As the 25th season of The Simpsons gets underway, we’re still compiling lists of the greatest episodes ever, our favourite characters and Homer Simpson’s funniest quotes.
As Nick Hornby aptly shows in High Fidelity, our fixation with lists is just a side-effect of our attempt to squeeze life into fitting compartments, from where we can define it better. And yet with The Simpsons, no matter how hard we try, we just cannot determine why, 530 episodes later, the show still has us in fits.
The thing is that it’s not just one ingred-ient that makes The Simpsons one of the greatest television series of all time, having won 27 Primetime Emmy Awards, 30 Annie Awards and a Peabody Award. Rather, it’s the combination of details and variables that add layers of meaning to the show and keep our curiosity wagging its tail.
Take the characters, for instance. It’s not just the five members of the Simpson family that carry the show – rather, it’s the minor characters, from Groundsman Willie to Montgomery Burns, Smithers and Marge’s twin sisters Patty and Selma who form an orchestra of great moments and quotes.
Add to these the guest appearances – such as the late Liz Taylor and Michael Jackson, Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins, Russell Brand, Ricky Gervais, Julian Assange and Kelsey Grammer voicing Sideshow Bob, and you have the perfect cast.
Homer, of course, shines with his endless rat-a-tat-tat of memorable quotes. His life lessons to his children are especially precious. “Never say anything unless you’re sure everyone feels exactly the same way you do,” he tells them. Or, “Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is: never try.”
But the variable we love most is the opening sequence. The couch gag is not just one variable – it is a sequence of variables which, amazingly, has never sagged with any hint of repetition in 24 seasons. We’re all familiar with it, from the clouds parting to reveal the nuclear power plant to Jimbo and Kearney sawing off the head of the statue of Jebediah Springfield and Bart writing lines as punishment on the blackboard. Then there’s the plutonium bar falling into Homer’s clothing, Marge at the supermarket check-out and the whole family running into the living room.
Within that sequence are detailed variables – Bart always writes a different line on the blackboard, while the couch gag changes with every opening sequence. Occasionally, the whole sequence changes, often spoofing other shows such as Mad Men and Game of Thrones. In recent openings, The Simpsons spoofed Breaking Bad and Downton Abbey.
Anyone not familiar with the show would think that there are only so many ways you can seat a family on a couch. Well, apparently there aren’t and after 530 episodes, the opening sequences to The Simpsons are still as inspiring as ever.
Opening credit
Tech Sunday’s favourite The Simpsons opening sequences
Season 22, Episode 3
MoneyBart
Celebrated street artist Banksy created a unique opening sequence. The first few seconds feature the usual elements, but the camera then pans to a dilapidated factory where dozens of workers animate sketches of The Simpsons and create merchandise of the show. The sequence ends with the logo of 20th Century Fox guarded by searchlights, a watchtower and barbed wire.
Season 22, Episode 6
What Animated Women Want
Starring Homer Simpson and a pork pie hat as Breaking Bad’s Walter White, this opening sequence features Marge baking crystal meth-blue cupcakes and then peddling them to the kids at the church fête.
Season 6, Episode 6
Treehouse of Horror V
It’s the annual The Simpsons Halloween special and the opening sequence ends with the Simpson family members showing up as Frankenstein’s monsters, with their heads on each other’s bodies. Simple but witty.
Season 8, Episode 5
Bart After Dark
Admittedly this is not a laugh-out-loud sequence. But fans will be delighted with the level of detail used to create a mock-up of The Beatles’ classic album cover Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band featuring the entire cast of The Simpsons. Note the original Simpson characters from the Tracey Ullman Show standing next to the current versions.
Season 18, Episode 16
Homerazzi
The longest opening sequence ever features Homer evolving from a single-celled organism into his current self. Also featuring Lenny as a dragonfly, Bart as a Tyrannosaurus Rex and Lisa as a Stegosaurus. The funniest moment comes when Moe makes an evolutionary u-turn and goes from his present self to a single-celled organism.
Season 23, Episode 15
Exit through the Kwik-E-Mart
In this opening sequence, The Simpsons pays homage to HBO’s Game of Thrones. Springfield is transformed into Westeros while the Game of Thrones theme plays in the background.
Season 19, Episode 12
Love, Springfieldian Style
Wile E. Coyote paints a trompe l’oeil couch on the living room wall and fools the Simpson family into smashing into the wall. He doesn’t fool Maggie, though, who doubles up as the Road Runner and gives chase.
Season 20, Episode 21
Coming to Homerica
A lovingly created opening sequence that nods at favourite sitcoms, including The Honeymooners, The Brady Bunch and Cheers.
Season 13, Episode 5
The Blunder Years
As the opening sequence comes to an end, the screen goes from colour to black and white and Homer dances onto the screen as Charlie Chaplin, in tribute to the greatest comedian.
Season 19, Episode 11
That 90s Show
In a cultural reference to surrealist René Magritte’s iconic work, this opening sequence proclaims that, “This is not a couch gag.” The camera then pans out to show two museum-goers examining a portrait of the Simpson family.