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Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.
IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: April 16, 1995
PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: The Simpsons, “The PTA Disbands” (Season 6, Episode 21). [Watch on Simpsons World.]
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: The Simpsons has had episodes with stronger central conceits than “The PTA Disbands” — the episode where Lisa befriends the cool kids at the beach; the episode with the Shelbyville lemon tree — but perhaps no episode has had more individually memorable moments. The season 6 episode is nominally about a teachers’ strike at Springfield Elementary and the fallout, including the parents’ dealing with their newly homebound kids and a gallery of odd substitutes, from Moe to Professor Frink to, most wonderfully, Jasper.
The substitute teachers are a great example of the charms of this episode. The parody film Airplane is often praised for having more jokes per minute than any film every made. “The PTA Disbands” is a little like that. We jump from Jasper’s paddle to Frink’s colorful kindergarten instruction to Moe dealing with the rotten jerks in Bart’s class. And then, just when you think the fun’s over when Marge shows up, there’s a brilliant joke with a log.
And that’s literally a five-minute stretch of the film. Before that, Bart sowed discord at the strike with a “purple monkey dishwasher” game of telephone, Lisa’s desperation for grades got hysterical, a PTA meeting goes hilarious in about six different ways. And then there is my favorite joke in the history of the show: Mrs. Pommelhorse.
In its best seasons, The Simpsons succeeded with a mixture of great jokes and solid stories about the family. “The PTA Disbands” is less a story about the Simpson family and more about Springfield as a whole. Similar to an episode like “22 Short Films About Springfield,” this episode has fantastic moments for all the wonderful character who’d been developed across the last six seasons. Truly it was Springfield’s finest half-hour.
[You can watch The Simpsons‘ “The PTA Disbands” on Simpsons World.]
