The Simpsons: "Lisa's Substitute": Season 2, Episode 19

“The Simpsons”
“Lisa’s Substitute”
Grade: 9.5

I could never get into the Simpsons growing up. I could never see the obsession. I thought Family Guy was funnier. God how infantile I was back in the day. While I still very much enjoy Family Guy I am completely 100% in agreement with all of the points made in the South Park episode that completely puts the show in its amateur place. It has good characters (Peter, Lois, Stewie, Mayor Bee, etc.) and bad ones (Quagmire, the Old man, Chris) and can derive humor from their personalities but its main focus is on making random references to pop culture that have no place in the plot are not saying anything about what its referencing and takes no effort to integrate itself into the story in a clever way. Family Guy is a funny but ultimately lazy show. While “The Simpsons” from the little I have seen has changed so much from its early days, it’s still doing pretty well in what it does and I applaud it for continuing to be a part of pop culture for so long. But I had no idea what “The Simpsons” was doing in its early days. I had no idea it was sentimental, touching, told complete stories in a way that actually could say something about family while still keeping the humor in. It has scenes that go on for minutes on end with talking. It’s insane. In its early days “The Simpsons” could actually be a somewhat serious show for a couple of minutes and I am not going to lie here; this episode made me cry. Yeah it made me cry. This was one of the most touching episodes of any show I think I’ve ever seen. It was really funny but so balanced with what it was doing with its story. Anyone who can even begin to compare this show with Family Guy needs to see this episode so it can be proven that Family Guy cannot even begin to be what this show once was.

It takes the whole inspiring substitute teacher story and actually squeezes something really great out of it. It deals with Lisa having to live with a moronic father, not having anyone to really look up to, etc. It sounds corny but seriously the way it’s done…I’m getting teary eyed just thinking about it. I’m so lame. Whatever it was touching. Dustin Hoffman once again shows that he has some of the best voiceover skills out of any working actor even the ones whose careers are voice work. He goes uncredited under a different name in this episode but it’s him playing the substitute teacher. Then there are hilarious moments involving Bart running for Class President against Martin. This is one of the flat out best episodes of television I’ve ever seen.