Way back in the dark ages of 1989, The Simpsons came out of the semi-obscurity of being interstitial sketches on The Tracey Ulman Show and started its epic, unprecedented run as a series. And what was the first-ever episode? “Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire,” where Homer laments that he can’t afford Christmas gifts for his family… until a greyhound that ended up being named Santa’s Little Helper came into his life. All these years later, the historic series is making more history, with its first double-length episode and the first to exclusively run on Disney+. And what kind of episode is making those firsts? A Christmas episode, of course.
Opening Shot: In black and white, the clouds part and we hear the first strains of The Simpsons theme, just as we have for 35 years. Then we see the Simpsons’ and Flanders’ house in sepia tones.
The Gist: Mentalist Derren Brown (playing himself) has come to Springfield, one of the least festive towns in America, to see if he can use his abilities to make the populace more merry for the holiday season. He hops out of a production van to talk to Mayor Quimby (Dan Castellaneta) about the “documentary” they’re making in town, and all Quimby is concerned about is having his affair discovered.
As an example of what Brown and his crew can do, he helps hapless salesman Gil Gunderson (Castellaneta) feel confident enough to call his ex and ask about joining his family for the holidays. After that success, Brown turns his attention to Homer Simpson (Castellaneta), who beats himself up for not getting good gifts for his wife Marge (Julie Kavner) and kids, Bart (Nancy Cartwright), Lisa (Yeardley Smith) and Maggie (Cartwright). “Lingerie? Too sexual. A book of sudoku? Not sexual enough.”
Brown enlists Marge’s help to try to get Homer to feel better about himself, and he sets up a vending machine trap to get Homer in a place to get hypnotized. But given that Homer will only concentrate on the packet of Santa-edition cupcakes he wanted from the machine, Brown inadvertently convinces Homer under hypnosis that he’s Santa Claus.
Inadvertent or not, it actually works; the town slavishly devotes itself to the cult of Homer as Santa, and Homer even starts growing a white beard. Ralphie Wiggum (Cartwright) puts a Krusty Burger fries box on his head and says he’ll be Homer’s elf.
When Brown comes clean to the town and snaps Homer out of it, everyone — including Homer — is disappointed. And then, when he talks about how nothing, including a man on the throne in the sky, is real, the ever-devout Ned Flanders (Harry Shearer) has a crisis of faith the likes of which he’s never had before — and he lost two wives.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The first double-episode of The Simpsons in its 35-year history — and the first Disney+ exclusive episode — is eerily reminiscent of the first-ever episode that aired way back in 1989, “Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire.”
Our Take: One of the things that’s changed on The Simpsons over the past couple of decades is that the show had devolved into a gag-a-minute factory, often sacrificing story to cram in more tossed-off jokes. From what we’ve heard and seen, that has improved under what we’d imagine is the sixth or seventh generation of writers for the show. The writers have also used some interesting storytelling methods to get into and tell their stories, much like the first couple of generations of Simpsons writers did during the show’s first dozen years.
“O C’mon All Ye Faithful” has a really good story embedded in the episode’s 42-minute runtime, mostly in the second half as Ned questions his faith, leading to the first secular Christmas for his sons Rod (Pamela Hayden) and Todd (Cartwright), where they can get gifts for a change. They mainline on candy canes and air fryer infomercials.
But with the help of Professor Frink (Hank Azaria), of all people — and a little assistance from others, both human and spiritual — Ned finds his way back. It’s an emotionally-resonant story even for those who aren’t as God-fearing as the Flanderses are, and we really liked seeing Ned front and center during the second half of the episode. The show has become so oriented to Homer’s point of view over the last 20-25 years that when we get a view of the world from one of the other Springfieldians, it’s refreshing. And Ned has always been one of those guys who merits a deeper dive, given his usually unshakable faith in the face of some amazingly difficult setbacks.
While we still get some of Homer wanting to be Santa in the second half of the episode, it somehow becomes a more sketchy b-story in the second half. In essence, it feels like “O C’mon All Ye Faithful” is structured in a way that it’ll be easy to break it into two episodes for syndication, but doing so makes for a narrative that’s not as interwoven through the extended runtime as it could have been.
What Age Group Is This For?: As in every episode of The Simpsons, there will be references that go over kids’ heads. But we definitely think kids 7 and up will enjoy it.
Parting Shot: A happy Christmas morning at the Simpsons’ house.
Sleeper Star: We’ll give this to Pamela Hayden, who appears as Rod Flanders and in a very funny scene as Milhouse. She’s retiring from voicing her Simpsons characters, which leads us to the next item…
Most Pilot-y Line: Both Kavner’s and Shearer’s voices have definitely been affected by age. Perhaps this is finally a sign that the longest-running primetime scripted series in history needs to go off into the sunset.
Our Call: STREAM IT. While not the most hilarious episode of The Simpsons we’ve ever seen, “O C’mon All Ye Faithful” has a great story with a main character that we don’t often get such a deep dive on.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
