Before and after a company picnic, Homer becomes a narcissist and starts trying to shape his family up better to his liking. When all else fails, he turns to Dr. Marvin Monroe.

First appearance of Dr. Marvin Monroe, who would appear sporadically until season 5. He was kicked out of the series for good in season 7 since voicing him was causing voice issues for Harry Shearer.

Also first appearances of Eddie and Lou. Itchy and Scratchy made their Simpsons debut with this episode, but were already involved in the series in the Tracy Ullman shorts, which can be considered the pilot of the entire series.

Smithers is colored correctly starting with this episode.

Homer’s frustration sound at the dinner table was used as a sound effect for him being attacked in the arcade game.

Since this was when the Simpsons was brand new, the staff weren’t exactly sure on how to write the characters, which led to Marge outdrinking herself and Lisa acting like how she did in the Tracey Ullman shorts.

On my Season 1 DVD box set, the Fox ID at the end of the episode isn’t updated and instead has the one that was used for the first 2 or 3 seasons (Krusty Gets Busted had this as well), which is possibly an oversight. This was back when putting shows on DVD was somewhat new.

Dear Homer – mind your own business. Why do you care so much about how your family is?

This is such a weird episode. Homer pawns the television and intelligently cons Dr. Monroe by manipulating the “Family bliss or 2x refund” scheme. I can tell you right now that Homer would never do that after this episode.

I’m glad Moe’s tavern changed how it looked in season 2. Here it looks even more rundown than it should be.