It’s odd for a show that once had Robert Reich as a guest star to be disconnected from the economic realities that most Americans face. But disconnected The Simpsons are, contends JM McNab in an article for Cracked.
A big reason why The Simpsons was such a big hit with audiences right from the very beginning is that, despite their yellow complexion, four-fingered hands and bulging eyes, the characters were deeply relatable.
The series premiere, “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire,” made it very clear that the Simpsons were far from wealthy. They were a mostly comfortable middle class family who faced significant financial strain during the holidays, even forcing Homer to take a second job as a mall Santa.
That continued through the show's earliest seasons.
Along the way, something clearly changed. By Season Six, the family could easily pay to go on a vacation to the Disney-esque Itchy & Scratchyland, with seemingly no concerns about the steep cost. And when they arrived at the park, even after paying for their tickets, Homer had $1100 in cash (which he unwisely converted to Itchy & Scratchy money).
While there have been occasional references to the characters’ money problems in recent years, they’re usually just one-off gags, not substantive plot points. And as times changed, the idea of a middle class family supporting three kids and two pets on a single income while owning a house and two cars became completely unrealistic. Even more so than when Frank Grimes complained about Homer’s inexplicable good fortune back in Season Eight.
Fans have theories as to why the Simpsons seem to not worry about money. Most of those theories are plausible, but none have been confirmed in canon.
Sure that in tonight’s episode Homer Simpson had trouble getting tickets to a popular K-pop girl group's concert jacked up in price to $2,000 each by a ticket speculator calling himself “Seat Miser.” But if you watch the episode and learn who Seat Miser is, you’ll be asking yourself, how could he possibly afford to buy up all those tickets.
Giving the Simpsons near-limitless resources has allowed writers a certain amount of creative freedom. But after nearly four decades, maybe it’s time to bring the characters back to their middle-class roots?
As the economy continues to hammer working families, the Simpsons become even less relatable than they already were. And a number of those early cash-strapped stories arguably speak to today’s concerns better than more recent ones. The show tackled the affordability of healthcare in “Homer’s Triple Bypass,” which found the Simpsons struggling to pay for Homer’s life-saving heart surgery.
And they addressed labor rights in Season Four’s “Last Exit to Springfield,” which memorably focused on Homer leading union efforts to ensure that his greedy employer won’t take away a much-needed dental plan.
Homer becomes union president. The strike drags on for weeks, and finally Mr. Burns meets with Homer to negotiate an end to the strike. The dental plan is reinstated provided that Homer steps down as union president. That’s just fine by Homer.
McNab posits that if that episode had been made today, the solution to Lisa’s dental problem “would likely be fantastical and not nearly as relatable.” In an episode from just three weeks ago, “Bart ‘N Frink,” Bart learned he really is very intelligent at a New Zealand getaway with tech billionaires.
The Simpsons air on Fox Sundays at 8 p.m. Eastern, or sometimes at 8:30 p.m. to cede the 8:00 p.m. time slot to Universal Basic Guys, a show that is not that much more connected to reality than The Simpsons. In tonight’s episode, Mark Hoagies got himself infected with rabies so that he could beat a jerk of a neighbor in a charity basketball tournament? Okay, whatever.
