow, most of the characters haven't been properly established yet (or don't exist), and the jokes nowadays come off as awkward or too subtle to be funny. The animation is very amateurish, sometimes downright ugly to look at. Even though the show was still more realistic and less cartoony than later episodes, there are still occasional moments where the animation is more typical of a standard cartoon: weird expressions, super quick movements, and rather kid-friendly silly voice acting. The social satire is there, but more subtle than in later seasons.
* One of the original shorts had Bart attempting to steal a bunch of candy bars from a store, then showing little to no remorse for it even as Marge chews him out on it. This feels downright surreal given Bart would later establish there are lines he (generally) won't cross and him stealing something [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E11MargeBeNotProud would be taken much more seriously in the show proper]].
* In particular, there's "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E4TheresNoDisgraceLikeHome There's No Disgrace Like Home]]" (in which '''''Marge''''' embarrasses the family by getting drunk in public and '''''Homer''''' is actually ashamed of his family being dysfunctional; like in the ''Ullman'' era, Lisa is also as bratty as Bart. Later episodes, like "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E20TheWarOfTheSimpsons The War of the Simpsons]]" and "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E9ElViajeMisteriosoDeNuestroJomer The Mysterious Voyage of Homer]]" would have it the other way around). The writers' commentary cheerfully admits that pretty much everything in the episode is "wrong" compared to later seasons (except for the personalities of Bart and the ancillary/supporting characters, like Moe, [[ThoseTwoGuys Officers Eddie and Lou]], and Dr. Marvin Monroe), though that still doesn't stop it from having a scene that continues to be extremely popular (the climax where The Simpsons give each other electro-shock therapy and cause rolling blackouts all over the city).
* Also notable is the completely different, more gruff voice Creator/DanCastellaneta uses for Homer during the shorts and first part of the first season. The original voice of Homer was based rather closely on Creator/WalterMatthau. As well, after the first season or so (after the initial craze died down, but the show still had very strong ratings) the writers realized that Homer was a much better character for generating plots instead of Bart, as long as they kept him fairly unpredictable and dumb. Creator/DanCastellaneta actually says on several commentaries that he never really made a decision to change the voice; he just kept trying his best to match the voice he used in the previous episode, and it slowly changed to one that fit the writing better.

* During the first season, a lot of characters had the same general designs but were [[EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference differently colored]]; there are the early OffModel appearances of an AmbiguouslyBrown-skinned Smithers with blue hair on the season 1 episode "Homer's Odyssey" (which was said to be due to an inking error), Lou the cop (whose skin switched from being black to being yellow due to the show's notoriously bad animation back in the first season), Barney the drunk whose hair matched his yellow skin, Miss Hoover (Lisa's teacher), who had blue hair instead of brownish gray, and Hans Moleman (whom the ink and paint people keep switching from brown to yellow -- sometimes in the same episode), among others. Starting with the second season, all of these oddities were ironed out and the characters' colors have remained consistent to this day.

* Ned Flanders wasn't the [[TheFundamentalist "everything-is-religious" extremist]] we imagine him being today in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E1SimpsonsRoastingOnAnOpenFire Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire]]". Of course he and his family are shown celebrating Christmas, but all their decorations are of ''secular'' Christmas characters (like Santa Claus and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer). In the early episodes, Flanders was just a nice, church-going man who had a beautiful wife and well-behaved children (which made Homer jealous of him). [[TropeNamers Then came the, well,]] {{Flanderization}} of Flanders and the rest is history. He was also a ''pharmacist'' in the first two seasons before starting the Leftorium early in Season 3 (which is widely considered to be the start of the show's "classic" period); but the Leftorium became such an indispensable part of his characterization that many fans don't even remember a time before he owned it.
* In his debut episode, "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E5BartTheGeneral Bart the General]]" (as well as his only appearance in Season 1), Nelson Muntz is a genuinely sadistic bully who [[TheDreaded scares away everybody]], and targets Bart [[JerkasstoOne especially]]. In subsequent episodes, he became far more well-known for his mockery of other characters' misfortunes with his iconic laughter ("Ha-ha!") and for being a dim-witted, mean-spirited delinquent with a soft side underneath. He also becomes a friend of Bart's in later episodes (though their friendship is very inconsistent), with Milhouse van Houten and Martin Prince becoming his new bullying targets. He also has two CoDragons identical in all but race; later seasons would show Nelson picking on kids either alone or with Jimbo, Kearney, and Dolph (and usually acting more as support in the latter's case).
* Mrs. Krabappel is much meaner in earlier episodes, her being more or less Bart's foil. She would become more three dimensional as a character later on (until the character was retired upon Marcia Wallace's death).

* Krusty himself often seemed more genuinely childlike and hyperactive in early episodes ("[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E9ItchyAndScratchyAndMarge Itchy and Scratchy and Marge]]" shows him having trouble not playing to the kids when trying to have a more serious discussion on air), compared to the acerbic, money hungry NiceCharacterMeanActor he is in most modern episodes. Bart's refusal to believe he could commit armed robbery in "Krusty Gets Busted" didn't quite age well, as Krusty getting into legal hot water through his ''own'' fault isn't uncommon in his later appearances. In "Krusty Gets Busted" and "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E6LikeFatherLikeClown Like Father, Like Clown]]", Krusty is shown having flesh colored skin underneath his makeup, whereas in later seasons Krusty's pale face and red nose are a medical condition resulting from heart disease and chain smoking and Krusty has to wear makeup to look normal. A particularly oddball one is his first appearance in a ''Tracy Ullman''-era short: at the time, the writers had conceived of Krusty as a disguised alter-ego of Homer, and it really shows. Bart refers to Krusty as "some lumpy old dude in a clown suit", and when he pulls off his nose, Krusty breaks character, shouts "Why, you little--" in a rather different voice, and starts strangling Bart, while Homer, watching at home, says "D'oh!"
* During the first three seasons, Chief Wiggum was actually a very serious, no-nonsense cop who didn't like it when people didn't take the law seriously. Season 4 changed all of this and made him the corrupt, dim-witted, gluttonous bungler that we know today. Similarly, his son Ralph Wiggum was a fairly normal kid in his first couple of appearances, but starting with the season 4 episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E15ILoveLisa I Love Lisa]]" he was transformed into the adorable CloudCuckoolander with special needs that fans of The Simpsons know and love today.

* The show in its early years were ''much'' more cautious about how it used its SpecialGuest stars. Season 1 had only a couple of celebrity guests, none of whom played themselves. Season 2 was a bit more experimental, but only slightly so: despite the quantity of guests increasing, just three of them play themselves (Music/TonyBennett, Music/RingoStarr, and Creator/LarryKing) and all of them remain distant from the events of the plot--Ringo Starr and Larry King never interact directly with the Simpsons family, and Tony Bennett only does so as a one-off gag. Season 3 marks the point where the show fully embraced the celebrity guest as an almost episodic tradition, with an increasing number of guests playing themselves and interacting with the main cast.

** The clouds that break away into the title card are stratus clouds instead of the more familiar cumulus, and they dissolve. They also cover less of the sky.

** The classroom where Bart writes the chalkboard gag has purple walls. They became green in Season 2.

* In early chalkboard gags, Bart commits misdeeds that warrant getting detention such as yelling "Fire!" in a crowded classroom or skateboarding in the halls. Starting in Season 2, and in almost every episode featuring them since about Season 8, the chalkboard gags are for trivial events, pop culture references or meta-references about the show.

* In the ''Tracey Ullman'' short "The Krusty the Klown Show", some kids in the audience had orange or even blue skin. This implies that the creators were at least toying with the idea to [[AmazingTechnicolorPopulation expand the depiction of unusual skin colors beyond yellow to portray other races]].

* Krusty himself often seemed more genuinely childlike and hyperactive in early episodes ("[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E9ItchyAndScratchyAndMarge Itchy and Scratchy and Marge]]" shows him having trouble not playing to the kids when trying to have a more serious discussion on air), compared to the acerbic, money hungry NiceCharacterMeanActor he is in most modern episodes. Bart's refusal to believe he could commit armed robbery in "Krusty Gets Busted" didn't quite age well, as Krusty getting into legal hot water through his ''own'' fault isn't uncommon in his later appearances. In "Krusty Gets Busted" and "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E6LikeFatherLikeClown Like Father, Like Clown]]", Krusty is shown having flesh colored skin underneath his makeup, whereas in later seasons Krusty's pale face and red nose are a medical condition resulting from heart disease and chain smoking and Krusty has to wear makeup to look normal.

* The first season was the only season with no Halloween episodes and had 13 episodes instead of at least 20.

* The show in its early years were ''much'' more cautious about how it used its SpecialGuest stars. Season 1 had only a couple of celebrity guests, none of whom played themselves. Season 2 was a bit more experimental, but only slightly so: despite the quantity of guests increasing, just three of them play themselves (Creator/TonyBennett, Music/RingoStarr, and Creator/LarryKing) and all of them remain distant from the events of the plot--Ringo Starr and Larry King never interact directly with the Simpsons family, and Tony Bennett only does so as a one-off gag. Season 3 marks the point where the show fully embraced the celebrity guest as an almost episodic tradition, with an increasing number of guests playing themselves and interacting with the main cast.

** Bart skateboards past a group of unknown Springfieldians waiting for a bus. He picks up the bus stop sign and the group chases the bus after it passes them. There are also no other recurring characters on the sidewalk when he skateboards, except Krusty's face appearing on TVs; this scene would incorporate more character appearances as the side characters got larger roles in the show.

* The [[OffModel off model designs]] of the Simpsons for the shorts. They were poorly drawn animations of facial caricatures and were gradually swapped for the current designs. They were [[MeetYourEarlyInstallmentWeirdness brought back on occasion]] to show how far they've come, such as in the last segment of "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS26E4TreehouseOfHorrorXXV Treehouse of Horror XXV]]".

** Similarly, other adult characters would have ''[[WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones Flintstones]]''-style beards like Homer. Other than Abe, Krusty[[note]]who was [[TheArtifact originally]] supposed to ''be'' Homer in disguise[[/note]], Herb Powell, and Lenny, no one else but Homer should have it.

''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' has changed a lot over its 30+ years on the air.

''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' has changed a lot over its 34 years on the air.

* In his debut episode, "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E5BartTheGeneral Bart the General]]" (as well as his only appearance in Season 1), Nelson Muntz is a genuinely sadistic bully who [[TheDreaded scares away everybody]], and targets Bart [[JerkasstoOne especially]]. In subsequent episodes, he became far more well-known for his mockery of other characters' misfortunes with his iconic laughter ("Ha-ha!") and for being a dim-witted, mean-spirited delinquent with a soft side underneath. He also becomes a friend of Bart's in later episodes (though their friendship is very inconsistent), with Milhouse van Houten and Martin Prince becoming his new bullying targets.

* Krusty himself often seemed more genuinely childlike and hyperactive in early episodes ("[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E9ItchyAndScratchyAndMarge Itchy and Scratchy and Marge]]" shows him having trouble not playing to the kids when trying to have a more serious discussion on air), compared to the acerbic, money hungry NiceCharacterMeanActor he is in most modern episodes. In "Krusty Gets Busted" and "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E6LikeFatherLikeClown Like Father, Like Clown]]", Krusty is shown having flesh colored skin underneath his makeup, whereas in later seasons Krusty's pale face and red nose are a medical condition resulting from heart disease and chain smoking and Krusty has to wear makeup to look normal.

** Bart skateboards past a group of unknown Springfieldians waiting for a bus. He picks up the bus stop sign and the group chases the bus after it passes them.

** "Some Enchanted Evening" - the first episode written and produced, and meant to be the first to air - is notable in that it doesn't have a "true" CouchGag. The family rushes in, sits on the couch, and -- aside from Bart blinking twice and Marge blinking once -- that's it. The intent was that the pilot would play this scene straight, then every subsequent episode would [[TropeNamer play with or subvert it]]. The only other episode with this "gag" is "The Call of the Simpsons".

** Similarly, other adult characters would have ''[[WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones Flintstones]]''-style beards like Homer. Other than Abe, Krusty, Herb Powell, and Lenny, no one else but Homer should have it.

* Homer is not nearly so dumb in the earlier episodes, though he does mix up his facts (when he told Bart that UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein turned himself all different colors when he invented the light bulb) and does initially come off as clueless to his wife's and children's emotional problems. He tends to be portrayed as rash and overly angry in the early episodes, in contrast to later episodes which tend towards depicting him as happy-go-lucky and easygoing. He is also not as much the BreakOutCharacter as he would become in later seasons.

* Homer is not nearly so dumb in the earlier episodes, though he does mix up his facts (when he told Bart that UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein turned himself all different colors when he invented the light bulb) and does initially come off as clueless to his wife's and children's emotional problems. He is also not as much the BreakOutCharacter as he would become in later seasons.

* The overall dynamic in early episodes was that the Simpson family were dysfunctional misfits who failed to fit in among their relatively normal social group. As more and more supporting characters were established however, the premise became that the ''entirety'' of Springfield was a barely functioning {{CloudCuckooLand}}, with the Simpsons no more manic or incompetent than everyone else (and in some cases even the OnlySaneMan). This is particularly evident with Bart and Homer's dynamics in Springfield Elementary and the Nuclear Plant respectively, in early episodes they were singled out as exceptional failures, in later ones the joke is that the entire faculty is so corrupt and incompetent that they are simply another dent on their bad track record.

** Similarly, other adult characters would have Flintstones-style beards like Homer. Other than Abe, Herb Powell and Lenny, no one else but Homer should have it.

* In particular, there's "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E4TheresNoDisgraceLikeHome There's No Disgrace Like Home]]" (in which '''''Marge''''' embarrasses the family by getting drunk in public and '''''Homer''''' is actually ashamed of his family being dysfunctional. Later episodes, like "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E20TheWarOfTheSimpsons The War of the Simpsons]]" and "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E9ElViajeMisteriosoDeNuestroJomer The Mysterious Voyage of Homer]]" would have it the other way around). The writers' commentary cheerfully admits that pretty much everything in the episode is "wrong" compared to later seasons (except for the personalities of Bart and the ancillary/supporting characters, like Moe, [[ThoseTwoGuys Officers Eddie and Lou]], and Dr. Marvin Monroe), though that still doesn't stop it from having a scene that continues to be extremely popular (the climax where The Simpsons give each other electro-shock therapy and cause rolling blackouts all over the city).

* The early seasons were inconsistent with the Simpsons' home address before settling with 742 Evergreen Terrace. In Season 3's "Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington", mail addressed to Homer lists 94 as the house number. Season 4's "New Kid On the Block" has Bart give the address as 1094. "Homer's Triple Bypass" which is also in the fourth season actually has 742 Evergreen Terrace being the address for Snake Jailbird, who's house is next to Reverend Lovejoy's. In at least one case, the address given was completely different (430 Spalding Way)
* The overall dynamic in early episodes was that the Simpson family were dysfunctional misfits who failed to fit in among their relatively normal social group. As more and more supporting characters were established however, the premise became that the ''entirety'' of Springfield was a barely functioning {{CloudCuckooLand}}, with the Simpsons no more manic or incompetent than everyone else (and in some cases even the OnlySaneMan). This is particularly evident with Bart and Homer's dynamics in Springfield Elementary and the Nuclear Plant respectively, in early episodes they were singled out as exceptional failures, in later ones the joke is that the entire faculty is so corrupt and incompetent that they are simply another dent on their bad track record.

* One of the original shorts had Bart attempting to steal a bunch of candy bars from a store, then showing zero to no remorse for it even as Marge chews him out on it. This feels downright surreal given Bart would later establish there are lines he (generally) won't cross and him stealing something [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E11MargeBeNotProud would be taken much more seriously in the show proper]].