‘The Simpsons’ Timeline Got Even Weirder With Tonight’s ‘90s Nostalgia Episode
It’s no secret that time is all out-of-whack in the world of The Simpsons. And while most viewers can accept that the characters never age, the series’ temporal abnormalities do become more apparent when specific era’s events are mentioned in relation to characters’ lives.
For example, last season revealed that Grampa Simpson was a middle-aged private detective in the 1980s, meaning that he’s no longer a World War II hero, nor was he a member of the Flying Hellfish. And presumably he won’t be telling any more stories about dressing up like a sultry cabaret singer and seducing Adolf Hitler.
As Simpsons showrunner Matt Selman explained to Cracked’s Brian VanHooker, the reality of the show is “like Groundhog Day, except all our characters have a vague idea of the things that happened in the past.”
Don't Miss
And that approach was never more apparent than in tonight’s Season 37 premiere, which was all about Marge’s nostalgia for her youth — in the late ‘90s/early aughts. It used to be the case that Homer and Marge were teenagers in the era of bellbottoms and The Carpenters, but in another of last year’s episodes, Marge recalled that she was an adolescent when Tim Meadows left Saturday Night Live in 2000.
The Season 37 premiere, “Thrifty Ways to Thieve Your Mother,” dives into Marge’s late-’90s teendom, beginning with her love of the Dawson Creek-esque TV show Keagan’s Pond. Most of the episode is devoted to ‘90s fashions; Marge gives Lisa some of her old clothes, which eventually inspires Lisa’s new gang of friends to go on a vintage clothing crime spree.
At one point, Marge attends a ‘90s nostalgia convention full of the aging stars of old TV shows, including thinly-disguised versions of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Beverly Hills, 90210, Saved by the Bell and Family Matters — even though all those shows were contemporaries of The Simpsons.
This isn’t the first time that the show has explored ‘90s nostalgia, lest we forget Season 19’s “That ‘90s Show,” which reconfigured Homer and Marge’s backstory, moving the action to the early ‘90s and turning Homer into the lead singer of a grunge band called “Sadgasm.”
“Thrifty Ways to Thieve Your Mother” is arguably a more organic use of the show’s perpetually shifting timeline than “That ‘90s Show,” but it’s still probably going to weird some people out.
Come to think of it, in the latest chronology, Marge and Homer didn’t even meet each other until at least a decade after The Simpsons premiered.
