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I know “Bart of Darkness” isn’t the first Simpsons episode I saw in its original airing, but it is the first one I remember. When I saw this episode I didn’t get the “Milpool” joke because I didn’t recognize that was a character named Milhouse, and for years I thought Dolph was named “Buzz” because of a Jimbo line about “the buzz.” So yeah, this was an easy Simpsons for me, but not the first. It’s the sixth-season premiere, and it’s a summery episode so it kind of needed to be. Plus, it’s faux-epic.
The Simpsons get a pool, which makes Lisa and Bart popular. However, Bart then breaks his leg, which means no more pool, no more swimming, no more popularity, and no more attention. At this point, his story becomes a riff on Rear Window, with Ned Flanders in the Raymond Burr role. Of course, Ned didn’t kill Maude, just one of her plants. Also, the Simpsons’ pool breaks, which conveniently explains why they no longer have a pool going forward. Of course, plenty of times The Simpsons didn’t bother to justify resetting things at the end of an episode, so points for that in a way.
There’s a lot of fun stuff in this episode. “Bart of Darkness,” though, isn’t an episode that sticks with me. However, revisiting it I did have the thought of, “Oh yeah, this is actually a really good episode.” It’s a good Lisa episode, and a great Bart episode. Homer is mostly there for the jokes. Hey, summer fun is for kids anyway. This isn’t a great episode, but it is a fine season premiere to kick off the sixth season.
